Reservations

By Jack R. Stanley

Relationships are not easy. We all have our reservations whether we entering into a new one, or trying to keep an existing one alive. At The Reatta Hotel on South Padre Island, Texas, Barton, the young senior assistant manager and his significant other, Erika, another assistant manager, experience this each day as couples and groups check in and out, bringing their relationships with them.

Their own relationship has hit a rocky patch as they interact with people using the hotel for a affairs, card games, to a married couple who is having a difficult time starting the family they want, to a elderly woman who has just returned from the funeral of her beloved husband and another couple is reunited for the first time since he returned from war. Everyone’s reservations come to a head as Barton and Erika fight for their own resolution.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jack R. Stanley
• Release date: Jul 14, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301546763

Jack R. Stanley

Jack R. Stanley is an award winning novelist, playwright, and screenwriter. As an officer and combat photographer in Vietnam he earned the Bronze Star. Yet he says, “When you’re in a firefight and everybody else on both side have guns while you have a camera --- you get to change your pants a lot.” After his military service he received both his M.A. and his Ph.D. at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor in Radio-TV-Film. His doctoral dissertation was on the long running TV series GUNSMOKE. Stanley also received two of Michigan1s most prestigious creative writing awards, The Hopwood Award, one for a one-act play and the second for a novel. Still married to his gifted high school sweetheart, Stanley’s first academic position was TV Area Head at The University of Texas at Austin’s Department of Radio-TV-Film. He later moved to deep-south Texas and the Lower Rio Grande Valley for a challenging position with The University of Texas-Pan American. Here he taught Theatre-TV-Film for 30 years in the Department of Communication serving as Department Chair at U.T.P.A. for 11 years. He did take one year out to work for The University of Alaska Anchorage as a visiting professor. Back in Texas, Stanley directed for stage at The University Theatre, produced and directed fifteen student staffed, cast, and crewed feature films, writing most of the original screenplays. Just a few of his credits are available on IMDB.com. He now lives in the Texas Panhandle where he writes his fiction and runs his blog, www.TheFictionWritersNotebook.com . His webpage is www.jackrstanley.com.

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RESERVATIONS

An Original Screenplay

by

Jack R. Stanley

Robert Silve

And

Mauro Flores, Jr.

© All Rights Reserved

RESERVATIONS

Text copyright © 2013 by Jack R. Stanley

Smashwords Edition

All rights reserved

This screenplay may not be copied or reproduced, in whole or in part, by any means, electronic, mechanical or otherwise, without written permission from the publisher except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in his/her review.

This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to any persons, events or localities is purely coincidental and beyond the intent of the author and publisher.

Credits:

Cover illustration background

iStock illustration by ZlatkoGuzmic

http://www.istockphoto.com/

[e-mail]

www.thefictionwritersnotebook.com

www.jackrstanley.com

ABOUT READING SCREENPLAYS

A movie script is a story told in visual terms as seen by the film or television camera, and just as it will be seen by the audience on the screen.

Screenplays are not, however, really meant to be read by the general public. In fact, the version you’ll see here is NOT the professional format but one I call Stanley’s Readable Screenplay. It’s designed to (1) easier for e-book readers to handle and (2) more accessible to the non-professional reader.

As a document, screenplays are actually a technical writing intended for the eyes of professional working on the film or video production based on the script. And yet, a good screenwriter knows that the script should be first of all be a good reading experience for professional script readers, potential producers, directors, and actors. The text is written for these professionals who, hopefully, will combine their talents to mount a production of the script.

The description of the sets, lights, props, actions and sounds are often written phrases and incomplete sentences, not punctuated correctly, and annotated in a code expected to be interpreted by those who know the code. Think of the difference between a script and a movie as the difference between a blueprint and a building.

In a very real sense, "..the movie (like a play) is the thing" – not the screenplay. Still, a well written script will play out in the mind of the reader like the movie running in their head.

The protocol of the screenplay is that each scene begins with a heading in all caps that tells the reader where the scene is located (INT. for interior or inside, and EXT. for exterior or outside) followed by a specific place (BEDROOM or SQUAD ROOM, or CITY STREET) and often the time of day (DAY or NIGHT). In the format you’ll see here all Scene Headings are underlined like this:

EXT. CEMETERY - NIGHT

The stage directions or action paragraphs below the Scene Headings, describe briefly the local, (war torn or modern steel and glass) and what action is taking place. These very general descriptions appear here with character names in ALL CAPS if it’s a character’s first appearance in the story.

JOHN DODGE sprints from tree to bush and drops into a bomb crater his rifle ready to cover the rest of the team. One by one ALICE, MAC, and TINY join him each securing a different direction.

Certain words may appear in ALL CAPS just to make them jump out because screenwriters know the old joke: Why do producers hate to read? Because their lips get tired. For this reason the punch up the script so even if the producer just reads what in ALL CAPS and the dialogue, they’ll get the story.

Directing from the page is a major no-no for screenwriters so writers don’t try to specify certain shots beyond EST. or establishing shots to tell the reader where the doors and windows are or other set specifics as absolutely necessary. Often the mere use of a different paragraph of stage direction indicates a different shot but it’s not the writer’s job to tell the director what shot or what lens to use unless it is mandatory. For example if Hans unsnaps his holster while talking to the bounty hunter in the bar, this will be noted.

In this Stanley Readable Screenplay when shots are indicated, they, too, will be underline like Scene Heading. However, screenwriters rarely specify and exact nature of a shot, rather merely suggesting a different ANGLE, or a WIDER or CLOSER shot when required.

Here are some of the terms you’ll see in all screenplays.

ANGLE - a single camera shot. Camera shots are also written as CLOSER or WIDER or even DIFFERENT ANGLE or ANOTHER ANGLE.

ON - BILL or BACK ON – BILL are general camera shots but not