PART TWO of- "Remembering AMNESIA": Or How a 23-Year-Old Filmmaker Shot an Apacolyptic Thiller for $6,000 and Gained the Attention of Media Outlets."

PART TWO

(Conceiving a Saga)

John Wayne Bosley

After a few days thinking through the concept of this world of Allan Carter, I sat in front of a computer and wrote out a summary of the scenes that made up the film, then wrote the first draft of the script. After a a few hours the first draft was done and several people close to me read draft one. A large portion of the final version of AMNESIA still has scenes that are almost word-for-word what was in that first draft. My brother James read that script and recommended that we go for a car ride to Barnes & Noble. We never made it into the store, but instead sat in his car developing the concept of the story into a more complex and layered story plot.

One of the things that scared me about AMNESIA's story concept was that the world Allan Carter wakes up to has a permanent cloudy sky and a few other special effects elements. Being that this was my first feature film I was scared to death with the idea of special effects or blue screen/green screen and wanted to do something easy. So I kept the cloudy sky and other special effects elements of the world either out of the screenplay entirely or as low key as possible (that was until later drafts were written).

I went back and wrote draft two and started to realize that the story dictated the need for a sequel because the first one only seemed like an introduction into this world we were creating and the delema that Allan Carter was facing. But then I put everything on hold...

You see, I was starting to become concerned that since AMNESIA dealt with different topics that would possibly be controverisal, I didn't want to do the story anymore. It is very easy for different people to treat the story as something more than it was. So AMNESIA was shelved, and I had determined that I may never make the story...

About 4 months later I had come to the conclusion that I had no other choice but to make my next film. I was leaning towards a sci-fi thriller about time travel and my brother had talked about a film about dreams, and then there was AMNESIA. I pitched all three to my wife and asked her what she thought. Her response: "If I had a choice of which one I thought would make it to Sundance on the concept it would be AMNESIA". Her comment settled the decision for me on the film, but little did I know how difficult a journey it would be to bring the film to life and how many times the project would almost be canceled.

After our decision on AMNESIA being the film to start my career, I decided to do something no other screenwriter or filmmaker ever did: write all the sequels before shooting the first one. I am a idealist when it comes to stories. I believe that if a sequel is to be made it should be because the story dictated the need not because they can make a lot of money of a great concept that people loved. I also believed that all sequels should atleast be written out in a summary, at the least, if not as scripts as well, long before the first film is shot. That is what I did. I wrote THEM right after committing to produce AMNESIA and wrote the summary of 11th HOUR as well. I knew the ending before I shot the begining...

TO BE CONTINUED...