🎬 HUMAN LAB — A Mind-Bending Sci-Fi Short That Questions Reality, Consciousness, and the Fabric of Time

LOS ANGELES, CA – August 2025

In an era where artificial intelligence governs our tools and surveillance feels omnipresent, the upcoming short film Human Lab dares to ask: What if everything — even our deepest emotions, memories, and sense of self — was part of an experiment?

Written and directed by Stephane Boghossian, Human Lab is a 25-minute animated sci-fi psychological thriller that explores the haunting idea that human existence may be nothing more than a controlled simulation — observed by powerful beings who experience time at 2,000 years per second.

Set in a minimalist void of sterile rooms and cosmic observatories, the film follows a lone human test subject as he begins to question his reality, detect invisible patterns, and ultimately construct a device to reach out to the architects of his fate. In the final act, he breaks through the barrier — only to encounter an unknowable force in a chilling, ambiguous ending that leaves audiences asking: “Who dreamed who?”

“Human Lab isn’t about answers — it’s about questions,” says director Stephane Boghossian. “We wanted to build a cinematic mirror that reflects our deepest modern anxieties: artificial time, control systems, surveillance, and the fragility of identity.”

Featuring frame-by-frame animation powered by AI, immersive sound design, and a script that blends metaphysical philosophy with minimalist storytelling, Human Lab stands at the intersection of Black Mirror, Annihilation, and 2001: A Space Odyssey.

The film will premiere at selected film festivals this fall, with a digital release planned for later in the year.

👁️ Are you still watching?

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🧬 Film Details:

• Title: Human Lab
• Format: 25-minute animated short
• Language: English
• Genre: Sci-Fi, Psychological Thriller
• Created by: Stephane Boghossian
• Release: Fall 2025 (Festivals), Winter 2025 (Online)

V01: “The Lab”

Duration: 20 seconds

Style: Cinematic, continuous zoom-out

Soundtrack: Minimal ambient hum, rising tone toward the end

Camera Movement: None — only perspective zoom-out

[Scene 1 — INT. KITCHEN – DAY – 0s to 4s]

We open on a family of four having lunch in a sunlit kitchen.

A small dog naps by the window. Laughter, forks clinking.

Steam rises from plates. The mother reaches for water.

Everything is intimate, grounded, normal.

CAMERA: Fixed angle, eye-level. Begins subtle zoom out.

[Scene 2 — THROUGH HOUSE – 4s to 8s]

The camera passes through the ceiling.

The kitchen shrinks as we move upward, revealing a cross-section of the home:

a messy bedroom, toys on the floor, a quiet hallway.

Then the roof, then the sky.

Clouds reflect on the glass of a skylight as we rise.

CAMERA: No cuts. Zoom intensifies.

[Scene 3 — CITYSCAPE – 8s to 12s]

The house disappears into a dense neighborhood.

Then rooftops, roads, cars, parks, buildings —

the whole city, alive and moving.

Faint traffic hum. A plane crosses the sky far above.

CAMERA: Continues ascending, pace quickens.

[Scene 4 — EARTH VIEW – 12s to 16s]

The city blends into continents

then the full curved Earth floats below.

Clouds swirl. Lightning flickers in a distant storm.

No sound now — only cosmic silence.

Earth rotates, peaceful, vulnerable.

[Scene 5 — THE LAB – 16s to 20s]

Suddenly, Earth shrinks, revealed to be inside a transparent orb.

The orb is one of many — planets lined up in glowing tubes.

A colossal lab stretches across infinity.

Two godlike beings, humanoid but unidentifiable, stand still,

studying Earth, blinking slowly.

Time doesn’t move here.

End.

V02: 🧪 HUMAN LAB — FRAME-BY-FRAME (25 SCENES)

⏱️ 00:00

🎥 Close-up of a human eye opening in complete silence.

🎭 Cold, sterile, existential

💬 VO: “You think you live. But you’re only playing out code.”

🧠 Prompt:

“Close-up of a human eye opening in sterile white environment, faint reflections of stars in pupil, extreme silence, hyperreal skin texture, cinematic lighting”

⏱️ 01:00

🎥 The man sits up in a room with no windows, no shadows, no time.

🎭 Isolated, clinical

💬 [No dialogue, only breathing]

🧠 Prompt:

“A man wakes up in a blank, all-white room. No windows. Futuristic hospital bed. Minimalist. Surreal emptiness.”

⏱️ 02:00

🎥 He picks up a glass of water. It resets in his hand.

🎭 Confusion begins

💬 “Didn’t I just…”

🧠 Prompt:

“A man holding a glass of water that glitches mid-air and reappears on the table. Unreal physics. Subtle visual distortion.”

⏱️ 03:00

🎥 Glitch — a flash of him older and dying in a bed, gone in a second.

🎭 Paranoia

💬 VO: “Time bends. You don’t notice it… until it’s too late.”

🧠 Prompt:

“Quick flash of man as old, frail version of himself in same room. Flickering light. Time glitch effect.”

⏱️ 04:00

🎥 Cut to a massive cosmic observatory. Futuristic alien beings monitor Earth.

🎭 Majestic, cold

💬 “Subject 9A1 awake again.”

🧠 Prompt:

“Futuristic cosmic observatory floating in space, massive humanoid figures made of light and data watching holographic models of Earth.”

⏱️ 05:00

🎥 Watchers debate tweaking his variables. “Run Variant 273-C.”

🎭 Detachment

💬

• WATCHER 1: “Curiosity increased.”
• WATCHER 2: “Let it unfold.”

🧠 Prompt:

“Alien council in data chamber debating test subject. Giant monitors, data streams, planet simulations. Ethereal lighting.”

⏱️ 06:00

🎥 Back to the man—objects change subtly in position.

🎭 Uneasy

💬 “This isn’t... real.”

🧠 Prompt:

“Man in white room noticing minor inconsistencies — chair moved, plate flipped. Subtle horror lighting. Micro-tremble camera.”

⏱️ 07:00

🎥 He writes time patterns on the wall, obsessively.

🎭 Obsession

💬 [Whispered] “2:17. 2:18. 2:17 again.”

🧠 Prompt:

“Man writing numbers and time codes on clean white wall. Blood on hands. Time loop symbols. Overhead lighting casting no shadow.”

⏱️ 08:00

🎥 Quick cuts of other test rooms — hundreds of other humans in similar setups.

🎭 Cosmic horror

💬 VO: “You are not the only version of you.”

🧠 Prompt:

“Hundreds of near-identical white test chambers, each with a different version of the same man, in slightly altered states. Wide angle.”

⏱️ 09:00

🎥 Flashbacks to ancient wars, starships, lovers — none from this lifetime.

🎭 Memory overload

💬 “Whose life am I remembering?”

🧠 Prompt:

“Montage of vivid, epic memories: ancient battlefields, futuristic space station romance, nuclear ruins. One actor, many roles.”

⏱️ 10:00

🎥 Watchers shocked: “He’s breaching the boundary.”

🎭 Alarm

💬

• WATCHER: “Impossible. Consciousness is rising.”

🧠 Prompt:

“Watcher staring at alerting interface. Brainwave anomaly detected. Red holographic alert icons flashing.”

⏱️ 11:00

🎥 The man carves a schematic into the floor — a transmission device.

🎭 Revelation

💬 “I can talk to them.”

🧠 Prompt:

“Man on knees carving complex machine diagram on sterile white floor using metal shard. Sacred geometry elements.”

⏱️ 12:00

🎥 Collecting material: wire, bone, lights. A strange antenna takes form.

🎭 Desperation

💬 “They’ll hear me. I know they will.”

🧠 Prompt:

“Makeshift cosmic antenna built from strange organic and mechanical components. Wires float, bones twitch. Ritualistic vibe.”

⏱️ 13:00

🎥 Flash cuts — time collapses around him, walls pulse like skin.

🎭 Breakdown

💬 VO: “Time is not linear. Only experience is.”

🧠 Prompt:

“White room pulses with veins and breath. Time folding. Digital and organic textures blend. Expressionist chaos.”

⏱️ 14:00

🎥 Close-up: he wires himself into the machine.

🎭 Sacrifice

💬 “Take me to the source.”

🧠 Prompt:

“Man inserting wires into neck and chest, machine activates, light pouring from his mouth. Futuristic martyrdom.”

⏱️ 15:00

🎥 Machine vibrates. A low cosmic hum builds.

🎭 Awakened

💬 [no dialogue]

🧠 Prompt:

“Futuristic lab trembling under machine resonance. Vibrating floor, glass breaking. Cosmic light engulfing scene.”

⏱️ 16:00

🎥 Room shatters into pure blackness. He floats in stasis.

🎭 Weightless awe

💬 “Where… am I?”

🧠 Prompt:

“Man suspended in dark void, faint stars beyond. Floating weightless. No gravity, no sound. Alone.”

⏱️ 17:00

🎥 Gigantic being descends. Undefined. Shifting form.

🎭 Sublime terror

💬 VO (Watcher): “You breached the boundary.”

🧠 Prompt:

“Colossal celestial being made of data and shadows, descending slowly toward man in void. Ambiguous face.”

⏱️ 18:00

🎥 First real conversation:

💬

• HUMAN: “Am I real?”
• WATCHER: “You were observed.”

🧠 Prompt:

“Face-to-face shot of man and watcher, with intense size difference. Alien vastness. Dialog bubble between them.”

⏱️ 19:00

🎥

💬

• HUMAN: “Then… who dreamed who?”
• WATCHER: “That variable remains… open.”

🧠 Prompt:

“Minimal scene. Only silhouettes. The words float in glowing glyphs. Abstract symbols glitch across frame.”

⏱️ 20:00

🎥 The man reaches out. Their fingers almost touch.

🎭 Intimacy

💬 [silence]

🧠 Prompt:

“Recreation of Michelangelo’s Creation of Adam in space, but with alien being and human. Fingers nearly touch.”

⏱️ 21:00

🎥 Everything fades to white. The man gasps.

🎭 Transcendence or death?

💬 VO: “And then... it stopped.”

🧠 Prompt:

“Blinding white void. Human mid-gasp. Frozen moment before blackout. No context.”

⏱️ 22:00

🎥 Black screen. One heartbeat.

🎭 Dread

💬 [no dialogue]

🧠 Prompt:

“Pure black screen. One ripple of heartbeat pulse sound. Nothing else.”

⏱️ 23:00

🎥 The human’s eye reopens. Same first shot.

🎭 Loop? Rebirth?

💬 “Was I… gone?”

🧠 Prompt:

“Same eye shot as frame 1. But now the pupil reflects the watcher.”

⏱️ 24:00

🎥 The watcher is now watching from the human’s perspective.

🎭 Inversion

💬 VO (Watcher): “Observation continues.”

🧠 Prompt:

“Watcher reflected in human retina. Ambiguous POV shift. Simulation or merger?”

⏱️ 25:00

🎥 Silence. Black screen.

💬 Text on screen:

“Are you still watching?”

🧠 Prompt:

“Black screen. White text in small serif font. No sound.”