Going with Choctaw to Outline "Death Rides a Pale Horse." Script Note #3

A white sports car is outside a home at night. From a scene in the upcoming screenplay "Death Rides a Pale Horse".

In my previous post, I mentioned abandoning the idea that the main character of "Death Rides a Pale Horse" be Choctaw because it looks too hard to find a Choctaw actress locally. Well, that is still the case, but I've only put feelers out. I have not given it serious work.

And now I've had a few weeks' break from any long serious writing, though I did do some cleaning up on my last screenplay "Happy Hollow" getting it on the website eskripts.com before April. Doing that, I found plenty of typos and some things that needed erasing or better explanation.

Anyway, I'm constantly revisiting the ideas of "Death Rides a Pale Horse". I figured that writing the character as Choctaw would cause my budget to go up by bringing someone in from out of town or too far away. And it would. But I've had this story in my head, the beginnings of an outline, for a while now. Some of the motivations the main character has come from her Choctaw roots.

For example, when she feels depressed, her father lifts her by reminding her of her people's courage. I'll delve into this more in the script, but my main point is that there are aspects I've been contemplating for some time that have now become integral to the story. I recognize now that they are nearly as significant as all the other factors that motivated me to create this screenplay.

To go forward with outlining, I will keep her as Choctaw. If it turns into a spec script, that's acceptable. If I choose to film it, I'll reassess this decision but will thoroughly search for a nearby Choctaw actress instead of just putting feelers out. Below, I'll provide a few interesting facts about them.

1. They were the only ones to go up against Desoto.

2. They were the first tribe in the trail of tears.

3. They are from Mississippi.

Making this decision is best to move forward, I believe. I'm going to be taking a break from the writing for a couple more weeks but will be blogging here and there and working on the outline of "Death Rides a Pale Horse".

In the meantime, I want to let you know we did get two chickens recently, and I have a coop to build. I made a makeshift one for the time being until I get another done.

I also want to experiment with developing film using household items. It's called caffenol. I've shot some super 8mm film and some still 35mm film I want to develop as soon as I square away time.

Thanks for reading.