Exactly what I'm working on, right at this very moment.

At the beginning of the week, Kyle asked me to put together a synopsis for the movie [Re: Trendsetter]. By this, he didn't mean the traditional page-to-page-and-a-half point by point breakdown of the movie, but rather something intentionally broad, and indicative of what the film should be about, mostly for the business plan he's starting to set up. I thought this would maybe take an evening, a day tops, but instead, I've been working on it on-and-off since Monday.

My friend John put it best, but I can't for the life of me remember his direct quote -- nevertheless, it broke down to me being very much "in" my screenplay right now, and asking me to distill it to a couple of sentences being something I could downright torture myself over. With his input, I wound up with this pretty quickly:

"With no one in his life to tell, Brandon Holt wrote all his problems in a letter and mailed it to a stranger. A year later the letters are a national fad, making thousands of lives happier – except Brandon's."

This is what I'd call the "back of the VHS" version of "Trendsetter." Nevertheless, I spent a good time after using that as a basis for these:

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"With no one to turn to, Brandon Holt wrote all his problems in a letter and mailed it to a stranger. A year later the letters are a national fad, making thousands of lives happier – except Brandon's."

"With no one to turn to, Brandon Holt wrote all his problems in a letter and mailed it to a stranger. A year later the letters are a national fad, making thousands of lives happier – except Brandon's. Now everyone around him is connecting, while Brandon only feels more alone."

"Where do you turn when there’s no one to turn to? Brandon Holt wrote all his problems in a letter and mailed it to a stranger. A year later the letters are a national fad, making thousands of lives happier – except Brandon's."

"Turned away by the only person he could talk to, Brandon Holt wrote down all his problems in a letter and mailed it to a stranger. A year later the letters are a national fad, making thousands of lives happier – except Brandon’s."

"Brandon Holt could always take his problems to his girlfriend Tess; until one night he asked the only question she couldn’t answer – why did they have to break up? Worse yet, Brandon’s parents didn’t care, and his best [and only] friend was too wrapped-up in himself to help. With no one left to tell, Brandon wrote all his problems in a letter, and mailed it to a stranger. A year later, these anonymous letters have become a national fad, delivering happiness to thousands – except Brandon, who’d just like the whole trend to go away. But when Tess calls him in a time of need, Brandon has to shoulder his burden and be there for her – even though he feels like she wasn’t there for him."

"When Brandon Holt lost his girlfriend, his parents didn’t care, and his best [and only] friend was too wrapped-up in himself to help. With no one to turn to, he wrote down all his problems in a letter and mailed it anonymously. A year later, and Brandon’s still miserable, while the letters are a national fad making thousands happier. But when the girl who broke his heart comes back to him in a time of crisis, he has to shoulder the burden of his trend, and be there for her like she refused to be there for him."

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Some of those length-wise, are getting a little out of hand, but the current plan is to do a few more, shoot them all to Kyle, and see what works for his purposes better. I really can't pick, because all of them do good things, and all of them leave things out I feel is important.

While working on this, I also started a list of possible Tag lines for the film. Likely, I won't get to use these for anything, but still, for fun and record I thought I'd do up a list and send them to Kyle. Here's what I've got so far:

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"Where do you turn when there’s no one to turn to?"
"Letting go is hard."
"For anyone who’s ever been left behind."
"Leave it behind."
"Grown-up Stuff."
"When the fad goes away, you go with it." [Conway Twitty]
"Find someone."
"It’s catching on…"
"Lonely people therapy."
"Tell me something."
"Sincerely, yours."

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I'm particularly fond of "Where do you turn when there's no one to turn to?" as it sort of perfectly encapsulates what Brandon's going through at the beginning of the film. The others run the gamut of obscure, unusable, or cheesy [though if you see some of the tag lines movies actually use, you might be surprised], but it wouldn't be fair to just post what I thought was awesome. "Tell me something" I like because it's largely Faye's catchphrase throughout the movie, and "Letting go is hard" and "Lonely people therapy" I could totally see on a Clerks-style movie poster. "Grown-up stuff" doesn't seem to fit at first, but it's a phrase I revisit when talking about "Trendsetter" a lot. Finally, there's "Sincerely, yours." which I kind of hate, but also know it's fitting towards the theme of the movie, and I feel like it could even wind up the heavy-handed, "more commercially viable," Rom-com title for Trendsetter.

I also recently re-read the script, got very angry at the rhythm and flow of some of my dialogue, and became even more steadfast in my resolve that the last scene with Brandon and Tess is going to need a complete re-write. I think I may do that before starting on new content -- I believe things could change that much.

I think I also have a non-TS entry to write about in the next day or so. It's nothing serious, just something I enjoyed doing, and if I can get my thoughts in order, would like to put down so I can revisit it later, and remember how much fun I had.

Tomorrow, hopefully.


P.S.

John also suggested "Sincerely, unsigned" as a tag line in the comments section, and I'd like to put it up for consideration too. Today I've actually been playing with "unsigned" and "resigned" and "reserved," since I thought all three words spoke to the letters or Brandon's general nature. Still haven't figured much out in that area.

Again, thanks, John.