Script / Short film
Little Man
A grieving father lives through his son's life in reverse, from the funeral back to the night he was born.
- Status
- Early development. Five dialogue scenes, no full screenplay yet.
- Length
- 1,224 words so far · about 5 min
- This draft
- Dialogue scenes, May 2024
David Chen is standing in a crowd of people telling him how sorry they are, and he can barely hear them. Then the film steps backwards. A driving lesson in an empty parking lot. A graduation dinner where he gets quiet. A bedtime story about a dragon named Scared-y Rex. A first word. A nursery at three in the morning, and a new father whispering that nobody gave him a manual.
It's a small film about a father and a son, told from the end to the beginning.
Heads up: this one deals with grief and the death of a child.
- Told in reverse order, one real-time scene at a time, from the funeral back to birth.
- Quick, abstract cuts break into the scenes to show what David's feeling.
- Two main characters, David and his son Marcus, with Sarah, Marcus's mom, close by.
- The five scenes here run backwards, from Marcus at sixteen to his first nights home.
- Still to write: the full screenplay, including the funeral and the last conversation.
Revision notes6 open
- continuityMarcus is 21 at graduation but dies at 19
The graduation dinner makes Marcus 21 and has him graduating college ("Every single day for twenty-one years"). The concept and character profiles say he dies at 19, and the story structure places the graduation at 18 (high school). Either change his age at death or turn the dinner into a high school graduation.
- structureThe first two scenes break the reverse order
The film runs backwards, but the posted order puts the driving lesson at 16 before the graduation dinner at 21. In reverse chronology the graduation comes first.
- bibleFeature or short?
The concept overview calls it a feature (90 to 120 minutes, with segment runtimes adding up to that), the README describes 20-minute and 40-minute versions whose folders don't exist, and the posted page calls it a short film. The runtime decides how many vignettes the film can hold.
- structureThe funeral and the last conversation aren't written
The film opens and closes at Marcus's funeral, and the plan includes a last conversation between David and Marcus. None of those scenes exist yet; only the five middle vignettes do, as dialogue rather than full screenplay.
- bibleThe cause of death is still open
The concept keeps the cause unstated on screen but suggests either suicide or military service, and the character profile says David carries guilt either way. The writer needs to decide which one, since it changes what the late vignettes hint at.
- continuity"This same parking lot... different shopping center"
David says his father taught him in "this same parking lot, actually," then in the next breath "Different shopping center, same idea." Pick one.
Version history1 draft
Current · May 2024
Dialogue scenes
Five scenes of dialogue from across the film, in the order they'd play: backwards.