Welcome To The Band!
15 year old Johanna Johnson’s dream of being a rock singer is thwarted by her tumultuous home life. While her increasingly abusive father, Cliff, tries to keep his family under his thumb, and her loving mother, Deborah, tries to keep the peace, Johanna attempts to find solace in a local rock band. With the help of her quirky bandmates, Johanna is able to find her voice, both in and out of the music.
See our pitch deck below:
Our Story
There are 20 cases of domestic abuse every minute. The yelling you might hear from your next-door neighbors, or the hushed arguing a relative may try to hide, could be another one of those cases. What’s even scarier is that abusers make their victims believe that there isn’t a way out. And you believe them. I know I did. My mother and I lived under my father’s emotional and physical abuse for eight years, and after she finally stood up to him and got him out of our lives, I was left with confusion, abandonment issues and anger issues of my own.
Hoping it might help, my mom introduced me to music to focus the intense emotions I felt after their split. Immersing myself in Rock music gave me the space to tackle those dark feelings and it quite literally saved my life. So, I wanted to write an ode to those artists, those songs and show how it can help anyone in any kind of situation, but specifically domestic violence. In the script, we explore the unique connection between bandmates and the sense of family that grows and how crucial that is for someone living through such deep trauma.
It was very important to honor the women in my life and women as a whole in a truthful and empowering way. This film takes a female empowerment stance against domestic violence, with music as the constant friend and backdrop as it helps Johanna understand her situation and her life from that point going forward.
That is the story of Scarred Hearts.
To learn more about my deep connection to this story, read my directors statement:
Our Team
Meet the incomparable Scarred Hearts Film Team
I just finished reading your script and I think you did a FANTASTIC job with it. I appreciate the nuances you captured of the ecosystem of a family with an abusive parent. I think this is an important story to be told because it is so prevalent – not just the all out awful abusive rager but someone who does have a good side that kids are bonded to. I know this story well myself.
This is a highly effective script with a solid plot and deep, rich characters. The choice to spend a small but significant amount of time exploring Cliff's own story and character pays off wonderfully, providing context to his actions without ever absolving him of blame. Indeed, he undergoes a tragic arc of his own, offered the potential to drag himself out of his negative spiral when Deborah essentially offers him an ultimatum, and for a shining moment it genuinely seems as if he might recover. All this makes it possibly more gut-wrenching to see him easily tumble back into his habits, and the script is all the better for exploring the family from all three angles.
Your character descriptions are well done. We know who Johanna and Amber are before they even speak. Amber's trauma and how it informs her interaction with Johanna is well done. She can see what Johanna can’t. Dylan and Travis are fun, and Amber is a great rock for not only Johanna but also Deborah. Johanna is well developed. We see her fear through her subtle reactions to noises, movements and how her anxiety rises. This is a great story about a mother and daughter finding their voices and freedom from an abusive man. A coming-of-age story for any age!
This is an incredibly strong script. The title page notes that this is your 36th draft, and that shows in the best way. It's admirable to stick with a script through so many revisions and paid off tremendously. No moments feel wasted here, and each little detail in every scene either reinforces a character's personality traits or sets something up for later. The best example of this is when Amber tells Johanna to stop apologizing so much in the first act; this shows that Johanna is used to being submissive and assumes herself in the wrong regardless of the situation. This foreshadows her confrontations with her father later in the film.
There’s so much more energy and pop in the musical moments, which is how it should be, but especially in comparison to Johanna’s darker home life. The added element of the family dynamic, and in particular the emphasis on that element, is refreshing and interesting. This kid of story excels at generating empathy, and Johanna is a very likeable and empathetic character. Similarly, the struggles between Deborah and Cliff are painful, awkward and quite believable. Perhaps the biggest strength Scarred Hearts has going for it is the sincerity with which it has apparently been written. There is a very genuine love for music, as well as the characters of the world, that comes across in the script. Scarred Hearts is an empathetic, engaging script that shows a lot of promise.
