Concept Short Film

The first ten pages of episode 101 of SCRATCH, "Paradise Lost", was fully produced as a concept short film. Watch it in the theater below...

"This is one of my favorite short films ever, ever, ever!"

Debbie Lynn Elias / Behind the Lens

"Scratch — a morality tale about good and evil at its crux — almost feels like you're playing out an atmospheric video game for nine minutes straight."

Josh Weiss / SyFy Wire

"I recently watched an amazing dark thriller short called Scratch. If you love Sin City, you will love this. This is one of the best and most unique short stories ever."

Tori Danielle / Pop Horror

"[Director Ronan] Jorah’s choice to shoot his film POV is effective. It destabilizes the audience while forcing us into the role of the main character—for better or for worse."

Adrienne Clark / Nightmarish Conjurings

"A great help for the short film are the actors... they never allow it to be boring nor dull at any time."

Brandon Henry / Horror Buzz

Press

An Introduction

SCRATCH is a fantastical crime-drama series cut from the same cloth as the Noir films of the early 20th century and the Neo-noir revival of the style in the 1970’s and 80’s. Detectives on the hunt for a mysterious killer, politicians hatching grand schemes behind closed doors, people left in the cold by society turning vigilante to seek their own form of justice: all things that quicken the pulse and send the mind racing, and each a pillar in the foundation of this story. Taking cues from Golden Age classics like The Roaring Twenties and Casablanca, in addition to their more modern counterparts like Chinatown, Blade Runner, and Se7en, the show will both pay homage to the style, themes, and rich plotting of those great works while also cutting its own path: a new imagining of the fabled genre for the ethical uncertainties of today.

The Concept

The undercurrent of the human drama, and the real fire of this show, are the numerous manifestations of supernatural beings and visions that appear to many characters throughout— uniquely modern depictions of figures from the Biblical Old and New Testaments including The Angel of Death, the Archangels Michael and Gabriel, and even the Devil himself, in the form of a disturbingly genteel, mischievous force of nature named Scratch.

Do these beings exist, or do they manifest only in the minds of those who see them? Are they truly the Angels and Demons created by an ancient God, or are they something else entirely? Do they hold sway over our fates, or is our destiny solely our own?

Wrestling with the elusive answers to these questions is what will drive this story and the development of the characters in it. For, if Voltaire was right about our need to invent God, then it seems we needed to conjure a Devil too: the former to justify our moral ambitions and the latter to excuse our failings of them.

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The Archangel Michael

EXT. Atlas Complex

The World

The series is set in an alternate version of modern America, with most of the events taking place in its version of New York: The City of Columbia. In this rain and neon soaked maze of urban sprawl, people from all walks of life, and harboring all manner of secrets, rub shoulders every day. As this cauldron threatens to bubble over from tensions between science and faith, politics and business, and the rise of new ideas fighting against the old, our story begins…

View Locations

INT. Atlas Atrium

EXT. Hell's Kitchen Diner

Int. Getz Manor

EXT. Paradise Lost Club

INT. Paradise Lost: Lounge

Int. Paradise Lost: Ballroom

The Characters

The City of Columbia is teeming with a rich and diverse cast of characters: from the evil and terrifying, to the virtuous and awe-inspiring, each with their own rich stories and motives. Angels and Demons move amongst the mortals adding moral layers and questions to the actions those motives manifest and the relationships they forge. They all are the soul of SCRATCH.

View Character Bios

TERRY (O.S.)
Marco?

MARCO
Terry Fuckin' Flynn...

Season One: The Setup

SEASON ONE will focus on two timelines, separated by six months and playing out in parallel. Some episodes will focus on only one of the timelines, while others will intercut between them. The event that connects the two, the resolution of the first and the starting point of the second, will be one of the key mysteries of the season. To read an overview of each timeline, select a case file in the next panel.

Select a case file...

Timeline 01:
Charlie Hobbes

Timeline 02:
Elise Van Hove

From the Creator

I was raised by a Methodist minister and a school teacher, and so the conflict between the mystical and the rational has always loomed large in my mind. My passion for film and television grew from that tension, this form where we master telling lies to reveal truths. I feel I was born to create this show: a fusion of the cinematic language and styles that most excite me, and the questions that keep me up at night.
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If forced to offer a frame of reference for the scope of the project, the best I can put forth is: the Biblical Book of Revelation played out on a human scale as a city descends into madness, à la Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities. If further coerced to offer a “moral” to the story, it would be: learn to embrace mystery, for the fear of the unknown turns us against each other and blinds us to wonder.
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I also hope it’s one hell of a ride.

Ronan Jorah

SCRATCH

101 - "Paradise Lost"

written by
Ronan Jorah

Download PDF

Azrael: The Angel of Death

Contact

David Clark

dclark@mazopartners.com (310) 617-1444

Carey Van Driest

cvandriest@mania.studio 917-669-3359