Jeremy Peoples must do whatever it takes to find forgiveness and make peace with the past.
The Antagonist Plots the Point
Stacy Ramone is a former marine, married, with one son, a flawed family man with a heightened sense of loyalty and a rapidly declining mental state.His ultimate plan was to use the money he and his wife were making by selling narcotics and stolen pharmaceuticals to buy a local bar until he is betrayed by Jeremy. Several years later, Stacy remains unseen, a dormant facet of Jeremy’s complicated and violent past, until a series of events leads him to coincidentally reach out while everything else is falling apart in Jeremy’s life.The truth is slowly revealed to both Stacy and Jeremy, each seeing things as they are truly are, but far too late to alter the chain of events that has been set into motion.
Conjuring Your Breakout Title
“Recollection.”
Def: a) the action or power of recalling to mind, something recalled to the mind. b) religious contemplation or tranquility of mind
Deciding my genre and approaching comparables
A Thriller with Upmarket Potential
“A Prayer for Owen Meaney.” – John Irving. (the spiritual exploration of predestination).
“We Need To Talk About Kevin.” – Lionel Shriver. (dealing with the tragedy of a school shooting).
“Talked To Death: The Life and Murder of Alan Berg.” – Stephen Singular. (the controversy of talk radio).
Core Wound and the Primary Conflict
A young radio talk show host with a perfectly autobiographical memory must make peace with his past (and those that he’s wronged) to stop his downward spiral … and prevent another impending tragedy.
When a school shooting survivor decides to use his radio show as a platform to find forgiveness, he unwitting sets himself on a path to confront the violence in his past, and in his future.
Other matters of conflict: two more levels
1. Returning to his hometown for the first time since the school shooting.The overlay of memory with the present is overwhelming – amplifying devastating and terrifying emotions that are as fresh in the present as they were nearly seven years earlier.The guilt of responsibility, the depression and helplessness, and the stress that is physically pummeling the protagonist prove impossible to stand up to as the replay of a result that can’t be stopped or forgotten unfolds inside the school where the mass shooting took place.
2. Getting caught having an affair with his best friend’s wife. The protagonist’s need to feel love (to feel anything) again, to forget (even for a moment) the loss of the girl he loved the most, his unending hopelessness, all overrule his loyalty and friendship.A moment of vulnerability between Jeremy and his best friend’s wife leads to a one night stand … that continues day after day through a toxic bond of loneliness and despair.Their discovery leads to further betrayal, violence, and banishment, losing the only friends he has, and the only woman he’s had feelings for since the tragic events years earlier.This conflict of needing to feel alive again, while doing so at the expense of a friend’s trust, destroys the few positive things in his life that unfolded in the years after the shooting.
The incredible Importance of Setting
“Recollections” moves deftly between a rural Wisconsin setting between 1992-1995 and Washington DC on New Year’s Eve, 1999.Jeremy caroms from a radio station studio, an unfamiliar club, bathrooms and backseats and a sterile apartment, then a road trip takes him across the country (including a stop at a South Chicago diner) to the same small town he grew up in.He visits the scene of the crime – his old High School, now condemned – and returns to the shabby house trailer outside of Madison, Wisconsin where he and Stacy reconnect under vague circumstances.Culminating in a small United Methodist Church as the snow begins to fall, Jeremy and Stacy are each brought to a key moment of decision when the truth becomes apparent.
New York Pitch Conference - September 2021
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Story Statement
Jeremy Peoples must do whatever it takes to find forgiveness and make peace with the past.
The Antagonist Plots the Point
Stacy Ramone is a former marine, married, with one son, a flawed family man with a heightened sense of loyalty and a rapidly declining mental state. His ultimate plan was to use the money he and his wife were making by selling narcotics and stolen pharmaceuticals to buy a local bar until he is betrayed by Jeremy. Several years later, Stacy remains unseen, a dormant facet of Jeremy’s complicated and violent past, until a series of events leads him to coincidentally reach out while everything else is falling apart in Jeremy’s life. The truth is slowly revealed to both Stacy and Jeremy, each seeing things as they are truly are, but far too late to alter the chain of events that has been set into motion.
Conjuring Your Breakout Title
“Recollection.”
Def: a) the action or power of recalling to mind, something recalled to the mind. b) religious contemplation or tranquility of mind
Deciding my genre and approaching comparables
A Thriller with Upmarket Potential
“A Prayer for Owen Meaney.” – John Irving. (the spiritual exploration of predestination).
“We Need To Talk About Kevin.” – Lionel Shriver. (dealing with the tragedy of a school shooting).
“Talked To Death: The Life and Murder of Alan Berg.” – Stephen Singular. (the controversy of talk radio).
Core Wound and the Primary Conflict
A young radio talk show host with a perfectly autobiographical memory must make peace with his past (and those that he’s wronged) to stop his downward spiral … and prevent another impending tragedy.
When a school shooting survivor decides to use his radio show as a platform to find forgiveness, he unwitting sets himself on a path to confront the violence in his past, and in his future.
Other matters of conflict: two more levels
1. Returning to his hometown for the first time since the school shooting. The overlay of memory with the present is overwhelming – amplifying devastating and terrifying emotions that are as fresh in the present as they were nearly seven years earlier. The guilt of responsibility, the depression and helplessness, and the stress that is physically pummeling the protagonist prove impossible to stand up to as the replay of a result that can’t be stopped or forgotten unfolds inside the school where the mass shooting took place.
2. Getting caught having an affair with his best friend’s wife. The protagonist’s need to feel love (to feel anything) again, to forget (even for a moment) the loss of the girl he loved the most, his unending hopelessness, all overrule his loyalty and friendship. A moment of vulnerability between Jeremy and his best friend’s wife leads to a one night stand … that continues day after day through a toxic bond of loneliness and despair. Their discovery leads to further betrayal, violence, and banishment, losing the only friends he has, and the only woman he’s had feelings for since the tragic events years earlier. This conflict of needing to feel alive again, while doing so at the expense of a friend’s trust, destroys the few positive things in his life that unfolded in the years after the shooting.
The incredible Importance of Setting
“Recollections” moves deftly between a rural Wisconsin setting between 1992-1995 and Washington DC on New Year’s Eve, 1999. Jeremy caroms from a radio station studio, an unfamiliar club, bathrooms and backseats and a sterile apartment, then a road trip takes him across the country (including a stop at a South Chicago diner) to the same small town he grew up in. He visits the scene of the crime – his old High School, now condemned – and returns to the shabby house trailer outside of Madison, Wisconsin where he and Stacy reconnect under vague circumstances. Culminating in a small United Methodist Church as the snow begins to fall, Jeremy and Stacy are each brought to a key moment of decision when the truth becomes apparent.