I've got the "My NCAA bracket's got busted" blues.

The Opening Scene of "Fall of Knight" takes place at  a river.




Beyond repair.  That's how badly my NCAA brackets are going.  Mizzou and Duke both lose to 15 seeds.  I had them both in the top 4.  Well, one Missouri team, the St. Louis University Billikens has advanced to the next round but will likely face the number one seed.  Now, if St. Louis won, I wouldn't care if my brackets are destroyed beyond repair.

I still have the Cardinals and the Blues.  One team is going to make the playoffs and the other is just getting ready to start the season.  Hope springs eternal every March and April for baseball fans across the nation.  Fortunately, here in St. Louis, we always seem to have a competitive team.  If I lived in Chicago, I would probably watch soccer.  Though the Blackhawks have generally been a great hockey team.  In fact, they just recently beat the Blues in overtime.

I'm still coughing and hacking from this upper respiratory infection I have.  It must be caused by a virus because the anti-biotic I'm taking doesn't seem to be helping very much.  Maybe it's just a tough case.  Honestly, I'm just coughing.  I haven't even been coughing up much, just coughing and coughing and coughing.  I am just getting older, and I think that makes me more vulnerable to stuff that comes along.

I'm posting the first scene of my screenplay here.  I'd welcome any comments anyone would have about it.  This is not formatted correctly because it lost all of its formatting when I cut and pasted it into the blog.  I think you can make it out well enough.  Enjoy.

The big thing I wanted to accomplish with this opening scene is to establish some subtext -- that something is going on below the surface of the action that no one actually wants to come right out and talk about.


EXT. ALONGSIDE A RIVER - DAY

A pop-up camper sits in a long line of other pop-up campers.

LORETTA KNIGHT, a pretty woman in her early 30's with long black hair sits over a Coleman gas stove and cooks breakfast.

Though dressed in a figure-swallowing sweat suit, she is still pretty.  Her hair flows gracefully over her shoulders, and her steel-blue eyes sparkle.

Two children, twins about eight years old, sit in lawn chairs.  DEAN and DEE DEE KNIGHT have wrapped themselves in blankets to ward off the chill.  Like their mother, they have jet-black hair and the same startling eyes.

JAMES KNIGHT, their father, a man who is in his late 30's but who looks much older emerges, disheveled from the pop up.  Loretta glares at him.  Dean and Dee steal furtive glances at each other.

LORETTA
I hope you won at least.

JAMES
Let's just say that the last inside straight will pay off our camper.

He shivers and wraps his arms around himself.

JAMES
It's chilly.

LORETTA
Florida's warm.

DEAN
And free.

JAMES
Don't give me your attitude.

LORETTA
Me or Dean?

DEE DEE
Dean's right.

James sighs and then kneels so he is at eye level with the two kids.

JAMES
Nothing is ever free with my brother.

He straightens back up.

LORETTA
It's not like we have anything they would want.

JAMES
That's the problem.  Besides, what kind of vacation would we have in a condo?

DEAN
On a beach.

DEE DEE
Next to the ocean.

LORETTA
With no loud obnoxious drunks playing poker all nigh.

JAMES
If you didn't want me to play --

LORETTA
Forget it.

DEAN
Did that pretty lady play?

JAMES
Of course not.

Loretta looks at James and then at Dean.

LORETTA
What pretty lady?

JAMES
It doesn't matter what pretty lady.  I don't play poker with women.

He hugs Loretta, but she stiffens and breaks away from him to tend to breakfast.

JAMES
Yeah, it's pretty chilly.

LORETTA
Dee Dee and I are going to the outlet mall this evening.

DEAN
Can I go?

LORETTA
No, you need to spend some quality time with your father.  We'll be late.

JAMES
If he wants to go --

Loretta glares him into submission.

JAMES
Maybe we can build a fire and do s'mores.

LORETTA
I wouldn't bet on it.