Eli and Christian on a hill above Richmond at dusk
Outerindustry presents
Quit Your Job
A short film by Bond Richards  ·  Richmond, Virginia

There's a grocery store parking lot on the edge of town. People park, walk inside, and a minute later someone else walks out, gets into their car, and drives it home.

Eli is the only one who's noticed.

Aerial view of a nearly empty grocery store parking lot
Same car. Different driver.
01 / The story

The apocalypse came, and nothing happened. The UBI checks arrive on time and the stores are mostly stocked. Eli, a former corporate marketer now stocking shelves at a strip mall, quits his job to prove the lot is real. His friend Christian quits with him. Their manager quits too.

They bring in Christian's brother-in-law Glenn, an ex-FBI psychic in a neck brace with a bad gas station pill problem, who tells Eli the catch: the lot only shows itself to people who are telling the truth. And Eli is lying about the night he found it.

Eli and Christian toast with coffee cups
They quit together.
Christian stares into his phone as the Source takes over the screens
The day the Source took the screens.

A deadpan comedy with a horror film hiding inside it.

02 / The men
Eli looks toward camera in a stone colonnade
Eli
Former corporate marketer. Current retail associate. Living in a motel. Saw something.
Christian in a suit and striped tie under a stone portico
Christian
His friend and coworker. Has never quit anything. Keeps one room inside himself locked.
03 / The world
The short is the first door

Behind it is a series or feature.

Eli and Christian walk past a mini mart

THE LOT. Word spreads. Men in homemade I BELIEVE shirts keep vigil with binoculars. It becomes a pilgrimage site, then a cottage industry.

THE SWAP. Who comes out of the store, and where does everyone else go? One of them is a woman Glenn once found dead in the woods during his time with the FBI.

THE SOURCE. Since the Event, something runs the grid, the paychecks, and the groceries. People thank it at their windows. It hums at night.

04 / Proof of concept
Men at the End

Last year we made MEN AT THE END with the two actors who will play Eli and Christian: a five-minute test of whether two men in suits and a Richmond skyline could carry something strange and tender. Watch it.

05 / Who we are

Outerindustry is a Richmond, VA production company making New American Absurd. Our last short, OPERATION SLINGBLADE, was a Best Film finalist at the Orlando Film Festival. Our other films have won festivals and can be found on an Amazon anthology series. We’re industry insiders and outsiders alike. Our motto: Overburdened and undeterred.

06 / Back the film
Put your name on it

Every dollar goes on screen. In return, a promise:

$25  ·  Backer
Your name in the end credits.
$100  ·  Believer
Your name under BELIEVERS, plus a private link to the film before anyone else sees it.
$500  ·  Associate Producer
An Associate Producer credit, plus everything above.
Stretch goal  ·  The screening
If we raise enough, we'll rent a Richmond theater for one night. Every backer's ticket is on us.
Eli and Christian hug on a sidewalk

This page isn't public. If you know someone who'd want their name in the credits, send it to them.

Quit Your Job  ·  Outerindustry



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