Do You Know Man’s Best Friend?

Do You Know Man’s Best Friend?

Science Fiction Film

Lacey Salo

The Sci-fi Project Proposal

1.   WORKING HYPOTHESIS and INTERPRETATION:

·      In life I believe that the Government is monitoring our daily lives through our pet dogs. My film will show this in action by exploring the routine lives of the average dog owner.

·      The main conflict is between Government surveillance and general public

·      Ultimately I want the audience to feel anxiety and paranoia

·      I want my audience to understand how easy it is due to modern technology for the Government to infiltrate our lives

2. TOPICS and EXPOSITION:

·      Subjects:

o   Government Spying

o   People and their Pets

·      Group:

o   Society

·      Environment:

o   Overly involved Government

·      Social Issue:

o   Violation of the right to privacy

·      The Background information that the audience would need to understand that I intend to present is the fact that there are already hundreds of ways that the Government watches, monitors, tracks and controls us. You think things are bad now, just wait until you see what is coming. We live in an age when paranoia is running wild, technology continues to develop at an exponential rate and the Government is discovering massive amounts of new ways to spy on us, ultimately revoking our privacy and controlling our behavior. 

3. ACTION SEQUENCES:

·      The sequence of action will be:

o   Biotech (Biology + technology) engineered animals are developed and mainstreamed into society

o   Government monitoring and surveillance of all pet owners

o   Information is collected and processed through the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the National Security Agency (NSA), subsection Government Domestic Canine Spying Program, part of the Defense Research Project Agency (DARPA).

o   Biotech animal becomes exposed to the general public

o   Onset of riots and rebellion

o   To regain privacy within the home you must face a moral dilemma of giving up your privacy or destroying your pet that you have loved since day one.

·      The factual information that contributes to the film will be that the Government already takes part in our daily lives by assigning us a Social Security number at birth, monitor our cell phone calls, browser history, our physical locations using cell phone location services, and record our personal conversations.

·      The conflicts that arise will be when society realizes their pet has been spying all along by watching our every move through video and audio transmission.

·      The events and the sequence are structured around the invasion of privacy.

·      I expect the sequence to contribute to the film as a whole by exposing the violation of privacy rights in America

4. MAIN CHARACTERS:

Main Character 1:

·      The person’s identity – Government, antagonist.

·      The character contributes the entire plot of the film.

·      This character wants to get information about all individuals

Main Character 2:

·      The person’s identity – 3 households that own biotech dogs, protagonists.

o   Household #1: 1 single male introvert, owner of a biotech dog

o   Household #2: Mid-aged professional couple, owner of two biotech dogs

o   Household #3: College roommates, owner of a biotech dog

·      The invasion of privacy inflicted by the Government’s issue of biotech dogs.

·      This character wants privacy after the discovery of biotech dogs

5. CONFLICT:

·      The conflict in this film is invasion of privacy by the Government

·      We will see one force finally meet with the other (the ‘confrontation’) by having a biotech dog malfunction exposing its technological components labelled United States Central Intelligence Agency, subsection, Government Canine Spying Program. This immediately was exposed through the media spreading the privacy breech by the Government

·      The developments that would emerge from this confrontation are riots, rebellion and anti-Government uprising.

6. AUDIENCE, ITS KNOWLEDGE AND BIASES:

• My intended audience is people interested in sci-fi, Government, technology, cyborg, spying and animals

• I can expect the audience to know about the Government and known privacy right violations but not to know about biotech dogs
• Audience biases are either with the Government or against the Government, in some cases they may both coexist
• My audience will see new truths because of the exposure of biotech dogs and breech of privacy by the United States Government.

7. STRUCTURE:

• Handling the progression of the time in the film will be stated in increments of 5 years
• The climactic sequence or crisis in this film will be when the general population gains knowledge of the biotech spy dogs
• The sequences that will build toward this ‘crisis’ is the ever growing personal information over the years of ownership of a biotech dog and the sequences for the falling action will be the to regain privacy within the home and you must face a moral dilemma of giving up your privacy or destroying your pet that you have loved since day one.

8. RESOLUTION:

• The resolution in this film is going to leave an everlasting final impact on the audience. This resolution is to either except Government surveillance and the invasion of a person's secret and private life, or be faced with the moral dilemma of euthanizing their pet, man’s best friend. This will leave the viewers to interpret a personal and moral outcome based on their own beliefs and values.

The Sci-fi Project Treatment

Do you ever feel like animals are spying on you? Is that bird in the window listening to your conversations? Does the cat snoop through your e-mail while you’re at work? Perhaps, in your calmer moments, you chalk it all up to paranoia and move on with your day, but I’ve got news for you: Your best friend canine is recording every move you make and conversation you speak.

With recent advances with technology, biologists and engineers across the country have successfully melded machine and animal using high-tech implants and genetics. They have surgically altered canines’ brains by attaching wires through the animal’s nervous system as well as a camera in place of an eye. These wires transmit information via a synthetic antenna submitted straight to the Government to analyze; this info is collected processed and stored. In a world where everyone is a “potential terrorist”, the Government strips us of our liberty, freedom and privacy. The Government sees these as “luxuries” that they believe we can no longer afford. The Government instates the Canine Spying Program initiating immediate deployment of these dogs. Within 5 years these canines are now within every household with the pet owners oblivious to the biotechnology inside their beloved best friends.

            These dogs occupy every household; this film will focus upon the daily lives and routines of three different situations. Household #1 includes one single male introvert and is the owner of one biotech dog. Household #2 includes a long-term middle-aged professional couple owning two biotech dogs. Lastly there is household #3 including a few college roommates with one biotech dog. These secret spy dogs are constantly in surveillance mode, eavesdropping on every private conversation.

On one winter day Household #2 comes home to find their biotech dog malfunctioning, this causes them to take immediate action and accidently exposing its technological components that are labelled United States Central Intelligence Agency, subsection Government Domestic Canine Spying Program. This comes as a complete shock and feelings of vulnerability and questions consumed both of them. Immediately, they are eager to expose this discovery through the media spreading the privacy breech by the Government rapidly across America.

            This quickly leads to riots, rebellion and an anti-Government uprising due to the intense invasion of privacy, a person's secret or private life. America becomes filled with feelings of impotence, anger and anxiety that a hidden system of Government has information about him or her and that they have no control over the use of that collected information. The population is overflowing with rage as the concept of ‘Big Brother’ is far in the past, there is a bigger social issue at hand; the nations people have become a mindless process of routine coldness, uninformed errors, and dehumanization.

The Government tried to assure the people that if we just allow the Government to watch all of us and investigate all of us that somehow that will keep us all safe. To regain privacy within the home you must either except Government surveillance and the invasion of a person's secret and private life or is faced with the moral dilemma of euthanizing their pet, man’s best friend. This will leave the viewers to interpret a personal and moral outcome based on their own beliefs and values.

Is it possible that we will have to differentiate between genuine nature and Government influenced nature? Will the Government ever stop drafting species that can't escape their recruitment?