In which I am wrong about everything

I can see that on October 17^th I specifically wrote that I hope I don’t end up writing about a band again for my next project. I also know that a few days later I had decided that if I didn’t have an idea that I loved, then I should focus on editing previously written screenplays, and getting things ready for marketing. Then I had a dream.

My timeline for this is quite precise. I was going to see the All American Rejects on October 28^th, and the play for The Lost Boys on November 1^st, and my theory is that it was the anticipation of these two events that led me to the dream I had sometime between going to bed on the 27^th and waking up on the 28^th.

It was over very quickly. Basically, Matt Rubano (bass player for the Rejects) had been attacked by vampires and was in the hospital, and one came to finish him off. I tried to help, and couldn’t, but Tyson Ritter (lead singer) showed up.

I woke up thinking that was weird, but I wasn’t really planning on doing anything with it. I just kept thinking about it. Otherwise the day went as planned. I went to church. I went to the concert (which was so awesome and there will be like five blog posts just from that), and I don’t think I dreamed anything weird that night, which maybe was why I was still thinking about vampires and AAR on Monday, and it didn’t stop. Later that day I gave up, and did not stop writing until I had eight pages and the first vampire attack had occurred. Hence, I am now writing again, a new screenplay, with members of a band as characters.

It’s not quite the same. First of all, it may be about a band, but it is not set in a world and populated by characters that the band created and about whom they will be releasing their own comic book. Therefore, there is no reason that it could not be marketed, which is a relief. I said you could get a narrative out of Kids in the Street, but this has nothing to do with any of their albums, as far as I can tell.

Obviously the names will need to be changed, but right now I am not worrying about that. They are becoming their own characters, not just based on my impressions of the actual people, as it should be, and when that is done, maybe some names will work better. (Matt is nothing like Matt anymore, and that makes me feel better, because he, um, well, the real Matt can be their new bass player.)

I realize vampires are a fantasy element, but it is otherwise very much grounded in reality, rather than the post-apocalyptic dystopian future. In the comic book, there were references to the characters being musical, but they closest you come to it is that Frank and Ray jammed sometimes before going on the run.

Here the characters are totally a band, but not a successful band that tours and has fans. They are young guys with day jobs to pay the bills but living for the gigs they can get, and I know so many people who have been there. Actually, some still kind of are, but being older now they have better jobs and maybe families, so it’s different. Here Nick and Scott are UPS drivers, and Tyson works at an oil place. I nearly had him at a regular garage, but that could have been too fulfilling, so all he does is change oil.

I didn’t actually do it, but I kind of felt like I needed to add “crappy” as an adjective to all the nouns: Tyson’s crappy car, Nick’s crappy apartment, etc. But then the scene at Nick’s apartment got cut, and Chris’s apartment, where a lot happens, is actually kind of nice. (Chris is an art student.)

So, there are not the trappings of musical success, but they still have that camaraderie and that love of music, and so some of the conversations that happen around that are fun. There is a threat of throats getting torn out, and so Nick says they obviously can’t let the lead singer go, and Ty points out that they can’t send backup vocals either, and yet they do still all go, to help a friend and because it seems like the right thing to do.

Actually, what may be the most striking similarity between this and the comic book is that it is still working with males, therefore talking about emotions is hard, and we do still get some gallows humor and silliness as a way of relieving the tension.

One thing I have been doing is occasionally putting quotes from or references to the screenplay on Facebook or Twitter, and I realized that I was being misleading after one friend responded that something could be the tagline. Well, I’ll just write it here:

“Four days ago I’d hardly even spoken to her, now we’ve waited in hospitals, been interrogated by the police, and fought a vampire together. How do you even evaluate that?”

So the problem with that as a tagline is two-fold. It sounds like the focus is romantic; it isn’t. Clearly there is something building, where I expect Ty and Sarah to end up together later, after the credits roll. However within the movie, the story is about the twisted dynamics of one family, and contrasted with the second family you can build with your friends and band mates. And that’s not a slam on birth families, but it should be hopeful that if you have a toxic situation it doesn’t mean that you can’t ever have anything else. (And if you are choosing between vampires and musicians, ALWAYS go with the musicians.)

The other problem with that as a tagline is that it sounds kind of funny and light-hearted, and this story is not. It is scary and desperate and the characters face some losses that are going to be really hard to recover from.

But there are still funny lines and those are some of the best lines, and so those are the ones that I post, but I give the wrong impression that way. This is nothing new. I remember telling one friend that I wanted to write screenplays, and he had assumed that I would be writing comedies. That’s not how it worked out. Even now, somewhere between six and thirteen later (depending on how you count), the only one that is even remotely a comedy is Coulrophobia, and it is not a straight comedy. But that’s how I live my life. It is a very serious deal, but there is room for fun and jokes. Actually, sometimes that’s the only way to make it through the very serious deal.

It is easy to draw comparisons between this screenplay and the comic book, but there are also some interesting correlations to it and my other vampire screenplay.

One thing about Hungry was that Nick and Teri both needed to be responsible for defeating their tormentors. It felt very important. If Nick had been the one to stake Lucas, instead of Teri, I’m not saying that she wouldn’t have still been free, but it felt very important for each of their arcs. I guess it was about empowerment.

Here (working title is Family Blood, which is awful but I am bad at titles) no one takes out the one that got them. Everyone gets a chance to be heroic, and but none of the vampires are staked by someone they have bitten, or really even someone they have injured.

It was actually a concern for me because in terms of feminism, this story could be kind of a letdown. Sarah only kills one vampire, and her other attempts all fail, and she pretty much does need the help of the guys. She has been brave and dedicated in looking out for Matt, but she has basically given her life over to care-taking for the last three years, and she couldn’t even tell you her identity beyond that. She is just starting to be able to relax and to think about herself again when Matt is attacked and the past roars back into the present. And yes, she does end up needing to be rescued. So, I can totally imagine people reading it, or watching the movie, and ripping it apart for gender stereotypes.

(And of course Maureen is a very strong woman, but she is also controlling and evil.)

I understand it, but I can’t change it, because that is how this plays out, and it isn’t about that. Everybody needs everybody else’s help in this one. No one saves themselves. Usually the only reason that they need saving is because they were trying to help someone else anyway (except for Matt and Sarah who are just in trouble for family reasons). I do kind of like that. Really, the way things break down has nothing to do with gender in this one.

Differences in plot and characterization are not that big of a deal, but there has been one big difference between this project and the last one, and we will hit on that more tomorrow.