Kamren’s Haven

We had the opportunity to interview the screenwriters of Kamren’s Haven, an official selection of the Utah Film Festival. Written by Derek Bailey and Stephanie Byrd, this short story exposes how dark motives of greedy adults can hamper the life of a child and make it wary about the future.

What is the synopsis of Kamren’s Haven?

Kamren is overjoyed when she is adopted nine years after being abandoned by her addicted birth mother. However, she soon discovers that her new family may have an agenda that’s not in her best interests.She must endure the Preying Family and instead find solace in the one who Prays.

What was the inspiration for coming up with this story?

The story mirrors the birth and some of the difficulties that co-writer Stephanie Byrd faced being born addicted to drugs. For her safety the system took her into the Safe Haven protocols, and she eventually was nursed back to health in the home of an elderly couple. When given the chance to write this script she wanted to focus on what happens when a child faces an adoption that doesn’t go well. Can you “return” your adoptive parents or adopted kid? 

What was the biggest challenge in writing Kamren’s Haven?

Harnessing the emotions of a 9-year-old lead character isn’t easy, especially when you have the adults around her trying to profit off her celebrity status. We needed her to be able to have vulnerabilities but also to be an appropriately strong young woman.

What was your favorite scene to write?

We have two scenes where the adoptive dad and his childhood friend, now a pastor, fight or have super tense conversations. Some have wondered when reading the script why the adoptive dad would even dare to speak his plan to the Pastor, but I loved that he had so much confidence and just ran over the fact that spilling this secret while in anger could even have a chance at disrupting the future.

What was your favorite character to create?

Personally, I love writing supporting characters that have multiple layers. In Kamren’s Haven the main character was very fun, I really liked Heaven the new sister because she truly was interested in Kamren and accepted her baggage and all.

How/When do you plan to make it into a film?

We are looking to film this in Jan/Feb 2023. It has some locations that are a bit more difficult to find and probably have a price tag to use them. We most likely will film this within the Atlanta Film Community so we can reflect the story while taking advantage of the lower costs.

What do you have next in the works?

I have other projects in preproduction while I have two short films that are in Postproduction. Stephanie and I are considering ways to expand this into a feature, or to do more of a biography of her birth and first years.

How can we learn more about you and your projects?

True Story Originals is our project name, so you can find us on FB and IG
@TrueStoryOriginals. We also cover many of our projects on our website www.truestoryoriginals.com