From: brooks@ecn.purdue.edu (Kevin D Brooks)
Newsgroups: alt.drugs
Subject: script help
Keywords: docudrama
Date: 14 Sep 92 22:00:57 GMT
Followup-To: alt.drugs
Distribution: na
Organization: Purdue University Engineering Computer Network

Greetings,

In the interest of progress, I am officially asking for help in
writing an anti WoD docu-drama.  I have always wanted to be a movie
director, but lacking the necessary talent, I will settle for doing
my best with my own S-VHS studio.  Even (most of) the best movie
directors can't write a script, and if I try to do it all by myself, when
I finish two years from now, it will suck.  

The goal is to air a half-hour program on "my" local public access
channel.  They have sent me their requirements....finding a non-profit
public interest sponsor should be no problem.

I have what I think are all the "right" and "noble" motives for wanting
to do this, but I presently also have personal and artistic goals in
mind as to how to go about it.  If there is serious interest and
input from the net, however, I am willing to sacrifice personal goals
for the good of the many.  

What this means is that I presently do not want to produce a fact-filled
documentary about the failure of the governments war on drugs and the
resulting destruction of the U.S. Constitution.  I want to do same in  
a subtle manner and make the audience think and care about the truth.  

If this indeed leads to a movie "short", bear in mind an extremely
limited budget and the resources I do have: one wife, two children,
and an abundance of wild marijuana in the Indiana cornfields.  A
recent true story from a neighboring county brings this true life
plot to mind.

Wild marijuana is spotted on an innocent (unknown, but irrelevant) mans'
land, and his failure to possess the recently required tax stamp for
marketing illegal goods results in the seizure of his limited financial
resources.  All of this happening, of course, without any charges being
made or any guilt being established.  While this is one possible story
line, I want the facts to come out through the accused as he learns
what and why these things are happening to him.  If this story were to
pan out, I already have the perfect location... a friends trailer in the
woods, near a small airport....  

Other scanarios...  picture..60 Minutes meets Anne Frank, or, on the
absurd side, Cops meets George Washington.  

This idea really started brewing last memorial day when I went out
to get the Sunday paper, and every house on my street had received
a little American Flag in its front yard.  It really was a lovely
site, yet it also made me sick.  It was a perfect opening shot, even
though I didn't tape it.

I know a bunch of video ideas were flown across the net a while back.
Somewhere in any docu-drama, the constitution must be shown going up
in flames, no?  I don't want to start a network wide dialog, but I
do want to hear from anyone who wants to seriously assist in hashing
out a script (no pun intended), via e-mail.  I have multiple ideas, 
but 10 heads are better than 1.  (tell me I didn't say that!).  
Seriously, I will produce this video, I just want it to better than
I know it will be if I write it alone.  I am confident of my video
producing abilities, but i know from experience that my scriptwriting
stinks.  I also want to make sure I don't let my desire for producing
an artistic video production overshadow the serious message that needs
to be conveyed.  Thanks in advance. 

Kevin Brooks
brooks@ecn.purdue.edu
Newsgroups: alt.drugs