May my passion look like magic to my audience, hard work to my peers, and fun for myself.
It is with these ideals that I set out to make Boundary Springs. I wrote the screenplay as a love letter to Southern Oregon’s Rogue River. The Rogue runs through my hometown and is a constant friend and reminder of a place I once called home. When I was four years old, my parents brought me to see 9 to 5 at the Rogue Theater in Grants Pass, Oregon. Though I was too young to get most of the humor, I fell in love with the shared experience of laughing and crying together as the lights dim and the arclight flickers. Since then, I’ve wanted to set a movie along the Rogue.
Boundary Springs formed with the idea of hiking from the mouth to the source of the Rogue. I wanted something to happen that would change the trajectory of a young boy’s life and force him to take this challenging journey alone. The death of Clay’s grandpa disrupts his life and sends him up the river. The three main characters are grieving over the death of someone important in their lives. The story moves forward as we discover how the characters develop resiliency.
I have always had an interest in resiliency and how someone can muster the grit to carry on after life deals an emotional setback. On my second birthday, my sister got sick and then she was gone. I was left alone with grieving parents who loved that sweet little child like no other. We all moved forward in our own ways, stung by sadness, but striving to find optimism in life. This is what Boundary Springs is about.
A river is resilient. No matter what happens in life, that river will flow, sometimes at a trickle and other times engorged in flood waters. Clay uses the river to conquer his fears, Ledi goes to it for salvation, and Cliff avoids it to bury his emotions. Each will discover resiliency through their relationship to the river.
I want to create a modern fairy tale, where a child is separated from his family and must navigate a magical world in order to discover himself. This sense of magic permeates Boundary Springs. In Clay’s world, G-pa’s Spirit walks the earth and looks after him on the trail. At the start of his journey, Clay crosses into sacred land, where four Native American Spirits guard the threshold. These Spirits scare Clay, as they represent the fear we all have when challenged by life. Along the river, the Spirit of the Osprey (represented as a boy with a painted face and feathered wings) is following Clay, trying to become one with the young boy. Clay discovers that the Spirit is his own grit and resiliency which shows him how to soar to his potential.
The tone of Boundary Springs balances between realism and surrealism, where the magical is handled in a naturalistic milieu. The spirits could be real, in Clay’s imagination, or somewhere in-between.
The camera will flow like the river, exposing everything from the vast beauty of nature down to the subtle emotions on a human face. Select scenes are designed in one take with no cuts, tempting the audience to forget they are watching a movie and to witness the magic of the moment. Throughout the movie, the river is in view, with its sounds, its sparkle, and its constant movement. The river will mirror the emotion of every scene, either floating by or bursting over rapids in a thunderous crescendo.
The editing will move with Clay’s constant motion. His desire to reach the source of the Rogue will set the pace for the edit. Like the river, the edit can slow down to a lazy drift, or surge through narrow canyons in a frenzy.
The music of Boundary Springs is set to a strumming folk guitar and the beating drum of footsteps. The music of adventure on a summer day will echo throughout our film.
The sound design will capture nature’s beauty. When you are away from the city, you hear every quiet moment. The wind through the trees, the birds in the sky, the river rolling through the canyon--these are the sounds of Boundary Springs.
Boundary Springs is my personal love letter to the Rogue, where I explore my hopes, dreams, and thoughts on life. I look forward to sharing its magic.
Thanks,
Curtis David Sackett
It is with these ideals that I set out to make Boundary Springs. I wrote the screenplay as a love letter to Southern Oregon’s Rogue River. The Rogue runs through my hometown and is a constant friend and reminder of a place I once called home. When I was four years old, my parents brought me to see 9 to 5 at the Rogue Theater in Grants Pass, Oregon. Though I was too young to get most of the humor, I fell in love with the shared experience of laughing and crying together as the lights dim and the arclight flickers. Since then, I’ve wanted to set a movie along the Rogue.
Boundary Springs formed with the idea of hiking from the mouth to the source of the Rogue. I wanted something to happen that would change the trajectory of a young boy’s life and force him to take this challenging journey alone. The death of Clay’s grandpa disrupts his life and sends him up the river. The three main characters are grieving over the death of someone important in their lives. The story moves forward as we discover how the characters develop resiliency.
I have always had an interest in resiliency and how someone can muster the grit to carry on after life deals an emotional setback. On my second birthday, my sister got sick and then she was gone. I was left alone with grieving parents who loved that sweet little child like no other. We all moved forward in our own ways, stung by sadness, but striving to find optimism in life. This is what Boundary Springs is about.
A river is resilient. No matter what happens in life, that river will flow, sometimes at a trickle and other times engorged in flood waters. Clay uses the river to conquer his fears, Ledi goes to it for salvation, and Cliff avoids it to bury his emotions. Each will discover resiliency through their relationship to the river.
I want to create a modern fairy tale, where a child is separated from his family and must navigate a magical world in order to discover himself. This sense of magic permeates Boundary Springs. In Clay’s world, G-pa’s Spirit walks the earth and looks after him on the trail. At the start of his journey, Clay crosses into sacred land, where four Native American Spirits guard the threshold. These Spirits scare Clay, as they represent the fear we all have when challenged by life. Along the river, the Spirit of the Osprey (represented as a boy with a painted face and feathered wings) is following Clay, trying to become one with the young boy. Clay discovers that the Spirit is his own grit and resiliency which shows him how to soar to his potential.
The tone of Boundary Springs balances between realism and surrealism, where the magical is handled in a naturalistic milieu. The spirits could be real, in Clay’s imagination, or somewhere in-between.
The camera will flow like the river, exposing everything from the vast beauty of nature down to the subtle emotions on a human face. Select scenes are designed in one take with no cuts, tempting the audience to forget they are watching a movie and to witness the magic of the moment. Throughout the movie, the river is in view, with its sounds, its sparkle, and its constant movement. The river will mirror the emotion of every scene, either floating by or bursting over rapids in a thunderous crescendo.
The editing will move with Clay’s constant motion. His desire to reach the source of the Rogue will set the pace for the edit. Like the river, the edit can slow down to a lazy drift, or surge through narrow canyons in a frenzy.
The music of Boundary Springs is set to a strumming folk guitar and the beating drum of footsteps. The music of adventure on a summer day will echo throughout our film.
The sound design will capture nature’s beauty. When you are away from the city, you hear every quiet moment. The wind through the trees, the birds in the sky, the river rolling through the canyon--these are the sounds of Boundary Springs.
Boundary Springs is my personal love letter to the Rogue, where I explore my hopes, dreams, and thoughts on life. I look forward to sharing its magic.
Thanks,
Curtis David Sackett
