The Monotone

The Monotone is the first canon episode of Tempest Films. This episode first aired March 10, 2018, and takes place in the near future. It features only two characters, those being Tom and Mark (Aidan doesn't have too many friends) according to the official screenplay (Aidan, you wrote this..... no one cares) Mark only makes a voice appearance, and the rest of the film has no dialogue.

Plot
In a completely systematic society, a young man named Tom wakes up to start his morning routine and go to work. It is revealed that the entire world is black and white, at least, that's how everybody affected by the gas sees it.

As Tom gets ready for breakfast, the entire world shakes. Outside, a strange meteorite falls from the sky and emits colorful light. It's at this moment when Tom wakes up from the effects of the gas. The technology in the house start to malfunction, and Tom's phone begins to play a recording of a reading of coordinates.

Tom looks these coordinates up on the internet and starts to discover a secret government project called Project Mono. This operation is what is causing everybody to live a completely systematic life. Tom tries to call his friend Mark, but Mark is still under the hypnotic effects.

After Tom discovers a bug in his room, government agents arrive at his house in helicopters. Tom takes refuge in the basement and attempts to reveal the secrets of Project Mono to the world; however, the government agents release the gas into the basement causing Tom to revert back to his hypnotic state.

Cast and Crew

 * Aidan Chick - Director/Producer, plays Mark
 * Mathew Cherfane - Producer, plays Tom

Reception
Overall, The Monotone was well received by fans of Tempest Films. Many people took a liking to the eeriness and dark tone of the film. However, the director, Aidan, has stated that he did not like The Monotone for a multitude of reasons. One of the reasons was the fact that the film was shot on the Canon Vixia HF G20, a lower quality camcorder in comparison to the Lumix GH5, the camera that is currently used on Tempest. Furthermore, he states that he does not like the lighting and color correction used in some parts of the film. Finally, the section with the bug was seen as unclear and could've been written out of the story.

Marketing
The marketing campaign for The Monotone was very limited, and not much effort was put into it. According to Aidan, the script was written in only a week and the entire film was shot in a day. Editing took less than a week, and the video was then uploaded to Tempest. The only marketing the movie saw was through Twitter.

Trivia

 * The Monotone is technically not the first episode of The Storm. Two episodes, being Mini Earthbound and The Final Frontier, came before it, although both of these films were cut.
 * The idea for the episode apparently originates from a strange event that occurred in February of 2018. A meteor that had crashed in Michigan caused a radio in a nearby car to begin reading off coordinates that pointed to a blacked out part of Google Maps, according to a witness. However, there isn't much valid evidence to back this claim up.
 * Project Mono is connected to the Institute of Theoretical Technolgy in some way; perhaps it was created by it.