10 min
🎬 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.”