Komodo Research Paper

Background:
If you smuggle drugs, the DEA will chase after you with military-grade force. Pirate a movie? The FBI will impose up to a 5-year prison sentence and a $250,000 fine. But what if you smuggle an animal? You’ll be up against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service—they don’t have weapons, and there are only 400 of them working year-round (versus 11,000 DEA agents). If you succeed, you’ll make millions selling to rich farmers and billionaire collectors. And if you get caught, you’ll only be fined the equivalent of a parking ticket.
National Geographic states that animal smuggling is the most under-policed criminal activity in the world even though trafficking kills thousands of endangered species and places our ecosystem at risk.
Tone:
Fearing arrest, the handlers resist calling for help and end up becoming prey to the very animal they poached. The conflict snowballs into an outright catastrophe. Woven into the suspenseful and circumstantially funny moments is a cautionary tale that opens the lid on an illegal industry that is currently destroying our ecosystem.
Imagine the characters of FARGO placed in a monster movie satire like THE HOST—only our “monster” is not a fantastical force, but a real, wild animal with movements and habits that represent live Komodo Dragons.
Synopsis:
The setting is in an isolated warehouse. Inside the building, there’s an animal crate—what appears to hold DVD players (electronics mask cargo through customs) is actually a cage that houses a live KOMODO DRAGON.
MR. JUNG, the chief businessman, negotiates the price of the smuggled Komodo with a farmer named JACK and his accomplice, KAYLA. Jack has his hand bitten when he fails to take the necessary safety precautions while opening the lizard’s
Also, characters will interact with the lights—switching them on and off, and even accidentally breaking them, allowing for a motivated progression of lighting that becomes darker and higher contrast as we near the climax.
Overall, the innovative design elements in KOMODO exist to maximize utility of the single location and heighten suspense.
Theme:
KOMODO will reveal the consequences of human greed and stupidity—how the mishandling of an exotic animal leads to problems that should have never existed in the first place. The demise of each character is due to their illegal activity and unwillingness to call for help.
A little bit of evil snowballs into an outright snafu–a theme that represents how the animal trade will have devastating effects on our ecosystem.
I hope that this short film will raise awareness on the issue of animal trafficking or at least inspire viewers to do more research on the topic all while they laugh at the physically comedic demise of our despicable, but interesting