INT. RUDY'S APARTMENT

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INT. RUDY'S APARTMENT - NIGHT

a home page

written by

Rudy Kasparian

FADE IN:

A one-bedroom in Burbank. A desk made from a door on two filing cabinets. A Compaq with a coffee ring on the monitor. Index cards thumbtacked to every wall, color-coded. The blinds are closed. It is always night in here.

RUDY KASPARIAN (30, Fresno by way of every temp job in Los Angeles) types. Stops. Deletes. Types again.

RUDY

Okay. Hi. Welcome.

He turns to us.

RUDY (CONT'D)

I moved down here in '94 to write movies. I have written seven of them. None of them have been made. I work nights behind the counter at a video store in North Hollywood, which means I spend eight hours a day telling people that yes, we have the new one, and no, it isn't in, and then I come home and write until three.

RUDY (CONT'D)

This page is where I put scenes from what I'm working on. Real scenes, from real drafts. Read them. Tell me what's broken. Everybody else in this town is too polite to, or too busy.

He hits SAVE. Twice. He's been burned before.

CUT TO:

THE SCRIPTS

1. GRAVEYARD SHIFT AT THE DONUT KING (comedy)
One night at a 24-hour donut shop in the Valley, where a baker who has seen everything, a cop who refuses to eat a donut on principle, and an eighty-four-year-old woman who comes in every night at 3:17 sharp find out what everybody's really doing awake.
Draft 6. Out to two managers. Waiting. Waiting. Waiting.
>> Read the 3:17 scene

2. THE CLEAN-OUT (drama)
Two brothers who haven't spoken in five years have one August weekend in Fresno to empty their late father's house, and every box is a fight.
Draft 3. The one my mom asked me not to write. Sorry, Mom.
>> Read the garage scene

3. LAST STOP, BARSTOW (drama, some comedy)
When a bus breaks down in the desert at two in the morning, a seventeen-year-old runaway and a retired stage magician sit out the night in a truck-stop diner, and he tries to teach her the one trick that matters.
Draft 1. About page 70. Working on the ending every night this week.

>> Read the coin scene

THE SCOREBOARD

Query letters sent (since '94)	112
Scripts requested	14
"Great voice, not for us"	11
Never heard back	3
Nicholl Fellowship entries	3 (no luck yet)
Pots of coffee this year	lost count in March
Times I almost moved back to Fresno	6
Times I actually did	0

THINGS I KNOW NOW

- Get into the scene late. Get out early.
- If a character says exactly what they mean, rewrite it. People almost never do.
- Nobody reads past page ten if page ten is boring. Nobody.
- Your favorite line is the one slowing everything down.
- White space on the page is your friend. A reader with forty scripts on the nightstand will love you for it.
- Finish the draft. Then you get to fix it. You can't fix a blank page.

Notes, questions, coverage, pity:
[email protected]

Readers so far:

(if you're a producer, hi, I'm free for lunch any day)

All scenes © 1998–1999 Rudy Kasparian. Registered with the WGA.
Please don't shoot these without asking me. Actually, please do ask.
Last updated Friday, September 24, 1999

FADE OUT.