Blog > Stories > Fiction > Wannabe – a BIID screenplay by Gordo

Wannabe – a BIID screenplay by Gordo

Written by Gordo on Friday, August 22, 2008

[Note from Sean:] This script was actually taken up by a film maker and I was asked to pull it from the site for copyright reasons. I am glad this will be made.

Gordo says: The idea for Wannabe came shortly after another movie called Quid Pro Quo came out, which dealt with similar issues. Both movies deal with a character that feels the need to be paraplegic, but what I tried to do with Wannabe is do everything that Quid Pro Quo failed to do. Quid Pro Quo touched on what it means to be a “wannabe” but ultimately fails at showing the human aspects of the condition.

The wannabe character is shown as somewhat deranged, and not quite human in emotion. I have tried to counter that by telling the story from the point of view of Tracy, the hero of Wannabe, and showing her to be the same as any other person her age, minus the wannabe factor. I have tried to show both her happy times, such as when she is living the life of a paraplegic, and her sad times, when everything falls apart. I have tried to show that being a wannabe has its ups and downs, but ultimately, it is the downs that affect a person the most, and the downs are often caused by external factors rather than internal ones.

This screenplay is also meant to challenge the preconceptions that many people have towards wannabes, such as the notion that wannabes are attention-seekers or deranged individuals. I have incorporated aspects from my own life as well as some from other accounts available that contradict these notions.

Some of Tracy’s actions also symbolize the wannabe community extending our friendship to the “real” disabled community. We know that many of them do not want to be associated with wannabes, but there are many ways we can help; we can help advocate for accessibility issues, since we can see problems from the same point of view, as well as be a sympathetic ear to common issues.

 

Tags: , , , , ,

This entry appears in Fiction. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

25 Comments

1 On 22 August, 2008, Julia said:

Avatar random

Hey Gordo,
I am really touched and at a loss of words. You did really great. And I want to thank you for bringing back some very, very, very well repressed childhood memories to me.
Maybe I will write more later.
Bless you.
Jule

 

2 On 22 August, 2008, Julia said:

Avatar random

You bet I did :)
Didn’t even realise it was that long… I just couldn’t stop! ;)

 

3 On 22 August, 2008, Dante said:

Avatar for Dante

I also read the screenplay; pretty solid work. Amazing job and effort! I’d love to get something like that directed/produced on film; alas, only if I had the money!

 

4 On 22 August, 2008, Chloe said:

Avatar for Chloe

Wow! Gordo… I just finished this. I’m still crying. I printed it out at work and brought it home so that I could read it in my wheelchair this evening. This is SO intense. I lost count of the number of times I started crying. My partner asked me what it is that I am so engrossed in. I told her it’s a screenplay. We looked at each other and didn’t need to say anything else. She knew why I was crying.

Thank you, Gordo.

 

5 On 22 August, 2008, Sean said:

Avatar for Sean

There are several scenes that I thought were particularly good and strong. I had one “get out of my head” moment too :) I didn’t cry, but that’s probably just because I haven’t been crying in A Very Long Time.

If I might have one criticism it would be about the ending. It almost feels like getting married was the answer to happiness for Tracy. Dunno, I might have read it wrong.

 

6 On 22 August, 2008, Sophie said:

Avatar for Sophie

Yea you know I loved it Gordo and I already commented on the ending but the conclusion to the biid crisis seemed lacking after her parents asked her to come back.

 

7 On 23 August, 2008, Jay said:

Avatar random

This is my first time for a reaction online. I wrote to Sean, one time he asked about the ‘lurking’ part, half a year ago. I told him that this site is helping me a lot!!! But now I could not resist a reaction anymore. I just HAD to write. It took me 90 mins. to read, and I also could not stop… The script is very good. Showing the mixed emotions stuff, the problems and the break of relationships, the moment you come out or ppl find out. (I know/can relate to this because of my wife broke up with me because of it, and a lot of my so called friends chose her side.) The marriage part at the end gave me a bit the feeling of a fairy tale. That includes all the reunions and fixed relationships in the story. It’s nice for the tearpulling atmosphere. And it’s like how the ideal world should be. I’ll wish everybody would react so understanding and forgiving (for whatever reason necessary). I believe that in reality it often is more complicated. Ppl are not so tolerant. Never the less it is a very good script. My compliments!!! I could not have done it.

 

8 On 23 August, 2008, Sean said:

Avatar for Sean

Hey Jay! Welcome out of the lurking closet :) Stick around, willya? :)

 

9 On 23 August, 2008, Julia said:

Avatar random

Now some time went by and I am still really moved. Talking about the emotions this play of yours bring up, Gordo, you just hit home!
Usually I am the kind of person who can read the same Agatha Christie mystery again and again because I always forget who the murder was and why he did it. And ask me about a film I’ve seen only once and I won’t be able to tell you much about it (ask Sean, he just asked me about my opinion on Quid pro Quo which I watched last week *grins*). But with your work it’s different; I remember parts of it all the time during the day and think about it and am moved, I am really not used to that. As I said, you really hit home. I wish my “active” English vocab was better so I could really express how grateful I am and how I feel about it.

 

10 On 13 September, 2008, Bobby Laurel said:

Avatar random

I have written it in my e-mail to you, Gordo, but still I will repeat what I have written, so that the other knew:
I have just read your text “Wannabe Script”. So, first and foremost, I have to say: Thank you very much for the very strong story. I enjoyed reading it and I was touched by the story. Although I am not a fan of the american happy-ends with marriage or emotional scenes with a large audience – oh yes I am Europen – I liked it from the beginning to the end.

I think it is one of the best piece of literature about the wannabe phenomenon, maybe the best ever written. … I liked Quid Pro Quo, but Wannabe is thousand times better. (shortened)

 

11 On 10 July, 2009, L said:

Avatar random

I know its a bit late, but it was very nice! I read the whole thing through (and now its lunch time), and, even though I really try to keep tons of emotion out of stuff (a technique I used early on to avoid awkward moments around disability that seems to have carried over), I still felt that occasional moment. Very nice.

Also, how would one go about convincing one of the film teachers that this _is_ an acceptable thing to do a movie on? Think high school… Less regulations, but still not college (where I have the impression you can make a movie about anything…).

 

12 On 10 July, 2009, L said:

Avatar random

Well, let’s just say that this would be a minor thing compared to what our Student Worker Club is capable of (we got in the news twice last year because of them…). I’m not quite sure how much controversy it would cause, certainly enough to get people to wake up (but definitely too much for PTV to air it on Wednesday announcements…). I think I know someone who is taking film production, so I’ll bug them (they may be reluctant, of course, but at least they know where I’m coming from).

I can’t print it out (where do you hide a 103 page script?), but I did manage to save it and encrypt it, so that I can read it again without anyone else being privy to it (aka:: dad & sister).

And, completely off topic, I just got the same robot-protection question for the 5th time in a row…

 

13 On 10 July, 2009, Sean said:

Avatar for Sean

@Gordo, I’m glad to see you’re still around. I hope things have not been too bad for you. Drop me a note to let me know, eh?

 

14 On 10 July, 2009, L said:

Avatar random

Hmm, double-sided, a trick I have somehow mastered despite always forgetting to until the second page… :)

If I can actually contact the person I had in mind, I will see what they think before printing it (hopefully dad isn’t keeping track of how much printer paper we have… never print anything these days, its all electronic).

Now, you do understand that when I say high school, that does also pose some restrictions on prop stuffs, not just keeping the rating appropriate. If I did decide to do it, to a semi open-minded community that has never heard of BIID and might think this is the worst idea in the history of Colorado, how would you like to be known? Just Gordo? or the whole thing at the top of the script?

 

15 On 10 July, 2009, L said:

Avatar random

That was fast, I’m used to waiting for the time zone change from USA -> Europe, etc and back…

So, I’ll see what I can do, unfortunately, phone contact (hard to achieve at best) is necessary because when my email went away, so did my address book (which means IM is impossible, mailer daemon sends it back), so I’ll let ya know when I actually contact the guy.

More importantly, there is a very small probability that, if the strange movie made in film class is related to me, the wrath of the gods might shine down upon you as an intermediary between me and my “stage” (as my parents have deemed it over). Is that still okay?

 

16 On 11 July, 2009, L said:

Avatar random

Oh, just ask Sean what the email from my very angry mom said (or, imagine, and you’ll probably be right). Of course, there is no way for you to really be affected, so I don’t know why I said it, actually…

I finally got my friend’s email (I took one look at it and said, wow…), so I’ll see what I can do.

 

Post your comments

Comment info


(required)


(valid email required)



(required)

Send

Anti-spam - answer to confirm you are not a spam bot


 

© transabled.org - 1994-2012 - All Rights Reserved.

About Gordo

I'm a 23-year-old (unless I forget to change it next year) from Canada. I'm a paraplegic "wannabe" who is still trying to figure all of this BIID business out.