My 45th

Finally I finished my newest screenplay which took me a fair amount of work, not to say that it's also personal to a great amount. Most of the time, I usually use people I know in my screenplays, being either close friends or strangers I've seen on the street. This time I have to write something that is very close to me.  Me!

Me and her -- our time in the Rockies. 1971.

Here's the point.

Sometime ago I received an email from a girl on Facebook who asked me if I had married her aunt.  Well, guess what? I did marry her aunt. How about that? We were married for about six years and eventually went different ways. No anger or anything like that, we just separated.

So I called my ex, not sure to expect Brenda, above photo and we had a good talk and eventually started to talk more and I eventually went to see her a few times. We had a good time and she remembered the great time we had in the Rocky Mountains near Calgary. We spent three months at an arts school there when we were together. Both of us agreed it was one of the best times ever.

I took a class in film even though I was already working in television and she took a writing course. It also had courses in music, theater and more. I remembered hearing students practicing instruments among the incredible mountains.

But then, my ex came up with a really good idea?

Why not go back there for our 45th Anniversary? Both of us laughed.

And then she said that I would probably write a screenplay about it.

So I did. 

But I wasn't sure how to write it. It definitely had to be different than us, that would be too awkward. So I created two characters similar to us and to pieces of people that would work in the story without us having to be too far apart from the present. Different names, of courses.

I also needed to change the location for one reason.

It had to be in the U.S. Mostly because I felt the story had a lot of the U.S. that we drove many times. Also it would work better than have a story in Canada. Because there are very few good movies from Canada. I hate to say that but it's true. I've always felt that Canadian films seem to be a combination of British and U.S.

However, the French in Quebec make wonderful movies and I always felt they had their own country within Canada and know that they lived in Canada before the English took it over.

Then I stole a few ideas from my book "How To Not Get Beat Up In A Small Town Bar". It's a book I published about a lot of driving in the U.S. and Europe and of course, Canada. You can see those pieces in my book.

And so I wrote.  And it took me almost two months, with some stopping now and then. It seemed to work well but I went back to the start and changed a couple of things. Endings are always a problem and I am still unsure.

Then I sent a copy to two friends of mine, both good on screenwriting. One a woman and another a man. Paul has directed more movies and tv than I ever knew. And Mary has good sense and ideas.

Then there's the ending. I had a dozen ways but didn't get one I liked. I left it for a week and then came back. I went thru a few more and then just realized it was right there all the time.

Simply "My 45fth."

And no, it's not mine, it's my ex, she had it right from the start. It can be used for both I suppose but I think that each of us probably think it was ours.

But I know that it wasn't, even though they are rough on first drafts.  So I went through the screenplay again, slower, finding errors that they and I missed. Simple things, changing names often or sentences and realism.

Here's me. 1971 with Brenda above. These two b&w photos show our 1968 Mustang, loved that car. We were waiting for it to be fixed and in the meantime we were thrown out of a nearby cafe because we were "hippies".  We were far from that. 

Funny thing... I was already shooting film for a TV network and knew more than the teacher. But he gave me and another student bad marks. That other student and I started a small company in Vancouver and had a short film in 1976 at the Academy Awards! He passed away a long time ago and I miss him.  And my long hair and beard.  I was mad because the cafe tossed us out.

Far out!