Revisiting an Old Idea for a Movie

 

Louis Jaques, Public domain,

via Wikimedia Commons

While attending a meeting of the Older Filmmakers Club this week, the discussion reminded me of a movie idea I had many years ago. It is not a project I feel I could undertake now, or even in the past. Still, I think it would be a good project for someone.

At the meeting we talked about themes and ideas for stories about older people. In particular one issue that came up was about coping with the death of a loved one. This was an issue that I know that was difficult for me.

The discussion reminded me of an idea for a movie that I had a long while ago. I was still living in Winnipeg, so it would have been at least 45 years ago.

In the early 1950s, John Diefenbaker got involved with a court case over a train crash in BC. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canoe_River_train_crash) This was before he was Prime Minister.

The family of the man charged with manslaughter lived in Dief’s riding. The man’s father and approached Dief’s and asked him to take the case. Dief turned him down because he was busy as an MP.

The man then approached Dief’s wife. At the time, his wife was in the hospital dying. She was supportive. One of the last things she did before she died was to ask Dief to take the case. After she died, Dief went to BC and won the case.

I’m not sure why this story has kept a hold on me all these years. There was a “Law & Order” episode where the lawyer Adam Schiff is placed in a similar situation.

Maybe it is that he was able to save the life of someone he didn’t really know, while he was unable to save the life of someone so close to him.

This post is a mirror from my main blog http://www.dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/blog

“The Lighter Darkness” – A Belated Halloween Story

I finished editing my most recent writing exercise, “The Lighter Darkness” and posted it on-line.

In an old, haunted house, George must overcome fear if he is to succeed.

I wrote the story is based on the title "Complaining About the Jittery Phantom". I felt a change in the title was appropriate. It has a sort of Halloween vibe to it since I wrote it a few days before Halloween. Unfortunately, I didn’t get the audio version ready in time for Halloween. I started to edit it but got stuck and put it aside for a while. Then didn’t get back to it.

The main problem was that the voice changer plug-in I use (Rovee) didn’t work anymore. After a while I discovered that the plug-in was 32-bit and the updated version of Audacity that I installed is 64-bit. I went ahead with the edit with out the voice changer.

Later, I installed the 32-bit version of Audacity. I was worried that I had lost all the old settings I created on the earlier version. Fortunately, they were still there. I don’t know where the plug-in saves the settings.

You can hear it on SoundCloud or on my main site.

·         https://soundcloud.com/dynamiclethargy/the-lighter-darkness

·         https://dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/audio/

This post is a mirror from my main blog http://www.dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/blog