1 year, 4 seasons, 1 couple, 365 love scenes

real and imaginary, or are they?

The screenplay is an imaginary, conceptual, hypothetical film as if written by “John”, the central character, who is an aspiring screenwriter, an outsider and a rebel. John is adopting his “love-journal” that he created documenting his love scenes with his girlfriend “Jane” to an imaginary screenplay, a movie that would not be made by any main-stream filmmaker, as it is too intimate and risque.

With the advent of the internet, there are millions of such pieces out there in various forms. Whether they are photos, blogs, videos, tweets, social-media text bits – our compulsion to document and share the most intimate moments has become the fabric of our collective consciousness.

It is a “journal” – someone writing it down right afterwards, sometimes next morning, next day, next week. Sometimes it is a re-telling of the stream of consciousness, or trying to capture it as if the writer lost track of whether the dialogue was actually spoken, or went through the mind at the time, or occurred after the fact.

Filmic approach in Poly-Vision

Polyvision was the name given by the French film critic Émile Vuillermoz to a specialized widescreen film format devised exclusively for the filming and projection of Abel Gance’s 1927 film Napoleon.

Polyvision’s with an aspect ratio is 4:1, is the widest aspect ratio in existence. 

Polyvision involved the simultaneous projection of three reels of silent film arrayed in a horizontal row, making for a total aspect ratio of 4:1 (1.33×3). Polyvision’s extremely wide aspect ratio was the widest aspect ratio yet seen, even though it is technically just three images side by side. 

Three film cameras were stacked vertically to shoot the widescreen compositions which would be viewed across all three sections. Gance also used the three strips to create triptych compositions of panels contrasting or simultaneous action, mirrored sides framing the center strip, and perceptual cross-cutting.

Gance was unable to eliminate the problem of the two seams dividing the three panels of film as shown on screen, so he avoided the problem mostly by putting three completely different shots together. When he wanted a single image stretching across the three screens, the seams were visible.

Polyvision was only used for the final reel of Napoleon, to create a climactic finale. Filming the whole story in Polyvision was impractical as Gance wished for several innovative shots, each requiring greater flexibility than was allowed by three interlocked cameras. finishes with a flourish intended by Gance: it uses red and blue tinted film on the left and right panels to create le tricolore—the flag of Napoleon’s triumphant army.

Body as Landscape

365: Love Journal is an epic story, and a lot of it is seen in extreme close-ups, the bodies of the lovers often becoming landscapes that will stretch across the whole screen, almost like monumental panoramas seen in landscape photography, there the micro-cosmos becomes the epic.

Before film, I went to art school and studied sculpture. I was influenced by sculptors like Aristide Maillot, Henry Moore, Rodin, Giacometti, and some of the influences will become part of the visual language for this film.

The challenge of this material would be to minimize the nudity, rather make it a poetic-literary stream of consciousness full of beautiful hypnotic images, a film about memory, poetry, art, the soul… and the mind of these two characters. It will also be a way to open up the film so it does not become just two-actors-in-one room.

Sculptures by Rafal Zielinski, Stowe School, UK

I see this as a 240-minute movie (in four parts: Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall) with a non-stop continuous-hypnotic-sound-track that could almost place you into an altered state – it’s about those moments in our lives when we are in that zone. The non-stop beat will help us jump in time within scenes and even edit them as non-continuous events – fragmented – as if snippets of memory…. it may involve working with 4 different DJs creating a separate piece for each of the four seasons.

My hope is to premiere the film as a triple screen immersive experience live event in 4 parts, with intermission, each with a live score by each of the 4 DJs. It could as a multi-city tour, followed by a conventional theatrical and video release.



A BARDO IMMERSIVE MOVIE

A young love triangle in the life after death state – one is in a coma (near-death experience), one is truly dead, and one was given a date drug. 

Tibetan Book of the Dead

Bardo Thodol (Bar-do’i-thos-grol) in Tibetan or more commonly known as “The Tibetan Book, of the Dead”, is a classic of the world’s religious literature.

It concerns the nature of the mind and its projections – beautiful or terrible, peaceful and wrathful – which seem to exist objectively and inhabit the external world.

In particular, it describes these projections as they appear immediately after death, in a much more overwhelming form since the consciousness is no longer grounded and shielded by its connection with a physical body.

It teaches recognition of these terrifying and seductive forms, and through recognition attainment of the state of enlightenment.

This centuries-old scripture was traditionally read aloud to the dying to help them transcend and see death and rebirth as a process that offers the possibility of attaining ultimate liberation.

Bardo means gap. It is not only the interval of suspension after we die but also suspension in the living situation.

According to the Tibetans, death happens in the living situation as well.

The Bardo experience is part of our basic psychological make-up. The book is not only a message for those who are going to die and those who are already dead, but it is also a message for those who are already born: birth and death apply to everybody constantly, at this very moment.

History

I came across this book as a teenager in India when we visited Nepal.

When I was at MIT, studying art, design, and film, I received a grant to turn it into a one-hour immersive three-screen film and I had William Burroughs writing the script and Phillip Glass the music. We got only part of the way as the computers were not up to speed.

When I came to Hollywood, I developed a screenplay (“Bardo”) which was a mainstream film aimed at a wide audience, and also two subsequent low budget indie versions (“Last Verse”, “In a Dark Wood”).

After seeing the recent breakthroughs in VR I became interested in a realization of it as a VR experience and embarked on creating a new screenplay – utilizing lessons learned from the previous incarnations of this project and molding it into a VR experience that could be perfect for today’s audiences.

After realizing that VR needs more development as a medium – did not seem to catch on, and the image quality is still lacking, I see it now as a movie, that would be shot in an immersive style, in ultra high resolution, that could be screened in IMAX or even larger venues (such as the Las Vegas Sphere), as well as a traditional movie formats. The VR could be a side component – a series of moments taken from the story, to be released on a platform like the Apple Vision Pro.

The screenplay is divided into chapters of 12 minutes length each (because in VR, it becomes too exhausting to watch), so the project could also be made as a limited TV series composed of half hour, or one hour episodes.

The screenplay is an epic story that was intended to “overwhelm” the mind of the viewer (simulating what the Tibetans describe as the death experience), and in a TV medium it could be taken more slowly and leisurely, with each segment expanded, so we spend more time with the characters and the situations.

Story-synopsis

The script is a love triangle between three characters who find themselves in the Bardo state – one is in a coma (near-death experience), one is truly dead, and one was given a date drug.

We also visit dream-states, hallucinatory-drug experiences, and moments of illumination where life and Bardo almost meet.

The central character Adam (23), works at a VR startup designing games.

Over a weekend in Las Vegas, he hooks up with Chloe (21), an escort, at a music festival, overdoses and goes into a coma.

In the near-death state, he reunites with Julia (20) his college sweetheart (love of his life) who died three years earlier.

His experience merges with Julia’s consciousness, who is truly dead. As they re-visit scenes from their loves.

Julia encourages Adam to snap out of the coma, return and live out the remainder of his life.

Julia has brought Adam and Chloe together for a reason.

After Adam snaps out, Chloe immediately rejects him and they go their separate ways – but Julia engineers a way for Chloe to visit the Bardo through a date-drug experience.

As the two women meet in the Bardo state, they resolve past karma between them.

All three are linked in more ways than one.

Chloe’s destiny is to be with Adam… so Julia and Adam can be together again.

Inspiration

Several films have been an influence – Its a Wonderful Life, Ghost, Jacobs Ladder, 2001 and Enter the Void, Matrix.

Even people who do not believe in life after death or reincarnation would relate to the story – it is about looking back and seeing the effects of karma – the power of each action, word, and thought.

It is also about being fully in the moment in every point – seeing the magic of life, the world all around us and the loved ones that surround us and are connected to us in more ways that we can imagine.

It’s about how we all are so interconnected and ultimately one and all.

It is really a movie about love and life, rather than death.

I see it as a new version of the classic “It’s a Wonderful Life.”

My hope is for it to be a visceral (beautiful, awe-provoking, mind-blowing and at times terrifying) experience as well as a journey that is moving, emotional, sensual, consciousness expanding and ultimately even “spiritual”.

Core Audience

Understanding death one can lead a richer more meaningful life – especially if there is still much left to experience – so we are aiming at younger audiences.

The central character is a designer of games – the story is about young love, childhood, school, college, relationship to one’s parents.

It is set in the world of tech start-ups, the Electric Daisy Music Carnival, Burning Man Festival, the outdoors – backpacking around the world, action sports and situations that would be fun for a young audience to enjoy as a large screen immersive and VR experience.

Budget

Coming from the independent world, I see this as a film that could be done on a modest budget – it could mushroom into something bigger by embellishing the effects – but at its core it is an emotional film – about real people – real lives – real places – so the effects should not overpower the experience. As an indie project, it can be more daring and we can push the envelope further.

Immersive Large Screen Experience and VR offshoots (in conjunction with the movie)

The Tibetan Book of he Dead describes the Bardo as an overwhelming hallucinatory state, that is multi dimensional, combining simultaneous levels of time, memory, space and realm.

The audience is the consciousness of one who has died (subjective POV), but the character can also appear “watching”, so we can also become an objective POV – like watching one’s physical ghost of current age beside one’s mother in childbirth – seeing one’s own birth.

The past and the present reunite and become one. It is a chance to merge several realities and time frames into a single shot, witnessing a collage of moments from one’s life play out all around as we, or the protagonist, interacts with the memories.

The experience is grounded by placing it largely in real settings with real people from the main character’s life – it is more about connecting death to life rather than visiting otherworldly realms.

Films about death typically have fantasy settings can be problematic (“What Dreams May Come”, “Pretty Bones”) because they try to create a sort of spectacular, limbo-fantasy life-after-death setting which is unreachable for our imagination.

Adam’s experience is colored by him being a designer of video games – but these elements can be kept to a minimum if the budget is a constraint.

The three characters are often seen surrounded and immersed in memories, visions, and hallucinations (“cycloramas”) – to be filmed on a 360 green screen set and then capturing various moving components individually to collage behind and around the actors.

Personal Connection

My mom has vivid memories of her past life, and I have seen the proof – I’m 99% sure that life does not end after death.

My writing partner on the original “Bardo” passed away a few years ago, but the moment I decided to write the new version as a VR film, the script came to me guided as if from beyond – often I found myself writing, without even being aware I was writing – and it was a joyful experience.

I met with a practitioner of past-life regression therapy and interviewed her. One fascinating aspect has been the reversals she has encountered, time and after time – unresolved issues repeated from life to life – men being re-born as women, parents reborn as offspring, the same “cast of family characters” appearing in different configurations. She has seen abusers being reborn as the ones abused, racists as ones discriminated against, killers as their victims.

I tracked down the Dalai Lama and offered the script to him – he took it, smiled and sort of giggled… then just bowed – a perfect “Bardo” moment.

Rafal Zielinski

Kane comes from Drop Nine, a desolate little asteroid in the middle of nowhere, where life is nasty, brutish and short.  Where men are men and women are…well, men have been cloning copies of themselves for a couple of hundred years, so no one actually remembers what women even look like, except for the “Honey” AI-android companions that abound.

The cloning system is imperfect, the gene pool is deteriorating and some fresh DNA is in dire need.

Drop Nine as well as the other Drops are being harassed by “ALieNZ” (aka “shrieks”), who are so elusive no one knows what they are, and occasionally there have been abductions.

Kane’s ship falls prey to an alien encounter, and as the two spaceships viscously out-maneuver each other they collide.

The alien boards and takes Kane prisoner.

Una is an ace fighter pilot from a technologically and intellectually superior female civilization on the other side of the solar system.  A civilization of women residing on Luna, a glowing megalopolis circling the dead planet, and who consider the hordes of “retroidors” camped out on the colonies to be the polarized scum of the universe…. and they hold the keys to life, the vast DNA library.

The two have never faced each other’s species before.

Kane and Una are unique, in their individual imperfections. They’re young, ambitious, brave, and are now stuck together on Kane’s beat-up spaceship hurtling across the vast reaches of intergalactic space.

The hate, the fear, mistrust, the difference in the lingo-dialect, the personality clash, the war between emotion and rational thought, is beyond description, but like Bogart and Hepburn, in the “African Queen” they are forced to make it work. One trying to outdo the other, one taking the other prisoner, as the tables keep on flipping.

But despite their different backgrounds, Kane and Una quickly become reluctant allies in a desperate and foolhardy attempt to save what remains of humanity from certain destruction as men plan to wipe out women from the universe forever and grab the DNA.

And while they’re saving humanity, they do the one thing people on opposite sides of a millenia-old war in outer space should never do.

They fall in love.

And their efforts fail and all humanity self-destructs in a cosmic big-bang event.

Except for Kane and Una, who escape and crash land on a hazy blue planet, and behold the cycle starts again.

Romance,  adventure and the battle of the sexes with lots of attitude.

The past and future history of the human race as it’s never been told before.

Concept Drawings: Luna (female world):

GATEWAY TO A TRANSMEDIA STORY UNIVERSE

The screenplay, is a movie (or a limited series) that enters this realm through an adventure-love story, between two opposites, and it is an epic journey. It’s Romeo and Juliet, it’s Adam and Eve.

The back story reveals itself sporadically – apparently, after life on the planet was destroyed, the “Split” occurred.

It’s ancient history, myths and all records are gone. The tales speak of women having “expelled” men forever after the cataclysmic destruction of the planet. War after war, had plagued civilization since the dawn of humanity and this was the final straw.

It reveals two fascinating never-explored before worlds – one all male, one all female, and they haven’t interacted for centuries. In fact they don’t even know how the other looks like.

It’s an opportunity for scientific theorizing, explorations of race and gender, culture, belief-systems, as well as humor and sophisticted satire.

This particular point-of-view of the future, could provoke a million reactions, discussion and debate, agreement and disagreement in audiences – all for a holistic goal. The more the better.

Men are racially divided, in a state of war.

Women are racially homogenized, in a state of peace.

Each has found a way to keep the species alive. Men clone sons, women give birth to daughters. 

Each has its own artificially intelligent “companions” when needed.

Two systems of social structure, government, architecture, design, fashion, arts, you name it.

Both utopian in their own way, both dystopian if you look closer.

The narrative is a gateway to a trans-media story universe that could be spun-off into series or several movies, allowing creators a framework to explore this never seen before universe, mythology and reflect on our ever changing society and world of today.

For example there could be a season detailing the back story of how the “Split” had occurred, a season about life on Luna (the female principle), a season about life on the colonies (the male principle), a season about Kane and Una multi-generational re-start of humanity at their new home, and there could even be a season about previous alien abductions that had occurred before Kane and Una’s union.

It is about cycles, and how the universe evolves, so there could be a multitude of further story-universes dealing with previous and future cycles of this ever lasting story.

PRE-VIZ

Check out initial blue-sky designs by group of independent artists and thinkers: –

Concept Drawings: The Male Colonies

Polyamory: Polyamory (from Ancient Greek πολλοί (polloí) ‘many’, and Latin amor ‘love’) is the practice of, or desire for, romantic relationships with more than one partner at the same time, with the informed consent of all partners involved.

It is 2023, and the Pandemic is still a memory.

We are introduced to Holly, an 18-year-old girl who is in an open relationship with seven partners. She meets Alex, a 21-year-old guy who is dating six girls from Monday to Saturday, but wants to make Holly his Sunday girl.

Holly is hesitant, but she agrees to date him, and they both fall in love.

However, when Alex reveals that he hasn’t told any of his other partners about Holly, she is furious and feels betrayed. She gives Alex an ultimatum: either he comes clean to his other partners or they are done.

Holly sets out on a mission to reform Alex into an honest man. She starts by teaching him about the principles of polyamory and how important it is to be truthful with all partners. Alex initially resists her efforts and thinks that she is trying to change him.

However, as they spend more time together, Alex starts to realize that Holly is right and that he wants to be honest with his other partners.

In the process of trying to reform Alex, Holly begins to see that he has all the qualities of her other lovers in one package. She starts to question whether she really needs the poly cube and wonders if Alex could be the right one for her.

Alex decides to come clean to his other partners, and it doesn’t go well. Some of them are angry and hurt, while others are surprisingly understanding.

Alex and Holly face some challenges in their relationship as they try to navigate their feelings for each other and for the other partners.

However, they ultimately realize that they are in love and that they want to be together.

In the end, Holly decides that she doesn’t need the poly cube, and that Alex is the right person for her. They both make a commitment to honesty and communication, and their relationship flourishes.

The movie ends with a scene of them snuggled up together, happy and content in their love, a baby on the way.

Mom wanted a son… Dad wanted a daughter.

They had one kid… And got both!

A serious romantic comedy.

Imagine knowing what its like to be the opposite sex even for one day.

Imagine knowing someone who does.

Well, meet Joe and Josephine. He’s all guy. And she’s all girl. Together they’re one and loving it.

You’re likely never to see them in the same room at the same time. But no ones caught on yet, although it could happen soon.

In fact, Joe tries awfully hard to remain male throughout high school. But when all attempts to win bombshell Julie – the princess on campus – fail, Joe’s left no other choice.

He becomes desperate and deep in the darkness of his room, or locker or a bush, a captivating transformation takes place.

A rugged, striking Joe inch by inch develops into a softer, more round and voluptuous Josephine.

Now as Josephine, she can befriend Julie, distract Julie’s brutish boyfriend, clear the way for a passionate affair with her “twin” Joe, and learn that perhaps there’s a bit of male and female in all of us.

It’s not fair, but who said teenage love ever was?

SYNOPSIS

It’s your dream: to become the opposite sex, just for one day. Here’s a teenage boy who does just that. Every day, whenever he wants. And no one knows – except his parents, and they engineered it.

The “Twins” begins with a brilliant moonlit scene of young JOSEPHINE and a guy attempting to make out in a car. She resists, and he begins to physically pressure her. Suddenly he realizes he’s losing the fight – Josephine overpowers him. He bolts from the car with a panic-stricken look on his face.

Flash to parents and their son JOE, who looks strikingly like the girl making out in the car, in a station wagon with a U-Haul trailing behind. The father’s dialogue implies they’ve been run out of town before but there’s no bitterness in his voice. It’s the price they’ve had to pay for their selfishness. Father wanted a daughter and mother wanted a son. So through their genius wizardry with potions and bio-engineering, they had one offspring and got both sexes.

And their son Joe, a good-looking boy with a mischievous disposition is about to enroll in his umpteenth new high school. On the first day of classes, he sets his sights on a knock-out blonde cheerleader who is very popular and very “taken”. As Joe and his newly found friend FRED plot the courting of JULIE, trouble begins.

Julie’s football hero boyfriend DOUG jealously plots the destruction of this new hunk-about-town. But this is no ordinary Joe faced with an-ordinary crush.

The tantalizing theme throws rope-fulls of twists to the awkward boy-meets-girl saga. And what new boy in town wouldn’t welcome a little cheating to get that princess on campus.

Joe has been beaten up, on the football team and off, and unsuccessful in his attempts to impress Julie. He has no other choice, he didn’t want to do it…

Back at home, an eerie green light shines from under the door next to Joe’s bedroom. In this room sits an incandescently lit bottle of liquid, lots of female gadgets, and a family portrait of Joe’s parents with a girl – who looks just like Joe. He puts the picture down and contemplates himself in the mirror. With intense concentration, Joe tightens his lips and endures minutes of mild contortions. Very slowly, Joe’s chest hair disappears and softer, round hips replace the firm, boyish torso. A silky voice emanates from a previously stubbled face and supple breasts begin to form. The transformation is complete.

Now as breath-taking Josephine, Joe’s supposed twin sister, she will become Julie’s best friend. Then she will coyly distract Julie’s boyfriend Doug by flirting with him. Perhaps then, will Julie be available to Joe – the girl he desperately wants. And Josephine can have her fun too – driving every boy on campus mad with her charm.

The witty highlights of this comical story climax when people become friends with both Josephine and Joe.

Comic confrontations and masterful transformations surface constantly. Frantic scenes erupt when the two are supposed to be present at parties as Joe uses lockers, bushes or closets to expertly become a girl and vice versa.

But behind all the humor, a very strong dilemma is brewing, Joe has absolute y fallen in love with Julie, and now wants to remain male.

Today it’s the football championship, tonight is the prom, and he’s got to have her now.

In a triumphant, charged game, Joe becomes the hero of his winning team and slaughters Doug’s team into oblivion. Joe’s become the hit of the high school, but more importantly, he’s Julie’s date for the dance

It’s Doug whose been defeated on both counts – expelled from the team and cast out of Julie’s life. By now Josephine and Julie are best friends and even she no longer wants to toy with the loser.

Joe is in heaven, and devilish Doug will do anything to change that. One fateful night, he is followed by an inebriated, bitter Doug to a ravine where an unsuspecting Joe becomes Josephine. This scene frightens Doug to death – and he runs home to his army-disciplined father who accuses the lying boy of being on drugs.

Prom night turns into a superb nightmare with scenes of alternating personalities even a magician would envy, with Joe and Josephine being the dates of Julie and Fred almost simultaneously. In a desperate attempt to persuade his peers of the fraud, Doug practically strips Josephine in the school parking lot – only to reveal very feminine attributes.

But soon, Joe’s dream to be male forever may just happen as his parent concoct as steamy brew at home to separate the twins forever.

Unfortunately, the effect of his parents sex-changing hormones begins to alter Joe’s appearance at the prom. While talking to Julie as Joe, gradual breasts appear as Joe self-consciously tries to hide the mummeries.

Suddenly in a cosmic blast of colored air, the twins emerge as two complete people – yes, it’s Joe and Josephine staring at each other.

The experiment is a success and the ecstatic teens return to their unsuspecting dates.

Now Joe will have Julie forever…

A High School Bollywood Style musical set in Toronto

Devdas (2002 India)
Directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali

I keep of thinking of Bollywood musicals which I remember fondly when we were living in India – and have been thinking of an independent film to be shot in Toronto as a Bollywood musical and a starring an Indian Bollywood Star.

The story would go something like this (this is just notes):

Rona was a young star in Bollywood, but her career ended after she fell in love with a wealthy man who ended up moving to Canada. He could be an Indian or Canadian. Now she is living in a fancy compound in style, drives a Mercedes – but feels isolated and uprooted and misses the film business. She feels trapped and unfulfilled – leading her to take a job teaching at a performing arts High School as a dance teacher, inspiring a young generation of performers – while secretly living in her memories. It’s a magnet school – with performance arts gifted kids from all over the city – a multicultural environment with kids from all kinds of economic sectors.

Laura is 16, from an Queen Street artsy family – she is a single child and has high aspirations of going to Juilliard to become a serious dancer. She is into ballet, jazz, free-form – an introvert – pouring all her time and energy into her dancing.

Nas comes from the suburbs – he just got released from the juvenile hall for robbery, and has been identified as gifted in dance – he is a street dancer – but does not take it seriously. He is troubled and thinks school sucks, would rather hand with the homies, but knows if his grades fall or he cuts classes he faces the risk of being sent to juvie – he is on probation.

Nas and Laura are like oil and vinegar – and clash immediately – especially when Rona puts them together as dance partners.

Everyone is curious about Rana and she keeps her Bollywood background a secret until the kids find the tapes locked in her desk.

They pull a prank and the whole class breaks out into a spoof of a Bollywood dance number when she enters the classroom – dancing on desks, etc. making fun of her. But she joins in and turns ridicule into inspiration.

Can one combine modern dance, with the street dance and wrap it up in a candy-colored Bollywood confection set in a San Fernando strip mall parking lot?

Can one create an Electronic Dance number – with instruments from India – rap and pop – of course – it’s done every day on every dance floor with a clever DJ.

And break out in song in a convertible on Queen St. or a city bus.

How about remaking “Chaiyya Chaiyya” on an open-air tourist bus cruising down King St. instead of on top of a train car heading to Kashmir?

How about a Bollywood dance number in a skatepark with skateboards

Or the cheerleading routine at the home game when the football players turn into dancers, helmets and shoulder pads included. All hell breaks loose!

A dance number on the Ontario Lake-front in bikinis and bathing suits and surfers.

And prom – have you ever seen an all North-American prom done Bollywood – it would be wild!

Besides there is a dance contest coming up -the choreographer’s Ball – where talent scouts search for the next group of dancers to go on tour with Beyoncé.

Anything is possible if Nas and Laura would bury their differences and with Rena’s guidance be the couple that they were meant to be.

And they can… despite all they are attracted to each other … however, they hate to admit it…

Practice on rooftops, alleyways, parks, outside City hall, even in the parking lot as they buy tacos…

Gang banger parents, neither the artsy Queen-Street snobby mom and dad can stop them.

When things look like they may fail they end up on Rana’s doorstep for the encouragement – she’s been there more than often.

She shows her clips of the movies she was in – they share their memories.

The night before Nas gets arrested and it all might just fall apart…

But in Bollywood~North everything ends like it should.

A happy ending.

New ideas to add:

Girls pajama party – they sing dance in underwear ripping pillowcases – feathers fly

Boys robbery in rap intercut / Dance

Him stealing jewelry in her house

She confronts him – he’s a thief!

Perhaps as they rehearse – a rooftop love scene? (Do we want to go there or keep the movie more pure?)

Multi-ethnic classroom:
There is the Latino girl
The sensitive gay guy
Oriental girl
Huge fat girl and guy who are great dancers

Here is a clip of the iconic “Chaiyya Chaiyya” sequence, one of my favorites of all time:

“CARNEVALE”.

Carnevale is a contemporary romantic adventure inspired by Shakespeare’s “Midsummer’s Night Dream”.

A young hipster American couple go to Venice during the time of Carnival, to party and experience the clash of old and new,  and test their relationship, which leads to a quarrel and eventual split up.

Fate would have it that both individually meet one half of trendy Italian couple also temporarily estranged.

Through a series of mishaps our four college students become the owners of a stolen diamond mask that makes them the target of rock stars, crooks, the police and an assortment of eccentric local Venetians.

Each of the four lovers finds what was lacking in their former partners.

Romance and passion blossoms amid a festive mood where the line between reality and fantasy merges.

Eventually true love shines through and the couples re-unite, switch and rediscover their former mates.

Carnival in Venice, Masks. Italy