Okay, this blog is about writing PLAYS and not screenplays, but I have to brainstorm this... A month or two ago, I was asked by a producer to send him some of my writing. I sent him "Solamente Una Vez," and while he enjoyed the play and the characters, he didn't think it would be marketable to a larger audience as a film. So, back to the drawing board. Thanks to my joining of myspace recently, I found my best friend from high school: Ryan Lacen. We used to see every summer movie that came out and often wrote scripts that were thinly-veiled allusions to our own lives. Now, Ryan is out writing in Portland and still sees two movies a week. I decided to contact him about writing a movie together to send to the producer that had contacted me. He agreed, and last night we started brainstorming.
So many ideas we came up with sounded like other movies... We wanted something original, real, and based more on the characters than on a concept. Our inspirations were "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" and "About Schmidt." Through our conversation, we came up with a very strong structure of a story. Now, it's just fleshing things out.
Act 1: A man is completely unhappy with his life. He's in a desk job, doing things he hates, things he never dreamed he'd be doing. He fears getting a clock in recognition of years of service to the company. He's not happy with his relationship with his girlfriend, "This isn't what writers and poets write about! No one writes songs about being passionately CONTENT! Or thrillingly comfortable!" He decides to change his life, but as he heads out on his near-mid-life crisis, he ends up in an accident-- or his body stops him-- he ends up in the hospital, in a coma.
Act 2: In his coma, he experiences his girlfriend's life from the beginning, either viewing it or actually living it. He gains a new appreciation for her, a real love for her.
Act 3: Well, I won't give the end away...
The questions we have to answer are: What is the coma like for him? Does the real world filter into his unconsciousness? How long is this coma? What is his girlfriend doing while he's in the coma? Does she really love him? What conversations does she have in the room waiting with him? What are those moments in his girlfriend's past that have the most profound effects on him? Has she had an affair she's never told him about? What is most painful to watch? Does he try to change anything as he's experiencing it? Perhaps he has a "guide" while in the coma, who leads him to certain events.
We had decided to make the movie as honest and true as possible, not making it into a comedy or a farce. This has to be a real exploration into the understanding of love, of fully understanding and accepting another person, and of living passionately. We hope to write a screenplay that is tinged with darkness, but is, in the end, about hope and love.
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