THE MAKING OF "CROSSING THE BAR"

CONCEPTION AND THE IMPORTANCE OF FOREPLAY

Conclusion of the Treatment

Amy has, for the first time in her life, lost heart. She travels to Tahiti to be with her estranged mother. The emotional cost of her life choice has been great.

That's when she receives an urgent call from her Marine Academy classmate, Ella. Ella was on-board the Exxon Valdez when the oil spill of all oil spills took place in Alaska's Prince William Sound. As a result, Ella's career is at risk and she could even face prison time. Amy rushes to her side. Playing tit-for-tat, she and Ella get political with a vengeance during the Congressional hearings in Washington D.C. The two of them appear before several committees of the House and the Senate where their perceptions of the catastrophe and the possibilities of future such events are eagerly noted. Amy's brilliant career as mariner has placed her high in public view much to the displeasure of her employer. She is told she risks dismissal if she persist. Ella is not as confident and crumbles under the pressure and retires from maritime commerce all together.

Not to be beaten, Amy makes the decision to begin accepting the many invitations she's previously avoided to speak before women's colleges and international feminist organizations around the world. Her political status grants her continued employment
with Chevron but is treated with disdain by upper-management. That is precisely when she once again applies to become a member of the San Francisco Bar Pilots. They can hardly deny her a shot at their big prize this go-round. Her two-year training period is difficult, with little or no support from the other pilots. Despite this, she becomes the first female to be a certified pilot on the Bay of San Francisco. She is 35 years old.

In the last scenes to the film we watch her being forced to deal with rumors that she is secretly married to one of the 59 other pilots. It is a charge that, if proved, would expel both she and her husband from the roles of the SF Bar Pilots.

In the last scene we see Amy smiling as she steps out of the con and into a storm at sea. We watch her climb down a rope ladder in great peril. She hoots like a girl on a bucking bronco. (The End.)

The Audience

The world-wide core audience is best described as well-educated, avid readers and collectors with a strong interest in maritime heritage, including members of maritime museums and historical societies and the captains and crews of sail training vessels. A well-defined and targeted international audience will be enthusiastically engaged, educated and entertained on the subjects of commercial maritime history and women's relationship to business practices within the great harbors of the world. Via international public broadcast systems and cable television, maritime academies, societies, learning centers and museums, the goal is that the world's populations gain awareness that commercial success on the sea not be allowed to ignore the inevitable third and fourth waves of feminism.

Copyright 2010 G. Leo Maselli

THE MAKING OF "CROSSING THE BAR"

CONCEPTION AND THE IMPORTANCE OF FOREPLAY - Blog 6 of 10

The film portrays the fictionalized biography of Aimee Tanneur and the influential role she played during the Twentieth Century's "second-wave" expansion of the Feminist Movement on the Bay of San Francisco

The film's Treatment continues:

Aimee (now know as Amy to her friends) and her closest friend Ella are in their final year at the California Maritime Academy and are both at the top of their class. And yet they are learning that success in their chosen profession may well be determined by patriarchal men.

After a long day in class, Amy and Ella discuss what should be their strategy for success in this environment. They have each followed their passion to become mariners and now swear a vow to support each other in achieving every ambitious goal they have set for themselves. They are well aware that they face an all-male dominated, gender barrier that is pervasive in the world of maritime commerce. It appears that there is nothing but "white water" ahead for any female wanting to go to sea. That's when Amy's father dies and her mother instructs her to return to Port Revel or the family risks loosing the contract to operate the facility. Amy refuses to leave her career path despite the knowledge of the possible consequences, including her mother's loss of income and by necessity her return to Polynesia. In her anger at her daughter's arrogance, the mother refuses to pay any future tuition or living expenses in or out of her higher education. Amy is on her own.

Amy struggles on but upon graduating she is saddened when her mother refuses to attend the ceremonies. Amy takes a long shot my applying to join the Chevron Oil fleet, the world's largest, and is granted her wish. Ella signs on with Exxon. For the next ten years Amy overcomes countless trials and tribulations as a woman at sea, but the greatest danger comes at the hands of opium smoking pirates encountered off the coast of Africa. For her exceptional ability to negotiate with the pirates as well as her bravery under the most difficult situation when she calls in commandos at the peril of her self and her crew, the episode brings her once again into national view. Eventually she captains Chevron's biggest ships, traveling to all the deep water ports of the world. It is during this period of her remarkable career that she becomes involved in a huge explosion that throws her Antagonist, Captain Harl Buckridge, into the cold waters of San Francisco Bay where he must fight for his life. Amy dives into the water and saves his life and wins his everlasting support. Or so he claims.

Based on all that Amy has seen and experienced, she remains convinced that she can achieve every goal she sets for herself. Until, that is, she confronts the male dominated world that was, at the time, a fact of maritime life here in our bay. Through all the proper channels she has asked to be allowed to earn a position as a San Francisco Bar Pilot. Her multiple bids to even apply have been rejected three years running when her so-called guardian angels (the original eight SF pilots she met as a kid) are forced by political circumstances to betray her. And then when her first romantic relationship that she was certain would last forever falls apart because of her feminist attitudes, she loses heart and escapes to be with her estranged mother in Bora Bora. The emotional cost of her life choices has been great and for the first time in her life she feels defeated.

The final section of the Treatment will be continued next time.

Copyright 2010 G. Leo Maselli