The Pitch

My current concept was originally a part of a somewhat larger work I had imagined before. Over the summer I re-envisioned and pared the entire project down to an idea that I felt would be achievable.

I've tried to distill the objective of this piece as simply and purely as I could, and now I'm working to build a story piece-by-piece around it. Here goes:

CONCEPT IN A WORD:
Destiny - a singular purpose as designed by an outside agency that is independent of personal karma or free will.

MY THESIS IS:
A short film about a robot AI built for a one-way mission into space but wants to stay on Earth - and how he must reconcile with his destiny.

A visual effects piece compositing a green-screened actor into a photo-realistic CG environment.

SYNOPSIS:
In the near future, NASA discovers an intelligent signal from the 18 Scorpii system. Because of the distance (45.82 light years) a manned mission is impossible. A space probe is constructed to make contact; it carries on board an AI ambassador named Christopher. Christopher has been been sitting in orbit around Jupiter for several years collecting fuel while technicians have been diagnosing and debugging him in preparation for the mission. During this time, Christopher has become very close friends with one technician in particular, Grace.

On the night of the launch, Grace sneaks in after the crew celebrates the imminent launch to say goodbye. Grace toasts to Christopher's success, and he confesses that he does not really want to go. He worries that he might not find anyone and will wander alone forever. Since none of the other crew knows that Grace is inside the probe he locks her in. Grace eventually manages to get him to release her and accept that she cannot accompany him.