Disability Reels

Summary:

Collection of film reels with all main characters having a disability of some sort.

Disability Reels

winkwonkboi 15 Sep 2020 04:19

Seeking Greenlights: Yes

Page Type: SCP Article

Genre (Optional): N/A

Page Layout (Optional): Standard

Elevator Pitch: SCP-XXXX is a box containing a collection of film reels. They each display a cartoon, with the main character similar in appearance and traits of a child in the 1920's, disabled in some way (such as being crippled, deaf, blind, etc.) If the subject watches through the entire cartoon without any pauses or distraction, they will reflect off of the character's disability, having no recollection whatsoever of them having the ability of doing so in the first place, even if presented by evidence that they were able, they would simply deny. There is also no way of gaining back the ability again.

Central Narrative: These film reels were made for disabled children by contributors in the 1920's to comfort them of their disabilities. They were presented at a local centre, and in the end, one of the reels got stuck while playing, causing the projector to overheat, and resulted in a fire, burning down the building, with only the reels being the only thing that was left undamaged.

The reels have these abilities as a result from the fire that killed the children, trapping their souls, making them survive the fire and forced to tell people their stories throughout the entirety of the cartoons before giving them part of their soul, hoping that they will live on in them as a way to escape their prison.

Hook/Attention-Grabber: There are exceptions of the effects to not happen (ex: if the subject gets distracted while watching, then the effects will not happen) and I feel the story tied to it is quite unique as well, though I could be wrong.

Additional Notes: Point out any mistakes regarding the idea, I'm willing to take in any honest critique of my idea. Also, this idea was edited.

Last edited on 21 Sep 2020 12:52 by winkwonkboi Show more

Re: Disability Reels

Frostilicus 26 Sep 2020 22:22

I feel like this concept would benefit from a little more research- there are a number of real life neurological conditions that actually do what this SCP does-Cotard’s syndrome, Body Integrity Identity Disorder, Somatic Symptom Disorder, maybe you’ll find something that gives you an idea or two.

Re: I Lost My Legs

Quadraginta 15 Sep 2020 06:20

Note: Not a verified critter.

This is much too one-note and simple to have any staying power whatsoever.

There's not really much you could do with it either, other than watch it and be crippled.

The lack of a Central Narrative combined with the above issues just makes this feel like a Series 1 SCP, which almost never flies anymore.

Also, your Hook is just an extension of the Elevator Pitch

---

Here, I'll leave some gifts.

A guide to help flesh out your idea so it can have legs.

A step by step guide to one's first SCP

I hope I helped.

Good luck!

Re: I Lost My Legs

winkwonkboi 15 Sep 2020 08:01

Yes, you did help, and I appreciate it! Thank you for the criticism, and I'll try my best to make this idea better. Again, thank you for the feedback!

Re: Disability Reels

Pedagon 16 Sep 2020 04:54

Hello Researcher Haz!

Pedagon here from the Team of the Oinks! I am actually super excited to be your critter because your idea caught my attention and I have been thinking about it all day :)

+ Roses 

The roses of your idea is the emotion baked into it. Disability is a tough subject to deal with and I appreciate that it doesn’t seem that you are treating disability as a punishment or life ruining thing like a lot of other authors do. I really appreciate that aspect. As well, your note about how it doesn’t actually disable people but effects them psychologically touches on themes of healing, pain, and loss and I think you could do some powerful writing there about being convinced you are beyond healing and giving up. POWERFUL narrative.

+ Thorns 

The thorns are in the connection of your narrative to your anomalous object. Why do these films have this property? Why would they impact the watcher psychologically rather than physically? Why didn’t they burn down? Unlike the other critter, I see no issue in writing a simple SCP (like “series I”), but one being simple it also need the tie between the object and the property and the narrative. Keep asking yourself “why is this a film reel instead of a DVD?” “Why does it do this and not some other effect” and more. Really dig in deep of what is important to you and why you chose this object to have this effect when this person does this action.

Looking forward to hearing back from you! And welcome to the site! :)

Re: Disability Reels

winkwonkboi 17 Sep 2020 08:24

Thank you for the feedback, and I agree, there is not really an explanation with some parts of the idea.

On an unrelated note, I liked how you presented your positives and negatives as roses and thorns.

Re: Disability Reels

Pedagon 17 Sep 2020 16:12

Hey again!

I noticed you have updated your proposal based on feedback so I'm going to give it another look!

+ Roses

They each display a cartoon, with the main character disabled in someway (such as being crippled, deaf, blind, etc.)

These film reels were made for disabled children by contributors in the 1920's to comfort them of their disabilities.

This is what grabbed my attention and I am excited to see you implement. Disability representation is an interesting and unique subject on the wiki and I am excited to see how you write about it and describe what actually occurs in the films. As part of your next draft of the proposal, I would like to see one example of a description of one of the films. Whether it is a normal cartoon but the main character is on crutches, or if the whole cartoon is about disability. I just want to see how you would describe this.

They were presented at a local centre, and in the end, one of the reels got stuck while playing, causing the projector to overheat, and resulted in a fire, burning down the building, with only the reels being the only thing that was left undamaged. The reels have these abilities as a result from the fire, the souls of the disabled children trapped inside the reels, making them indestructible

Backstory isn't too complex and works! I'm not the biggest fan of ghost stories but you aren't writing this for me so I really have no criticism of this origin.

+ Thorns

SCP-XXXX is a box containing a collection of indestructible film reels.

This is a trap that a lot of first time authors fall into because "indestructible" objects used to sound inherently anomalous back in the days of 173, 682, and other SUPER popular articles. While I won't tell you to not make them indestructible, I would remind you that the Foundation's objective is to Secure Contain and Protect the anomalous rather than to destroy it. So you don't need to justify why the Foundation doesn't just destroy them.

Not to mention that the characters of the cartoons were similar in appearance and traits to the children.

Definitely mention this. This is an important part of your narrative because I was imagining like a twisted copy of Snow White but Grumpy was blind. Having the characters look like facsimiles of the children completely changes the narrative from what I had pictured the first time and makes the story of how the reels became anomalous much less jarring. Move this line up into your elevator pitch. The thorn is just the placement in the pitch.

If the subject watches through the entire cartoon without any pauses or distraction, they will reflect off of the character's disability, having no recollection whatsoever of them having the ability of doing so in the first place, even if presented by evidence that they were able, they would simply deny.

There are exceptions of the effects to not happen (ex: if the subject gets distracted while watching, then the effects will not happen)

The idea of reflecting the disability shown in the video is a rose. I like that idea. The thorniness of it is the fact that it only happens if you watch the entire film without being distracted. I want to know why that happens and how it contributes to your narrative. What makes the fact that it only activates on a full viewing interesting and important to your article?

There is also no way of gaining back the ability again.

I, personally, have an issue with this but you don't really need to take all of my critique so it is up to you :) My issue with this is that your anomaly sets up a powerful narrative of disability and empathy because you are now living the "pain" of the children but by making it permanent no matter what you are limiting yourself from a fantastic narrative around healing, therapy, and trauma. To me, a story of "this object convinces you that you are disabled and you can recover through therapy and work to get through the mental blockages that come with disability" is more interesting than "this object convinces you that you are disabled and you can never recover." But it is completely up to you.

telling people their stories in the cartoons before giving them their disability as a way for them to feel their pain.

The idea here is good but I might want more description of how you are going to do this narratively. I feel that you are on a tipping point here between a story of empathy and one of vindictiveness. I want to caution you against the trope of "disability equals suffering" and to consider how you would present the idea that these children are giving their disability to other people without making it sound like these kids had awful lives because of their disability and they are now vindictive and just want to make other people suffer.

And thank you :) I disagree with the classic "poop sandwich" approach because that implies any of your idea is inherently poop. Every idea has it's roses and every rose has a few thorns. Sometimes it's worth removing those especially nasty thorns, and sometimes you should leave the thorn where it is in order to not touch the rose :)

- Brian

Last edited on 17 Sep 2020 16:16 by Pedagon Show more

Re: Disability Reels

winkwonkboi 21 Sep 2020 12:55

Ayyy, thank you for having another look at the idea and giving more criticism!

Also, sorry for not responding for so long.

Last edited on 21 Sep 2020 12:56 by winkwonkboi Show more

Re: Disability Reels

Pedagon 24 Sep 2020 06:01

Hey!

I think you should address the critique of Cerastes as highest priority because this is my critique on the current draft as well. Look back to my last set of thorns about why the viewer needs to watch the full film, why it is permanent, and why they are transferring the disability. In my line of work we have this notion we call "toxic empathy" which is the idea of walking a mile in someone else's shoes. In this toxic empathy, someone is put into imagining what it is like to be someone else and stops trying to learn because they believe they already understand. In your proposed narrative, the individuals believe they are disabled and that is where the story ends. And that is where I have the biggest problem with it. Because I don't see how your article will continue beyond the point at which you tell the reader that they can't recover and just are now stuck. There is nowhere to go from there.

Give Cerastes' critique some thought and I'll check back later!

-Brian

Last edited on 25 Sep 2020 23:21 by Pedagon Show more

Re: Disability Reels

Cerastes 24 Sep 2020 07:50

While I realize what you're going for here, I don't think it works out particularly well. The marginalization of disabled people, particularly disabled children can be a complex issue at times, and I'm not sure what precisely this accomplishes with regards to telling an effective story about them/commentary on the issue.

We've got an anomaly that when people watch it, a portion of a disabled child's soul enters their body, making them disabled and making them think they've always been that way. Narratively speaking, what purpose does this effect serve? Empathy can be produced even if you don't share the same experiences as someone in a difficult situation. This seems like a rather extreme case of "walk a mile in someone's shoes", but one that permanently harms the person rather than educating them.