I would like to introduce you to my screenplay, "Marcus and Faith".

The script won first prize in the Thriller section of the Pacific Northwest Screenwriters Contest. Apart from the tremendous validation for my writing, the main prize is a year’s representation by 928 Talent Management. Competition judges included Daniel Yost, the screenwriter of Drugstore Cowboy.

In addition to placing as a quarter-finalist and semi-finalist in other contests, my screenplay was reviewed by Phil Gladwin, a professional screenwriter and script editor for both the BBC and ITV. Here’s what he had to say --

“Recently I read his script Marcus and Faith, and found it a compelling investigation into evil. The story seldom falters, the dialogue is strong, potent, and vividly alive, and, despite the dark subject and the unflinching tone, the piece glows with hope and a yearning for the warmth of the human heart that manages to bring some kind of redemption into a very bleak world."

SYNOPSIS...

• Marcus Anderson, a stand-up comedian, addicted to painkillers, is reunited with his high school crush, Faith, now a dancer, aspiring for Broadway. A torrid romance ensues and he believes she's going to be his savior. Just one problem -- she's unknowingly embroiled in a society known as Kama-Sin – dealing in PROSTITUTION, HUMAN TRAFFICKING and MURDER. Marcus’ relentless love for Faith lures him into the bowel of Kama-Sin and ultimately into an abyss of pure evil and what he finds is more disturbing and dangerous than he was ever prepared for.

Romeo and Juliet, Bonnie and Clyde, Sid and Nancy are all great love stories, but for a story to flourish in our modern times and touch our hearts, it must be daringly different and dark.

Marcus and Faith is uncompromisingly seedy, seductive and full of action. But all this is done with a moral premise -- surviving life’s dangerous cocktail. Modern society mixes violence with sex, complacency with discomfort, beauty with repulsiveness and graphic violence with gentle family values. The trick is not to drown and not to escape life but to find life.

I wanted to write a screenplay that would touch the hearts of young adults and transfer from generations to generations.

Sincerely,

Benjamin Ray

Bio -- As a stand-up comedian, I caught the screenwriting fever and never looked back. Unlike the previous generation of screenwriters who learned their craft through film school, I'm self-taught and honed in my skills from my days on stage and while juggling three shifts and a family. Consequently, I developed an audacious fusion of controversial pop culture and exciting cinema. More details about my bio can be found in two interviews I gave --

Interviewed by Phil Gladwin

http://www.screenwritinggoldmine.com/blog/screenwriting-competition-success/2007/12/19/

Interviewed by Marla White

http://thescriptfixer.blogspot.com/2008/06/interview-with-writer-benjamin-ray.html