I've been writing short films, short stories, and summaries inside and outside of the classroom of this idea since December of 2013, and I'm excited to finally use the power of deadlines and inordinate amounts of coffee to bring it to fruition. So partially in order to procrastinate from the writing I'm doing today and to hold myself accountable, here's an update on The Vision.

The Story

The story follows Elise, a controlling oil painter knocked by critics for doing work that is technically perfect but void of passion. However, she begins losing her eyesight and must complete her masterpiece before she goes blind, and come to terms with this ultimate loss of control. She meets Michael, a street artist who believes that art exists outside the realm of perfectionist artists like Elise's mentor Gia, who thinks that true art is made in the medium of the old masters, not through mixed media art installations or spray paint.

Elise must discover the meaning of art, and be able to give up control and find out how to persist as a creative individual. She must discover that true sight can be found in the strength of your vision, not of your eyes.

The story takes place in New York to further contrast the two schools of art: the rigid, classical thought of precision and skill in your medium versus the freestyle, often passionate and commentary-driven art of today.

The Inspiration

After a trip to New York last year, I began taking more of an interest in visiting museums and learning about art. I picked up Steve Martin's book An Object of Beauty (a must-read) and was immediately drawn to the art world as a subject and backdrop for a story.

The idea for The Vision came out of two of my greatest fears: being unable to write, and the further damaging of my own vision, which beyond being terrible and in need of contacts with the magnification of several industrial telescopes, has always been a concern to me because of hereditary vision problems.

Anyways, I'll be posting updates on the research I'm doing and my methodology for going about writing a screenplay. This is lucky number five, and I'm looking forward to entering it into some contests in the spring.

-Amy

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