MEDIA RELEASE  6-28-24

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For more information please email Robert or contact him by phone at 843-486-3161.

Crossed

“Crossed” is an 8-10 minute film project about crossed intentions, lost aspiration, gender identity and consent.

Logline:
A former class clown, now settled into a one-sided marriage, Roland decides to shake things up by cross-dressing as a prank to end all pranks as a surprise to his good-ole-boy friends. Things go terribly wrong when his friends don’t recognize him in drag and end up almost gang raping him/her/she/them.  Things continue southward for Roland and his life is changed forever.

Genre:
Dramady, offbeat crime thriller, psychological thriller, Indie experimental, dark comedy, Social Commentary

Audience:
Adults, young adults.

 

Synopsis:
Crossed is a cautionary tale, where a harmless prank can sometimes result in tragedy. Crossed is about a man turning 30, Roland, who was always the life of the party, who is now lost in the mundanity and triviality of his life. Feeling trapped by his boring suburban existence, sexually dependent upon his wife, Roland secretly longs for the old days when he was more spontaneous and unpredictable, when his friends marveled at his cleverness and fearlessness. Back then he lived for danger; his harmless pranks would put him and his friends in uncomfortable situations from which only he could masterfully escape.

Now, near his thirtieth birthday Roland decides to go for the ultimate prank, to prove once again to all concerned that he is not out of surprises. On a lark, he decides to cross dress as a woman. Now, the stakes are higher. As he is about to realize, what we do when we are thirty really does matter. Roland now has a wife, a home and a career. He is about to find out that sometimes our choices, as well intended as they may be, can snowball out of control. In the case of Roland, his seemingly harmless choice ultimately upends his life, leaving him exponentially more isolated than he could ever imagined himself being. He must now carry a deep, dark secret from his wife, his friends and himself.

Why Crossed has to get Greenlighted and My connection to the story:
The story of Roland and the ultimate prank-gone-wrong is an important lesson in using common sense and considering the consequences of our actions. For such a short film, Crossed takes on quite a few societal issues, such as homophobia, toxic masculinity, consent, sexism, gender identity, LGBTQ rights, mental health, hate speech/crime, southern conservatism and religious hypocrisy.

As writer and director, I am uniquely qualified to handle the delicate and explosive dramatic moments presented by this script. I have some experience in being a prankster and a class clown. I have found myself, more times in my life than I’d like to remember coming down on either side of what is socially acceptable and what is not. This script is one of dozens I am developing, dealing with these issues from all sides. If I could describe all the things I do into one role I would say I am an Onion Peeler.

As a survivor of CSA, I have had to learn to understand the motivations of less than kind individuals. I think inside the predator mind is a series of causal events and circumstances that have led him/her to the criminal action. And some are just born bad. There is some very difficult behaviors, pathologies and personalities that offer profound lessons, which we explore and expose in this short script. It quickly gets to the heart of what is most wrong in our society. Crossed explores American fear and hatred.

As a director, this level of upset and intense emotion is quite dramatic and must be handled with care and sensitivity, without watering down the pure awfulness of the situation. The characters will have to go there, that is to say, I will be asking my actors to dig deep to find that level of anger and humiliation, in these terrible circumstances and somehow contain it. My personal experience in recovery as a survivor of this kind of hatred, along with my many years in theatre as an actor, coach, director and writer, I think I am uniquely qualified to make this film.

It also bears mentioning that I studied acting with some of the best teachers in the business at Circle in the Square in NY and have been a professional actor, playwright and director my entire adult life.  I was an associate professor at Charleston Southern University in acting. I have been making short narrative guerilla films, some of which may give you an idea of my perspective and sensibility on film making. It is my hope that the film we make together will be a springboard to even more ambitious Maniscalco films.

Production Concept:
Crossed is in three short acts and is structured like a Twilight Zone episode. In the script I refer to a famous line from “Casualties of War,” the Brian DePalma film, starring Don Harvey, who is my best friend and whom will play the role of the cop. I see the film in a similar vein, visually, to that DePalma film, as well as “The Untouchables” (also featuring my friend Don Harvey). There will be obsessive angles, perhaps too long, slow-motion shots, drawing out the intensity of the climactic or significant moments in the story. I have several cool transitions that come to mind. For instance, as Roland’s face stares out his picture window. Then we cut to him staring into his bathroom mirror. Or again, we see his face as he is left for dead, frozen in a headlight driving off, transitioning into the morning light hitting him in the face. I like the use of scenic motifs. I also see odd camera angles, rather than conventional story telling. I see using light to convey the passage of time. Some of these are tired tropes that I must get out of my system as a film maker, until I discover better ways.

Production Team:
It is my intention to Direct and create the musical soundscape of Crossed. My BM is in music and I am also a composer. I will most certainly need an experienced LP, DP, Editor and crew. I’m afraid I have very little technical camera experience.  I have a bare understanding of focal lengths. I’m usually on the other side of the lens (as actor). I plan to hire a crew consisting of talented Trident Film School grads/students. This is where the Lion’s share of the grant money will be used. I intend to have the highest production values money can buy.

Why South Carolina?
The locations will not be terribly difficult to find. The state is ripe with rural churches, barns and lonely country roads. These more “exotic,” uniquely southern locations will be juxtaposed against a vanilla suburban landscape, which is at odds with South Carolina’s country roots. This encroachment of suburbia into what we think of at traditional “Country” is not just physical, it is psychic. It is cultural. The south of today seems to want it both ways. We want to enjoy the Yankee comforts of suburbia, while holding onto our deeply conservative roots. This internal conflict is simmering and smoldering in the subtext of Crossed, waiting to erupt. This is a theme I have been exploring in my five books, countless blogs and paintings. My latest, Chromo Sapient, a book of poems and images, comments rather harshly on the hypocrisy of the modern south and humans, universally.

Production plan:
There are some distinct locations where our production takes place. The home of Roland and Sylvia (int – 4 rooms), the Lonely Elk Nightclub (int/ext), a country barn, a country home and a country church (all EXT). These “country” locations should contrast starkly to Roland’s comfortable suburban home. They should appear nearly abandoned and lonely, almost as if from a dream, or from a bygone era, the dusty remnants of a lost society.

This film can be shot in 5 days. The home shots can be done in one day. The nighclub on another, including into night, for a single long day/evening shoot. The ext. barn, country roads will be shot at night. The Barn at dawn and the other daylight locations, such as the country home and church can be shot in one day.

Why Crossed will succeed?

I think there is a vast audience for offbeat crime thrillers and psychological dramas in this country. People love watching train wrecks, literally and figuratively. They can’t get enough of them. People love when stories go off the rails, especially when the tragic twist is entirely plausible. The media is full of reality shows, and TV dramas, where people are dealing with the impact of a few unwise decisions made by “other,” “stupid” people. We sit back in our comfortable recliners and judge them. The challenge always is to make these “other” people relatable, because these other people are us, or could be us, with the addition of only a couple important circumstantial details. In the case of Crossed, if only the music wasn’t so loud, of if Roland only had included one of his friends in the prank, or if only his wife was more understanding, or if his friends were a little more tolerant, or if country boys weren’t as homophobic, or if his friends would have recognized him through his costume and a million other what ifs that unfortunately pepper most of our lives. If only we were smarter, if only we could have known, if only people agreed with us, we would never have done anything so horrific as these men do.

Charleston artist, Robert Maniscalco, best known for his distinctive commission portrait work and fine art, has created a series of paintings, called “The Quench Project” from his vision trip to Haiti in November, 2014. He published a full color book, Quench in 2016 and celebration video, Out of the Darkness in 2017 (view it, below). 

Short bio of Robert Maniscalco

REQUEST A COPY OF “CROSSED”

Become a Producer of Crossed
Robert is seeking investors for production of Crossed. There are several grant and awards applications in place currently, which will provide matching opportunities for producers.

 

Contact Robert and ask him to present a talk and/or exhibition at your venue.

Robert explores alternatives to conventional societal ideas about beauty, tragedy and survival. TQP’s theme is the resilient nature of humans to rise “out of the darkness.”  Robert, who is a survivor of child sexual abuse, has dedicated his artistic life to helping others in their creative journey of survival. The Quench Project focuses on desire and the obscene notion that if a person can’t afford food, shelter and healthcare, then that’s just too bad for them. By putting a face on our fellow humans, who happened to be born to the “wrong” parents, Robert hopes to engender compassion and bring about true economic justice. Robert examines the racist, Anglo-centrist idea that some people are blessed, while others are cursed.