Finding the story within...

Photo by Abbey Leroux

Today I started to read A Tramp Abroad by Mark Twain. In the preface they introduced the idea of a narrative plank that has holes every six inches that are square cut outs. In these holes are where the author inserts antidotes and other objects to give the audience bights of mystery and humor, sorrow and vision. I enjoyed reading about the tact at which Twain worked with his storytelling principles and how I might apply them to the screenplays and stories that I tell. After all, Twain was a fiction writer that used journalism as a tool.

There is a way of storytelling that uses the pain of a situation to create comedy through the depth of humor. The first thing that popped in to my head that had that type of humor was an argument I was in with a few French men in Nepal. The whole thing was comedy when looked at from a certain perspective. However, in some ways it was very sad and near the end of a great and deep spell of delusion. I have a feeling that this story, when told properly, can illustrate both the insanity of life and the ability for growth that can come from such deep tragedy and self-loathing.

In “The Wise Avenues,” the screenplay that I am pulling together with Lee Eisenhower, we are attempting to tell the story of two people on the street. One that “fell down” and one that has tried to “rise up.” These characters have been vaguely developed at this point but I see that bringing humor to our story will have a much-needed balance to the dark story that we have started to tell.
This type of approach will also play in to Lee’s acting style and personality allowing him to show different sides of a character and the charm that can come from a person fully exposed to the elements of the street.

On to another note, I have almost completed a short documentary on Sheldon Woo. He is an artist and also an old friend that is now living in San Francisco. We began our relationship at Tower Records in Sacramento, California and we have continues, although sometimes at a distance, a great relationship of art and music. We both are pursuing our art as professionals and have made major advancements toward every artist’s goal of being self-sufficient.
The documentary is short and does little more than paint a portrait of Sheldon and what his current artwork is like. I would like to go deeper in to what his personal life is like but I have time in the future to get some more material together. For now I will paint this media portrait and use it for both of our promotion. I think that the piece will end up being about 3 minutes long and will mostly rely on his interview for audio commentary.