MaryFreighterScreenplay

Review of Thundermoon

2011-11-01T13:39:00.001-07:00

Now I'll backtrack a little more and quote from the review of Thundermoon from Wildcard Pictures in Toronto:

"The narrative gives the disenfranchised a voice, centering the action of a group of young adults and teens who are homeless or connected to the problem via their homeless friends, and this should be encouraged as it is a taboo subject that often manufactures around it ideas that all who live in their car or tent are off-balance, crazy or lazy. Admirable as the effort is, the execution lacks a cohesiveness that features require--we have no strong main character to hang the story on and are therefore uncertain as to what this is about. Austin and Ambra's band is trying to get more exposure as their friend Roberta and Terry are just hoping for a safe place to live in the city park. One of these two quests is much more compelling than the other, and though Ambra's heart seems to be in the right place when she is suddenly inspired to put on a festival fundraiser to raise money and awareness, we lose sight of what is most important--what the central theme and struggle is."

"The City Council sets up a safe place for the homeless to live as long as no one gets drunk, burns anything down or causes trouble for others. This is accepted by the population that is seeking asylum--and almost immediately forgotten as the story shifts from this subject to Austin and Ambra. Ambra should either be entirely committed to her fundraiser or drop it entirely--she shouldn't 'maybe look into that'--that doesn't give her a strong goal to fight for..."

Reviews of Camp Shadywood

2011-10-11T13:15:00.000-07:00

Here are a few comments from three different reviews of Camp Shadywood:

"...The characters are well-drawn for the most part and present many different visions of the people who are homeless.
The idea of presenting the homeless as actual people and not just crazies mumbling to themselves on the street is an interesting one..."

"This independent movie has a touching story of past sins and futures filled with redemption. Backstory is woven in carefully and we get to follow a whole gang of interesting characters through their lives at a trailer park."

"This is definitely material that is prime for storytelling."

"Matthew hands over his knife too early. This is huge progress in his character. Here is a violent and paranoid person who has learnt to trust someone in order to hand over his most prized possession. This beat needs to be highlighted. It also has great thematic value."

South of the Press

2011-09-20T13:21:00.000-07:00

Now, a journal entry about my latest script, which is getting the best reviews yet:

September 16, 2010

I've launched a new script, South of the Press, whose title came from another dream. In this dream someone I know was the publisher of a new progressive newspaper which he was having a hard time distributing. So I have the beginnings of a story about a new paper which is potentially a rival to The Harbinger. See if I can make it as good as Camp Shadywood, while I'm waiting to hear from Toronto about the third draft of that one.

Shingles and Screenwriting

2011-03-22T13:14:00.000-07:00

When I was writing Camp Shadywood a year ago, I came down with a colossal case of shingles. It was quite excruciating for a while, but I actually found a way to feed this malady into the story. The following are a couple of journal entries that show how this worked:

March 9, 2010
And now this one has moved along some more, with Darlene's alcoholism taking center stage in the "enemy closes in" phase. My shingles fed into that part, when she gets violently sick and emergency action has to be taken. Will that make it more powerful that I actually was sick at the time I wrote it?

March 15
And now that I had Darlene make that little speech comparing her alcoholism to scratching chickenpox, isn't it yet time for the shingles to end? Haven't I had enough pain and hasn't it served a purpose?

Camp Shadywood

2011-02-22T13:23:00.000-08:00

My, it's been forever since I've posted! Now I'm finally back to talk about Camp Shadywood, the fifth script that I was working on a year ago. This one has gotten the best reviews from Wildcard Pictures in Toronto so far. Here is the blurb for the first draft I sent them:

This episode brings back the infamous Matthew and Darlene, who join Rufus and Laurie and others in the new homeless car camp. The spotlight is thrown on their do-dependent dynamics, including his mental illness, her alcoholism and their domestic violence. Through their interactions with the other campers new understandings are gained, and they all become more aware of their common humanity. Even Matthew, the "villain", proves not to be irredeemable.

Editing and Revising

2010-06-14T12:10:00.000-07:00

When I send my scripts out for critiques, some people say I should cut the dialogue scenes shorter. Then when I do this, the next critic says there isn't enough information to explain why the characters are homeless and such. At least this was the case with The Harbinger. The result being that I cut some scenes from the second draft, only to re-insert parts of them into the third. The following clip from one scene is an example:

...They have a copy of the daily newspaper, which Laurie has open to the editorial page. She is superficially skimming the letters-to-the-editor while the group engages in cheery banter...
Suddenly the smile disappears from Laurie's face as she begins reading one of the letters in earnest. Then she lets out a groan, and the whole tone of the conversation changes. She shakes her head in disgust.

LAURIE
Wouldn't you know: somebody's bitching about the homeless again.

ROBERTA
What does it say?

Laurie reads the first sentence in a mocking voice.

LAURIE
"The other day I saw one of those homeless panhandlers in a bar playing blackjack..."

ROBERTA
(sarcastically, with an affected gasp) OH, my! Surely there must be a law against that!

TERRY
Another self-righteous busybody, huh. Those types seem to be a dime a dozen.

He lights his cigarette and takes a drag.

RUFUS
Yep, they're everywhere. They can't find anything better to do with their own lives than go spying on all the beggars, to see how they're spending their ill-gotten cash.

ROBERTA
We should tell them to "get a life" like they're always telling us.

Laurie shakes her head again.

LAURIE
You know, we really should write rebuttals to those kinds of letters. I get sick of those smug bigots who think they know it all, and never hear what we have to say about this shit!

RUFUS
So why don't you go ahead and write one, and we can all sign it if we all agree.

Laurie considers this for a couple of beats, then looks at Roberta.

ROBERTA
I suppose it wouldn't hurt, for practice at least.

She stands up and walks to her camper to get her notebook journal. Then Laurie turns to look at Rufus.

LAURIE
You're not afraid we might get in more trouble if we publish a letter with all our names on it now?

He looks at her in silence for a couple of beats, then puts an arm around her.

RUFUS
No, honey. I've been thinking about this quite a bit. Keeping silent now won't make us any safer.

Terry gives them one of his silent knowing smiles, and takes another drag.
After a few beats, Roberta returns to the table with her notebook and a pen. As she sits down and opens the notebook to a blank page, Laurie has another idea...

More on the Power of Dreams

2010-04-29T12:26:00.000-07:00

Now, another preview of Thundermoon, with another example of how a lot of my night dreams find their way into these scripts:

April 26, 2009
Dream in a new location that seemed to be Gusty's kitchen. What can I do with this one?

April 29, 2009
Well, that dream turned into quite an intriguing couple of scenes! Gusty is now afraid he might be under suspicion for helping street kids and being a "foreigner" with a brogue. Maybe a pedophile, maybe a veteran "terrorist" running a training camp, teaching kids to be revolutionaries!

Letter to a Correspondent

2010-02-03T12:47:00.000-08:00

Here's a journal entry from a year ago, which was aimed at one of my correspondents, though I don't think I sent it to him in exactly this form:

January 31, 2009

As you can see from my autobiography, I had to walk the walk in order to talk the talk. I had to be one of those people on the firing line for years on end and endure all the typical abuse: the idiots yelling "Get a job!" when you're panhandling and whole nine yards. And no, this was not a "choice." It was where I landed after falling through all the holes in the safety net.

I know from my experience of working with actors that I love directing more than anything else in the world. It's absolutely criminal that I've been prevented from doing this for most of my adult life. I even got out of the screenwriting mode for two decades because I had no prospects and my financial safety net was falling apart. When I landed on the street, I made a "career" as a homeless advocacy writer. At least I got a lot of praise and recognition for that.

I didn't know if I'd ever get back into filmmaking again. But I knew that if I ever wrote a script again it would be about homeless people. This didn't actually happen till after I'd been re-housed for several years. Then it came to me in a nightdream: Mary grabbing Rufus off the street and the scene in her apartment. That's how it came back. The dream was telling me in a very powerful way that it was time to get back into screenwriting, that now it was safe enough to do so. There was nothing stopping me from sitting down at the computer and typing out those first two silly scenes. That was almost three years ago, and the story has been growing from there ever since...

Preview of Thundermoon

2010-02-02T12:20:00.000-08:00

Now we're into the fourth script, Thundermoon. This is how it begins:

EXT. LARGE CITY PARK--EVENING

This is the park where the illegal homeless encampment is. It is a chilly evening in mid-October. Now the eight or ten residents of said encampment are gathered for a meeting, sitting outside their tents and huddled close together for warmth. Among them is the already-familiar DANIA. Also in attendance are several other familiar characters...

Another Preview of The Harbinger

2010-01-13T12:26:00.000-08:00

Here's a scene from the latter part of The Harbinger, when Freya and Austin run into a crisis:

INT. FREYA'S BEDROOM--DAY

FREYA is making the bed while Austin is in the shower. While she is arranging the bedclothes, she has to move aside his clothes, which he has casually tossed on top of them. When she picks up his jeans, she pauses as she sees his wallet in one pocket. She looks up toward the bathroom, noting the shower water is still running. Then, after just a moment's deliberation, she pulls the wallet out of the pocket. She opens it up and finds several hundred-dollar bills inside. She ponders this for a couple of beats, then carefully puts the wallet back into the pocket and lays the jeans aside on the floor while she finishes making the bed.

A Note on Ambra

2010-01-06T12:27:00.001-08:00

On this "Little Christmas" day, here are a couple of journal entries from a year ago that show the musical part of The Harbinger:

December 28, 2008

And now, as if we didn't have enough schmaltzy Christmas songs, I actually had a new one forming in my head while lying in bed last night! Sung by a group like the Harry Simeone Charale, sort of a cross between "Gesu Bambino" and "Such a Small King." Only there are hardly any words yet, except the chorus:

He's only a boy
And he'll bring us all joy.

What silliness! As if I actually believed in such things! It is kind of a pretty song, though.

And now this is actually turning into a new scene in The Harbinger, where Ambra is composing this song on the keyboard! Who knows--maybe Mom's spirit is prompting this one! Today is the fifth anniversary of her death, and this kind of music would have been pleasing to her ears.

So I suppose it was appropriate that I played a little something on the piano today, which I haven't done in eons, much less add a brand new song to my list!

As if Mom's spirit
Was wanting to hear it!

Her spirit is the musical part of me which does still live, and which is now represented in the Ambra character.

January 9, 2009

So we're into a new year, and that song did work nicely into The Harbinger. Then Ambra's very next brainstorm was about doing a benefit concert for the homeless. That works well. The script is getting near its page limit, though I still don't know exactly how I'm going to end it. Meanwhile I'm cooking some new ideas for the next sequel.

More updates on The Harbinger

2009-09-24T12:54:00.001-07:00

Now a couple more journal entries about my progress on the third script:

September 2, 2008
...The Harbinger is moving right along. Freya is waxing eloquent on the homeless issue, beginning to find her bearings as a writer in this genre, and we have reached page 81. She has encountered more opposition from the naysayers and has to figure out how to respond.

September 21
...The script is up to page 83; Freya is still working on a rebuttal to one of those nasty letters. But I don't know yet what the next scene is going to be, how I'll build up to some kind of a dramatic confrontation between the homeless people and the NIMBY's. Somewhere between page 83 and page 125 or so that needs to happen. Any or all of the new characters I have introduced could potentially play some kind of a role in this, but I haven't figured out yet how it's all going to play out. There are numerous interesting possibilities. That's the fun of it, not knowing exactly what's going to happen next, but having the chance to play with the different possibilities till something works.

Progress Report on The Harbinger

2009-07-30T13:17:00.000-07:00

Now a journal entry from a year ago, when I was halfway through the third script:

July 30, 2008
...I'm at page 60 of The Harbinger, which means it's exactly half-finished, lengthwise. Maybe I could make a neat division here between a Part One and Part Two. Rufus is at a new juncture in his spiritual journey, where he's finally being converted into a reluctant activist as the circumstances are forcing their hands. He and Roberta are standing in the front lobby of a church where a meeting is to take place and the long-awaited Gusty will be brought onscreen. Rufus, who has been so apprehensive about putting his ass on the line and was expecting to feel nothing but fear, is now surprised to find himself taking a degree of comfort in the serene ambience of the church building...

Where Is This Really Going?

2009-04-02T12:18:00.000-07:00

Now a journal entry from a year ago, after I'd written, or was writing, the last scenes of Your Rig or Mine?:

March 30, 2008

Why do I always feel that immense rush of joy whenever I've written a new segment of the script, when I know it will be followed by that aching frustration that no one else is reading it--and trying to get their interest is like pulling teeth?

Now I'm finally winding down the Sequel to a neat semi-ending, though it's still not quite long enough to be feature-length yet. And so far not a soul has seen it other than me. Has it been worth all the time I've spent polishing and revising it while it wasn't being seen by any other eyes? Again, only time will tell, and I can only take on faith that it has.

It's taking on, more and more, the look of an ongoing series with the clear theme of homeless adults and their relationships. All these different heterosexual pairings, and so far all the couples are white, though not all Americans. Not "PC" that way, but they're "niggers" because they're all homeless or poor, in a ghetto neighborhood.

And I need people to take to it the same way they do to a soap opera, its characters and the actors who play them, so that they want to see these same people continue acting out new situations together. That's the attraction I feel to the material as the writer, so I'd need the audiences to feel it the same way. A single feature-length script is like a short story compared to an ongoing series with a story that continues unfolding nonstop.

Only one person so far has really shown an indication of liking the characters in that way. So I know it's possible. Aren't these the kind of characters who could get a following of fans like other iconic fictional characters? It just seems so! They were conceived in the part of my mind that can spawn such things. I do have that gift! But I still have to find the connection between them and the right READERS!

Nobody understands how HOT I am when I'm on a roll, dammit all! I LOVE these characters and the part of my mind that creates them!

Of course, I know a big part of the problem is the social prejudice against the homeless. People have a hard time conceiving homeless characters as being likable icons, because of the negative stereotyped images that come to their minds at the very mention of the word "homeless." That's the prejudice I have to overcome somehow.

This is, without a doubt, part of that new surge of creative energy that accompanies the beginning of spring! I'm feeling it now, despite the unseasonably wintry weather that's plagued us this past week. It's the same energy I felt two years ago when I was writing the beginning scenes of the first script! YES!

More About Roberta

2009-01-14T12:32:00.000-08:00

Here's a little more about the homeless character who is in some ways the most like me. Roberta represents the battered-women contingent of the homeless population. That is, the women who are homeless because of domestic violence, and also become prone to more of it from the partners they hook up with on the street. Roberta is a feisty survivor of these things, but is also very closed up inside herself and afraid of being hurt again. This is a little clip of an early scene in Your Rig or Mine? after Laurie has reached out to her in an attempt to draw her out of herself:

....Then they walk back over to the picnic table and find that LAURIE is once again sitting there alone.

TERRY
Where's Roberta?

LAURIE
She went back in her camper. I guess she's taking another nap. . . .She seems to do that a lot.

TERRY nods.

TERRY
Sleep is one of the few escapes she has nowadays. When she's able to do that.

He sits down across from her.

TERRY
But you did talk to her awhile?

LAURIE
Yeah.

TERRY
Do you think it helped?

LAURIE
I hope so.

TERRY
I gotta say, I'm really glad you've met her. I hate to see what she goes through, and I do my best to be a friend to her, but she only trusts me up to a point. Because I'm a man.

LAURIE nods thoughtfully.

LAURIE
I guess it makes sense that she'd be afraid of men.

TERRY
But you might be able to reach her in ways I couldn't.

LAURIE smiles.

LAURIE
She let me give her a hug.

TERRY
Well, there you go! She wouldn't let me touch her, ever.

Now RUFUS sits down next to LAURIE and puts his arms around her.

RUFUS
You're a sweetheart, you know it?

LAURIE
Yeah, I know it.

On the Creation of this Blog

2008-12-09T12:34:00.001-08:00

Well, it's been well-nigh on a year since I first started this here blog. Here is a journal entry with my thoughts about the inception of this project:

November 21, 2007
So a year ago I was only starting to develop a pitching website. Now it's time to create a blog site. I need to find some better angle, a better way to present it. The word "homelessness" still conjures up all these negative and prejudicial images in so many people's minds. The challenge is to find a way past that, to make them see that this is something DIFFERENT! Something entertaining, funny and exciting besides being instructive. Something people could actually enjoy and appreciate insead of just being depressed! That's not so impossible, is it? I'm not just guilt-tripping people; I'm trying to reach their hearts in all kinds of ways that they wouldn't expect!

At least this time there are no rigid "industry standards" to conform to; I have complete free rein to make the blog however I wish! And let more people in my homeless advocacy network know what I'm doing.

Connecting with Other Screenwriters

2008-11-25T12:47:00.000-08:00

Now, a journal entry with some thoughts about creating a pitching website for the script at the suggestion of my agent. She showed me a few samples of other screenwriters' websites which gave me some idea of what other people were writing.

If you want to see the website I did make, there is a link to it on this blog, under the heading "Synopsis Website."

November 22, 2006
"Young adult relationships" and "comic irony" are two more keywords I should add to the list, if I do make a website.

Some painful emotions came up when I was reading the websites of other screenwriters trying to do the same thing I am. These are people I'm supposed to think of as "competitors" and be jealous of, yet we're all basically in the same boat. What if we were all in the same screenwriting class together, reading each other's scripts and giving feedback? How long it's been since I was in the same room with such people. Now I only find these "communities" on the internet. Two different screenwriters from Ohio and one from England, all trying to sell their scripts through the same agency.

But whatever it means, and whatever painful emotions it stirs up, I suppose it's better for me to get re-immersed in that stuff as a reminder of where I really belong. It's time to dig deeper into that gutsy world where my soul is. The tortured inner lives of other screenwriters who are just as passionate, wherever they may be located and whatever their age and station in life. I can still make these connections while enjoying the sanctuary of my home and my study. I should be able to have all these things after all this time!

The people who are my true soul-mates are geographically far away, though. How many of them would ever travel the long distance to see me? And could we see each other as colleagues and not competitors, like two dogs fighting over the same bone? Could we even be supportive of each other? That's how it should be, isn't it?

Doubts about Plausibility

2008-11-06T12:34:00.000-08:00

Here are a couple of journal entries that express some of my doubts and worries about the script, after reflecting on that very negative critique from one editor:

November 5-6, 2006
Who knows--maybe this script is just a rambling, yacky soap opera after all. But even so, it's not any worse than a lot of other scripts that are being marketed and produced nowadays, with actors' performances that are less than stellar. And at least it's honest and real.

But is it PLAUSIBLE? That's the Number One question that plagues the writer of any kind of fiction, dramatic or narrative. "Not a convincing drama", "Didn't ring true" are words a writer dreads to hear.

But how many movies have I seen with phony scripts in which the actors couldn't possibly believe the lines they're saying? A badly-written script doesn't do justice to a good actor. How can they bring it across in a convincing way if they don't even believe it themselves? And yet this is what novice actors are expected to do all the time.

This is a drama in which the deep underlying truths come from my real life, but they are manipulated in a slightly fanciful and improbable way in order to launch they story into motion. It's a combination of my real-life experience and images that come to me in night-dreams. My challenge is to put these pieces together in a way that "works", while nobody is sure which came from what. It means tweaking the imagination at least a little bit.

On the Commercial Writing Market

2008-09-23T12:48:00.001-07:00

Here's a journal entry from two years ago with some thoughts about my agent pitching the first script:

September 19, 2006
There will always be some amount of anxiety and curiosity every time I check e-mail now, till my agent gives me some concrete report on what's going on. The script is apparently out there, so anything could happen. For reasons I don't quite understand, she is all hot to pitch my work as a commercial product. As if it's something she actually believes in. I've seen how these New York capitalists work, when they've latched onto someone's material as a salable item. They don't really understand it; they don't understand a writer's mindset any better then I understand theirs. But they do know how to sell things!

What does she know about homelessness? The odds are, little or nothing. She can't even write that well! Her e-mails to me are full of grammatical errors. But it doesn't matter. The only thing that matters is what the producers are looking for this year, whether she can find a match between my subject matter and what the producers want, or think they want. To convince them that this is the best script on that topic that's available this year. That, despite all its imperfections and shortcomings, it could still be a blockbuster movie if done right!

It's hard to believe someone is actually doing this with a script of mine, peddling it like a shameless whore. And actually relishes such business! It's all about money to them. And it's a compliment to me if they think my script is worth money!

But all of this notwithstanding, there is still no guarantee that anything will come of this effort at all. So for now I just have to be content with the compliment that these agents think it's worth a shot!

Another Family Estrangement Passage

2008-09-16T12:30:00.001-07:00

Now, for another excerpt of a scene appearing in the latter part of the first script, that gives another hint of abuse in RUFUS's past. He and LAURIE have met ROBERTA at the homeless protest at City Hall, and now she is telling them about it while driving them back to MARY's.

page 114
ROBERTA
....It was pretty pathetic, really. One of the reporters was actually trying to persuade the kids to forget the whole thing and go back to their mommies and daddies, to try and "work things out" at home. Ignoring the fact that most of them ran away from home because they were being abused there; you don't "work things out" with parents like that. I don't know how much good we actually did.

LAURIE nods.

LAURIE
Well, an awful lot of people must have seen you on TV; maybe you got through to somebody.

ROBERTA
I hope so, but I don't know.

Then LAURIE notices that RUFUS, who has been uncharacteristically silent throughout this exchange, is now staring morosely out the window.

LAURIE
Honey, are you OK?

RUFUS
(glumly) Yeah, I guess.

But she can see that he is not OK. She gently takes his hand.

LAURIE
What is it?

RUFUS
I don't know. I guess that hit a nerve in me.

LAURIE
What? About being abused at home?

RUFUS
I guess. I don't know. Forget it.

She doesn't press him to say any more, but continues holding his hand. ROBERTA notices his reticence also, and decides to change the subject...

Preview of Party Scene

2008-09-10T12:37:00.000-07:00

Now, a journal entry from two years ago that contains another piece of dialogue that hadn't yet found a place in a script, but later became the opening scene of Your Rig or Mine? MARY is having a farewell party because she is due to be evicted at the end of the summer. RUFUS has just beaten TONY in an arm-wrestling match and can't resist gloating a little.

August 27, 2006
Oh dear, here comes some more of that dialogue that doesn't yet have a place in a scene:

RUFUS
Not bad for a college boy, huh?

TONY
Hey dude, you said it, not me. You won't hear those words outta my mouth again, I swear.

He holds up his right hand as if he's being sworn in in a courtroom.

LAURIE
Yeah, honey, you have trouble knowing when to drop those things. He apologised about ten years ago, so just let it drop!

RUFUS laughs.
All right!

LAURIE
Besides, you can see he's not as dumb as you thought; he knows his right hand from his left.

Now TONY drops his hand and looks disgusted.

TONY
Are you makin' funna me?

LAURIE
Yes.

TONY
Come on, what did I ever do to you?

LAURIE
OK, I'm sorry.

TONY
Geez, I oughtta know that much; I've been in court enough times. . . .but that's all I'm gonna say about that.

LAURIE
We're not asking.

TONY
Unfortunately my little brother learned a lotta his bad habits from me. . . . ..but that's all I'm gonna say about that.

LAURIE
Did we ask you?

The Poverty Aesthetic

2008-08-04T13:31:00.000-07:00

Here's another brief thought, taken from my journal of two years ago, about combatting stereotypes:

August 3, 2006
I'm trying to revive that "poverty aesthetic" that my screenwriting teacher spoke of so long ago. I remember! People will have to suspend their prejudices enough to at least consider the idea I'm offering: that homeless people can be beautiful, sexy heroes, not merely undesirable unwashed beasts.

Certainly the actors would need to perceive these characters as such, to be willing and able to play them as heroes and not mere foils. As people to be admired and not merely pitied or despised or feared.

Family Estrangement as a Cause of Homelessness

2008-07-15T13:15:00.000-07:00

My agent was still willing to pitch my screenplay to prospective buyers, despite that one editor's nasty review, once I'd gotten it to the right length and market-ready. A year ago she told me it was being looked at by a couple of different producers, both of whom were looking for material about "family relationship saga and tragedy."

I thought about this particular angle, which is only one of many that the subject could be approached from. It is true that RUFUS and LAURIE'S homelessness is partly the result of family estrangement and possible abuse in their past. So as an exercise I combed through the whole script and picked out all the passages that contain hints of this part of their history. Here is one such passage that I copied over in my journal, taken from the scene where they are panhandling:

July 14, 2007
page 22-23

LAURIE
Now all we need is for your parents to drive by to make our day complete.

RUFUS
(cynically) Oh, right. You know what they'd say to me? Same thing all those other jerks say.

LAURIE
(with a very nasal sneer) Getta jooooooooooooooooooob!

RUFUS
That's about it. They were calling me a bum even when I was working.

LAURIE
And they still refuse to believe you got laid off through no fault of your own?

RUFUS
Probably. They'll probably always think I'm a lazy hippie just because I didn't follow in Dad's footsteps.

LAURIE
Well, we can't all be corporate lawyers.

RUFUS
You mean you're not sorry I didn't go to law school?

LAURIE
Of course not! If you had I never would have met you!

You get the idea.

Rebuttal to an Editor's Critique

2008-07-14T13:16:00.000-07:00

When I sent my first script to an agent two years ago, their procedure was to have me send it to an editor for a critique, as it wasn't yet finished and needed a lot more work and revising. The result was a scathingly negative review from an editor who seemed to be seriously biased against the homeless and didn't like my characters for that reason. I wrote some responses to what he said. The following is what I had in my journal of that time, though I'm not sure how much of this I actually sent to him, if any:

July 13, 2006
The editor's comments about Rufus betray an interesting irony: his apparent negative attitude toward the homeless represents the very social prejudice that Rufus is here to challenge!

Ronald Reagan, during his presidency, coined such unfortunate expressions as "homeless by choice" and "a faceless mass waiting for a handout", which had a lot to do with society's misperceptions of the homeless that are still widely held today. If I'm reading this editor right, he is one of the people who share those perceptions, as evidenced by his description of Rufus as a "whiner" and "an uninspired mope." He is one of the people Rufus is talking about when he (Rufus) says things like, "Employers won't accept your job application if you don't have a residence address, then other people accuse you of being lazy because they don't understand that; they think you're just not trying."

In my mind Rufus is an unsung hero whose life is made that much more difficult by people who hold those prejudices, who believe that all the homeless are just a bunch of lazy bums who aren't motivated to change their circumstances.

I took some pains to present Rufus and Laurie as a homeless couple who are trying to pull themselves up by their bootstraps, who have a work ethic and are not substance abusers or any of the common negative stereotypes of the homeless, in the hope of arousing sympathy in the audience. I see them as good people who are in a bad situation through no fault of their own, and are struggling against great obstacles to change it. Again, this editor seems to have completely missed this. That whole list that Rufus rattles off to Mary of some of the hardships endured by homeless people is an inventory of things that are not known or understood by the average person. That very problem is one I was trying to address by writing this script.

Yes, Homeless People Can Be Lovers Too!

2008-07-09T12:57:00.000-07:00

Now, another thought from my journal of a year ago, about making TERRY and ROBERTA lovers:

July 9, 2007
Dammit, if I can just get people to suspend their prejudices and embrace that poverty aesthetic long enough to get into the story, they'll be in for some juicier treats later on! Let the characters grow on them, as at least one reader has done so far!

Who would have thought I'd be developing Terry into a lover now? I hadn't even seen it coming till about a week ago! But now it's clear that he's more than just the wise "older brother" to help the younger homeless folks; he's vital and sexy too! And it shouldn't be a surprise that he feels something for Roberta that's more than friendship, no matter how well he kept it hidden before. It starts to show when he unwittingly puts his life on the line for her.

Terry and Roberta

2008-07-08T13:22:00.000-07:00

Now, a teeny little glimpse of the scene in Your Rig or Mine? where TERRY and ROBERTA first get together. This shows what I mean about them being on the same page after they've both experienced MATTHEW's terrorism:

July 8, 2007
So maybe a little further along in the story, Terry and Roberta actually become lovers.

INT. ROBERTA'S CAMPER--EVENING
ROBERTA and TERRY are sitting on the cabover bed, still on top of the covers and fully clothed. But they're snuggling close together, leaning against propped-up pillows, his arm around her shoulders. They are talking in soft voices, and they clearly still have a case of "MATTHEW on the brain", discussing the time he terrorized the whole group as well as his past abuse of ROBERTA.

ROBERTA
Anybody could ask me, "Why did you put up with his crap all that time?" But they're being ignorant.

TERRY
I know--like anybody could ask me, "Why didn't you knock the knife out of his hand?" Those are people who have never been in that situation.

ROBERTA
Yeah.

TERRY
You know when you're literally just a few inches away from death.

ROBERTA
Sure. If he'd sunk that knife in just maybe one inch deeper, you could have had a punctured lung.

TERRY nods grimly.

TERRY
It could've been curtains for me.

ROBERTA
Did your life flash in front of you?

TERRY
Not exactly. But that instinct did kick in that said, "Freeze and do exactly what he says."

ROBERTA
Yeah. I'm all too familiar with that technique of his where he punctuates every command with another poke of the knife.

TERRY
Yeah, that's exactly the way he did it to me...

Now, if you want to read the rest you'll have to ask me for the script!

Introducing Terry

2008-07-01T13:09:00.000-07:00

Here's the part where TERRY comes in. In the first draft of the script he was only mentioned in passing as the guy who sold his van to RUFUS and LAURIE. Then I gave him a name as his personality started to form, and brought him onscreen in the next draft. The following is a very sketchy beginning of the first scene in which he appears:

June 6, 2006
And damned if I'm not getting yet more dialogue now!

TERRY
I wouldn't put you two in the "disabled" category yet; you look pretty young and healthy to me. Not mentally or physically ill.

RUFUS
You don't think we're mentally ill? We're getting there.

TERRY
Well, if you get crazy enough you might qualify for some kind of disability.

RUFUS
Now that could be a plan.

TERRY
Of course, you gotta realize there's a lot of other people trying to go that route too, so they have to weed out the scammers.

LAURIE
Scamming isn't one of the things we're too good at anyhow.

TERRY
Well then, it's just as well if you don't get too good at it. It really works against you, 'cause it messes up your reputation.

LAURIE
We don't get very far by being honest though, either.

TERRY
But it really does work in your favor in the long run.

RUFUS
People talk about "the long run" all the time, but we still have to figure out what we're gonna do today...

So what's this going to do, turn into Part Three?! I'm introducing another semi-fleshed-out character now: a somewhat older and more seasoned homeless guy in his 40's with a salt-and-pepper beard, who can give Rufus and Laurie some of the wisdom of his age and experience. He is at the picnic grounds when they're having their beer and hot dogs and Mary and Eckhardt are still in the van. They invite him to sit down and join them. He has a truck with a six-pack camper that he's lived in for some time now.

Back to the Present

2008-06-03T12:27:00.000-07:00

At this point in time I have four different screenplays going, so I'll explain a little more about them. Three of them are continuations of the same story, while another is sort of a spin-off. Each one has a somewhat different set of themes, but all are about some aspects of homelessness as I have lived it.

The first one, See You Later, Mary Freighter, concerns the homeless couple RUFUS and LAURIE, who are from the upper-middle-class suburbs, when their lives intersect with that of MARY and her friends who live in an inner-city working-class ghetto. It is partly a "class collision" story in which they are destined to come together, to help each other and learn about each other's worlds. This sets the stage for all sorts of odd and ironic happenings, but all the while their friendship is being solidified.

In the latter part of this script they are having a weekend party in the woods, at one of Rufus and Laurie's favorite picnic sites, and they meet up with two other homeless people who also live in vehicles and like to hang out at that same place. One of them is TERRY, whom I will tell you a little more about in a later post. The other is ROBERTA. The latter is in a predicament which might sound far-fetched, except that it's something I actually lived through in real life. That is, she lives in a camper which she owns, but it sits on the back of a pickup truck which is still owned by her abusive former partner, MATTHEW. He refuses to sign the title over to her, and he is continually stalking and harassing her to regain the possession of his truck, despite the fact that he now lives with another woman in her vehicle. ROBERTA is explaining this situation to RUFUS, who is flabbergasted and wants to find some way to help her.

This situation is not yet resolved at the end of this script, but I take it up again in the second one, which is titled Your Rig or Mine? In this one I introduce MATTHEW, who turns out to be a schizzophrenic and exhibits some of his crazy, menacing behavior as he continues to harass ROBERTA at that same picnic site. RUFUS and LAURIE now have an opportunity to witness some of his bizarre behavior, and then TERRY also clashes with him and gets a taste of his terrorist tactics. This has the result of putting TERRY on the same page with ROBERTA, and the next thing he knows he is falling in love with her. So the stage is set for a love story in which a soup kitchen is the place for their rendezvous. Eventually the problem with MATTHEW and the truck does get resolved in an unexpected way, with the help of his new girlfriend DARLENE.

The third script, which for now I am just calling Matthew and Roberta, is the story of how these two people originally got together, backtracking three or four years to an earlier time when they were homeless and met on the street. This one is still in the early stages and I'm not sure how I'll develop the story, but it shows how a woman can get sucked into a kinky relationship with a very unstable man who later becomes violent with her. This is also the x-rated one which contains explicit sex.

The fourth script, titled Harbinger, is also in the very early stages. It continues the story of the first two, and introduces a couple of new characters, FREYA and AUSTIN. FREYA is a newspaper reporter who has started doing a series of articles about homelessness, and this gives her an opportunity to meet RUFUS and LAURIE. The story begins when she is interviewing a couple of other homeless men at the soup kitchen where TERRY and ROBERTA also eat. Then she meets AUSTIN, a musician who lives in an artist co-op. This story is also in the very early stages and I'm not sure where it's going, but I'm leading up to a scene in which she interviews RUFUS and LAURIE for her next story. This will give an opportunity for some more dialogue about homeless issues and I'll have some fun figuring out where to make it go.

I am giving this information partly for people who might be interested in the themes of the other three scripts in the series, in case they're tired of hearing about the first one and want to skip to something else. Each of the scripts has a somewhat different flavor, and I'd be glad to share any of these works-in-progress with anyone. Just e-mail me and I can send it to you as an e-mail attachment.

Meanwhile I continue the writing, lonely as it is when no one but me is partaking in it so far, and I don't know how I'd ever get any of these scripts produced as films, but that's what they're intended for.

More later.

"Nice Day for a Drive"

2008-05-12T13:17:00.000-07:00

Here are three journal entries I wrote after I had, once again, thought I'd written the concluding scene of the play, only to find there was much more to follow. This was also the point at which it became too cinematic to be done on the stage, so I knew it had to be a screenplay from then on. Here you see only a tiny bit of what happens in that scene. If you want to know what's going on, you'll have to read the whole script. How's that for a hook?

May 10, 2006

ECKHARDT
You son of a bitch!

MARY
Eckhardt, are you insultin' my friend?

RUFUS
Actually he's not being all that inaccurate. But we're not going to discuss my mother now.

May 11, 2006
...Mary and Eckhardt are smooching, Rufus and Laurie are smiling at them and holding hands, as the van rolls off into the woods...

May 12, 2006
Yes, now I see even more clearly why it's such a perfect full-circle ending! Rufus and Laurie have slid into the "accomplice" role with Mary that Tony and Becky played in the very first scene, with Eckhardt as the new "victim." No wonder Rufus is smiling so broadly at the end! He is taking the full pleasure in this that he rightly deserves!
PLEASE LET IT BE! IT'S TOO BEAUTIFUL!

April Showers

2008-04-28T12:41:00.000-07:00

This is a journal entry I wrote two years ago after celebrating the birthday of my favorite composer, Prokoffiev. He was another artist who had the same problem I do, in that he was ahead of his time and had to present his music to an uncomprehending public at first.

April 25, 2006
Why does it always seem to be the nature of the greatest artists that they have to be ahead of their time, and have to present their work to an uncomprehending public that may or may not ever see their greatness within their own lifetime? There is no question that I am one of these. I am not being presumptuous to proclaim this, to compare myself to artists like Prokoffiev and such.

Bob Wilson (Oakridge playwright and theater director) spelled it out: "And you will never know if it is worthy, for the world is fickle." That is to say, you can't rely on public opinion alone as a gauge for the value of your work. It could well be that my writings will be discovered by future generations who will dig them up and recognize them for the valuable gems they are, in a way that no one who is alive today can see.

What if Mary Freighter is not truly appreciated until some future time when New Yorkers are no longer even talking with that accent any more? Or when New York itself no longer even exists because it's been washed away into the sea? Then the old recordings of New Yorkers talking might sound quaint and amusing. People will marvel that there used to be such a culture!

When the public first sees your work, they can only see it through a lens of prejudice, comparing it to what is already there that they already know and have digested before. If it's something radically new, it will take time for them to develop a new taste to appreciate it, or new eyes to see it. It's really no mystery how that works.

So the harbingers ike me always have an immensely lonely task in front of them. And all we can do is carry on with it! There are no guarantees. There are simply no guarantees.

"I Want You to Prosper"

2008-04-21T13:16:00.000-07:00

Here is a journal entry I wrote after completing what I thought was the last scene of the play, not knowing there would be much more to follow:

April 17, 2006
So, I finally wrote the last act of the play yesterday, a perfect way to celebrate Easter, by creating something new! It turned out to have yet another theme, a basic lesson in learning to trust one's intuition. Rufus and Laurie were suburban kids and therefore not too adept at street-hustling; they are only now starting to get the hang of it, after at least several months of camping in parks and living on Rufus's unemployment checks. They probably knew how to camp from childhood vacations with their families, so that part (of the homeless life) came easily to them, but street hustling was something they had yet to learn. They didn't know about the kind of life in which one has to follow one's intuition step by step, day by day, not knowing where it would lead. Rufus had a great fear of stepping into the unknown, having always had a pre-programmed life before. It was Laurie who finally started to figure it out.

The lesson came to her in a dream in which Mary appeared, wearing this outfit. (Photo of a model with a lusty smile on her face, wearing a casual housedress with an orange, yellow and blue floral print.) She describes the image to Rufus the next morning. She has begun to realize that the message "I want you to prosper" is coming directly from the Goddess, speaking through Mary. She even figures out why her last name is "Freighter", when she uses the analogy of the lifeboat coming to get them out of the deep water. Not too shabby, eh?

After she's told Rufus about the dream, he remembers that when he first saw Mary, she had a sort of "magnetic energy field" around her. He was mesmerized by it and frightened too, as this was "uncharted territory" and he didn't yet understand what was going on. It's not surprising that the lesson of learning to step into the unknown would be so hard for him, given the kind of life he had before.

No Foolin' Around

2008-04-01T12:19:00.000-07:00

This blog will be non-linear, skipping around in time. The following is another journal entry from two years ago, when I was still writing the play as if it was for the stage, not having yet evolved into a screenplay:

April 1, 2006
OK, I'm doing it: I'm making Mary Freighter live. And Rufus and Laurie and the other characters. But where are they going to live? The play as yet lacks a venue to be performed in, just as Rufus and Laurie are homeless in the play...

Yet there is every indication that this is the right thing for me to be doing, that I absolutely NEED to be doing it! So how and where am I supposed to make this child of mine live and breathe?

It's sort of a gamble, like falling in love. It feels so good and right that I can't NOT do it, yet there's no guarantee that it's going to go anywhere.

Preview of Demonstration Scene

2008-03-17T12:39:00.000-07:00

Occasionally I'll give little preview snapshots of parts of the screenplay, for people who might not have read it yet, or haven't read that far into it yet. The following is a scene that appears in the latter part. Again, anyone wishing to read the entire script can just e-mail me and I'll send it as an attachment.

EXT. DOWNTOWN STREET--DAY
It is around noon and RUFUS and LAURIE are on their way to meet with a realty agent. They step out of the subway exit onto the sidewalk. then they hear the sound of voices chanting loudly across the street, and look in the direction of the sound.
A long shot of the scene across the street from their point of view. It is a demonstration with around twenty people marching in single file down the sidewalk, some carrying signs. Some of them look young enough to be teenagers. Some of their signs are readable from across the street, saying "STOP GENTRIFICATION!" "NO MORE CONDO CONVERSIONS!" "HOUSING FOR PEOPLE, NOT FOR PROFIT" "BRING BACK RENT CONTROL!" One person is handing out flyers to passersby.
Their leader is a man in his early thirties, looking dignified and confident as he leads the chant, shouting into a megaphone:

LEADER
WHAT DO WE WANT?

GROUP
HOUSING!

LEADER
WHEN DO WE WANT IT?

GROUP
NOW!

They repeat this chant over and over as they wend their way down the street in the direction of City Hall.
Cut back to RUFUS and LAURIE who are standing still, watching this scene. At first their expressions are blank as they take it in. Then they look at each other.

RUFUS
No Laurie, we can't join them now; we'll miss our appointment.

LAURIE
There's somebody handing out flyers; let me at least go get one and see what it's about.

RUFUS
(sighing) OK, but don't let the realty agent see it when we go in.
(to himself) What great timing!

They cross the street and approach the marchers. LAURIE gets a flyer and starts to read it.

RUFUS
Come on, let's get outta here. You can read it while we walk.

LAURIE
Don't be so paranoid. I don't see any TV cameras, if you're worried about your
parents seeing you on the evening news.

RUFUS
No, but we don't want to be late.

They walk slowly away from the group as LAURIE reads the flyer.

LAURIE
It's about a new housing bill, to build a bunch more units of affordable housing.

RUFUS
(sarcastically) Good idea. Maybe we'll get one of those units in about ten years if we get on
the waiting list now.

She ignores his sarcasm and continues.

LAURIE
They're on their way to City Hall, to try and get a meeting with some of the city councillors
and maybe the mayor. Then if that doesn't work, they might do a sit-down protest right
in the hallway.

RUFUS nods.

RUFUS
So that's when they cross over the line from free speech into civil disobedience.
And no, Laurie, we're not going to get involved.

She stops short and looks up at him from the paper, with a glint of anger in her eyes.

LAURIE
Dammit, Rufus, you don't have to get involved if you don't want to. But if I want to, it's up
to ME!

He sighs again.

RUFUS
You're right. But would you please remember what we're supposed to be doing right now?
We're going to go look at a place that we might even get. Then you wouldn't need to get
involved in that stuff! What's the sense in getting yourself arrested now, when you could
be sitting in a nice cozy apartment instead of a jail cell?

LAURIE
Yeah.

They resume walking and her anger subsides.

RUFUS
So please just tuck that away in your purse.

She looks at the flyer once more.

LAURIE
There is a phone number where I can call them if--

RUFUS
Fine. I'm not asking you to throw the thing out, just file it away for now.

So she folds it up carefully and puts it into her purse.

Follow Your Dreams

2008-03-03T12:24:00.000-08:00

Another journal entry of about a week after the last one, when the meaning of that dream had crystallized in my mind, and I knew the project was a "go":

March 1st, 2006
OK, I think I get it now. It's what my friend Bobbie meant when she said, "The Lord works in mysterious ways, but the Goddess is downright kinky!" YES! Of course that's it! Mary Freighter is like a deity who appeared in the guise of a hooker in the dream! And I actually "became" her for a little while so I could feel her power, and that power would still be at work in me when I woke up from the dream, so I would continue writing the play!

It Started in a Dream

2008-02-25T13:00:00.000-08:00

Here's another journal entry, this time from two years ago, that explains how this project had its inception:

February 23, 2006
What on earth is going on now? Why did I have that crazy dream that I was an actress playing a hooker? And why am I still wanting to invent dialogue for that silly scene that was started in the dream? Part of me is totally repulsed and disgusted by the idea, yet my creative muse is still drawn to it somehow. It can't actually be meant for me to start writing it down as an actual play!Who would have ever thought it would come to this?!...
"Mary Freighter, See You Later!" Is that a silly enough title?

Back to the present: Yes, folks, that's how it actually got started. It seemed ridiculous, yet the urge to sit down at the computer and start writing that dialogue was just too strong; it wouldn't leave me alone. So I started writing it, and the ideas kept flowing from there.

Journal Entry from Last Year

2008-02-11T13:35:00.000-08:00

I often find it useful to review what I wrote in my journal one, two and more years ago. Here is one entry from one year ago, which I wrote after reading an article in the local Ruralite magazine about an Oregon couple retired from the film industry:

February 10, 2007
So there is another woman screenwriter living not too far away, who is interested in bringing more of the film industry to the Northwest, and encouraging this by writing screenplays that are set here. Well, mine doesn't quite fit that category. That part of me is still living on the east coast. Maybe I'll need to have Rufus and Laurie move out here. Dear, dear me!

Well, I'm not quite certain what to do with this latest piece of information, but it certainly does at least serve as a hard reality check. The nuts and bolts of the industry, the reminder that the glamour part is largely illusion. Of course I knew all of this long ago from firsthand experience, before some of the current crop of young movie stars were even born. But what to do with it now?

Now this lady is middle-aged, and after having worked for years in different parts of the film business, has settled down to a semi-"retirement" of writing screenplays on her personal home computer. Same as me! But would she care to know what I am doing? She already has some connections and probably isn't depending on an east coast agent to sell her work as I am. She would surely understand the mindset I'm in, as it's much like hers in many ways. But, so what? Who really cares, or would care if they knew? What is it really going to take to spark an interest in somebody? To move them from being just mildly interested to VERY interested?

The New York agency took on my script because they thought it had at least a reasonable chance of selling, or so they told me. But if any producers have even looked at my hotsheet yet, their only comment was that the script wasn't long enough. So how much difference will it make that I got it to the right length?

It has been well-nigh on a year since I first conceived the idea, and things have moved along quite a a bit since then. Or so it seems. The only thing I know for certain is that my own mind is in a very different place from a year ago, that part of my creativity having been revived so that feeling of stagnation is gone. But again, so what? When will it really make a difference in the outer world?

A year ago I had a dream that told me some new abundance was coming my way. It hasn't come in the form of large amounts of money as the dream suggested, but that great wealth of my creativity is back! At least I have the artistic freedom I always wanted, to write to my heart's content without fear of financial insecurity. But that's still only part of what I need.

The film could potentially be such a great act of turning powerlessness into power. All those years I felt like a worthless castoff could still be turned into a beautiful work of art! If anyone cared enough to help me bring it to fruition. Always IF, IF, If!

How many people can see the truth right now that I am special? The unique way that I and my work are special? I know it's possible for the actors to see it, like one of them did so many years ago. Others would have to share the passion somehow, to know what it means and want the energy to go somewhere.

I have the right to indulge in this longing, when the dream and the memories haven't died in me after all these years. I have held out and held on! How many people can see what for, I don't know. How many even remember 30 years ago? How many are still alive to remember?

But dammit, I just know the people who care are out there! I can feel them, just like Michael Toms can feel his radio audience in future time when he records a "New Dimensions" show. I know the actors who can bring these roles to life are out there right now! I don't know who they are, though, and someone will have to care enough to help me find them. I don't know who that will be either.

Whoever these young actors are, they will have to be more enlightened and open-minded than all the stupid ignorant fools who put me down all those years ago only because they didn't have the eyes to see who I was or the beautiful gifts I was offering! The people at the charities I donate to shouldn't be the only ones who know how big my heart is! I can hold out for a long, long time to find the right people, if it's only a matter of waiting till they're old enough to understand! If it would have to be people who would look up to me because I'm of an older generation, so be it! Too bad if most of the ones in my own generation and older were too damn stupid to see!

Synopsis website

2008-01-22T13:22:00.000-08:00

Here is the aforementioned address of the website with the synopsis of the screenplay:
http://home.gci.net/~briard/Reilly
This takes you to the index page; then click on the "Mary website. doc" link and it takes you the site.
Bridget

Introduction to my screenplay

2008-01-22T12:21:00.000-08:00

I have decided the best way to use this blog is as a supplement to my screenplay, See You Later, Mary Freighter. I was originally hoping to upload the script itself to this site, but that doesn't seem to work. So what I'll do here is talk about what the script means to me, how and why I came to write it, and any corollary matters and ideas that come to mind. I also have another website that gives a brief synopsis of the story and a little other information; I'll post that address presently. But here I'll give some other preliminary information about the script that is not on that site. Anyone wishing to read the script can always e-mail me and I'll send it to you as an attachment.

It is a psychological drama about a young homeless couple crossing paths with some other young adults in an inner-city ghetto. It's set in a city that resembles New York or some other large city in the northeastern U.S. although the exact city is never specified. The time frame is the latter 1990's.

Now a little info about the main characters that appear in the first part of the story:

MARY is a young secretary who has lived in the same working-class neighborhood all her life. She has never had much money and has had a very narrow existence up till now, but has now managed to land a well-paying job. She has a playful nature, and she and her friends have always amused themselves by inventing games to play in the street, which often involve making fools of passersby. But she really has a big heart, and her generous nature shows itself more as time goes on.

RUFUS is the son of upper-middle-class parents who expected him to pursue a lucrative profession, but he is made of different stuff and had no wish to follow in the footsteps of his
father who is a successful lawyer. His family estrangement issues are so serious that there was no support for him when he ran into a series of misfortunes that landed him on the street. He is determined to go it on his own despite all the obstacles he keeps running into once he's become homeless.

LAURIE also comes from the same suburban middle-class background as Rufus, and at some point they paired up in the past. She is a loving and devoted partner, but not very independent, and would have a very hard time surviving on the street without a male partner and protector. But her strength is in her intuition, her ability to read people, which eventually helps them both find a way to new solutions.

BECKY and TONY are Mary's lifelong friends, having been her schoolmates from kindergarten on. They are from the same working class background and couldn't afford to go to college. Tony especially has an attitude of jealousy and resentment of people from higher social classes who have more money than he does. Becky is a little more tolerant but still has very little understanding of anyone outside her world.

OK, those are the first people you will meet. I will introduce some of the other characters later on.

People who are familiar with my work as a homeless advocacy writer should at least partially understand this story. But some people who have begun reading it are frankly puzzled by it. The way I use words in a screenplay is somehow very different from my non-fictional and autobiographical prose, and even my earlier attempts at narrative fiction. There is something about my descriptions of images, action and dialogue that makes the screenplay a unique piece of art. It comes from a different part of the soul and mind from my journalistic writing. And unless people have sampled this part of my work, they probably have little or no conception of the artistic muse that actually drives me, where my real and deepest passion lies.

More later,
Bridget