Kids in the Street Week

Tuesday marks the one year anniversary of the release of Kids in the Street, the fourth album from the All American Rejects. That makes this AAR week, which means a few things. Monday through Friday I will be posting tracks on Facebook, and probably on Twitter, and the blog posts also will reference them.

I am also adding a new script to Amazon Studios. You can download a PDF to read it from http://studios.amazon.com/scripts/35613. (Rating and recommending it would be lovely.)

The script comes from a dream I had where Matt Rubano was in the hospital from a vampire attack, and another vampire came to finish him off. I tried to save him, but was outmatched. Fortunately Tyson Ritter came to help.

The Wednesday blog post will explain more about that, and why it’s not as weird as it sounds, but for now I want to focus on how the story developed.

Starting with characters who are real people can be weird. Eventually I will have to change the names, even if it is just to Tyler, Nate, Mark, and Curtis, or something like that. For now, I like them being them, but also, they are not. As the characters begin to assert their own voices, influenced by and influencing the story, that is something I find really interesting, and I want to write about it.

For example, it was not really surprising that Tyson in the story can be a little goofy and mischievous, and very sweet. However, one thing that has come through every time he has popped up in a dream is that it is always very comfortable being with him – he is good at setting people at ease. So in the script he understands when Sarah needs distraction, but he also remembers what he learned then and uses it to get her to focus on helping Mike and Chris, which is exactly what she needs to do in that moment.

Nick came through as surprisingly awesome. I mean, it’s not that I thought of him as unawesome, but it became clear really soon that he was going to be the one to fire the killing shot, and over and over he just becomes this take-charge kind of guy when needed, coming through in a pinch. Also, he ended up being the most popular with the ladies. It must be the arms.

Mike is the only one I have actually spoken to in real life, and the overall impression there is he just radiates “good guy”. What was coming out more in the story is his wide knowledge of music and movies and things. He is the one who realizes that they should wait until sunrise, and he is quick to see potential issues because he has taken in so much information and processed it. He is smart, but it manifests more as really good intuition because his understanding is so quick.

It felt like they should all have really unfulfilling jobs, which is why Nick is a UPS driver and Tyson changes oil, but it felt like Mike should be at a music or video store. Initially I thought that wouldn’t work, because then he would be working nights and not free for gigs, but it didn’t go away. So, I decided he had an understanding boss, who is probably a little like the character Tommy Chong played in “That 70’s Show”.

Chris came through as overwhelmingly kind. It’s not that the others are not kind, but there was this quiet depth to Chris where he spoke the least, but just with so much caring every time. That is probably why he ended up as an art student, because he spends so much time observing and is so sensitive.

The best example of this is probably something that doesn’t even happen in the script. After the story ends, my mind keeps going, and I see things in the fallout that would not necessarily make a good movie, but I still feel them. Anyway, after the end there is a point when they are going through Matt’s things, and Sarah’s having a hard time. Mike tries to lighten it a little by asking if she plays bass. She doesn’t, but Chris just quietly touches her shoulder and says, “That’s okay. You can still hang out with us,” and it is perfect.

(And Mike instinctively understands that the items she should keep are Matt’s jacket and iPod, because those are the things that will comfort her most.)

I guess we need to talk about Matt. Matt quickly changed the most, to where the only thing Matt Caldwell has in common with Matt Rubano is that they both play bass and are kind of short. Matt Caldwell is sort of timid, and deferential, and the youngest of the group, where Matt Rubano comes off as more confident, experienced, and smoother with women. I am really grateful they ended up different, because Matt totally dies. Yes, that’s why they are going through his things.

The fact that Matt Caldwell is clearly not Matt Rubano makes me feel a little better about his death, because, you know, then he can be the bass player who works with them when they are successful, and don’t have to deal with vampires anymore, and that’s cool. It still feels pretty bad. It also felt necessary. There was no realistic way that Matt could live.

I think it goes back to the original dream, because I was not able to save Matt on my own. As my viewpoint shifted into that of the protagonist, Sarah, not being able to save Matt would be her worst fear, and it comes true. Tyson is able to help at the hospital, but it is just a temporary reprieve.

Realistically, you need a certain amount of death in a vampire movie. I was initially afraid that Chris and Mike would die too. That didn’t feel right, and I realized it would shift the focus, because it would cloud Sarah’s grief and guilt with Tyson’s, and take away from his ability to be amazingly supportive at the end, which felt necessary. There did still need to be more death though, and that’s when the unfortunate hikers were added.

I was glad for Chris and Mike to live, but it sort of made it worse that Matt died, because then he was the only one, and I don’t want to give the impression that I consider touring crew of the band to be second-class citizens. From a post-story point of view, it is certainly easier to hire another bassist than to replace half the band, but that is small consolation to his devastated sister.

Anyway, if it was the need for the grief to be focused on Matt that saved Chris and Mike, it was likewise Matt’s heroic sacrifice that allowed the others to leave the cave alive. So, I can live with it, largely because I do not believe Matt Rubano’s life will ever depend on my ability to fend off vampires. If I did, though, I would be practicing with a stake right now, because I care.

Aaaaannnnd, I do very easily see a way that he could realistically come back, except it would make things so much worse, and I kind of hate to put Sarah through that, after everything else she’s been through. Still, if there ends up being a good enough story with it, I don’t know. I often think that I am not going to develop an idea, and then do it anyway. I wasn’t going to develop this one. More on that Wednesday.