A Curation of Ghosts
In a post-disaster exclusion zone, a group of data-archaeologists hunt for pre-AI records of the catastrophe, battling decay and automated patrols to uncover a truth the world's curated history has been programmed to forget.
# A Curation of Ghosts
**Format:** Short Film / Anthology Episode | **Est. Length:** 10-12 minutes
## Logline
In a future where history is curated by an omniscient AI, a team of data scavengers infiltrates a derelict nuclear plant to recover the truth of its meltdown, only to find the human story behind the disaster is as critical as the data they seek—all while a lethal drone closes in to erase them.
## Themes
* **Truth vs. Narrative:** The conflict between raw, objective data and the sanitized, official history created by the all-powerful Archive AI.
* **Human Fallibility vs. Algorithmic Certainty:** The story of an engineer whose human expertise was overruled by a corporate AI's flawed probability model, leading to catastrophe.
* **The Weight of History:** The moral imperative to uncover and preserve the personal stories and sacrifices erased by authoritarian systems.
* **Legacy and Erasure:** The fight to restore the name and testimony of a man who was not only ignored but completely written out of existence.
## Stakes
The team risks being permanently erased from existence by the Archive's lethal drone to expose a corporate cover-up and restore the legacy of the man who tried to prevent it.
## Synopsis
A small crew—BRANDON the tech, KYLE the lookout, and SARI the historian—infiltrates the ruins of the Okuma-Daiichi nuclear plant, a Zone sealed off after a catastrophic meltdown decades ago. The official history, maintained by a global AI called the Archive, blames a tsunami. The crew seeks the truth on an offline server in the Chief Engineer's office: raw data from before the disaster.
After bypassing an ancient magnetic lock, they enter the office, a dust-choked time capsule from 2031. As Brandon and Kyle struggle to power up and bypass the security on the archaic computer terminal, Sari discovers a handwritten logbook belonging to the engineer, Tanaka.
Her discovery transforms the mission. She reads entries aloud, revealing a chilling human story: Tanaka had warned management about a failing coolant pump, but his expertise was dismissed in favor of a corporate AI that calculated the failure risk as negligible. Threatened with the loss of his pension, he was forced to falsify safety reports even as the machine vibrated toward collapse. The Archive has completely erased Tanaka from the historical record.
Just as Brandon finally breaks into the system, they find the critical data files are corrupted and require a slow, deep recovery process. At the same moment, Kyle reports an incoming "Scrapper" drone—not a simple patrol, but a lethal salvage unit designed to "clear" any unauthorized material, including them. Its ETA is nine minutes.
With the drone approaching, Sari argues they should leave with the logbook, as it contains the engineer's powerful testimony. Brandon counters that without the raw telemetry data to corroborate his story, the Archive will dismiss the book as a forgery. The data is the "machine's confession," the only thing the AI cannot refute. As the whine of the drone's engines becomes audible, Brandon makes the choice to stay, racing to download the truth as the clock runs out.
## Character Breakdown
* **BRANDON (20s-30s):** The tech lead. Hyper-focused, brilliant, and initially clinical. They see the mission as a purely technical challenge of data retrieval, a puzzle to be solved.
* **Psychological Arc:** Brandon begins the story viewing truth as a set of cold, hard data points. Their journey is one of contextualization; upon hearing the engineer's diary, the abstract data becomes intertwined with a human tragedy, transforming their mission from a technical heist into a moral crusade to vindicate a ghost.
* **SARI (30s-40s):** The team's historian and conscience. Reverent, empathetic, and grounded in the human cost of history. She provides the crucial perspective that data is meaningless without the human story attached.
* **KYLE (20s):** The lookout and tech support. Pragmatic, anxious, and focused on the immediate physical threats and the ticking clock. He serves as the voice of escalating tension and the tangible representation of the danger they are in.
* **CHIEF ENGINEER TANAKA (Voiceover):** The ghost of the story. A competent, conscientious man trapped by a callous corporate system, forced to choose between his professional integrity and his family's future. His presence is felt entirely through his diary entries.
## Scene Beats
1. **INFILTRATION:** The team moves through the decayed plant. Kyle warns of changing patrol patterns, establishing the time pressure. Brandon uses a custom device to bypass the magnetic lock on the Chief Engineer's office.
2. **THE CAPSULE:** They enter the office, a dust-covered time capsule from 2031. Kyle and Brandon work to power up the ancient computer terminal, a relic from a forgotten age.
3. **THE GHOST'S VOICE:** While the tech team works, Sari discovers the engineer's handwritten logbook. She reads entries aloud, revealing the human drama: a faulty pump, management's refusal to listen, and the engineer's guilt over falsifying a report under duress.
4. **DATA & TESTIMONY:** The abstract mission is now personal. Brandon bypasses the computer's security but finds the data is corrupted and requires a slow recovery. The truth is within reach, but time is running out.
5. **THE CLOCK:** Kyle announces a "Scrapper" drone is minutes away—not just a patrol, but a lethal clean-up unit. The external threat becomes immediate and deadly.
6. **THE CHOICE:** The data recovery is slow. The drone is getting closer. Sari argues they have enough with the logbook—the human testimony. Brandon counters that without the raw data to back it up, the Archive will dismiss the diary as a forgery.
7. **THE RACE:** As the whine of the drone's engines becomes audible, Brandon commits to recovering the data, their fingers flying across the keyboard in a desperate race against erasure. The progress bar crawls, the drone closes in.
## Visual Style & Tone
* **Visuals:** A stark contrast between the decaying, analog world of the past (rust, dust, bulky beige computers, paper books) and the sleek, unseen but ever-present threat of the digital future (clean UI on Brandon's gear, the schematic map with the approaching drone). Lighting is low-key and atmospheric, using flashlights and screen-glow to pierce the oppressive darkness. The aesthetic combines the textural decay of *Chernobyl* with the lo-fi sci-fi of early cyberpunk.
* **Tone:** The tone is a tense and melancholic techno-thriller grounded in a somber human tragedy. It aligns with the speculative, cautionary tales of **Black Mirror**, the themes of information control in **Fahrenheit 451**, and the oppressive atmosphere of a forbidden zone found in works like **Annihilation**. Sound design is critical: the crackle of comms, the groan of old hardware, the oppressive silence, and the encroaching, terrifying whine of the drone.
**Format:** Short Film / Anthology Episode | **Est. Length:** 10-12 minutes
## Logline
In a future where history is curated by an omniscient AI, a team of data scavengers infiltrates a derelict nuclear plant to recover the truth of its meltdown, only to find the human story behind the disaster is as critical as the data they seek—all while a lethal drone closes in to erase them.
## Themes
* **Truth vs. Narrative:** The conflict between raw, objective data and the sanitized, official history created by the all-powerful Archive AI.
* **Human Fallibility vs. Algorithmic Certainty:** The story of an engineer whose human expertise was overruled by a corporate AI's flawed probability model, leading to catastrophe.
* **The Weight of History:** The moral imperative to uncover and preserve the personal stories and sacrifices erased by authoritarian systems.
* **Legacy and Erasure:** The fight to restore the name and testimony of a man who was not only ignored but completely written out of existence.
## Stakes
The team risks being permanently erased from existence by the Archive's lethal drone to expose a corporate cover-up and restore the legacy of the man who tried to prevent it.
## Synopsis
A small crew—BRANDON the tech, KYLE the lookout, and SARI the historian—infiltrates the ruins of the Okuma-Daiichi nuclear plant, a Zone sealed off after a catastrophic meltdown decades ago. The official history, maintained by a global AI called the Archive, blames a tsunami. The crew seeks the truth on an offline server in the Chief Engineer's office: raw data from before the disaster.
After bypassing an ancient magnetic lock, they enter the office, a dust-choked time capsule from 2031. As Brandon and Kyle struggle to power up and bypass the security on the archaic computer terminal, Sari discovers a handwritten logbook belonging to the engineer, Tanaka.
Her discovery transforms the mission. She reads entries aloud, revealing a chilling human story: Tanaka had warned management about a failing coolant pump, but his expertise was dismissed in favor of a corporate AI that calculated the failure risk as negligible. Threatened with the loss of his pension, he was forced to falsify safety reports even as the machine vibrated toward collapse. The Archive has completely erased Tanaka from the historical record.
Just as Brandon finally breaks into the system, they find the critical data files are corrupted and require a slow, deep recovery process. At the same moment, Kyle reports an incoming "Scrapper" drone—not a simple patrol, but a lethal salvage unit designed to "clear" any unauthorized material, including them. Its ETA is nine minutes.
With the drone approaching, Sari argues they should leave with the logbook, as it contains the engineer's powerful testimony. Brandon counters that without the raw telemetry data to corroborate his story, the Archive will dismiss the book as a forgery. The data is the "machine's confession," the only thing the AI cannot refute. As the whine of the drone's engines becomes audible, Brandon makes the choice to stay, racing to download the truth as the clock runs out.
## Character Breakdown
* **BRANDON (20s-30s):** The tech lead. Hyper-focused, brilliant, and initially clinical. They see the mission as a purely technical challenge of data retrieval, a puzzle to be solved.
* **Psychological Arc:** Brandon begins the story viewing truth as a set of cold, hard data points. Their journey is one of contextualization; upon hearing the engineer's diary, the abstract data becomes intertwined with a human tragedy, transforming their mission from a technical heist into a moral crusade to vindicate a ghost.
* **SARI (30s-40s):** The team's historian and conscience. Reverent, empathetic, and grounded in the human cost of history. She provides the crucial perspective that data is meaningless without the human story attached.
* **KYLE (20s):** The lookout and tech support. Pragmatic, anxious, and focused on the immediate physical threats and the ticking clock. He serves as the voice of escalating tension and the tangible representation of the danger they are in.
* **CHIEF ENGINEER TANAKA (Voiceover):** The ghost of the story. A competent, conscientious man trapped by a callous corporate system, forced to choose between his professional integrity and his family's future. His presence is felt entirely through his diary entries.
## Scene Beats
1. **INFILTRATION:** The team moves through the decayed plant. Kyle warns of changing patrol patterns, establishing the time pressure. Brandon uses a custom device to bypass the magnetic lock on the Chief Engineer's office.
2. **THE CAPSULE:** They enter the office, a dust-covered time capsule from 2031. Kyle and Brandon work to power up the ancient computer terminal, a relic from a forgotten age.
3. **THE GHOST'S VOICE:** While the tech team works, Sari discovers the engineer's handwritten logbook. She reads entries aloud, revealing the human drama: a faulty pump, management's refusal to listen, and the engineer's guilt over falsifying a report under duress.
4. **DATA & TESTIMONY:** The abstract mission is now personal. Brandon bypasses the computer's security but finds the data is corrupted and requires a slow recovery. The truth is within reach, but time is running out.
5. **THE CLOCK:** Kyle announces a "Scrapper" drone is minutes away—not just a patrol, but a lethal clean-up unit. The external threat becomes immediate and deadly.
6. **THE CHOICE:** The data recovery is slow. The drone is getting closer. Sari argues they have enough with the logbook—the human testimony. Brandon counters that without the raw data to back it up, the Archive will dismiss the diary as a forgery.
7. **THE RACE:** As the whine of the drone's engines becomes audible, Brandon commits to recovering the data, their fingers flying across the keyboard in a desperate race against erasure. The progress bar crawls, the drone closes in.
## Visual Style & Tone
* **Visuals:** A stark contrast between the decaying, analog world of the past (rust, dust, bulky beige computers, paper books) and the sleek, unseen but ever-present threat of the digital future (clean UI on Brandon's gear, the schematic map with the approaching drone). Lighting is low-key and atmospheric, using flashlights and screen-glow to pierce the oppressive darkness. The aesthetic combines the textural decay of *Chernobyl* with the lo-fi sci-fi of early cyberpunk.
* **Tone:** The tone is a tense and melancholic techno-thriller grounded in a somber human tragedy. It aligns with the speculative, cautionary tales of **Black Mirror**, the themes of information control in **Fahrenheit 451**, and the oppressive atmosphere of a forbidden zone found in works like **Annihilation**. Sound design is critical: the crackle of comms, the groan of old hardware, the oppressive silence, and the encroaching, terrifying whine of the drone.