ROKC Production...

You may think this stupid or not, but I got to thinking and I propose the following:


    The people of the world need to know what happened and how it changed every life on this planet since Kennedy was assassinated on 11/22/63. My generation does not give a shit, and I'd be willing to bet if you asked 100 random people between the ages of 20-40 what happened on that date, maybe 15 might know. Of that 15, maybe 2 or 3 would have any sort of understanding of what really happened. I'm just guessing at those numbers, but in my opinion I am giving people much more credit than they deserve for their historical knowledge in this country, and the amount of people that could answer the original question may even be less.

   The younger generations do not read books. We must find a way to get the masses into this thing. We must find a way to do it in a way that does not hide the important details and the truth in favor of keeping something in the mainstream format. I also believe this task would take more than one person to pen it. There is simply too much for one person to thoroughly grasp the big picture and capture it in a single screenplay. So... 

    With the advent of Netflix, Hulu, Amazon and the likes, I think we should write a treatment for a series that encompasses the entire story of what lead up to Kennedy's assassination and the ramifications of the event that has left this scar on all of us that many don't know or understand where it came from.

    Explain in an entertaining way how the Cold War was a lot of bullshit, how the CIA overthrow places like Guatemala in the name of corporate interest, how Jack Ruby was anything but what the Warren Commission said, and how our boy Lee needs to have an investigation reopened for him. I think with the minds in here, as a team, we could get this accomplished in a way that would stick to the truth but still keep the entertainment value of the story in need of being told.

   So if any one wants in, lets start with some brainstorming on where to start and how we get to Dallas in 1963
(Granted some of what is about to be typed needs to be checked, I am going off the top of my head while I type at work)

   1954-Guatemala- CIA overthrows democratically elected leader in favor of a dictator after nationalizing much of the  monopolized lands owned by Wall Street company that the Dulles Brothers both sat on the board of/ represented. Introductions to Howard Hunt, David Phillips, Allen Dulles. Intros in Ruby, young Oswald, and so forth. First part background on what these people did and who they are. Character development.

 1959- Oswald in Marines. Phillips in Cuba. Mobsters in Cuba, Kennedy defeats Nixon(which I don't think was ever supposed to happen). Castro overthrows Batista and drawing up the plans of what would be the BOP invasion. Oswald defects to Russia in one of the most efficient ways ever for a young punk that knows not what he is doing. Albert Schweitzer college and shit like that.

   And so on and so forth....you get the idea of where I am going, yes?

   I like the idea of having many sets of ideas and minds coming together for something of this magnitude. My knowledge of this is limited in depth compared to some others, but my knowledge of human behavior and creative writing may have some use and may be greater than some others. I do have a good grasp of the story however, so I wouldn't be weighing anyone down.

 We can do a thread on here and if anyone likes this idea, we could keep it going for members only? This will be a way to get this investigation reopened. With our powers combined...we could maybe hit the mainstream?

 Then again, I could just be a whacko sitting at work bored and angry that I have to look out at this beautiful day while stuck indoors. December 12th and it is 82 degrees and very shiny out. I am stuck on the shelf for a month with two ruptured discs in my back after being a dipshit and getting in a fight with an alligator two weeks ago at work. Paying the price currently.

Jeff, definitely like your thinking on this. 

It is a lot of work. It would take a shitload of money to make it.

But I am of the opinion that creative types should not worry about the amount of work involved - or the money needed.

Sorry to hear you're stuck indoors. Love the fact that you have been wrestling a gator. 

Am going out for a while (sorry - not rubbing it in). Will talk more when I get back.

Quite a good idea. Sorry to hear about your injury. Get well soon.

It is a fucking hugely ambitious undertaking. We would have to be barking mad to try it.

So who's in?  Just add your name. If we have enough interest, I will set up a more private way to discuss.

I already have a script that covers Lee's last 3 days. It could be split into becoming the last 3 episodes. One of the beauties of streaming services is that you do not need to have epidodes of absolute uniform length. As a general rule of thumb, each page of s script is about a minute of screen time. My own script is in three acts - representing those last three days. There are a total of 99 scenes and 115 pages, so in theory at least, almost 2 hours of screen time. 

I also have software that automatically formats the script to industry standard.

Anyone contributing can write scenes however they want. I can add and format them correctly very easily.

Thank you for input. I think it could be a lot of fun, actually.
As well, when one person takes on a task of this size, it can easily go off track with things such as dialogue. It would do wonders to have multiple people being able to give input into those such things. Reading screenplays, that is one of the first things I look for. Many times I can tell the same person is writing the dialogue for multiple characters. It becomes predictable and very cheesy.
If we did do this and the finished product was something to be proud of, I would gladly go to the limited contacts I do have. They are decent ones but I have never wanted to burn those limited opportunities with rubbish. If I go into battle with only a few rounds of ammo, I am not the type to just start firing. I would wait until I see the whites of their eyes.

I am just trying to come up with a way that will reach a much broader audience. I am not trying to knock anyone, but the books that come out, the documentaries and the essays, some of them are great and very informative, but they only reach the same crowd of people. One may knock it out of the park, but you're knocking it out of a park with very few folks in the stands. We need to find a way to bring our game to the Big Leagues and then knock them out of the park. I don't want fame, and I don't want to make money(lord knows, if I were ever to become rich its a fucking death sentence), but I want to create something and I want this to be the subject of said creation. I also want the younger generations to understand what happened. I grew up going to public school in the US. What we are taught is not at all how things went. It is the typical patriotic, Americans never do anything wrong bullshit. Since the end of WWII, and probably even before, the US has not done very many deeds to be proud of. Yet we love to toot our horns and scream about freedom. We love talk about how great we are...

We still could be great. We still could be that beacon of hope that the rest of the world admires. But man do we have some shit to sort through before we even begin to contemplate that. You gotta start somewhere though, right?

...And I want that fucking asshat Allen Dulles to be looked at with the correct lenses. He should be going down in the history books as one of the worst humans in American history, not someone to be admired. His brother as well. No Dulles should ever have an airport named after them unless that airport is in Hell.

Ok, well now I am just rambling on and on. I will stop here, but trust in the fact I will continue onward at some point. Probably later today. Stuck in the golf shop and I have all the tournaments set up and sidework done. It is only 9am here, so lots o'time on my hand

I have a rough draft that consisted of about 200 pages that covered a timeline....obviously it is obsolete now, but I agree the last three days of Lee's life would be the correct way to end it.

Yes, stark raving madd indeed!!!

Timeline, storyboard, dialogue...

First episode I would suggest as a background of post WWII, Cold War, and introducing characters that will be playing a more prominent role later on...Fred Korth handling a divorce would be a nice touch

It may be a bonkers idea but I'm up for it. (i am bonkers in any event)

When my son first got involved in YouTube many moons ago, I told him to start his own TV channel there and grow it into a network. He never did, of course, because it's a bonkers idea.

I've seen some pretty classy-looking documentaries put out by independents on Youtube, Rumble, Bitchute, etc. but it is not the same as a live-action feature even of short duration. Even independent filmmakers are governed by regulations, IIRC, involving the number of grips and so forth in a production. Having not been involved in the industry for forty years, I no longer know much about that.

So, yes, I am excited by the idea and would like to participate in any way I am able.

Have created a new forum where access will be limited to a core group.

The idea of a Netflix-style series about LHO and 'exactly what happened' in Dallas has been on my mind for some time. But how to funnel such a huge subject into a cohesive framework is something that has so far eluded me.

I like Jeff's idea of taking the chapter-by-chapter route, with Guatemala a great starting point. The historical facts, the backdrop if you like, to events leading to the assassination would surely make for a gripping and enlightening first act. But the nitty-gritty of what happened, who was responsible, directly or indirectly, would need to be nailed down if the series was to have real impact. And I'm not sure that that even at ROKC we have a precise consensus on the who and why of events in Dallas, other than Oswald being an innocent party.

It's also on my mind that sometimes the 'big' subjects and themes are sometimes best dealt with in microcosm. I'm thinking of a fictional series like The Americans, where the huge of issues of Cold War conflict were so brilliantly distilled into what was, effectively, a subversion of American suburban family values. It raises the question in my mind: who exactly was LHO? Do any of us really know? I can't think of any individual in history who shifts in and out of focus as consistently as Oswald. Had he been 'turned' in Russia to work for the Soviets? Was Marina likewise a sleeper agent? Was either aware of, or suspicious of, the other's 'secret mission', if indeed there was a mission?

The question of what exactly went down in Mexico also looms large. We can speculate about Oswald roaming around Mexico City shepherded by Cuban and or Soviet intelligence and/or the CIA, and whether or not he had that supposed fling with a secretary at the Cuban consulate. Great spy movie material there. But did Oswald actually make the trip? And if he did, what was really going on?

It seems to me you could almost construct an entire series simply asking questions, looking at the imponderables, speculating, probing, raising questions in the viewer's mind without necessarily providing an answer, highlighting the failings of the Warren Commission and the HSCA, exposing the contradictions and the 'bending-over-backwards' hypotheses concocted to prop up the official version of events.

Either way, the challenge would be to keep it fresh and original and to tread gingerly where angels have, for the most part (in the media) failed to. 

A huge challenge, in other words, but definitely worth exploring.

orangebicycle wrote:The idea of a Netflix-style series about LHO and 'exactly what happened' in Dallas has been on my mind for some time. But how to funnel such a huge subject into a cohesive framework is something that has so far eluded me.

I like Jeff's idea of taking the chapter-by-chapter route, with Guatemala a great starting point. The historical facts, the backdrop if you like, to events leading to the assassination would surely make for a gripping and enlightening first act. But the nitty-gritty of what happened, who was responsible, directly or indirectly, would need to be nailed down if the series was to have real impact. And I'm not sure that that even at ROKC we have a precise consensus on the who and why of events in Dallas, other than Oswald being an innocent party.

It's also on my mind that sometimes the 'big' subjects and themes are sometimes best dealt with in microcosm. I'm thinking of a fictional series like The Americans, where the huge of issues of Cold War conflict were so brilliantly distilled into what was, effectively, a subversion of American suburban family values. It raises the question in my mind: who exactly was LHO? Do any of us really know? I can't think of any individual in history who shifts in and out of focus as consistently as Oswald. Had he been 'turned' in Russia to work for the Soviets? Was Marina likewise a sleeper agent? Was either aware of, or suspicious of, the other's 'secret mission', if indeed there was a mission?

The question of what exactly went down in Mexico also looms large. We can speculate about Oswald roaming around Mexico City shepherded by Cuban and or Soviet intelligence and/or the CIA, and whether or not he had that supposed fling with a secretary at the Cuban consulate. Great spy movie material there. But did Oswald actually make the trip? And if he did, what was really going on?

It seems to me you could almost construct an entire series simply asking questions, looking at the imponderables, speculating, probing, raising questions in the viewer's mind without necessarily providing an answer, highlighting the failings of the Warren Commission and the HSCA, exposing the contradictions and the 'bending-over-backwards' hypotheses concocted to prop up the official version of events.

Either way, the challenge would be to keep it fresh and original and to tread gingerly where angels have, for the most part (in the media) failed to. 

A huge challenge, in other words, but definitely worth exploring.

From memory, it was Lee Farley who said we need a  counter-narrative. I was dubious about that because it forces speculation.

But I have come around to the idea. 

A major part of the police putting a case together is developing a narrative - a timeline telling the story of what they claim happened. Inspector Kelley even approached Oswald at the end of his last interrogation asking to speak to him alone to compare his story to the one the police were developing - or to confess if their story was right. 

Then there is Stone's JFK... 

We do have enough material to do this. But it is spread out all over the web or in personal computer files.

I would for example, be willing to use my research on the alleged trip by Oswald to MC. It is a game-changer for anyone who thinks MC has anything to do with the assassination. It didn't. Oswald wasn't on the bus. But the bigger surprise is that neither were the white witnesses who placed him on it. They all lied. They all had reason to lie. They all quickly slipped out of the limelight and refused - with good reason - to talk to anyone about it in the years following.

Ironically, the only honest bus witness was the much maligned Albert Osborne. He was as dodgy as fuck, fleecing old ladies for "donations". But on this, he was absolutely telling the truth.

Osborne vs the Fab Four reminds of the situation with Marguerite and Marina in the immediate aftermath. Marguerite had some personality issues. They were used to marginalise her as a witness to the point of poisoning the media and the public against her. While being held by the Secret Service, Margeruite couldn't even get anyone to go and get her a change of clothes. Meanwhile, Marina was being groomed and bribed with money and promises of being able to stay in the US. She acquiesced. Lee was dead and beyond help. She needed money. It was that simply. Yet all along, it was Marguerite who was telling the truth, not Marina. No one wanted the truth. And so it was with these bus witnesses.

Not only was it not Oswald sitting next to Osborne - I know who it was. So did the FBI - and therein is the real tale of MC. The real story is far more interesting than the fictional accounts cobbled together about Osborne running an assassination training camp, or CIA ops in MC using Oswald in mole hunts. Not only more interesting, but grounded in what is known to be happening at the time.  It is ACTUAL REAL history. and while speculation throughout the series would be needed - there are areas like this providing new evidence, that are not speculative at all. The evidence puts it beyond doubt.

I have had a plan to make vids for more than 4 years now, and the writings took over (my papers) and now MB's archive.
However after looking at Mark Fenton's bits on YouTube I will make 10-15 mins movie clips on da tube from next year Summer and onwards.
I have so much material besides PM I could prolly do this for 2-5 years.

First this archive.....which by the looks of it will take at least another 6 months......

Bart, that should stir things up a bit. Will compliment what we are doing. Or attempting to do.

Greg, if what you say is right, and verifiable, then it blows the whole official assassination narrative out of the water. That must be the documentary, right there.

Sorry, been away for a few days. What a past few weeks...life is, for lack of a better word, strange. My music has been Time Has Come Today and Lennon's Strange Days(not the actual title, I think). Anyways I'm in the golf shop for 13 hours tomorrow, will respond in depth to subject material instead of this little ramble

orangebicycle wrote:Greg, if what you say is right, and verifiable, then it blows the whole official assassination narrative out of the water. That must be the documentary, right there.

Have been sitting on it pondering the most effective way to get it out. I learned a long time ago, posting stuff like this on forums only leads to it being picked up and (mis)used in other people's books. 

A member here put the finishing cherry on it for me - the ultimate proof - independant info that tied it all together. Won't name the member yet, but when it is presented, he will get due recognition.

That has been one of the beauties of ROKC. I know there are members I can tap for specific types of help. Need a particular doc? Bart's the man.

Need speculation looked at for any issues? Terry, Stan, Steely, Ed, Bart, Mick and others here are people I can rely on for honest feedback. 

Need advice on photos and movie techicalities? Bart and Mick.

Need something humorous? Stan, Steely, Alex and Ed.

Need a maths whiz? I believe we have a member who meets that criteria.

An expert on WWII? Alex.

And on and on.

Trust me. I am busting to get the info out. But I want to do it effectively so it does make an impact. The fact that it is a game-changer won't make one iota of difference if it is just posted on the internet.