more thoughts from the ROAD

Hello - Kent here, giving ya the friendly shout-out.

Often, when on the road for a long trip, we try to pass the time by listening to music, enjoying the scenery, and philosophizing any number of topics.

Recently, we have been engaging in a creative banter about screenplays and movie making. On a whim, Lori and I try to come up with an interesting concept for a movie. Sometimes we have enough thoughts and ideas for a valid full length feature film. Other times, our ideas seem more like a short-film or a skit for SNL.

As we run the initial idea by each other, we then try to envision some of the shots, actors, dialogue, scenery, etc. It can be fun to come up with an idea that is interesting and has enough merit to keep one's attention.

On our return trip home from South Carolina, we envisioned a movie / screenplay that would be shot from the viewpoint of an anonymous perspective...as one is driving on the highway, passing by the many unknown people in cars, wondering who they are and what their stories might entail. I consider it a study in stereotyping or labeling. (C - Copyright idea)

Imagine driving in a car, and looking off, through the window, as you pass by someone in the slow lane. Perhaps the person is a Caucasian male, scruffy-looking, unshaven, wearing a flannel shirt with cut-off sleeves, sunglasses on, and a cigarette hanging out of his mouth. Additionally, imagine that he is driving a beat-up pick-up truck, with a NASCAR sticker on the rear windshield and a Dale Earnhardt "In Memory" sticker on the rusted bumper. OK- got the picture in your head? It is easy for us to label or stereotype this person as we drive by him at 75 mph...only glimpsing at him briefly. But what if he has a story that is compelling...Perhaps he is actually a lawyer on his way to a costume party. Perhaps he is an organic pig farmer who is college educated and environmentally conscious. Perhaps he is a redneck.

You get the idea.


We imagined a couple of different messages that one might ascertain from such a project. Could be fun. Sometimes if it quacks like a duck, walks like a duck...then it is likely a duck. But that duck might actually be a bull-frog.