Submission Samples from the Coming of Age Genre

Title: Further Down The Trail

Logline: A musical journey through the heart of America.

Synopsis: Morgan Coe, a 21 year old musician who decides to walk from Virginia to California. During his trip he encounters a wide variety of characters and musicians. Each encounter leads to an oppurtunity for Morgan to rise above his fears and embrace his past. All the while putting aside his own goals to help others regain their hope. This script covers some of the questions that surround today's social climate. There are some musical numbers, each are contemporary and fitting to the setting. I feel that this script can speak to a wide range of audiences. Through self discovery and the passion music evokes in us.

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: Firefly Catcher

Logline: World War II. Don is wounded. In the triage at the field hospital, his wounds are judged fatal and he is laid aside to die. While waiting for help that won't be coming, he relives a day of his youth

Synopsis: Belgium, Dec. 1944. Wounded in combat and waiting treatment, Don relives a summer day of his youth. Thirteen and a rascal, Don awakens at his grandmother's farm. Releases a jar of fireflies flashing their light. Off to town. Along the way, flirts with pretty Thelma. Sees the wind blowing around her. Rescues a girl from roughnecks. Gets a kiss and feels her titties as reward. Comes upon two bootleggers wanted for murder. Escapes. In town, fights the River Rats Gang. Helps a Federal lawman catch the murders. In the night walks Thelma home. persuades her to feel his prick. He ejaculates. She calls him a nasty boy. They kiss and laugh for sex is great fun. Stops at the family cemetery and talks to his dead grandfather, saying he likes pretty girls with sweet lips and soft titties. And that he is taking good care of grandmother. Back at the army hospital, the surgeons find Don still alive and treat him. Last. Don walking toward Thelma. Don't we see the wind blowing around her.

Title: Prism Through A Rose-Colored Glass

Logline: A 17-year-old Black artist searches for answers to the turbulent times in 1969 by exposing religious hypocrisy through her artwork.

Synopsis: Valerie Williams, a 17-year-old Black artist who attends an all White high school on the Eastern Shore of Maryland in 1969 is confused by the times in which she lives. Her brother is fighting a war in Vietnam while Blacks fight for rights in their own country. And when she turns to religion for answers, she is disappointed by the hypocrisy she finds. When she attempts to expose this in her artwork-- because of a burgeoning relationship with a White boy at school-- she is met with resistance at every turn.

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: The Rings of Misfortune

Logline: Is he homosexual or not? Back home, it seemed that way. Even heroic action with the Marines in World War ll may not clear his name.

Synopsis: Eighteen year old Jack Scott, the most outstanding young man in a small town, has to confront problems with his sexual orientation. At the end of the war, he suffers from severe Battle Fatigue ( a story not previously filmed in any detail). A friendly psychiatrist and a corpsman are confused by his inability to recover in the usual manner until a sinister comrade appears. The story conveys sociological and psychological opinions that apply to military men in similar situations, even, today. Eroticism is at a minimum, but much of the the story is filled with action scenes of flying, white-water canoeing, military training, combat, and much more.

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: 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: Invisible Girl

Logline: Seventeen year old girl faces several obstacles that will challenge her decision to go away to college.

Synopsis: Laura is facing her last year of high school deciding whether she should stay or go away to college. Laura's mother faces problems with her marriage and her undiagnosed schizophrenic brother. Laura's schizophrenic uncle kills his wife before committing suicide and Laura's mom wants Laura and her sisters to comfort their cousin, Sandra. Laura's mom only concern is that Sandra is staying with her mom's side of the family which can project resentment towards the girls. This fear stems from Laura's mom's guilt of avoiding her sisters-in-law's cry for help days before the tragedy. Laura does not think that Sandra's family is any harm until she enters a relationship with one of Sandra's cousins, who ends up being abusive. Laura gets pregnant and must decide whether she will keep the baby. Her uncle's murder and suicide makes her realize that she can control her own life and that she must make a decision that will change or start her life.

Title: Young Heart

Logline: A wealthy Columbia University student on track to become a doctor questions his future when he falls in love with a mysterious girl living under the city streets.

Synopsis: New York -- fresh-faced Maggie, 17, gets off the bus for her first experience in the big city. She makes her way through the dense throng of commuters, passing a 19-year-old street musician named DYLAN as she goes. Meanwhile, across town, a group of police officers investigate a woman's screams coming from a subway tunnel. Not sure if it's a rape or murder, the cops make their way through the darkness only to find that the noises are those of a pregnant homeless woman giving birth in a storage room amidst a whole community of homeless tunnel dwellers. This particular area of New York's seedy underbelly would seemingly have nothing to do with ADAM NEVILLE, 20, a pre-med major at Columbia university. He comes from money and is on track for a cushy job at a pharmaceutical company with his father's help. But he also loves Shakespeare and art and is searching for true love. He believes he's found it in DOLCINA, 19, a student in his English class. It turns out she may be interested as well.