A Glimpse Through Grime

### A Glimpse Through Grime - Film/TV Treatment

**1. LOGLINE**

Two disillusioned teenagers exploring their derelict local sports center stumble upon a cryptic message, pulling them into a dangerous conspiracy hidden beneath the city's promise of urban renewal.

**2. SYNOPSIS**

In a forgotten corner of a decaying town, teenagers IDA (17) and ARNIE (17) break into the abandoned community swimming pool, a place that holds the collective memory of their childhoods. The building, slated for a soulless corporate redevelopment into a "Youth Development Hub," is a graveyard of past glories. As they navigate the cavernous, decaying halls, their nostalgic exploration is tinged with cynicism about their own dead-end futures. Inside the vast, empty basin of the former Olympic pool, Ida discovers a loose brick hiding a small, plastic-wrapped piece of graph paper. Unfolding it, they find not a youthful secret, but a precise, cryptic code of numbers and letters. Their discovery shifts the atmosphere from melancholy to menacing, suggesting the redevelopment is a cover for something far more sinister. The moment is shattered by a loud noise from deeper within the building, and they realize with chilling certainty that they are not alone.

**3. CHARACTER BREAKDOWN**

* **IDA (17):** Observant, thoughtful, and burdened by the weight of expectation. She feels the loss of community spaces like a personal wound and sees the layers of history and betrayal in the world around her. She is the quiet engine of the discovery, driven by an instinct she doesn't fully understand.

* **ARNIE (17):** Street-smart, pragmatic, and armed with a cynical wit. He presents a front of detached boredom, using his phone as both a tool and a shield. Beneath the surface, he shares Ida's sense of loss and possesses a sharp, focused intelligence that snaps into place when faced with a real threat or mystery.

**4. SCENE BEATS**

* **ESTABLISH THE DECAY:** We open on the derelict sports center. The groaning double doors, cracked glass, and late autumn quiet establish a mood of forgotten grandeur and eerie silence.

* **THE EXPLORERS:** IDA pushes her way in, immediately feeling the penetrating cold and the "ghost of chlorine." ARNIE follows, casual and unimpressed, his phone's screen cutting through the gloom.

* **A MUSEUM OF MEMORIES:** In the foyer, they navigate the wreckage of the past: shattered display cases, faded photos, and dusty ribbons. Ida traces a line in the dust, lamenting the "scent of absence."

* **CYNICISM AND TRUTH:** Arnie mockingly quotes the official name for the redevelopment—the "Youth Development Hub." Ida and Arnie trade cynical barbs, revealing their shared disillusionment with the hollow promises of "community engagement" and their resentment towards a system that erases their history.

* **INTERNAL CONFLICT:** Ida's gaze falls on faded murals of athletic idealism. This triggers a moment of internal anxiety about her own future, university applications, and the pressure from her parents to achieve "something better."

* **THE CATHEDRAL:** They enter the main aquatic hall. The sheer scale of the space is revealed—a vast, gutted, cathedral-like hall. The focus is the empty Olympic-sized pool, now a concrete crater filled with debris. The sight is both awesome and tragic.

* **ERASING THE PAST:** Standing at the edge of the empty pool, they discuss the redevelopment plans—a climbing wall, a VR arcade. Ida voices her disgust at the idea of replacing a place of physical community with sterile, isolating technology. "It's like they want to erase what this place was."

* **THE DISCOVERY:** Ida's attention is drawn to the tiled wall of the empty basin. She kneels, noticing a single brick that is slightly out of alignment. Her curiosity piqued, she works it loose.

* **THE SECRET:** Behind the brick is a small, hidden cavity. Ida pulls out a folded piece of graph paper protected by a yellowed, brittle plastic sleeve. The mood shifts from nostalgic exploration to tense mystery.

* **THE CIPHER:** Arnie joins her, his casual demeanor gone. His phone light illuminates the paper, revealing a precise, cryptic code of numbers and letters. It is clearly not a kid's secret. It feels clinical, deliberate, and dangerous.

* **THE INTRUSION:** As they ponder the code's connection to the new development, a loud, sharp **METALLIC CLATTER** echoes from deep within the building.

* **THE CLIFFHANGER:** They freeze, hearts pounding. The silence that follows is absolute, terrifying. They are not alone. In the distance, a sliver of shadow detaches from a wall, confirming their worst fear.

**5. VISUAL STYLE**

* **PALETTE:** A desaturated, cool-toned palette will dominate—slate greys, muted blues, and the sickly green of damp and moss. This will be starkly contrasted by the harsh, cold, artificial blue-white light from Arnie's phone, which acts as a shifting, unreliable spotlight in the gloom.

* **LIGHTING:** The style will be naturalistic and low-key, relying on the weak late-autumn light filtering through grimy windows and cracks in the ceiling. This will create long, ominous shadows and a sense of oppressive darkness in the building's deeper corners.

* **CAMERAWORK:** A mix of slow, deliberate tracking shots to emphasize the scale and emptiness of the space, and intimate, handheld shots that follow the characters closely to heighten the sense of immediacy and unease. Extreme close-ups will focus on textures: the grime on the glass, the dust on the counter, the cracks in the tiles, and the cryptic pencil marks on the graph paper.

* **SOUND DESIGN:** The soundscape is a character in itself. The near-total silence will be punctuated by ambient, unsettling sounds: the groan of a hinge, the scuff of trainers on grit, a distant, rhythmic drip of water. The dialogue will have a natural echo, emphasizing the cavernous emptiness. The final, sudden CLATTER will be jarringly loud and sharp, designed to make the audience jump. The score, if any, will be minimalist and atmospheric, using low, ambient tones to build tension rather than overt melody.