The Visit Pitch

Click on the post title to hear my pitch for "The Visit." To become a part of this filmmaking endeavor, click on the PayPal icon to the right and donate $10.00. For all of you lovers of the written word, I've included the opening scene of the film below:

THE VISIT
By: Kassandra Vaughn

Scene 1- EXT. BACK YARD DAY

The morning light cascades over a pond. As the view pans down to the lawn of a beautiful home, ANGELA GALLO comes into view. She is ferociously digging dirt out of the ground. Angela halts her digging to inspect the small hole being created. She wipes the sweat off her brow, takes a deep breath, and continues digging. Her eyes remain glued to the hole. JOHNATHAN GALLO approaches her from left. He shakes his head as he catches sight of the hole.

JOHNATHAN
You’ve got to stop this.

ANGELA
How did it happen? This shouldn’t have happened, not to us. Why did it happen?

JOHNATHAN
I don’t know. I keep trying to figure it out and it doesn’t make sense.

Angela backs away from the hole, pacing from side to side.

ANGELA
It was my fault, wasn’t it? I caused this. It was me.

JOHNATHAN
You can’t blame yourself. It was out of our control. Things like this happen.

ANGELA
But they always happen to me, don’t they? I can’t seem to keep anything or anyone I love and, now that it’s gone, I don’t even know how to keep you. How can I when it’s my fault?

JOHNATHAN
You did not cause this. Ang, try to see this from a different perspective. We lost a baby, yes, but we can try again. It’s not like we can’t have another one.

ANGELA
Eight months ago, I had someone growing inside of me. We had plans for a nursery and names and we were making choices on cribs and, now, now we have nothing. Who gives a damn if we can have another baby? It doesn’t change the fact that I lost a life. It was inside of me.

JOHNATHAN
And it was my baby too. Don’t you think I loved it, dreamed about what it was going to be like with our child but that’s not what is and it’s not big enough to ruin our entire lives. You’ve got to see the upside to this. We’re still here, together and our baby, she’s with God. You can’t hold onto something that’s already gone.

ANGELA
And what if I’m already gone? I am, you know. There’s no point for you to keep holding on when I’m already dead.

JOHNATHAN
But you’re not, not unless you choose to be. We can have another baby.

ANGELA
You are missing the entire point! I was pregnant and now I’m not. I go out there and I see women holding their newborns and I know that should be me right now and I can’t breathe when I see them. I can barely hold it together because I can’t understand how their babies came out fine and mine didn’t. It doesn’t make sense to me. It’ll never make sense to me and the only thing I know is if I was strong enough, I could’ve held onto her… But I wasn’t and, now, I don’t know if I can hold on to anything, not after this.

JOHNATHAN
So what now? Just give up?

ANGELA
We lost a child Johnathan. I don’t think you get that! It’s not something you just snap back from, no matter how optimistic you are.

JOHNATHAN
You want to wallow in this.

ANGELA
That’s not fair.

JOHNATHAN
You don’t have the right to stop living because we lost a child. You think I don’t grieve for that? You think I wasn’t ready to give up anything and everything just to have that baby in our lives but it’s not going to be, not right now and, somewhere along the way, there comes a point where you either accept it and move on or it kills you slowly and, honestly, what I care most about, even more than losing her, is losing you… I want to help you but I need you to need me. We can get through this apart or we can make it past this together… But it’s up to you.

Johnathan holds out a hand to her. He waits. She looks at his hand, scans his face, and slowly shakes her head. He nods and heads back to the house.