PARALLELS

What started out as a story idea in 2020 about being forced to grow up eventually made the jump to the screenplay format in 2022.

I knew I wanted to tell a story that took place in the 1960s during the height of the Vietnam war. But I didn’t want to risk glorifying was by placing the characters in a heroic action scene. Instead, I focused on the effects the war had on characters who were on the other side of the world and weren’t even currently fighting. One of the main characters in this story gets his draft notice to fight overseas. I used my own family history to write his family dynamic with his father and the idea of ‘pretending to be American’ as an immigrant.

I also wanted a story that bounced back and forth between two protagonists. Sticking to the idea of having to grow up quickly, the second character finds out that he just got his girlfriend pregnant. Being just a kid, the idea of becoming a father scares him. Similarly to the other character, I built up his family dynamic based upon his situation, stating that his father left his mother when she got pregnant - an idea that influences his moral dilemma.

The decision was made early on to allow the characters to only interact with one another twice - once at the beginning, and again at the end. This allows them an introduction to one another but keeps their problems separated and makes each character feel isolated from those around them. When they do reconnect, they find comfort in each other as their situations are different but impacting them similarly.

I do plan on reworking this screenplay into a short film sometime within the next two years as it is a story I am deeply passionate about.