During the summer when I was 12, I was obsessed with Dark Shadows, the original TV show that ran from 1966 to 1971.
It was a soap opera, the first of its kind, with a Gothic theme and spooky but unspecified happenings. It is the only soap opera to have two MGM movies (House of Dark Shadows and Night of Dark Shadows) made from it (later there was a Johnny Depp version), the only soap opera with two spin-offs that attempted to capture the early razzle dazzle of the cast, and the show, and the time in which it was filmed. Non of these paeans to the original quite get to 100%, but it was always interesting to see folks try.
During the summer of my 12th year, I wanted to make something more out of what I was seeing in the show, so I decided to write my own Dark Shadows screenplay. The single sheet upon which this screenplay was written was kept in a special place for 40 years, and it is with pleasure that I share it with you now, spelling errors, punctuation errors, sentence fragments and all.
***
Act I
Setting – spooky looking house. Front door widely visible.
Bare trees. late autom, slight wind, etc.
Time – late evening
Scean
Victoria W. exist from door. Wearing outfit for act one.
V: Bye Aunt, I’ll see you tomorrow.
(Door slams. Pan in on V. Gust of wind. She goes down the stairs, briskly. Then proceads down the path, carefully glancing around her.)
(Appears B., suddenly)
B: V, how good to see you!
V: (is startled) B!
B: (suavely, w/ much confidence) I’m sorry if I scared you. Shall we walk for a while?
V: (looking for excuse, but being poliet) Well, I told Aunt M, I’d be home before 12 and its almost that now. Perhaps another night. I really must be going. (starts to walk away hurriedly. B reaches out and grabs her arm)
B: Where are you going so quickly V,? I can walk you home. You will walk w/ me! (commanding)
(V appears frightened. Wants to refuse but cannot.)
V: B,…
B: Yes, V?
V: Nothing. (wants to ask question, but cannot.)
B: (pause) you are looking lovely tonight.
V: (is flustered) T-thank you, cousin.
***
Yes, that’s it! I started it with such passion, but by the time I got as far as I did, I realized that I was out of my depth. And not only was writing a screenplay hard, on account of you had to keep track of all kinds of things, like where the camera was and what the characters had to say and do and wear, it wasn’t intimate enough. I was too distant from the characters and didn’t feel connected with what was going on in their heads.
I think it was from this point that I realized that I preferred writing in a close third style, though at 12 I was hardly aware that it even had a name. Close third is where you write from a third person POV (he said, she said), and that you stick with that one POV the whole while.
In spite of my early onset screenplay fatigue, what I love is that a 12 year old understood a few screen writing things, like how to “pan” the camera in on a scene, to give the viewer a closeup of a character, and thus indicating their importance in the scene. And that the scene is described in a few screenplay-ish terms, like “windy,” “bare trees,” after which list I blithely add “etc.” because of course everyone knows the type of “scean” I’m setting.
Another thing I somehow understood was how to indicate in what manner the dialog is spoken, such as “is flustered” or “is startled.” Or even how she (the actress) might portray the character by using “appears frightened” and the like. I’m thinking that my 12 year old self was fairly confident that I would be hiring actors and actresses who knew their craft and would require minimal direction. (Which, come to think of it, makes me the director as well as the screen writer!)
Let us not forget my love of exclamation marks! They make everything important! (And all those AUNTS! I gave Victoria two aunts, when, in actuality, she had zero aunts, because she was a foundling left on the doorstep of Hammond Foundling Home in New York City. Duh.)
And poor V, always wanting to refuse or not go or get away only she “cannot.” I’m not sure why I understood so implicitly Victoria’s plight, that the second she comes to Collinwood, she’s virtually trapped.
And the job turns out to be hell.
David is a little demon.
Her boss (Roger) drinks like a fish.
And as for Mrs. Stoddard, the poor dear hasn’t left her house in 20 years! Collinwood is a creepy place, with spooky but unspecified happenings going on all around her.
Then there’s the distraction provided by the lovely and tempestuous Carolyn Stoddard, heir to the Collinwood Canning Company.
Carolyn, as you may or may not know, is the object of Victoria’s secret girl crush.
But then one day Barnabas Collins shows up. He’s the cousin from England, doncha know, and he takes a shine to Victoria Winters right away. (That is until he gets an eyeful of Maggie Evans, who looks like his long lost love, but that’s another story. The long and short of it is, Barnabas Collins is fickle! Don’t date him! Not even if he commands you!)
But before Maggie, Barnabas courts Victoria Winters like there’s no tomorrow. After Barnabas messes up with Maggie Evans (and that’s because Maggie has a backbone made of steel and can resist his “commands”), Barnabas comes back to Victoria, but she gets snatched away by a time warp and that’s the last we hear about her.
But while Victoria is there, she was the female character I most associated with. I wanted to be her, frankly, with her dark mane of hair and those big eyes, and the cute clothes she wore. She was completely unlike anything else in my life.
And, at 12, I was bestirred enough by her to want to write a screenplay with her in it. And while that ambition failed, I remember that time, that passion, that fire, and thinking, Oh, this is a great character! I want to do interesting things with her and move her about the stage, and have her have a creepy talk with Barnabas Collins and won’t that be cool?
And it was cool. It was.
I thought it might be neat to scan the screenplay and upload it, so here you go:
