Back to the screenplay.

Sorry folks, the new version of blogger isn't letting me make paragraph breaks, except when I upload a pic !

I don’t seem to be able to tap into the confidence to restart my screenplay. I seem to have lost the passion I had to write it. I’m also wondering if it’s slipped past it’s sell by date?

Just to recap: I wrote the screenplay synopsis in 2007. The idea came from a journey to Patagonia where I went (for the second time) specifically in search of a story to make into a film.

Do I abandon my original idea into which I poured my heart a soul for a few years, or do I start afresh? Am I going to feel I’ve failed and wasted precious time if I decide to re route, or abandon the story?

In my original story, the two main characters are Rachel and Jerome, a real life couple I met in Patagonia. When I changed Jerome’s name to Claudio, and researched this name on the net, I quickly came across Claudio Urey, a protégée of Ivan Nogales whose thriving arts centre of street kids in La Paz I now fund raise for. Ivan told me he’d lost touch with Claudio.

I tracked Claudio down easily through Facebook, and met him in Santa Cruz three weeks ago. His life story from orphaned drug and drink addicted street kid to inspirational teacher and actor is a huge character arc. Father to two daughters, creator of a vibrant arts space for street ,deaf and disadvantaged kids , he is writing an opera in which all the participants are hip hop dancers. He found God when he was living in a cardboard box in Devils Wood he says. His gentleness is convincing. Be careful somebody warned.

In short he’s doing great things with his life, albeit having axed, or been axed by the people he’s loved the most. All this has made me think my (film) story needs to be his story. I think I have to start all over again.