Safe Keeping
The host of a reality show discovers some storage units should never be opened.

TV and film eras are defined by trends. Westerns, crime investigation, and more recently, superheroes have been shoved down the throats of viewers without a care for the potential of oversaturation. Reality TV is no exception. A current craze is storage shows, where overly colorful people bid for the contents of units that house almost anything you could think of in the hope that they can make a tidy profit from whatever lies within. Storage Hunters, Auction Hunters, Storage Wars, and countless other shows have sprung up to cash in on this newest fad.

Mitch Smith’s Safe Keeping adds another show to that ever-growing list. Rico and Jackson are two veterans of the storage circuit, and the hosts of Storage Seeker, a show in which they document their adventures at auctions. At today’s auction, the expertise is shining through. They’re winning bins that look good, pulling tricks to take them from the unsuspecting at the last minute, and avoiding the duds, leaving them to the suckers. To Jackson, it’s just:

JACKSON
(to camera)
Another day, another dollar.

But then they come to the final bin of the day, where they’re thrown off course as both struggle to figure out exactly what is in the most mysterious unit they’ve seen in a while. After the most intense bidding war of the day, our hosts come out on top, and Jackson is jubilant at winning one of those units that has the potential to house something unexpected and valuable.

Unfortunately, the contents can only be described as one of those two words, and as the seekers explore their winnings further, they discover clues and objects that hint to something sick and sinister being hidden at this storage facility. Jackson is skeptical and disinterested; if it’s not worth $, he doesn’t care, but Rico’s curiosity gets the better of Jackson’s doubt and they embark on a hunt that could take Storage Seeker off the air…for good.

Can the duo unlock the secrets that the facility hides behind certain doors and return for another season? Or will this be the dramatic finale that wraps up the show and ties up all loose ends? As a script that hilariously parodies “trash TV” tropes yet has a bitterly frightening and ironic twist, it’s safe to say that Safe Keeping is a great unit for any potential director to win. Get your bids in for this one fast!

Budget: Hey, this is Found Footage! Spend enough to make this a quality production – but keep that wonderful gritty look.

Pages: 13

About the reviewer: Hamish Porter is a writer who, if he was granted one wish, would ask for the skill of being able to write dialogue like Tarantino. Or maybe the ability to teleport. Nah, that’s nothing compared to the former. A lover of philosophy, he’s working on several shorts and a sporting comedy that can only be described as “quintessentially British”. If you want to contact him, he can be emailed: hamishdonaldp “AT” gmail.com. If you’d like to contact him and be subjected to incoherent ramblings, follow him on Twitter @HamishP95.

About the writer: Mitch Smith is an award winning screenwriter whose website (http://mitchsmithscripts.wix.com/scripts) offers notes, script editing and phone consultations. You can also reach him at Mitch.SmithScripts “AT” gmail and follow Mitch at https://twitter.com/MitchScripts.

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