Submission Samples from the Coming of Age Genre

Title: Terror at Skull Manor

Logline: Terror at Skull Manor is a coming-of-age story about a group of young actors working at a year-round haunted house in downtown Orlando in the mid-late 1990's.

Synopsis: Terror at Skull Manor is a coming-of-age story about Heather and her co-workers, who work as actors in a year-round haunted attraction in mid-to-late 1990's downtown Orlando. The story is loosely based on actual, reported, perceived, and rumored events from three former and seasonal haunted attractions. What seems like just a fun, odd job for our main character, Heather, as well as the other aspiring actors, makeup artists, and just regular goth kids, becomes a transforming experience for all of them. Rivalries and unrequited love drive the story while we get an insiders view of what it's like to be the ones who get to scare grown adults on a daily basis and get paid for it. Dodging live rats, cleaning up urine, and frightening customers nearly-to-death is business-as-usual. For this group of young people getting hired here was only the beginning...

Title: Winter Quarters.

Logline: A sad,traveling carnival show,50 carnies&1 wrestling bear break down in a joyless, north Ga. dot on the map in the Autumn of 1963. Love&luck meet hope&redemption on a hard road home to Winter Quarters

Synopsis: "Count" Carl Carlisimo's 61 Cadillac Coupe de Ville, randomly turns into a north Georgia hayfield, inside the city limits of a small, Baptist mountain town, called Bivens, at 4am, to await the staggered arrival of O'Reilleys & Carlisimo's Continental Show. He knows it'more than a rest stop on a desperate shortcut to Winter Quarters. 50 carnies are angry, impatient and hungry for the Count's promise to get them home. The worldly, weary British showman, whispers to himself, that he's due an angel. The last legs carnival collapses on property owned, by Sue Edna Bivens, beneveloent beneficiary of towns founders, and beautiful, esteemed matriarch to the city. By weeks end,hard luck is spun to gold,two opposite worlds and hearts find hope & faith, but not before it's almost ruined by Rufus The Wrestling Bear, moonshine & Miss Sandy's "den of sin" Cootch Dance. The show gives the town escape, the little town gives redemption. God's grace is intertwined with miracles on the midway of life.

Title: Rumrunner Cove

Logline: 3 generations of surfers befriend a gorgeous, rebellious 17-year-old girl at a remote Bamboo Beach Hut, in a pristine private cove - in search of fun, love and treasure. WGA#: 1620136

Synopsis: A edgy, coming-of-age adventure of 3 surfers who befriend a gorgeous and rebellious girl at a private cove when she starts hanging out at their Beach Hut. SEAN, a family man and trader has moved his office to his home to surf more. JOE and CALE, are bachelors. They are all at the Hut for the surf. It's a great escape for beers and fun - with no people, rules, parents or cops. BILLY, a old surfer is the guys idol. He shows that you can be young at heart and age well. He proves age gaps don't exist on this beach and three generations can live as one. The guys are ecstatic when the lovely TASHA, starts showing up in her tiny bikini at the Hut. Tasha is edgy, confidant, flirty and athletic -- but she really just wants to be accepted and she wants to find love. She joins the guys kayaking and diving in the cove and becomes one of the gang. The gang finds treasure clues while kayaking and clash with drug lords. In the end, the gang finds treasure and defeats the drug lords.

Title: The East Side Boys

Logline: Beatle mania has taken over the world, and fourteen year old Mickey wants to play guitar in a rock band.

Synopsis: It's 1965, and Mickey lives on the East Side of a small upstate New York mill town. With the help of a mystical old man who becomes his guitar teacher, Mickey forms The East Side Boys, and they enter a battle of the bands contest. Mickey's English teacher, Mr. Belmont, makes literature come alive, and Mickey begins to write the story of The East Side Boys. It is the beginning of a life's journey that continues thirty-eight years later when Mickey finds his journal in the basement of his childhood home. He begins writing again, trying to resolve the past and where it has taken him.

Title: Framers

Logline: A teen, sick of his mayor, decides he needs to remove him from office. He attempts to do this by doing crimes and framing the mayor for it. He is aided by his sarcastic friends.

Synopsis: Craig has it out for the mayor of his moderately-sized suburban city. Craig is sick and tired of his mayor's political double speak. With the help of his smart-ass friends who have plans of their own, he plans to frame his mayor of a crime. He hopes that this will make him resign. They must contend with the mayor's protection who would give their lives to save him. I have submitted this screenplay to the Scriptapalooza Feature Screenplay Competition. At the writing of this query, it was not selected for the quarterfinals. As this is one of my first screenplays I have not had much experience with competitions. I have registered it with the Writer's Guild of America West. The registration number is 1293843.

Title: Triage

Logline: Afghanistan, army hospital triage surgeon judges a young soldiers's wounds are fatal and he is laid aside to die. Not knowing this, he relives a day of his youth, of innocence, rascality, of bravery.

Synopsis: Afghanistan. Army hospital triage surgeon judges Don's wounds fatal. Tells him to relive a day of his life second by second and it will seem to last a lifetime. Don, fourteen, awakens at his grandma's farm. Does chores, picks up friend Earl, head off to town. Flirts with pretty Thelma. Says he can see the wind blowing around her. Rescues the young whore Helen from roughnecks. Gets a kiss and to feel her titties as reward. She and the boys hitch a ride to town with a DEA officer. Don fights the River Gang. Discovers smugglers bringing drugs up the Ohio River on the river barges from New Orleans. Helps DEA capture the smuglers. Night walks Thelma home. Tricks her to feel his prick. She calls him a nasty boy. They kiss and laugh for sex is great fun. At family cemetery, tells his grandpa that he is taking care of grandma, that he likes pretty girls with sweet lips and soft titties. At the army hospital, they find Don still alive and treat him. Last Don walking toward Thelma now a woman

Title: Lesson Learned

Logline: Mason thought he learned his lesson when his sweetheart left him. Years later, someone catches his eye and he is stuck in the same situation all over again. Did Mason actually learn his lesson?

Synopsis: Mason had one high school sweetheart who dumped him a few days after the junior prom and swore he would never allow anyone to break his heart again. Damien, on the other hand, fell in love on his first try and has a love life you can only find in romantic films. Lesson Learned chronicles the lives of the two men who seemingly are at opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to love. Under the suggestion of Mason's friend, he visits a local coffeehouse only to have Damien take his breath away. The two eventually get to talking and Mason falls for Damien. However, like any "Hollywood" film, there's a catch. Damien is already in a successful relationship. Will Mason try to try to break Damien out of his relationship, leave Damien alone, or answer to his friend's unrequited love? Plus, while at opposite ends, what is the one connection between these two men?

Title: The GoalTender

Logline: A young hockey goalie struggling with obsessive-compulsive disorder and a dysfunctional family life, unearths a horror far worse when he discovers a subterranean paradise to call his own.

Synopsis: 14-year-old Matthew Skalicky is a goaltender in the late '70s...a magical time of music, girls, and hockey...who struggles with teen life, an alcoholic father at home, and anxiety disorder. Obsessed with perfection, Matthew can't stand to lose, whether it's on the ice or in the confines of his own mind. Troubling thoughts plague him, compelling him to repeat things over and over; but like any good goalie, he tries to shut them out any way he can... One day while out wandering, he discovers a system of caves which lead him to an idyllic underground world, where he meets the girl of his dreams and her loving family. The marvels he finds there give Matthew renewed vigor, allowing him to excel in net and take his team to the league championship. But the tunnels conceal a horrible menace, waiting to explode from the earth and destroy his entire world. The GoalTender is a coming-of-age tale told with humor and fantasy and steeped in both the hockey and pop culture of the 1970s.

Title: F.O.G.

Logline: A high school runaway from L.A. searches for his estranged father only to find himself in a shoot-out in Zen.

Synopsis: Eddie Huck attends public high school in L.A., haunted by gang-bangers and bad grades. Julie Love, Driver's Ed, and the track team are his only reasons for showing up. His family is dysfunctional: raised by his mom-a self-absorbed, aspiring actress and overweight dancer-and estranged from his survivalist father. A high speed chase in Mom's borrowed car results in a series of events that force Eddie to flee the city-leaving behind the girl he loves-pursued by gang-bangers, cops, and the FBI. From bus depot to hitching rides on his road trip north, the mayhem only worsens when Eddie bears witness to murder and saves a young woman's life, momentarily. But the murderers join the chase. Upon reaching his father's remote home in Zen, Oregon, he finds Dad-crazy as Hamlet-residing in his own paramilitary retreat. When opposing forces meet in a war of gunfire, Eddie's life and family are changed forever. But in the end, F.O.G. is a tale of redemption and hope.

Title: I Promise Not To Tell

Logline: It is 1964 and a twenty-six-year old Catholic woman and sixteen year old girl desperately fight to love one another.

Synopsis: This is a story that has never been told. It is a feature length drama about the secretive, complicated, and forbidden love affair between a sixteen year- old girl and her twenty-six year old female lover. Inspiring, passionate, and complex, this 1964 love story is guaranteed to generate controversy and stimulate important questions for both gay and straight audiences. Three versions of this drama are available. More in line with The Reader, the first version tells the story of three pivotal episodes in the life of Reed, a 55 year-old woman, who has never quite recovered from the complications associated with this early relationship. The second version tells the story from the perspective of Reed as a young 20 year old who is struggling with her sexuality and trying to go forward in her life. Each of these versions include in retrospect (flashbacks), the story of Reed and Cara. The last version focuses exclusively on Reed and Cara, their love and all that creates in their lives.