Brightest, The (a screenplay) / Oskar R. Rush, oskar dot rush at gmail dot com
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| Brightest, The (a screenplay) / Oskar R. Rush, oskar dot rush at gmail dot com | |
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A writer and a director join forces to adapt their absurdly Machiavellian life experiences into a film. When the writer and the director keep manipulating changes in the film on each other, both film-makers become more and more sensitive to the way events and persons are being portrayed.
The writer, a nearly forgotten ex-reality TV star fresh out of rehab, marries an up-and-coming actress and significantly alters the original vision of his own character just to have her cast in the part.
The director, an estranged ex-stepfather of the writer who has taken time off from his public relations firm to enjoy his one and only big break, is notorious for over-analyzing the meaning of every aspect of the film, from casting choices for the extras, to materials used to build the sets, to costumes and lighting, to how the film is going to be edited, to the freckles on a character’s backside. Yet he can strike fear in the writer’s heart by cutting entire scenes to the point where the crew wonders if there will even be a movie left when principal photography is over.
When one of the real people that “inspired” a character in the writer’s script shows up on the set one day, the writer becomes paranoid that the director is using his presence as a threat. As the director manipulates the story to become a little too close to the reality of the past, the writer pushes for more clear fiction to protect his interests.
Feeling the need for a pre-emptive strike, the writer files and publicizes a seemingly frivolous lawsuit against the director and the producer over the content of the film and also blames them for his latest round of substance abuse (an act that later reveals itself to reek with hypocritical irony). Enraged by the writer’s audacity, the producer vows to find some way to dump the writer from the picture. Unfortunately, the writer is also the lead actor, and no one wants to rock the boat with the studio by changing actors this far into production. But the writer’s publicity backfires when his behavior conveniently comes into play during his wife’s custody battle with her ex-husband.
The chaos on the movie set leads to actors changing roles, playing themselves, playing other people involved in the production, or being observed by the people they play. The writer plays himself (or, an “inspiration” of himself), but the producer and the director perhaps wisely limit themselves to unrelated cameos. Things get really uncomfortable for the writer when the director begins shooting scenes based on the writer’s real-life court battle with the family of a dead black man.
As trial witnesses manipulate their own tortured testimony to serve their interests, the film-makers are shown to be the master manipulators of their own craft as well. As the line between fiction and reality becomes more and more confusing in the courts and on the movie set, it becomes clear in both environments that there will be no real winners. But will the combatants stop before their lives are completely destroyed, or has it already happened and they just don’t know it yet?
“The Brightest” is full of justices and injustices. Like the line between reality and fiction, the difference between the two seems to evaporate with time. As a result, the audience will easily forget that some of the things they have seen never really happened, but judgments will already have been made. Rightly or wrongly, the fiction becomes a sort of reality of its own, and the injustices pass, at least, for poetic justice in a world where lies seem to live forever and truth is only temporary until it finds a new meaning.
oskar dot rush at gmail dot com
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The writer, a nearly forgotten ex-reality TV star fresh out of rehab, marries an up-and-coming actress and significantly alters the original vision of his own character just to have her cast in the part.
The director, an estranged ex-stepfather of the writer who has taken time off from his public relations firm to enjoy his one and only big break, is notorious for over-analyzing the meaning of every aspect of the film, from casting choices for the extras, to materials used to build the sets, to costumes and lighting, to how the film is going to be edited, to the freckles on a character’s backside. Yet he can strike fear in the writer’s heart by cutting entire scenes to the point where the crew wonders if there will even be a movie left when principal photography is over.
When one of the real people that “inspired” a character in the writer’s script shows up on the set one day, the writer becomes paranoid that the director is using his presence as a threat. As the director manipulates the story to become a little too close to the reality of the past, the writer pushes for more clear fiction to protect his interests.
Feeling the need for a pre-emptive strike, the writer files and publicizes a seemingly frivolous lawsuit against the director and the producer over the content of the film and also blames them for his latest round of substance abuse (an act that later reveals itself to reek with hypocritical irony). Enraged by the writer’s audacity, the producer vows to find some way to dump the writer from the picture. Unfortunately, the writer is also the lead actor, and no one wants to rock the boat with the studio by changing actors this far into production. But the writer’s publicity backfires when his behavior conveniently comes into play during his wife’s custody battle with her ex-husband.
The chaos on the movie set leads to actors changing roles, playing themselves, playing other people involved in the production, or being observed by the people they play. The writer plays himself (or, an “inspiration” of himself), but the producer and the director perhaps wisely limit themselves to unrelated cameos. Things get really uncomfortable for the writer when the director begins shooting scenes based on the writer’s real-life court battle with the family of a dead black man.
As trial witnesses manipulate their own tortured testimony to serve their interests, the film-makers are shown to be the master manipulators of their own craft as well. As the line between fiction and reality becomes more and more confusing in the courts and on the movie set, it becomes clear in both environments that there will be no real winners. But will the combatants stop before their lives are completely destroyed, or has it already happened and they just don’t know it yet?
“The Brightest” is full of justices and injustices. Like the line between reality and fiction, the difference between the two seems to evaporate with time. As a result, the audience will easily forget that some of the things they have seen never really happened, but judgments will already have been made. Rightly or wrongly, the fiction becomes a sort of reality of its own, and the injustices pass, at least, for poetic justice in a world where lies seem to live forever and truth is only temporary until it finds a new meaning.
oskar dot rush at gmail dot com
Now you can buy Books online in USA,UK, India and more than 100 countries.
*Terms and Conditions apply
Disclaimer: All product data on this page belongs to
.No guarantees are made as to accuracy of prices and information.
