An Update...

Hey guys,
haven't been updating my blog in a while now. Just to let you know, I had a job at a film shoot in the south of Munich from mid-September until about a week ago and therefore there hasn't been much time for me to write into the blog.

I handed in my first outline for my story, had my first tutorial on it, managed to work on it despite the very stressful film shoot with - again - 12-13 hour shooting days and then handed in a first treatment. I also had the tutorial on the treatment about two weeks ago and now I am sitting at home at my desk struggling with and writing the first proper draft of my screenplay.

I will let you know how things go, so stay tuned...

Best, Phil

PS: Here's a documentary I found online on some people having extraordinary jobs in the Hamburg red light district. Even though it is in German, you might get an idea of what the Herbertstrasse and other places look like where I did my observational research:

An article I found...

This is an image that I found on the web showing the agonies a man and a whore have to suffer in punishment for a life of sin. The picture is called Last Judgement. The website I found it on is actually one about the Middle Ages, which my story is not gonna be set in, nonetheless there are some interesting notes here on the topic of 'Sexuality in the Middle Ages'.

The article tells us more about the two-foldedness of sexuality in the middle ages that on one hand it was forbidden to even think about anything concerning sex due to the huge and powerful influence of the church, on the other hand, however, people lived out their sexual pleasures in every vulgar way imaginable.

Writing this down now, this somehow also reminds me again of the 'historc whore tour' that I did on the Reeperbahn, basically a tour for tourists in which you get to know more about the oldest profession in the world and how it developed in Hamburg. A lot of couples did that tour as well and they were always laughing about certain facts - indicating to me, that this is a world completely unknown to them or which they are at least not familiar with. On the other hand, however, the woman leader of the tour told us some statistics about how many men actually visit prostitutes still nowadays. I can't remember the exact number of it, but it actually meant that every third or fourth man in this group of mostly couples, statistically speaking, must have been a regular customer of prostitutes...

Basically, what I want to say here, is that to a certain extent - not as strict as in the middle ages, of course - but still to a certain extent, this two-foldedness in our society might still be intact. There are these certain areas, which are frowned upon and that hardly anyone is ever talking about. At least, this is what I think. What's your opinion?

Someone's first sexual experiences...

Don't worry, I'm not gonna right down my first sexual experiences down in this post ;) so it is still safe for you to read on...

Thinking about my character, my basic story that I have so far, I thought it would be interesting to just quickly right about this and how interesting, to me, it actually is that with everyone of us their first sexual experience stays with them all their life. And I'm not necessarily talking about the first time somebody had sexual intercourse with a girlfriend or a one night stand or which ever way it happened...maybe some of us might also have this weird memory of something that happened in their childhood, which out of some reason comes to mind in this context and they actually can't explain why...

If I think about it, for example, I remember a friend of my family, who always said that she was gonna marry me one day, but always saying it in a funny way and thus making everybody laugh, including myself...

Maybe, there is some experience deep down in the realm of your memories, too, of which you are thinking at the moment, which somehow rang a bell while you were reading this. I thought this might also be somehow fitting for my character; to give him an experience like this as a child, a little more intense, though, than the harmless one that I just wrote about out of my past...

(To illustrate my point a bit more, in case you're interested, there is a dream sequence in John Schlesinger's Midnight Cowboy, in which we always see images of the main character Joe Buck's (Jon Voight) first sexual experiences, which are intercut with images of his grandmother who had raised him when he was little. If you haven't seen the film yet, check it out, it is well worth seeing.)

Another Realization a.k.a. 'What happens there stays there'

Another realization that I once again had about my area of research is the fact that in an obvious sort of way it resembles Las Vegas with all its lights at night etc. Of course, it is a lot smaller than Vegas and has an official red light district and in Vegas prostitution is strictly forbidden (not in the rest of the state of Nevada, though). One thing, however, they surely have in common is the saying 'What happens in ..., stays in ...'. Most of us will probably know the saying 'What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas' or at least have heard of it. Of course, it is often mentioned in the context of gambling and people going crazy and party there and all that; if we go down the 'go crazy'-part a bit further, this is what it also means really. People do meet there having affairs, one night stands, meet up with hookers etc.

This actually reminds me of my first visit to the US, in which I completed an internship for a company and some employees of that company went on a business trip to Vegas. One night while drinking one of the women came on to one of the guys and tried to get him into bed using the exact same saying. 'Come on', she said. 'What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas, right?' He politely declined the offer, though.

But coming up to what I actually wanted to say in this blog. I actually intended to interview one of the prostitutes and asked her in a very blunt way, but of course she was really secretive about she did and didn't really reveal anything. But her answer also told me a great deal about this area. If you're not living and working here, I believe it is so difficult to actually get and understand the codes and mannerisms and unwritten laws of the area. This is also the imoression that I had one night when I was strolling over the Albers Platz and the Reeperbahn. What you get to see is the face everybody puts on for all the tourists and other visitors of the area in order to get them leave their money here. Similar to Vegas, it's almost all show...and to get underneath this, to get down to what the area is really like, what people are really like, I guess this is just possible if you have either have at least one person that connects you to the inside of it or otherwise you are a part of it yourself.

This will also be one of the difficulties that my main character in my story encounters along the way...

A realization...

Looking at the desktop of my laptop yesterday, I realized that I've been unconsciously doing a lot of research into psychological thrillers lately. What I found there where the downloaded screenplays of films such as Secret Window and Shutter Island, of which I also read the book. My latest posts on the blog with clips from Lynch's Lost Highway & Blue Velvet might also confirm this. I guess this might also be why my ideas have gone a lot into the inner life (fears, feelings and nightmares) of my main character and the basic story I've come up with so far also goes in that direction. More to follow on this...

Amazing clip from Secret Window here that greatly shows the divided and schizophrenic nature of the Johnny Depp character Morton Rainey in the film. For those of you who haven't seen it yet, I'd rather recommend watching the whole film (Huge Spoiler Warning here!!!) Enjoy:

A rollin' stone, all alone and lost...

Sorry, I haven't written for a while, guys...just have been really busy with the Unit 2 assignment that I need to finish this week as well before my next film job starts this Sunday.

Here's a song that I found that reminded me of a lot of the 'characters' that I saw during my observational research in Hamburg:



I'm a rolling stone, all alone and lost
For a life of sin, I have paid the cost.
When I pass by, all the people say
"Just another guy on the lost highway."

Just a deck of cards and a jug of wine
And a woman's lies make a life like mine.
Oh, the day we met, I went astray,
I started rollin' down that lost highway.

I was just a lad, nearly twenty-two,
Neither good nor bad, just a kid like you,
And now I'm lost, too late to pray,
Lord, I've paid the cost on the lost highway.

Now, boys, don't start your ramblin' round,
On this road of sin or you're sorrow bound.
Take my advice or you'll curse the day
You started rollin' down that lost highway

The feeling that is conveyed here will definitely be something that the main character of my story will have gone through as well...

Pigeons eating shattered glass...

An image that has stuck with me somehow since day 3 of my research. I arrived at the Albers Platz in the evening shortly before eight o'clock. Basically, the first thing that I saw on this day was a dead pigeon lying on the ground right next to the place where I usually liked to sit down. I carried on and took a seat on one of the beer benches near Hans Albers Klause then and started my observation there. The thing with the pigeon went a bit further, though. When the prostitutes started their day at 8, one of them saw the pigeon as well. It was lying in the spot were she usually stood all night and tried to catch some fish. So, she took a stick and shoved it along a couple of yards towards the tree - a lot to the amusement and disgust of her colleagues. Then, they all went about their usual daily business.

It kept me thinking, though, to how the pigeon might have died and an image occurred. What if the pigeon was searching for food and accidentally caught a piece of shattered glass? Of which there were lying around millions in this place from all the partying! Or what if it had been a young and stupid pigeon and had deliberately eaten one, even though her parents had told it not to? Just like the 'hand on the hot plate'-allegory that my parents used to tell me when I was little: What if I told you this plate was hot? The dumb decision would be to go ahead and touch it anyway, to find out the hard way for yourself. Of course then, the wise decision being to listen to your parents and thus not touching it!

But this rings a bell somewhere, doesn't it? From somewhere like this:

The Forbidden Fruit! In the end, don't we all have to find out for ourselves!?

So far, 'pigeons eating shattered glass' sounds cool for a title to me. I just don't know really what to make of it yet or if this image has legs for a story, but the 'forbidden fruit' idea seem quite enticing, doesn't it?

A dark, noirish quality to it...

Something I've been thinking about over the last couple of days:

Reminiscing about my research days in Hamburg and also about the weekends and nights I had spent there in the years before already, I got this idea again about the Reeperbahn being this place of darkness, a place of the unconscious, of dreams and nightmares coming true...a place with a noir atmosphere, in which we leave the world of reason and enter an animalistic world of instinct that drives us forward, into places that we normally wouldn't go, but somehow trigger something in us that's been lying there, slumbering deep down...a world of the unfamiliar, the strange, the unknown, which is exactly what makes it interesting, seductive...it is the fact that we don't understand it, yet we are so fascinated by it...

It reminded me of films like Lynch's Lost Highway or Blue Velvet - a film digging into the underbelly of heartland America and showing us the its dark side while at the same time letting its main character discover his own inner instincts, needs and unconscious that drives him forward and leads him to places that he cannot grasp. Another story that comes to mind is Scorsese's Shutter Island, of which I am reading the script and book at the moment, also showing this scene of a crime while at the same time digging into the deepest subconscious feelings, dreams and nightmares of its main character. What I also found in this regard while researching the life of actor Hans Albers, was the film The Blue Angel (1930) starring Marlene Dietrich as seductive vaudeville singer Lola. Here as well, a very strict school professor gets lured into a world unknown to him and succumbs to his primal feelings by falling in love with Lola. Thus, he loses his reputation in society and ends up as a clown in the vaudeville act, which brings along his eventual demise.

If you're interested in watching The Blue Angel, I found it on google here: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2030824078300409918&hl=en#

Also the song by Marlene Dietrich that incorportates the essence of the film, amazing:



In short, what I'm trying to describe here, is that I am truly fascinated by this world that I cannot grasp, that may always lead and has lead me already to places that I didn't understand not only in the outside world but also within myself - a world that gives me goose bumps, that creeps up my neck and makes me feel afraid and fascinated at the same time - gives me the feeling I want to run away and dig into it more simultaneously...

There are a couple of famous characters in film that come to mind when I think about this. Hopefully, mentioning them will give you a bit of a better idea of what I am talking about:

1. The Joker (The Dark Knight) - the interrogation scene - BRILLIANT - also we never know exactly hye he is the way he is, which makes his evilness even more powerful...

2. Frank Booth (Blue Velvet) - the character representing a world of the unconscious:





The way Frank disappears at the end...creepy!



3. The man at the party (Lost Highway) - still creeps up my neck whenever I watch him:



(This scene is actually part of the Top 10 creepiest movie scenes, a guy gathered together on youtube - AWESOME :) !!!)

4. also, Michael Myers (Halloween, the original one): In the first film, what is so fascinating about him is the fact that you almost never see him walk into the frame or leave. Mostly, he is either there or he is not! Which gives him an almost supernatural quality and thus makes him even more frightening...

All these characters, I don't understand them, but this is exactly why I am so fascinated by them. I believe that if I did understand them actaully, they surely wouldn't leave such an impression.

Another thing in this regard that comes to my mind is a nightmare that my girlfriend has told me once about, which has this same creepy but fascinating quality:

She was standing in a cue at one of the counters in a bank. Suddenly, a group of men dressed in black and wearing these black filter masks came running in and she found herself in the middle of a robbery. While everyone lay down on the floor, she managed to head towards a staircase and began to descend into what she thought must have been the vault area. Down the stairs, however, she found herself walking along this long dark corridor that appeared to have no end. It was like all of a sudden she were in this rundown building. There was mold everywhere. Then she heard a weeping and began to follow the noise. She passed a couple of doors until she reached one that was open. Inside a bare room, she saw a little boy sitting on a bunkbed and crying. She hurried towards him and took him in her arms, trying to comfort him. Then another noise - it was a constant low breathing, Darth Vader-like, just as if it came through a filter mask. Slowly and constantly, the breathing grew louder until one of the robbers appeared right there in front of them in the doorway and saw them. He turned towards them and approached them slowly. Desperately trying to find something to defend herself, my girlfriend started looking around and on a night stand she finally found this test tube. She grabbed it and when the man reached her and tried to assault her and the boy, she began to beat the guy desperately with this test tube. She beat him, kicked him and punched him until the man began to let go of them and it felt like he gradually lost his power. Simultaneously with losing his power, it also appeared as if he began to shrink. And he did...he became smaller and smaller and smaller...until he was so small that my girlfriend was able to put the test tube over him and trap him this way, but the man shrank more and more until he had disappeared completely. Embracing the little boy in a big hug in that bare, mold-infested room, she woke up eventually...

Just writing this down still makes me shiver...

Here's a picture made by Otto Dix I found on the web that totally reminded me of this nightmare:
To sum up, all this stuff that I have been writing about in this post, the red light district in Hamburg also has always had this quality of the strange and unfamiliar to me. It has this dark, noirish quality to it...maybe this will also be part of my eventual story.

The Historic Whore Tour

The tourist in me is writing this :) :

Something that I would deeply recommend to anyone visiting Hamburg. It costs about 30 euros and you are taken on a two-hour trip through Hamburg's red light district by a woman dressed like a prostitute in the old ages.

You really get to know a lot about the history of this place and how it developed and even stood its ground during the Nazi era. You also get to see what a 'classic' room a prostitute occupies looks like. They also take you onto the Great Freedom and let you know that it hasn't gotten its name from anything concerning sex, but that this area once had been occupied by the Danish and their laws for merchants where a lot looser than the Germans'. You also get to know a lot more about the 'Laufhäuser', which are the brothels along the Reeperbahn, and what is going in Schmuckstraße, something I have told you already in my chapter on the Great Freedom church. At the end of the tour, as a thank you, you also get a very specific schnaps, they call 'Hurenschnaps'...tastes quite nice :)

So whenever you go to Hamburg, do the historic whore tour! It's definitely worth the money and they also offer the tour in English.

The Queen of Clubs

Just a little anecdote on the side:

While I was doing my research on Wednesday, August 25th, I entered a side street to the Albers Platz and found a playing card on the ground. It was the Queen of Clubs. Out of curiosity, I took it with me and decided to do some research into that particular card. As with many cards, this one as well has a lot of meanings when it comes to cartomancy:

Amongst many things, it is the card of female intuition and care. It also means, however, that everything we do is soon to be tested and this will influence our further lives. My screenplay? Most of all, however, it tells you that 'if you manage to overcome your fears, you can turn them into a power that leads you to inner peace. Thus, you will never be alone as long as you keep the faith that there is always someone with you and embracing you with their wings of light.' A guardian angel?

So what does this mean? To be honest, I have no clue whatsoever. I guess, some higher power is just telling me 'Phil, you on the right track. Carry on with what you do!' I will.

An Uneasy Feeling...

Something I just remembered from my first day of research that I have only mentioned in passing at the beginning of my blog:

Near the end of that day, I was waiting at the Albers Platz to see, if it was really true that the prostitutes' work day started at 8pm sharp. The rain was getting heavier now and I found shelter under one of the big sun umbrellas they had put up to keep the beer benches from getting wet. I looked at my watch and at 7.58pm they did come out and started to line up all over the Albers Platz and the other streets in the restricted area they are allowed to stay in. You can see that on the photo here:

It is basically a square area, in which the prostitutes are allowed to go about their business.

But basically what happened is that after about five minutes there was this man, white hair, probably in his late fifties, grey suit, who started a conversation with one of them and it lasted for a couple of minutes. To me, it seemed quite interesting. She kept talking to him and he appeared to consider going with her, maybe...I don't know...but that's what it looked like. Then he left her and started walking down towards the Reeperbahn and I became curious to see what he would do or where he would go.

So I got up, despite the rain, and started following him...which is something that I had never really done before: to deliberately pick out somebody from the crowd and just go wherever they went, observe them and see what they are up to. This, to be honest, made me feel really uneasy. It feeled like I was doing something forbidden in a certain way. I mean, how would I feel, if was picked out by somebody who all of a sudden started following me? Or maybe this has already happened a couple of times and I just didn't notice?...Paranoia creeping up my back now :) ...

My 'chase' turned out to be totally harmless, though. The guy passed the line of prostitutes at the Reeperbahn, went past the currywurst stand, past the police station, crossed the street and basically left the 'Kiez' (what St. Pauli is called here). Soon, I also lost interest in him, as he basically left my 'area' of research. Nonetheless, the fact that I followed him for a couple of minutes left me with that uneasy feeling and it took me a while to get rid of it...

It also reminded me a lot of Chris Nolan's debut film, which ironically is called Following. I watched it again afterwards and that uneasy feeling once in a while came back creeping up my neck, I have to say.

If you're interested, I found the film on google videos for free to watch. Here's the link: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6618880831029867065#

And here's the trailer:



In conclusion, even though Chris Nolan has dipped into that subject already, maybe it might also be an element I could use for my screenplay...

The Church

A place that has a quality I cannot yet grasp: St. Josephskirche (St. Joseph's Church), a Catholic church. It is right at the corner of Great Freedom and Schmuckstraße near the Reeperbahn, right at the corner of on one street with strip clubs en masse and another that is widely known as the 'Transenstrich', basically the alley in which transsexuals offer themselves at night.

I went there during the day and I strolled past it at night. At its gate it says 'There is nothing that Jesus can't cope with'. Strolling past it, I had to think about when it was the last time I went to church and I came to the conclusion that it had been a loooong time ago. Last time, I can remember, it was a couple of years ago during a holiday trip to Lake Como, Italy, with my girlfriend. We went into this small church and I lit a candle - lighting a candle in a church has always given me some sort of peace that I cannot explain, even though I am not really a religious person myself; at least not in the traditional sense of Christianity and all the other religions. I do believe in something, don't get me wrong here; it's just something that I cannot grasp really, at least not yet.

So, basically what I did was, I went to a service the first time in I can't say how long. As I expected, there weren't a lot of people in there. Apart from the pastor and a nun, we were only six altogether. It was a celebration of the Last Supper, a Holy Communion...I don't really know what the exact English term for that is...and it doesn't matter really. What matters is the fact that, to me, it was a very good experience. I noticed again this very sublime and noble character that churches have always had for me, a place that gave me some sort of peace that I could feel deep down in my belly...and one I can't explain either. It's just there whenever I enter a church. And even though there were only very few people there, they all had such a positive and peaceful aura.

After the service, I lit a candle again and decided that I should do this more often; it doesn't have to be a service or anything, just sitting there and experiencing the peace of it, which kind of feels like a time-out from everything that happens in the world outside.

Heading outside then, an old lady had trouble getting down the stairs with her wheeled walker. A black lady and I helped her. I don't want to sound too sentimental now, but sometimes, it really is the simple things in life that can just make you feel a bit better...

Why I didn't stay at the Alt-Hamburg...

Here the story of why I didn't end up staying a night at the Hotel Alt-Hamburg:

When I came back to Nuremberg again, having finished the job shooting The Duo in Hamburg, I started out planning my second stay in Hamburg at the end of August. I called up the Hotel Alt-Hamburg and reserved a single room for two nights. The receptionist wrote down my name and asked me again if I really intended to come. It was probably a result of her own experience that she did this. I gathered it might often happen in a place like this that young people who intended to party in Hamburg made a reservation and then just didn't show. I assured her that I would, though.

The night before, I called the hotel again to confirm my reservation. Everything was as planned. I told the lady that I would be arriving some time in the afternoon and she said that this was okay. The day after, I took the subway to the Reeperbahn and went to the Albers Platz. I took a turn into Querstraße, a side alley to the square, and entered the quite rustic and rundown place. Outside it still had a sign showing its prices in marks and offering a cheaper rate for teenagers, students and (believe it or not) sailors.

Inside, I saw the entrance to the tavern to my left and the reception was through an open doorframe to my right. An old woman was sitting behind the desk sipping on a coffee and reading the paper. When she saw me coming in, she suddenly had a look on her face as if she'd been struck by lightning, maybe wondering what I was doing here, I don't know. Above her upper lip, she had a small fluff, I noticed, which made her look a bit weird. The lady seemed sceptical somehow and her scepticism during the entire conversation didn't seem to vanish. I told her that I had reserved a single room for the night. She looked down on her chart that was invisible to me and replied with a blunt 'I don't think so', which left me a bit startled I have to say.

I told her that I had called twice to confirm the reservation and she said that she didn't have my name anywhere. I sighed and asked her if she at least had a spare room that I could book now. She told me that she still had one for the night. 'I take it', I replied. She then turned around and looked through the pigeonholes with the keys in them, as to see which room it was exactly. She took out a filled-in form, tore it up and handed me one to fill in. This made me a bit sceptical now. So I filled in the form and since she just looked at me and didn't say anything, I asked her when I needed to pay. 'Always in advance!' she said, so I got out a fifty from my wallet to pay the 22 euros. Again, the look, struck by lightning!

'I can't give you change for that. Don't you have it smaller?' I told her I didn't. Another moment of awkward silence, in which we were just staring at each other. I finally broke the silence. 'I tell you what, I was about to head to the theatre anyway. Is it okay, if I come back afterwards and give you the money then?'

'That is fine', the woman said. Finally, things appeared to be sorted. But then the look again! 'Can I get the keys and leave my stuff upstairs?' I asked, getting annoyed now. 'No, you can't 'cause you haven't paid yet.' F...ing hell, I mean, it was not like I was trying to have sex for free with a prostitute; I just wanted to leave my bag and backpack, so I wouldn't have to carry them around all the time. So, I got out of there and went to the theatre to see Die Seltsame Gräfin (The Odd Countess), an Edgar Wallace crime story, at the Imperial Theatre just down the road. The play managed to distract me and calm me down a bit.

Then, after the play, I even went to a kiosk to change my five euro bill into coins, so I could give her the exact amount of cash for the night. The Albers Platz was getting busier now and there were more people walking down its side alleys, the prostitutes guarding the place off like it was some kind of maximum security prison. As I entered the Alt-Hamburg again, a guy already on the verge of being completely drunk, exited. I took a right and was back at the recpetionist's desk. 'I have the money now.' I said, already getting out my wallet. But as I did so, the woman, without even looking up from her tabloid, answered: 'Now the room is gone.'

'What do you mean, it's gone?' I asked, a bit flabbergasted. 'Someone else took it.' she replied. She still didn't look up and continued reading her paper when I got out and left without another word...

The Bum & The Businessman

An image that I secretly took on my second day. Just the way they sit there in this parallel way outside a Pizza Hut, to me, is a story in itself. It was about noon time, so I guess the businessman was on his lunch break. And the homeless guy taking some notes: maybe he is writing a letter to someone or just jotting down some stuff that he needs to get. I think he got himself a coffee there at Pizza Hut because they are offering the cheapest one on the Reeperbahn, but I'm not entirely certain about that. This might actually be a good basis for a story...

The Place with a Million Faces

On my second day, I found this interesting place in a side street to the Albers Platz called Harry's Hamburger Hafenbasar. It cost two euros to get in, but it was definitely worth it. It was mainly two stories full of faces in really narrow and small corridors. It is an interesting experience when all of a sudden millions of puppets and statues gathered together from all corners of the world are looking at you all of a sudden.

Here are some pictures:

Impressions of a St. Pauli Night

Just a few impressions of a Friday night at the Reeperbahn & Hans Albers Platz! Enjoy!

The Cowboy

There is a guy, most likely poor or even homeless, that lives in the area and that I have seen a couple of times. I've seen him talk to a bunch of people, stroll around the Reeperbahn and also sit on the front steps of a door next to a Uhrenladen and hold out a paper cup asking me for change. In my mind, I started calling him The Cowboy and he immediately reminded me of a couple of other enigmatic cowboy characters that I know from other films.

1. There is the Cowboy played by Sean Bean in a film called The Big Empty. He is this mysterious guy that the protagonist needs to deliver a suitcase to and we never really get to know much about him. Cowboy is only alluded to for most of the film as 'the guy with a big, black duster and black Stetson' and his job, as it turns out, is to gather up people to be taken away by aliens at a 'jump point' outside Baker, California.

2. There is another - to me, even more interesting - cowboy in David Lynch's Mulholland Drive. I'm a big fan of David Lynch anyway, but watching this scene with the cowboy again, it totally fascinated me. The scene is so full of enigma and at the same time really powerful, almost dreamlike. The cowboy himself also, the way he speaks...totally calm, but at the same time he is really frightening as well (similar to the man at the party in Lost Highway). I found it really amazing. Maybe there is room in my screenplay for a character like this, too.

If I've gotten you interested. Here's the scene (found it on youtube) and the written version from the screenplay:

INT. ROOM  214 - NIGHT

Adam crosses the room to the phone and dials a number. The phone is answered.

                                                      ADAM

                              Someone's shut off my money!

                                                      CYNTHIA

                              I know.  Where are you Adam?

                                                      ADAM

                              What do you mean "you know"?

                                                      CYNTHIA

                              Someone called me. When they couldn't

                              get you they told me you were as good as

                              broke. I didn't believe then, so I made

                              some calls.

                                                      ADAM

                              And?

                                                      CYNTHIA

                              You're broke!

                                                      ADAM

                              But I'm not broke.

                                                      CYNTHIA

                              I know, but you're broke. Where are you?

                                                      ADAM

                              Beverly Hills Hotel. I've got enough

                              cash in my pocket for one night.

                                                      CYNTHIA

                              Do you know somebody called the The

                              Cowboy?

                                                      ADAM

                              The Cowboy??

                                                      CYNTHIA

                              Yeah, the Cowboy. This guy, the Cowboy,

                              wants to see you. Jason said he thought

                              it would be a good idea.

                                                      ADAM

                              Oh, Jason thought it would be a good idea

                              for me to meet the Cowboy. Should I wear

                              my ten gallon hat and my six shooters?

                                                      CYNTHIA

                              Something tells me this guy is connected

                              with what's happening, Adam, and I think

                              you should do it and I think you should

                              do it right away.

                                                      ADAM

                              Cynthia...what's going on?

                                                      CYNTHIA

                              It's been a very strange day.

                                                      ADAM

                              And getting stranger. Where do I meet

                              this Cowboy? I mean do I have to ride

                              out to the range?

                                                      CYNTHIA

                              Sort of, funny boy. If I tell him the

                              meeting's on you're to go to the top of

                              Beachwood Canyon. There's a corral up

                              there where he'll be.

                                                      ADAM

                              You gotta be kidding?

                                                      CYNTHIA

                              Will you meet with him?

                                                      ADAM

                              Yeah, sure. It is that kind of a day.

                              When?

                                                      CYNTHIA

                              I'll call him, then call you back...If

                              you want you could stay at my place.

                                                      ADAM

                              Cynthia... that would not be a good idea.

                                                      CYNTHIA

                              I'm just offering a place to stay.

                                                      ADAM

                              I understand, Cynthia and thank you for

                              the offer. I'll find a place. Now go

                              ahead and give the Cowboy a yodel and get

                              back to me.

                                                      CYNTHIA

                              Okay, but you don't know what you're

                              missing.

                                                      ADAM

                              Git along little dowgie and call me back.

Adam hangs up and seems to sag, cupping his forehead and eyes with his hand.

EXT. BEACHWOOD CANYON - NIGHT

Adam, in his Porsche, makes his way up the canyon.

INT. PORSCHE

Adam feeling like a fool drives up the dark, winding canyon road. As he nears the top of the canyon the residential

area gives way to desert brush. The road winds steeply up to a dark dead end where an old barn and stable sit.

Adam parks in a little dirt lot and walk up past the barn to the corral. His eyes grow accustomed to the dark and

he looks about. No one is around. There's only a light wind and a few twinkling stars in the sky above. Suddenly

some bare bulbs hanging from the corral gate flare up. Adam hears a noise in the brightness and turns. There

walking toward him into the light is the Cowboy - dressed in clean blue denim jeans, well-oiled unscuffed, beautifully

engraved cowboy boots, a red embroidered ivory buttoned cowboy shirt complete with string tie. Atop the Cowboy's

head is a 10 X white Stetson. The Cowboy is smiling warmly as he approaches. He stops in front of Adam and

begins to speak with a true, slow Western drawl.

                                                      COWBOY

                              Howdy!

                                                      ADAM

                              Howdy to you.

                                                      COWBOY

                              Beautiful night.

                                                      ADAM

                              Yeah.

                                                      COWBOY

                              Sure want to thank ya for drivin' all the

                              way up to see me from that Beverly Hills

                              Hotel.

                                                      ADAM

                              No problem. What's on your mind?

                                                      COWBOY

                              Well now, here's a man who wants to get

                              right to it. Kinda anxious to get to it

                              are ya?

                                                      ADAM

                              Whatever.

                                                      COWBOY

                              A man's attitude ... a man's attitude goes

                              some ways toward how a man's life will

                              be. Is that somethin' you agree with?

                                                      ADAM

                              Sure.

                                                      COWBOY

                              Now... did you answer cause you thought

                              that's what I wanted to hear or did you

                              think about what I said and answer cause

                              you truly believe that to be right?

                                                      ADAM

                              I agree with what you said...truly.

                                                      COWBOY

                              What did I say?

                                                      ADAM

                              That a man's attitude determines to a

                              large extent how his life will be.

                                                      COWBOY

                              So since you agree I guess you could be a

                              person who does not care about the good

                              life.

                                                      ADAM

                              How's that?

                                                      COWBOY

                              Well, just stop for a little second and

                              think about it. Will ya do that for me?

                                                      ADAM

                              Okay, I'm thinking.

                                                      COWBOY

                              No. You're too busy being a smart aleck

                              to be thinkin'. Now I want ya to think

                              and quit bein' such a smart aleck. Can ya

                              do that for me?

                                                      ADAM

                              Look ... where's this going? What do you

                              want me to do?

                                                      COWBOY

                              There's sometimes a buggy. How many

                              drivers does a buggy have?

                                                      ADAM

                              One.

                                                      COWBOY

                              So let's just say I'm drivin' this buggy

                              and you fix your attitude and you can

                              ride along with me.

                                                      ADAM

                              Okay.

                                                      COWBOY

                              Now I know a few things. I know you have

                              had a rough day. You're probably thinkin'

                              I don't know the half of it, but in

                              actual fact I know every part of it. The

                              business of gittin' thrown off your

                              movie, the heartache of seeing your wife

                              with another man... losin' access to that

                              precious film vault...

Adam suddenly looks stunned, unsure.

                                                      COWBOY (cont'd)

                              ... realizin' you don't have hardly a

                              nickel to your name and then add on to

                              that the sickenin' feeling some men are

                              gonna catch you and hurt you bad for

                              bustin' their vehicle. Some days are like

                              that. They are rough, but what will

                              tomorrow bring? Will it be better than

                              today? The same ... or worse?

                              A lot of that is up to us individually.

                              Up to us and our attitude. When the

                              Castigliane brothers said "This is no

                              longer your film," they meant it, but

                              they didn't mean you were not going to

                              direct it. I want you to go back to work

                              tomorrow. You were re-casting the lead

                              actress anyway ... audition many girls for

                              the part. When you see the girl that was

                              shown to you earlier today, you will say

                              " This is the girl." The rest of the

                              cast can stay- that is up to you, but

                              that lead girl is not up to you. Now,

                              you will see me one more time if you do

                              good. You will see me two more times if

                              you do bad. Good night.

The Cowboy turns and walks until he is engulfed in darkness. Through the darkness Adam hears the sound of a car

door opening and closing, then another opening and closing and then the sound of the car driving away. Adam walks

up in the direction the Cowboy took, but he sees no sign of a car nor any dust nor any road. He goes back down past

the barn and stables to his car. There standing by his Porsche is the Cowboy.

                                                      COWBOY (cont'd)

                              You thinkin' this'll work out, cause I

                              was thinkin' it just might.

                                                      ADAM

                              It will work out.

                                                      COWBOY

                              Good then, but, just in case, that bank's

                              gonna stay closed a bit longer. You

                              understand that?

                                                      ADAM

                              I understand.

                                                      COWBOY

                              You're an understandin' fella.

                                                      ADAM

                              So, this is the last time I see you then

                              unless I do bad?

                                                      COWBOY

                              No, this one doesn't count. It's part of

                              the original one. So then ... until we meet

                              again.

                                                      ADAM

                              Okay.

Adam gets in his car and drives off leaving the Cowboy smiling behind him.