Saturday, March 26, 2011

WRITING THE FACE- A description of the many drafts and backdrops of the science fiction screenplay

"Writing "The face" while coping with the death of a loved one." by Jordan Tate.

I  started to work on a treatment for « THE FACE » 3 years ago. From the beginning the script was intended to be the story of a COP living in the FUTURE,  traveling back in time to save the woman he loves and discovering a  shocking truth on his own past.


The treatments went into several drafts and the characters have been going through several versions before becoming the final versions of themselves: DETECTIVE ADAM TAYLOR and DOCTOR ROXANNE BERRY.
In one draft, they even were deadly enemies!

DEATH IS DEFEATED THROUGH ADVANCED SCIENCE

I knew my screenplay was going to take place in a NEAR FUTURE-  and to me, A CIVILIZED SOCIETY is a world where death does not exist anymore. I knew I wanted to make of the world Adam and Roxanne will be living in, a world where humanity has reached physical immortality through advanced science, defeating aging and dying through a scientific treatment.

Years ago, I had become particularly interested in EMBRYONIC STEM CELLS TREATMENTS  and as everyone knows I’m a fierce opponent to religious leaders: Obviously, their main reason for trying to stop science advancement is not to protect « embryos and lives », EMBRYOS ARE NOT BABIES! NOT YET! Not BEFORE WEEKS! They are only a ball of cells until a certain point. If you want a concrete example: The egg you eat is not a bird.

OBSVIOUSLY This baby story is a way to manipulate people’s feelings in the most malicious way, by convincing the most naïve of them that using embryonic stem cells will kill children!

RELIGIONS COLLAPSE

The main reason for the religious leaders  to be opponents to the embryonic stem cells treatments is THEIR FEAR  TO LOSE CONTROL OVER POPULATIONS, since religions have built their « CULT » on DEATH!

Imagine a world where people do not age and do not die anymore, why would people need a religion? Religion promises eternal life through death, (therefore death is their only to go on existing) as  science is able to achieve eternal life/ physical immortality on earth!


AS SOON AS DEATH WILL BE DEFEATED THROUGH SCIENCE, RELIGIONS WILL DISAPPEAR!
THEY WILL BECOME USELESS!!!


HERE IS THEIR MAIN REASON!

My BACKDROP was beginning to take shape!

I knew the world I was about to construct will be A WORLD WITHOUT RELIGIONS.


Then, a terrible event occurred in my life, my Grandmother suffered a stroke and incompetent doctors let her die for weeks, without any cure!

 It’s been one of the darkest period in my life, a terrible feeling that evil people were literally  killing a person I love…At this point, I DROPPED ALL MY PROJECTS, including « The face » that was only a first rough draft,  and I completely forgot about it. I could not write anymore, it was too much for me. I could not cope with this  terrible death and write a screenplay revolving  immortality at the same time.  Moreover, I was suffering post traumatic symptoms that were preventing me from focusing on my writing.

For months I thought I will be unable to resume writing…

But someday, I felt I needed to  finish this screenplay, I felt I needed to depict a world where death will be defeated in order to show people it can done and I started to speak to SCIENTISTS about the BENEFITS OF  EMBRYONIC STEM CELLS TREATMENTS.

DECEMBER 2010

The Christmas period is always so difficult for me now,  as I loved this time of the year, yeas ago. I was trying to cope with my dark thoughts when something happened, I WATCHED STAR WARS TRILOGY AGAIN ON TELEVISION.

And I felt this emotion, this passion for cinema I had lost during this terrible ordeal was coming back. Through his  stories and characters, GEORGE LUCAS TRIGGERED THIS PASSION FOR SCIENCE FICTION AND CINEMA IN ME AGAIN. I had to finish « THE FACE » I had to complete the beautiful romantic story of my characters Roxanne and Adam.

WEEKS LATER,  I STARTED TO WRITE ANOTHER  DRAFT OF MY SCREENPLAY « THE FACE »
My main characters were now living in a world called « INFINITY ». A new ERA that began on December 21, 2012, when a group of REBELS called « THE LIGHT BRINGERS » showed the world a technology enabling physical immortality through the injection of NANO ROBOTS transporting STEM CELLS into the organism. The world as we knew it ENDS at this moment, replaced by this perfect society of immortality. Religions declared enemies of the science and guilty of crime against humanity for having hidden this technology to humans for years are now BANISHED.

HERE IS THE START, THE BACKDROP OF THE BRAND NEW SOCIETY, ROXANNE AND ADAM are going to live in…


Now, I HAD TO RECREATE MY PLOT:
I knew my leading female character, was going to be assassinated at one point,  I knew a LAW  was going to take my couple apart. 

WOULD YOU BREAK A LAW in order to save someone you love? Was the question.
 As the LIGHT BRINGERS did it when showing the world that embryonic stem cells could prevent people from aging and dying, my detective Adam Taylor chooses to do break the law too, putting the equilibrium of this perfect society at stake when TRAVELING BACK IN TIME, and finally discovering the truth on his own post during his journeys.


THE FIRST SCIENTIFIC RESURRECTION

The screenplay also SHOWS THE FIRST SCIENTIFIC RESURRECTION through NANO ROBOTS AND EMBRYONIC STEM CELLS

When writing the script I asked several people, « would you be happy to see this lost one again? Would you like to talk to them again and being able to say all the things you could not say in the past? »
All of them answered they would give anything to see their lost ones again…So

I HAD TO CREATE A RESURRECTION UNIT

Cemeteries can not exist in a perfect society, and of course, ROXANNE my main character had to work in this resurrection unit.

After several researches, I found out that using  embryonic stem cells and nano robots could be a good way to bring the dead back to life. Without disclosing too much on this method, I would like to mention that the method described in the script is COMPLETELY ACHIEVABLE since it uses DNA.
IT IS NOT CLONING, even if my screenplay mentions clones in a very positive and funny way, It’s a matter of restoring a dead one completely and literarily bring them back to life, as if their death had never existed.

I HAD TO RECTIFY what had been done in the past when scientists had chosen to let people die in agreement with what the religious leaders wanted, and to bring back the victims of THIS CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY, therefore, THE SCRIPT SHOWS A VERY MOVING SCIENTIFIC RESURRECTION, scene that make the few privileged ones who read the script cry. The scene shows the resurrected people, who were victims of what I call « THE DARK AGE » of humanity, coming out of the hospital and reuniting with their loved ones…IMAGINE WHAT IT WOULD FEEL LIKE…

I HAD CREATED THE PERFECT SOCIETY CALLED « INFINITY »

The place where everybody wants to live in, but as my screenplay is a SCIENCE FICTION THRILLER, something has to happen, and of  course, my characters have to go through internal conflicts and to battle deadly enemies  in order to achieve their goal and be reunited.

The screenplay is all about what someone is able to do in order to save a loved one from death.
It is described as a mixture of INCEPTION (for the very complex plot) and OUT OF TIME, (for the time travel plot) with a small dose of Doctor Who.

And above all, it is a fantastic journey, viewers will most likely want to embark on several times…
AND A DESCRIPTION OF THE WORLD OF TOMORROW.


Hope you’ll enjoy your journey in « Infinity »

« THE FACE » science fiction thriller by Jordan Tate-
Copyright by Jordan Tate-2011 All rights reserved.
116 PAGES