Compulsion... Characters... The Muse that Compels to Create...

One subject that fascinates Gino and I as filmmakers – and one we continue to explore as we develop the script for our next film Pitchin’ Papaya – is human compulsions. We are interested in exploring what compels people to act in certain ways, do certain things, even when it goes against their better judgment. It’s the core of Mismo and our tagline …when fate and freedom collide; meaning that while we all have free will, we permit our innate nature to make our choices, thus leading to our inevitable fate… and oftentimes resulting in a collision.

We first explored this theme in Compulsion, the story for which was sparked by a real runaway bride who, to avoid a trip to the altar, claimed she’d been kidnapped. Her story spawned a nationwide search for her kidnappers accompanied by a media furor. It was likely the furor that tripped her up… in the end, she confessed it was a lie… she’d concocted the entire story. In our version, the runaway’s impulse, “I simply had to get away,” leads to another compulsion – greed – that leads to her being kidnapped for real.

Had we completed the script, the themes of freedom versus security, predictable versus risky, and passion versus romance would have been explored. As it was, Compulsion took many forms before finally settling on the genre of road movie – and, alas, a production beyond our modest means.

With Mismo’s parallel story lines the opportunity for compulsions to collide is amplified, leading to an ending that led one viewer to comment, “it sent chills right down my spine.”

While we have created our characters for Papaya, I am guessing that, as we write the script, at least one of them is going to take us on a road trip with her compulsion. It’s our journey as writers… to follow the muse… see what transpires… and in the end, we always have free will to delete.