Writing a screenplay

I’ve gone back to my roots!  In college I was a film major (English minor).  However, when I finished college I did a little foray into Hollywood, meeting with various people in the industry.  For reasons I’m not going to go into, life in Hollywood was not for me, at least at that time in my life.  Eventually I found my way into the computer game industry, as a Producer and Lead Designer, which suited me better at the time.  That is still where I spend most of my time working, currently making Citadel of Sorcery at MMO Magic, Inc.

 

However, a cousin of mine has started a production company, Blood Line Productions, and they are getting ready to make a feature length movie.  He already had a concept, which I found quite intriguing, and he knows I am a writer.  One thing led to another, and the Director asked me if I would like to write the screenplay, and so I agreed to give it a whirl.

 

The working title of my screenplay is Forgotten.  It is a crime drama, with some suspense roots.  It involves a serial killer from the past, and a copy cat killer from the future, as well as a father and son.  The father has Alzheimer’s disease, but was the Lead Detective on the original serial killer case.  Now his son, a new detective, must seek out his father for help with a copy cat killer who is duplicating the killings from his father’s old case, but Alzheimers throws a wrench into the whole thing.

This is a very deep story, with a lot of twists and turns, and some very interesting characters.  I’m finding it difficult to tell such a deep story in two hours, but am working through the limitations.  It is very different from working on my various novels, where I have almost unlimited time to develop my story and characters, and different from my game quests, where stories again have little to constrain them in time.  Still, I am enjoying the challenge, and I am attempting to get everything I can out of every minute of film.

Casting will begin in the near future, as I am only a week from finishing the first draft of Forgotten.  I’m looking forward to seeing some of these characters I’ve written come to life at the hands of the actors, cinematographer, editor and, most importantly, director.

If you would like to see the quality of production from the Blood Line Production team, watch the 10 minute, multiple award winning, short film that they created, called Lucy.   Here is the link:

http://vimeo.com/34749096

I was only involved in the making of Lucy in a couple scenes, particularly the ocean scene where I was one of the safety divers taking care of the little girl staring in the movie.   She was out there in 55 degree ocean water, wearing a thin nightgown, what a trooper!  We had to shoot really fast to keep her from getting hypothermia, and it was my job to keep her safe.  Quite a bit different from writing a screenplay for their upcoming feature length movie, but I was happy to do even that small part.  Obviously, my role in Forgotten will be much larger since I am writing the screenplay.   Let’s hope I don’t screw it up!  ;)

So, many years after my college classes in film making and script writing, I’m finally making use of that time I spent studying and dreaming of making movies!