A short film inspired by Schrödinger's Cat. Four students walk into a classroom and reality stops behaving normally.
March 24, 2026 · 4 min read
Semester 4 hit us with a "Vistas of Science through Films" project and we immediately knew we wanted a mystery thriller. Something unsettling. Something that made people uncomfortable in a good way.
The best idea came from yours truly. "The Vanishing Room". Students enter a classroom. Students start disappearing. Pretty simple, creepy and perfect as I'd expect.
Then we found out we had to include a sci-fi concept. Great.
But instead of awkwardly putting science onto the story, we asked a better question. What if the mystery itself was the science? What if the disappearances weren't random but followed actual physics?
We landed on Schrödinger's Cat. The idea that something exists in multiple states at once until it's observed.
Suddenly the whole thing clicked. The students weren't just disappearing. They were becoming unobserved. And in this classroom, unobserved meant gone.
A mystery sci-fi short where four students are trapped in a classroom that runs on quantum rules. Nothing just happens. Everything depends on perception, observation, and timing.
Basically physics as a horror concept. We were pretty pleased with ourselves. All of us. Unanimously. (The one who wasn't is now also unobserved.)
Here's the part nobody tells you about student filmmaking. Finding a location is harder than writing the entire script.
We needed a classroom. We go to a college full of classrooms. You'd think this would be easy.
It was not... the college wouldn't let us use classrooms after hours, and during the day we had classes. We went around the entire campus asking teachers for permission. Multiple times. For almost a month. Nothing.
At one point the project felt genuinely dead. People were dropping out. The energy was gone. We had a great script and nowhere to film it, which is a very specific kind of painful.
Then our subject teacher stepped in, pulled some strings, and got us access. Honestly saved the whole thing. We owe that person everything. At least that's what I'd say if he wasn't the one who gave the project.
After that we moved fast. A lot of scenes got adjusted on the spot, decisions made in five minutes that ended up in the final cut. Chaotic but kind of fun.
Continuity is hard. Timing is hard. Managing shots with a group of people who all have opinions is very hard.
But honestly figuring it all out on the fly was the most fun part. Nothing teaches you faster than being slightly panicked on a film set.
Good question. The film exists. It turned out great. People loved it.
But one of our team members, who has already been officially declared unobserved earlier in this blog, has requested it not be shared publicly. Something about not wanting strangers to watch him on screen. We respect it. Barely. But we respect it.
So instead of watching it, you can read the next best thing.
This is where the whole thing actually lives. The screenplay has everything — the structure, the tension, how the Schrödinger concept was woven into the story beat by beat. If you want to understand what made this film work, this is the thing to read.
Read the Screenplay →Not in the mood to read a full screenplay? Fair enough. The dialogue draft has all the actual lines without the scene directions and structure. Shorter, quicker, still gives you the vibe.
Read the Dialogues →We started last. We finished first. Make it make sense.
The film went over really well. People genuinely enjoyed it, which is all you want after a month of campus-wide begging for a room.
The best part? Our teacher praised my acting in front of everyone. 😎
The worst part? I wasn't there that day. 😭
But the main thing is that what started as "people disappearing in a room" turned into something genuinely interesting. Not perfect. But ours, and I'd do it again.
Nah leave it.....