Genre: Comedy, Family, Sitcom
JUNKED is a story about resilience against life’s messes- a high school where you don’t fit in, a mother who’s not exactly June Cleaver, a father who’s supposed to be dead, and the literal mess of their trailer filled to the brim with stolen, used, and broken junk.
CAST LIST:
Narration: Sean Ballantyne
Petey: Andrea Meister
Mark: Jordy Kieto
Jennifer: Konstantina Mantelos
Zane: Jack Comerford
Tex: Elizabeth Rose Morriss
Coach Moe: Anthony Botelho
Get to know the writer:
What is your screenplay about?
JUNKED is the story of PETEY DURAND, an aspiring fashion maven who’s trapped in a trailer park with her zoned-out brother and hoarding mother. When Petey starts at a fancy new gifted and talented high school, she’s forced to hide her mother’s illness and keep her trailer park life a secret. All in hopes of keeping her Chanel covered dreams on track.
Why should this screenplay be made into a TV show?
I think stories about complicated women and their relationships with one another are severely lacking in the television landscape today. What I hope to do with JUNKED is to give viewers a look into an unusual world, with unique characters, but keep Petey’s relationship with her mother grounded so it’s relatable to women all over.
How would you describe this script in two words?
Swamp. Glamour
What TV show do you watch over and over again?
Too many to count! Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, The Wire, The Good Place, and Park and Recreation.
How long have you been working on this screenplay?
Since spring of 2016.
How many stories have you written?
Well, my background is in experimental film and video art. Early on I started writing and performing my own character based video pieces in high school. So there’s a pile of shorts and monologues! After that I wrote my first TV pilot in 2012 while I was applying for grad school at UCLA. Since then I’ve written two feature films, four original half-hours, two original hour long pilots, and one fifteen minute pilot about a cat brothel.
What is your favorite song? (Or, what song have you listened to the most times in your life?)
It would be a tie between It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels by Kitty Wells and Dumb Blonde by my hero Dolly Parton.
What obstacles did you face to finish this screenplay?
This script was the script of no end. Because of its particular tone and sensitive subject matter, I tweaked it over and over again. I had to dig into my mind and revisit what it was like to be a teenage girl and remember that feeling of simultaneously being at the brink of greatness and total humiliation.
Apart from writing, what else are you passionate about?
I’m very passionate about fashion. It’s in my blood- my mom was a clothing buyer for a department store before I was born. I used to love hearing her stories about running around the fashion district in the 1970’s. When I was a little girl, I made my mom play “store” with me and I would put together outfits to sell to her. By seven years old I knew how to add sales tax to a garment and deduct a coupon. Clothing has always served as both armor and expression for me. I constantly pull inspiration from clothing for my characters and my scripts. Hunting for unusual pieces or just a unique take on something classic is so exciting to me.
What influenced you to enter the festival? What were your feelings on the initial feedback you received?
I am always so thrilled to see festivals and competitions directed towards female creators. I think fostering new female voices is a crucial part of creating more representation. So I applied in hopes of being part of that.
I was so pleased to see such thoughtful and thorough feedback from the festival.
Again the tone of the script is very particular so I loved the reader’s suggestions on expanding it to an hour-long pilot.
Any advice or tips you’d like to pass on to other writers?
Write as much as you can. Every script is going to be better than the last!
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