WARNING . . . deep insight ahead:
It’s only been three weeks @ the Binger but I’ve already had one big realization with regards to my project Shelter. In my mind, there’s already been a kind of reshifting of the three major characters, who are a Romani man ‘Loiza’, an Iraqi refugee ‘Ahmad’ and an Armenian lawyer ‘Stefan’.
I discovered Loiza and Ahmad while writing separate short stories many years ago and they’ve been in my head ever since. They’re both unique characters, men that you wouldn’t forget if you met. I failed many times to find them the proper story they deserve and then one day, as a kind of experiment, I inserted them together into a short script.
They fit somehow, and that seed grew and grew into a feature project, into Shelter.
But this fragmented story required a third man who could make order of Ahmad’s life and the story’s chaos. This Armenian lawyer, a kind of survivor, started off being a very minor character and then a one-dimensional plot device and now it seems that he is slowly becoming the . . . main character.
Shit.
For some reason, I’ve been blind to this possibility. Even though I always knew Stefan was a rather weakly written character and needed more attention I was always drawn to the charismatic Loiza and Ahmad.
Look for instance at how visually I introduce my two old friends in the current draft:
[LOIZA'S INTRODUCTION]:
EXT. DESERT – DAY (1987)
A breeze blows against the desert surface like a soft breath, pushing it grain by grain, leading us to a finger wrapping around a trigger.
The other hand cradles a rifle barrel.
A young boy with long, blond hair – LOIZA (13) – aims down the rifle towards a distant, moving shape.
He is stretched out on his belly, using a cushion of sand to prop his head and rifle up.
Next to him lies a white dog, nuzzled against his side.
The weapon, the boy and the dog combined lies motionless for a moment against a gust of wind.
He finally FIRES.
The prey falls and the dog leaps to a sprint towards it.
Loiza stands and follows the dog’s lead as the wind continues to play with strands of his golden hair.
—
[AHMAD'S INTRODUCTION]:
EXT. OUTSKIRTS OF BEIRUT – EVENING (PRESENT)
The outline of a MAN slowly limping forward through the darkness.
He walks on the empty street, the sidewalks covered in rubble. On either side of him are grey apartment buildings, half of them the victim of heavy shelling.
A working streetlamp finally reveals him to be AHMAD, late-40s. The left side of his forehead slightly scarred and deformed.
He continues down the street, in and out of darkness, dragging his right leg behind him.
—
And these visual introductions lay down a way of understanding these two men, as archetypes.
On the other hand, Stefan is introduced through a reaction, as a kind of witness:
[STEFAN'S INTRODUCTION]:
EXT. NORTHERN IRAQ – MASS GRAVE – DAY (PRESENT)
A bulldozer digs out a wide hole out of the earth, it’s teeth carefully grazes the surface. Several WORKERS with shovels watch on.
At the top of the shallow hole stand several IRAQI SOLDIERS.
One man stands out amongst them because of his suit and tie – STEFAN, mid-30s handsome. He stares intensely as the bulldozer claws away at the earth.
The Men peer in and see a white object – a human bone.
A Soldier jumps down into the hole and pushes away the dirt, revealing more bones.
A Worker steps in as well and shovels away more earth revealing the ribcage of a human skeleton.
Stefan’s face turns to sadness.
—
Even though he isn’t as visually memorable as Loiza and Ahmad, Stefan is the one with the most heart -
The first-hand witness of Ahmad’s chaos and tragedy -
The one that sacrifices the most and stretches his hand out as a kind of therapist -
Potentially, the one with the most emotional baggage that he’s trying to resolve through the case and Ahmad’s remaining memories -
And dare I say, the most like me:
a boy pretending he is a strong man, that desperately wants to put the broken people around him back together and is slowly realizing he can’t . . . all he can do is love the few pieces that remain.
wow. I admire how honest and open you are discussing this project. It is truly and enviable quality- I think it is so fascinating to read about your journey with these characters. I remember the reading of “Shelter” at the Labs, then reading the screenplay and then reading the re-write you sent. I remember some small changes that you made, for instance with the relationship with Loiza and his father, that altered my perception of Loiza. It is crazy how self aware you are of all of these changes. (I guess that is partly what makes a writer?) How your brain must work!- you are so very talented.
I think we are all flawed to a certain extent and our passions, belief systems and relationships can help keep us together if we work for/within them. One of the reasons I think your screenplay is so successful is because of the very real portrayals of the flawed human condition and attempts at reconciliation, redemption and basic survival.
I would love to read what you have now- I want to learn more about Stefan and his evolution. Bravo!
Hey Jessica, glad to see you here on my little blog. Welcome to the party! I actually resisted the idea of blogging about my project because most strangers really wouldn’t have any idea what I was talking about since they’ve never read the script. Then again I was meeting such great people & advisors on this strange, long journey of mine (e.g. like you) that it only made since to start documenting the process since there would be an ‘audience’ who would have some familiarity and be able to continually inspire me as I move forward.
I don’t think I intentionally resisted the idea of looking at Stefan for who he could be – but in the Binger Writers Lab I knew I had to make a decision about either simplifying him (e.g. which is some of the advice I got at Sundance because all of his details really didn’t serve the story) OR I had to make him a sort of ‘third character’. I really resisted that idea because there’s just something about threes that really bother – I don’t know, it suggests a kind of balance, or unity, whereas ‘two’ suggests conflict, opposites . . . I think you get what I mean because I really feel my connotation of it comes from paintings and bad multi-character films.
Anyways, a large part of the Binger Writers Lab was trying to make him this ‘third character’ so that I would have ‘three hunters’:
1. loiza hunting ahmad
2. ahmad hunting for himself
3. stefan hunting for the truth
Even though the draft I finished up the Writers lab in February wasn’t perfect (still remnants of old drafts in the current screenplay – a since that Stefan is just a plot convenience, etc.) there’s been enough change that a lot of recent feedback has been about this idea about Stefan being the main character. I really resisted this idea . . . but again, I think it was a semantic issue and what I thought a main character is and isn’t – I still feel somehow I have the story, the ‘room’ with all of the events, it’s just a matter of slightly altering the angle – and changing that angle to a character we can identify with and who is maybe changed the most by it. I like to think of it in terms of this shifting, at least for now, because it sounds a lot less work then dramatically changing the story.
I would like to forward it along to you and see what you think and to see if you’ve got your own ideas about Stefan.
Thanks again for your support!!!
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