WORKSPACE
A surrealist science fiction short film.
When employees at a virtual reality office start to go missing, an ambitious company man is the only one asking questions.
MARK STERLING is a programmer working at a VR office. He struggles with the existential dread of office life but believes that if he keeps his head down and works hard, he’ll be able to make a name for himself in the company.
But Mark’s illusion of corporate benevolence is shattered when people at the office start to go missing and he’s the only one asking questions. He checks on one of the missing employees and discovers him murdered in his apartment. With help from his colleague and neighbor, ANNIE, Mark discovers that a recently fired employee, HOMER, has acquired the addresses of all their coworkers and is assassinating them while they’re logged into the office. And to make matters worse, he’s armed, in the building, and coming after them next.
Mark and Annie fight to save their lives. They ultimately must turn to their coworkers who live in the same tenant complex to rally together, stop Homer, and save themselves.
A Unique
Visual Style
WORKSPACE is a surrealist science fiction short film set in a future where jobs have moved to virtual-reality offices. Due to the dystopian nature of this future, the offices we see are not state-of-the-art photorealistic models, but budget-tier environments reminiscent of computer game graphics from the 2000s.
It will feature scenes set in “The Workspace” as well as real-world scenes shot on location. The Workspace scenes will be shot on a greenscreen with live-action actors composited into low fidelity videogame environments, creating a surreal and unique visual style.
This concept has everything needed to become a viral and cultural hit.
Virtual reality, work from home, and worker solidarity are ideas that are currently at the forefront of the cultural zeitgeist. There are already companies and schools experimenting with VR workplaces while an increasingly online generation feels lonelier than ever. That isolation has left its mark on the internet through art styles and communities that celebrate nostalgia, such as vaporwave, liminal space, and retro videogame aesthetics.
This would be the first time these art styles were used heavily in a narrative film that finds motivated reasoning for them. All these ideas that have been floating around in peoples’ heads would be combined in a cathartic experience ending in a rallying cry to hold on to human connection.
