Penningscriptsfromtheideasinmyhead
INT. STARBUCKS - VENTURA BLVD – DAY
A venti dark roast sits on the table next to an old Compaq laptop that sounds like a screaming jet engine. RYAN, 20s, scruffy, sits hunched over the keyboard, fingers flying.
RYAN (V.O.)
This is how I started writing. It's almost cliché, a writer, sitting at a coffee shop hoping that what's being typed will one day be the next big thing.
He takes a sip of the now lukewarm coffee, grimaces, and continues typing.
RYAN (V.O.)
But, this is where you cut your teeth. Those first scripts, "Skyboy" for example, were rough.
(beat)
Real rough.
The door opens. Ryan looks up and sees DAVID, 30s, a happy-go-lucky italian walk in, laptop bag over his shoulder, big grin on his face. Ryan gets up and they hug it out.
RYAN (V.O.)
You make friends along the way. You learn from them, you chat about the "craft" and the scripts get better.
David and Ryan continue chatting, the camera pulls back, through the window, and now it looks like that one painting of the coffee shop with the people sitting at the tables, but it's real life.
RYAN (V.O.)
You learn about story structure, script structure, what's selling and what's not. And when you type "FADE OUT" after all the edits and the revisions, you've got an asset that just might, someday, see the light of the big screen.
INT. APARTMENT, CANADA – LATE NIGHT
Final Draft is open, it's late, and with his fist under his chin Ryan is just staring at the screen. This is a bachelor pad if you ever saw one.
RYAN (V.O.)
I've written many scripts now, "Skyboy" was the first. A love story about a young man in New York sent off to war in WWII. When I moved back to Canada from Los Angeles, we started producing sketch comedy for YouTube. Early days. But we were banging out scripts weekly and at one point we were in the Top 100 most viewed channels.
He hits "Print" on the screen. A few pages pop, he grabs them and starts acting out the scene he's just written.
RYAN (V.O.)
"Ameera" was almost a test-run. A short film about a young woman dealing with an ever-increasingly autonomous AI Assistant named...Ameera. This was before AI was even a thought in people's mind. We shot it and it worked! I've never screened it anywhere, it was almost as if I wanted to keep it just for me. Here's the trailer, full film coming soon.
Ryan throws the script in a backpack, throws on a jacket, takes a big gulp of water, and rushes out the door as we push-in on the computer screen.
INT. CONDO – MORNING
Superimpose: MARCH 2020
Ryan sits at the dining room table looking out the big windows. It's snowing outside. It's cold, everywhere. A single car goes over the bridge that's usually full of rushhour traffic.
RYAN (V.O.)
COVID. Feels like it was yesterday. I've always said when you're facing an existential crisis, artists do what they do best. Create art.
He breaks his gaze outside to see his daughter, MADDIE, 10, sitting on the couch in pajamas watching a show. He smiles, opens the laptop in front of him, and starts to type.
RYAN (V.O.)
"Once Upon a Pandemic" was that artist's response to COVID. In 15 minutes I wrote that short. It flowed. It just made sense. I never intended it to be anything more than something my daughter and I could do to distract ourselves from the world outside, but when it was filmed, edited, and polished - I was surprised at how good it was. It's haunting, heartwarming, heartbreaking, but hopeful. It was selected to a bunch of film festivals across North America and I was nominated for Best Screenwriter by AMPIA.
He closes the laptop and takes a beat...thinking. A subtle smile comes across his face.
INT. STUDIO OFFICE – DAY
Final Draft is open again. This time, it's revisions. As many asteriks as the eye can see. Coffee cups litter the desk.
RYAN (V.O.)
"Going Down" was the next short in the series of scripts that, not until after, illuminated the fact that so much of what I write are female-driven stories where the main character is battling an outside force - technology, a pandemic, injustice, patriarchy, and race - yet they overcome by taking back control. Fascinating, I never realized it until "Going Down" was done.
We follow Ryan as he leaves his office to the common area. It's full of film gear and CREW, prepping for the shoot. He nods.
RYAN (V.O.)
"Going Down" is doing the festival circuit, premiering at the Calgary Black Film Festival.
INT. GOOD EARTH – DAY
Ryan is sitting at a table with a large coffee, laptop open, it's a lot thinner than the Compaq...and a lot quieter too. He's typing fast.
RYAN (V.O.)
What's next? One of my favourite scripts is "Black Iris" - a drama. That script got to the semi-finals of the Big Apple Script Contest. It's a beautiful story and I'd love to see it on the screen.
Ryan takes a sip of the still hot coffee when the door opens. It's another DAVID, 40s, smiling and headed to the table with a notebook in hand (he's old school like that). They get right into writing.
RYAN (V.O.)
There are several other scripts and decks that I've got ready..."Our Daily Dead", "Death & Dismemberment", "Untitled Clipper Series", "Everything's Awesome and Nobody's Happy", and perhaps a revival of the sketch comedy that was so much fun to write and produce. But, the most important thing is that I keep writing. I keep creating. I keep pushing myself to tell stories that matter, that resonate, that entertain.
Ryan and Dave laugh as they flesh out the story for the next skit. The camera pulls out again, through the window, and we watch them like we did in the first scene.
RYAN (V.O.)
The stories I write make you think, they make you laugh, they make you cry, they make you think about the world we live in or they're an escape from it. Whichever story it is, it's going to make you feel something...and that's all I could ever hope for.
FADE OUT.