Roswell & Steve in... 'Roswell's Routine'

Well I've been developing characters called "Roswell" and "Steve" for about a year. They're explorers that live together in a small and rickety spaceship.  Recently (when I was still at uni) I was set the task to write a 3-5 minute animated short that was full of action and low on dialogue.

I ended up writing a prequel to Roswell and Steve's main story arc. It's basically a morning in the life of Roswell.

I hope you enjoy!  

INT. ROSWELL’S CABIN - MORNING

Hardly anything can be seen. It’s dark, with starlight from the window allowing the audience to see only the vaguest silhouettes of things within the room. A faint snore can be heard, coming from what at first glance might appear to be a mound of blankets. A neon blue ‘6:00’ can be seen blinking on a futuristic alarm clock to the right of the bed.

The alarm begins to beep. THE MYSTERY SLEEPER attempts to quickly silence it by throwing it at the wall. It bounces, and by following the blue blinking time, we see it hit him in the head. The alarm stops.

CUT TO: Medium shot of THE MYSTERY SLEEPER

SLEEPER
(pained)
Oww...  Lights..?

The computer responds and the room’s lights flicker on. The person sleeping sits up, and is revealed to be ROSWELL, a thin grey alien with shiny black eyes and a large head. He has a pink mark where the clock hit him on his grey skinned forehead.

He rests his hand on his face and sighs, his body tiredly hunching over a little as he does so. He moves his hand slightly so that he can see through the gap in his fingers, his very alien black eye sparkling like glitter in the light as he picks up the clock with his other hand to see the time.

ROSWELL
(Tired, to himself)
...Six already? It feels like

I’ve only been sleeping ten minutes...

ROSWELL drags himself out of bed, the blanket around him falling on the floor as he stands up. We can now see that he is wearing black silk  pajamas.

CUT TO: Establishing / Long Shot

He drops the alarm clock on the floor, almost as if he were angry with it. He walks quickly off to the left and through a door.

INT. ROSWELL’S SHOWER - MORNING

CUT TO: Close Up (shoulders up)

We see ROSWELL shivering before the water starts. As the water falls, his face becomes more and more relaxed.

The water stops, and ROSWELL’s face scrunches up in frustration.

He waits a moment, before turning around and looking into the showerhead, attempting to see if it’s blocked or not.

Water sprays out fiercely, hitting him directly in the face. He falls out of panel with a loud THUD as he hits the floor.

ROSWELL, clinging to the wall by his fingertips, gets back up onto his feet again in the shower.

The water continues as normal for a short while, before stopping again. Seemingly prepared this time, ROSWELL stays in place. Unknown to him, behind his back the showerhead is quietly twisting and changing angle.

When the water has a large blast and resumes, it hits him right in the back of his head. Once again, he falls out of frame with another THUD.

INT. ROSWELL’S BEDROOM - MORNING

CUT TO: Establishing / Medium Long Shot

Dripping wet and wrapped in a towel, ROSWELL walks over to his electronic wardrobe.  He places his hand upon the touch screen control panel. The door opens and ROSWELL steps inside.

There’s a white flash and suddenly ROSWELL is adorned in a black and silver pair of what looks like high-tech long johns.

The computer then cycles through various possible outfits on ROSWELL before fitting him with his usual high-tech armoured spacesuit and scarf.

ROSWELL then hurriedly leaves the room.

INT. CORRIDOR - MORNING

We see ROSWELL casually walking towards us down a space-age corridor. He stops.

CUT TO: Medium / Over-the-Shoulder Shot, behind ROSWELL

We see the brown metal door, slamming open and shut very quickly. Roswell steps back a single step, before running at it and diving through.

CUT TO: Medium Shot

He lands on the other side safely with a roll, and sighs.

A piece of ceiling falls on him from above.

ROSWELL
(pained)
Oww... 

INT. Spaceship Bridge

The spaceship’s bridge is kind of small with enough seats for two. It’s cluttered like an untidy car. There’s a clock above the view-screen. It says ‘3:00 AM’. There’s a blonde man at the controls. A dashing rogue - his name is STEVE.

ROSWELL stumbles into the room. He eyes the clock.

ROSWELL

...Three? (beat) Why does the clock say three?

STEVE

Oh, I used your alarm's energy socket for my communicator...

There’s silence for a second. As ROSWELL thinks, we see his face get angrier and angrier. This quickly disappears however, and just becomes... exhaustion.

ROSWELL

You’re a jerk, Steve.

ROSWELL sluggishly turns around and leaves the way he entered, We fade to black.

THE END

That's all of it. I'd much appreciate any constructive criticisms and feedback you have.

Roswell and Steve will hopefully be in a comic book or animated pilot very soon.