"A glance, a look, a flirt toward that attractive person across the room, the hall, the restaurant! It happens all the time and can be magical but how long will that love at first sight or the physical attraction and desire last once they get to see the whole person!"

Title: Glacial Breeze
Author: Larry N. Sapp II
Genre: Short Film Romantic Dramadey

The two main characters in "Glacial Breeze", a beautiful woman, Marisa, and a handsome man, McQueen, go through a typical work-week day and during some events or errands have strangers cross their path and flirt with them. They smile and politely dismiss the flirting from the very attractive members of the opposite sex and some of their co-workers and friends wonder why? Are they married or involved with someone? Are they not interested in the opposite sex? What can it be? Why don't they chase after those that seem so attracted to them? All is revealed in the finally scene when the flirtatious strangers see the whole person of each of our main characters! 

 For those who already know me as a paraplegic filmmaker dedicated to making mainstream entertainment that happens to feature paraplegic characters in an authentic representation – have figured out that the main characters in "Glacial Breeze" are also paraplegics - BUT the supporting characters in this 10 minute short film AND the audience watching it will not know this until the final scene!  The two main characters are very attractive and whose daily lives kind of mirror one another as they politely accept the flirting from co-workers and strangers when they see them only from the waist, chest, or shoulders up throughout their day, but because they know what the typical reaction would be once it is revealed that they use a wheelchair for mobility, they do not pursue any of the advances from the very attractive people flirting with them! The supporting characters and the audience watching “Glacial Breeze” find in the closing scene that the hot attraction they thought they had for these featured characters can quickly turn into a very cold wind or a glacial breeze when they are shocked by the revelation that these two beautiful main characters are paraplegics!

Teal Sherer as Marisa -- and -- Toby Forrest as McQueen

I am very, very happy to announce that actors Teal Sherer and Toby Forrest, both performers with disAbilities will authentically portray and represent the two main characters in "Glacial Breeze"!

Learn more of our two Star Actors!

Will the hot attraction that our supporting characters had earlier in the day when they first saw our main characters become cold as ice when they discover them as a whole person with a disAbility? Will all the supporting characters react the same? Is any of their reactions fair? Good? Deserving? Equal? Makes you think and I hope it will make the audience think as they react to the supporting characters for their good or bad reactions and putting themselves in the positions of our main characters! And paraplegic audience members, along with most people with a disAbility, and even able bodied audeince members who have ever felt out of place even when they initially look like they are part of the group, will appreciate this portrayal and authentic representation! And the good part is that this entertaining short film will make everyone think while enjoying a hot and a cool or maybe not-so-cool "Glacial Breeze"!

I just converted the script from one screenwriting software to another because the features of Final Draft is a lot better and that includes the easy to use "Save as PDF" function which the following link is formatted in. Meanwhile, I did make some changes but they were edits that only clarified the scenes and therefore the story remains the same.

Click here for the Screenplay

Click on the storyboard link below but know that it was written and illustrated by me and I cannot draw! So you will see some funny looking stick figures - but they are not used for art gallery displaying! I tried to make up for this by adding an actual photo that I searched the internet for and added to the first pane at the beginning of most scenes!

Reading the screenplay may give a better idea of the overall story but you may wonder why there is no dialogue? You can find those reasons below in the "Style and Format" section. But the storyboard gives you a visual on how the interaction of the characters happen without verbal communication and are based on their visual point of views! When the time comes a more detailed, production quality storyboard will be drawn and hopefully by someone with more drawing talent than me! Meanwhile, the stick figures may make you laugh, but I hope you get the main look of the film, understand the interaction of the characters and enjoy it just the same!

Click here for the Storyboard

Both the screenplay and the storyboard have been Copyrighted so please feel free to read them. These links are to PDF formatted files and require Adobe Reader. Most people have this universal format on their computer - but if you do not you can download a free Adobe Reader by clicking here:

The idea behind this short film:

Anyone who has ever dated knows that their initial attraction to someone can be either enhanced or reduced during the dating process once we get to know the whole person. In certain circumstances, when my wheelchair wasn't seen, I got a completely different interaction with people then when I was "rolling through life." Especially with those of the opposite sex. Like I wrote in this screenplay, I had those flirting with me as I drove through a fast food and even a bank drive thru! But when the time came and I rolled into the establishment those very same women flirting with me were not only in shock, but also had a very different interaction with me!

"Glacial Breeze" is just a quick showing of what that is like and in the daily lives of two people - one man and one woman - on their way to work, at work, running an errand, and ending the day having dinner at a restaurant. If you read the script and/or the storyboard (links above) you will see that the audience will see these characters just as the supporting characters of the opposite sex who flirt with them see them - right up until the the final scene at the restaurant! When that moment of discovery happens - when they literally see them as a whole person - some will see them as less than whole because of their disAbility, being in a wheelchair. At that moment they freeze and it can figuratively be as cold as ice - like a glacial breeze or wind storm! But that reaction and interaction is completely different from those who know these characters or get to know these characters as people and find they are just as whole of a human being as the next person regardless of their disAbility.

Style and Format:

Of course I hope this will be shot on 35mm film or possibly on the Super 16mm, but cost for film and the lighting, etc. required for film may be too much and if I have to compromise then I will shoot this on one of the newer HD cameras that do not require higher costs to get it "in the can"! In addition, this is quick moving so the final running time will be approximately 10-12 minutes. And there is no dialogue. I have done this for a couple of reasons.

First reason for not having any dialogue is due to the context of the story. Typically we are physically attracted to a person by what we see. It begins with visually appealing desire or curiosity. It is body language and if all of that goes well then there will be verbal communicating. It is a story of an attractive man and woman leading seperate but parallel existence. This is the universal element of the story - as the audience watches they will relate to the supporting characters attracted to our main characters and/or as the main charcters who are being flirted with by co-workers or strangers as they go about their daily lives.

The second reason for "Glacial Breeze" to be without dialogue is because I want the audience to pay attention and think - Not only "He's cute" and "She's hot" but also asking "Why doesn't he or she respond more to those flirts from those other hotties?" And even more than that to have the audience wondering not only why do our supporting characters react to the revelation of our two main characters being wheelchair users, but also to hopefully have the audience asking themselves if they would react differently and if so how? Giving them a moment to look at themselves and judge their own reactions.

Finally, and this is more of a bonus then a reason, is that without dialogue we have saved a lot of money in production! We will add sound effects and music in post-production, but it will save a lot that can be spent on other things required in a quality short film and be able to have a managable budget with a great look.

Progress:

Right now we are in the fund raising phase. I will continue to try traditional avenues to fund this short film, but as I described above (in the left column) those avenues have not been very open to entertainment products that feature paraplegics, and so I will be spending a lot more time and effort in more contemporary routes, like the crowd-funding on websites like IndieGoGo. If you have not visited, please go to the IndieGoGo Glacial Breeze page and donate any amount of money or if you prefer to make a private donation in any amount then please contact me personally.

Meanwhile, any additional progress can be found on the Glacial Breeze Update page here on the Abilities United website!