The Moonlit Road - One More Room

	Cultural Background
	Storyteller's Cabin

Written by Craig Dominey

Jack's friends always told him he had the ultimate job. For fifteen years, he had been working as one of Hollywood's most trusted location scouts. Now, in movie lingo, a location scout is someone hired by a producer to find locations where a movie can be shot. Jack was a seasoned pro who could find even the most obscure locations anywhere in the world

One spring day in 1998, Jack received a script from a major Hollywood studio that sounded like an easy job. The film took place in the 1940s, and many scenes occurred in a ritzy downtown hotel. Since the script also called for scenes in a cypress swamp, Jack decided to take a journey through the American South to see what he could find. Jack had never been to the Deep South before. Since he had plenty of time and was on the studio's payroll, he took a leisurely train ride through the area to absorb this new world.

Script

After several weeks of searching, Jack boarded a train for Atlanta. He had found plenty of swampy locations in Louisiana and Mississippi, but still hadn't found the right hotel. Certainly in the so-called "capital of the New South," he could find what he was looking for. The studio made reservations for him at the Barrow Hotel; a historic downtown building that Jack had researched on the Internet, and figured might work for the film.

Jack's train arrived in Atlanta that night in a pounding thunderstorm. Thick sheets of rainwater obscured his view of the city, and power had been knocked out on the streets. Jack waited in the empty depot for his driver, but no one arrived. The only car sitting outside was a restored, 1940s-era taxi with the name "Hotel Scofield" painted on the side. Sick of waiting, Jack marched up to the taxi and tapped on the window. The window rolled down, and Jack was surprised to find that the young driver was dressed in a 1940s-era cabby uniform.

"Excuse me, I don't mean to bother you," said Jack. "But could you tell me how far the Barrow Hotel is from here?"

"Why on earth would you want to go there?" asked the driver in an incredulous, though mannered, tone of voice.

Jack explained that he was looking for a film location in Atlanta. The driver shook his head and replied, "You won't have any luck there. They just renovated it a few months ago. Now it looks like every other modern hotel 'round here."

Taken aback, Jack replied, "But I saw their Web site, and it looked like..."

"...I don't know what you're talkin' about, mister," interrupted the driver. "But that's the way Atlanta is. They tear down historic buildings left and right. A cryin' shame if you ask me. Now, I don't mean to push my hotel on you, but the Scofield may be what you're looking for. It's one of the few old hotels that's still standing. They're kinda busy this time of year, but they might have one more room."

Cold and drenched, Jack quickly hopped into the cab. "You got a deal," he said. "Anything to get out of this rain."

-1-

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