An Essay on Fire: Our Story in Other Words.
In the spirit of our story I’ll open a beer.
Bonfire, Falls like all works of fiction actually happened. Every character is based on someone. And every line is derivative of actual conversations. It’s not based on a true story, but it is a parody of our summer in 2004.
The trouble with stories is that they are told with intent. I never imagined we would make Bonfire. It was something to sell. But in November I had lived in LA for long enough to know that there was no invitation to indie cinema. People made their own market. And of the people I had met, they kept poor shop. I had been part of a half dozen shit indie features. When promised a copy of the finished film, I gave an apathetic thanks. I could see the many mistakes even from in front the camera. And I could tell the quality was relative to the aspiring film makers efforts. So why not try like hell to make our own?
As the story is about Narcissism, selfishness, nostalgia I want to break down the characters. Three people lived this story, three characters tell this story, but in answer to the obvious Ryan is not Bill, Mike is not Jackson, I am not Rivers. The three characters are a composite sketch of the three of us. I am more Bill than I am Rivers, Ryan is more Rivers than he is Bill, Mike is both Bill and Rivers. As I said it all happened in regards to situation, but it all happened differently to different ones of us.
As for the story, its like a basketball game. Our story is a time capsule and there are two rival teams. There is that which is past and things of the future. Bonfire falls is the in between, purgatory, limbo. Bonfire falls is the present. That’s why our sets, our props our characters, our references are anachronistic.
Examples of past vs. Future: Bill aspires to be a cop. Jackson wants things to stay the same. Mia is trendy and Bill’s prospect for the future. Gracie is retro and Jackson old love. The summer begins with the boys graduating college. It ends with Garrett’s first day of kindergarten. All these oppositions create conflict, and create our melodrama.
Somehow I’ve hoped that this film would be some kind of love child if Animal house date raped American Beauty. I wanted it to be under the radar, unsuspecting. A film that is funny and appeals to the young America but with poignancy. No one makes smart films about our age group. I wanted to tell a funny story with some style, some substance and way too much booze. (In fact its amazing the story is at all coherent. In one writing session I had drank two bottles of wine, become belligerent and was dragged out into the public to see spiderman2. Ask Ryan for detail on how that night ended. You won’t be let down.)
In whole the story is about the bridge between school/adolescents and real life. There are moments of such childishness and selfishness, but there is a feeling that Garrett will be alright because he is cared for, and so there must be some self sacrifice.
Bonfire, Falls is a place. And like our film the setting is a dichotomy. There are few opposites as strong as a bonfire and a water fall. Originally it was a small town, that no one had heard of, just outside Niagara Falls. Recent theories have better explained that the place named Bonfire is micro specific. If the Country is America, if the State is NY, if the town is Niagara Falls than the place that these three young men covet is Bonfire. Other theories suggest that Bonfire, Falls is the end of a statement; “Bonfire’s are moments of total intimacy. Loyalty to intimacy is anything but long lasting. Therefore sooner or later all intimacy fails, thus Bonfire, Falls.”
I apologize in advance as this begins to take on a male dominated vernacular.
If Bonfire is a physical place or an emotional state, either represents our America. Our story in brass tacks is a melting pot. Bill is authority/government and Italian. Jackson is our laughter/goodtimes and Irish. Rivers is our alcoholism and native American influence. Gracie is the girls from our past, our failed mothers, our close platonic friend. Mia is our dream girl, she’s fucking up our shit, changing our lives but we want her there. Clarence is that outside lure. That drug that is evoking of certain impulses, but is in no way sentimental and in no way family. The Sixty year old man is the past who doesn’t understand the generations coming up in his rearview mirror. Garrett is our hope, our boy genius youth. Gracie’s dad is our racist. (Even though none of Pappi’s dialogue speaks of other nationalities, he is a racist. He judges and condemns.) Bill’s boss is a sexual deviant. He may be bi-straight-gay, but he’s that uncomfortable mix of power and sex, no matter what the orientation. Lakara is the spirituality we’re all searching for.
Our objective is in no way to make a god damn after school special. We’re telling a story. It’s got social consciousness but in a damn unimportant and subtle way. My feeling is that family is nothing more than circumstance. It’s not genetic, and that’s why these characters come together and stress loyalty. Because of what family really is. Bonfire, Falls is about the American family. The intimacy of The Old American Family has fallen, like an empire head first. That’s why the film ends with The New American Family: an interracial couple and their adopted child.
As Bill/Mia are pro future, Gracie/Jackson are dead locked in the past, Rivers and Lakara stand a chance because they have no expectations, they have no objective and no baggage. Our lead characters Mia Jackson Bill and Gracie are stagnant. They breed disease and sickness. But a river is flowing water. A river is current and changes with its course. (I had to fight hard to sell that name, but it is one of my proudest achievements in writing.)
Half way through writing this essay and several beers to the head, I want to scream out the material from where all of this comes from. I want to spin a writers commentary and every nuance of the story. But that would be dull and egotistical. Useless to anyone reading. So I’ll maintain the essay format. Besides, the story has changed so much and the actors have fleshed out far better things than I could ever write. And not just actors, everyone involved has tightened, made better our story.
Mike was my audience as I wrote the thing. It was kind of like reading pick a path your adventure. He would read and predict where it was going. This helped give the story momentum.
If it wasn’t for Ryan and Mike the movie’s ending would have been total shit. I had written that Rivers and Garrett just leave. All my stories set up dynamite and leave the characters/viewers looking for a match. Ryan and Mike said simultaneously “I thought the house was gonna burn down.” And so it made sense. I rewrote the ending for my brothers. Though it would have been a hell of a lot easier to have shot the stories ending without the house fire.
And the irony is, that if we had tried to make this film as it was happening we would have killed each other. It’s amazing how time heals all the bad blood in this script. Thank god it’s just fiction. Thank god we got this far... I need another beer.
Bonfire, Falls like all works of fiction actually happened. Every character is based on someone. And every line is derivative of actual conversations. It’s not based on a true story, but it is a parody of our summer in 2004.
The trouble with stories is that they are told with intent. I never imagined we would make Bonfire. It was something to sell. But in November I had lived in LA for long enough to know that there was no invitation to indie cinema. People made their own market. And of the people I had met, they kept poor shop. I had been part of a half dozen shit indie features. When promised a copy of the finished film, I gave an apathetic thanks. I could see the many mistakes even from in front the camera. And I could tell the quality was relative to the aspiring film makers efforts. So why not try like hell to make our own?
As the story is about Narcissism, selfishness, nostalgia I want to break down the characters. Three people lived this story, three characters tell this story, but in answer to the obvious Ryan is not Bill, Mike is not Jackson, I am not Rivers. The three characters are a composite sketch of the three of us. I am more Bill than I am Rivers, Ryan is more Rivers than he is Bill, Mike is both Bill and Rivers. As I said it all happened in regards to situation, but it all happened differently to different ones of us.
As for the story, its like a basketball game. Our story is a time capsule and there are two rival teams. There is that which is past and things of the future. Bonfire falls is the in between, purgatory, limbo. Bonfire falls is the present. That’s why our sets, our props our characters, our references are anachronistic.
Examples of past vs. Future: Bill aspires to be a cop. Jackson wants things to stay the same. Mia is trendy and Bill’s prospect for the future. Gracie is retro and Jackson old love. The summer begins with the boys graduating college. It ends with Garrett’s first day of kindergarten. All these oppositions create conflict, and create our melodrama.
Somehow I’ve hoped that this film would be some kind of love child if Animal house date raped American Beauty. I wanted it to be under the radar, unsuspecting. A film that is funny and appeals to the young America but with poignancy. No one makes smart films about our age group. I wanted to tell a funny story with some style, some substance and way too much booze. (In fact its amazing the story is at all coherent. In one writing session I had drank two bottles of wine, become belligerent and was dragged out into the public to see spiderman2. Ask Ryan for detail on how that night ended. You won’t be let down.)
In whole the story is about the bridge between school/adolescents and real life. There are moments of such childishness and selfishness, but there is a feeling that Garrett will be alright because he is cared for, and so there must be some self sacrifice.
Bonfire, Falls is a place. And like our film the setting is a dichotomy. There are few opposites as strong as a bonfire and a water fall. Originally it was a small town, that no one had heard of, just outside Niagara Falls. Recent theories have better explained that the place named Bonfire is micro specific. If the Country is America, if the State is NY, if the town is Niagara Falls than the place that these three young men covet is Bonfire. Other theories suggest that Bonfire, Falls is the end of a statement; “Bonfire’s are moments of total intimacy. Loyalty to intimacy is anything but long lasting. Therefore sooner or later all intimacy fails, thus Bonfire, Falls.”
I apologize in advance as this begins to take on a male dominated vernacular.
If Bonfire is a physical place or an emotional state, either represents our America. Our story in brass tacks is a melting pot. Bill is authority/government and Italian. Jackson is our laughter/goodtimes and Irish. Rivers is our alcoholism and native American influence. Gracie is the girls from our past, our failed mothers, our close platonic friend. Mia is our dream girl, she’s fucking up our shit, changing our lives but we want her there. Clarence is that outside lure. That drug that is evoking of certain impulses, but is in no way sentimental and in no way family. The Sixty year old man is the past who doesn’t understand the generations coming up in his rearview mirror. Garrett is our hope, our boy genius youth. Gracie’s dad is our racist. (Even though none of Pappi’s dialogue speaks of other nationalities, he is a racist. He judges and condemns.) Bill’s boss is a sexual deviant. He may be bi-straight-gay, but he’s that uncomfortable mix of power and sex, no matter what the orientation. Lakara is the spirituality we’re all searching for.
Our objective is in no way to make a god damn after school special. We’re telling a story. It’s got social consciousness but in a damn unimportant and subtle way. My feeling is that family is nothing more than circumstance. It’s not genetic, and that’s why these characters come together and stress loyalty. Because of what family really is. Bonfire, Falls is about the American family. The intimacy of The Old American Family has fallen, like an empire head first. That’s why the film ends with The New American Family: an interracial couple and their adopted child.
As Bill/Mia are pro future, Gracie/Jackson are dead locked in the past, Rivers and Lakara stand a chance because they have no expectations, they have no objective and no baggage. Our lead characters Mia Jackson Bill and Gracie are stagnant. They breed disease and sickness. But a river is flowing water. A river is current and changes with its course. (I had to fight hard to sell that name, but it is one of my proudest achievements in writing.)
Half way through writing this essay and several beers to the head, I want to scream out the material from where all of this comes from. I want to spin a writers commentary and every nuance of the story. But that would be dull and egotistical. Useless to anyone reading. So I’ll maintain the essay format. Besides, the story has changed so much and the actors have fleshed out far better things than I could ever write. And not just actors, everyone involved has tightened, made better our story.
Mike was my audience as I wrote the thing. It was kind of like reading pick a path your adventure. He would read and predict where it was going. This helped give the story momentum.
If it wasn’t for Ryan and Mike the movie’s ending would have been total shit. I had written that Rivers and Garrett just leave. All my stories set up dynamite and leave the characters/viewers looking for a match. Ryan and Mike said simultaneously “I thought the house was gonna burn down.” And so it made sense. I rewrote the ending for my brothers. Though it would have been a hell of a lot easier to have shot the stories ending without the house fire.
And the irony is, that if we had tried to make this film as it was happening we would have killed each other. It’s amazing how time heals all the bad blood in this script. Thank god it’s just fiction. Thank god we got this far... I need another beer.
posted by doeslittleproductions at 1:36 PM
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