Hawaii Histories

So, how did I get interested in writing screenplays about the ancient history of the Kingdom of Hawaii?

My wife and I purchased a cottage, an old paniolo (cowboy) house, on a lot in a small town called Waimea (post office name is Kamuela) in the district of South Kohala on the Big Island of Hawaii, in the mid 1990s. We began spending more time there and became residents of Hawaii in the year 2000.

During my participation as a volunteer in the development of a community plan, I learned a little about the history of the area. As a volunteer facilitator, I collected information on the areas considered sacred by the Hawaiians, with a focus on protection of those areas. At about the same time, I became interested in screenwriting and took courses in how to write screenplays.

I collected information about the area from books in tourist bookstores, from collections in the Bishop Museum in Honolulu (on the island of Oahu), and from cutural-impact reports prepared to protect important aspects of Hawaiian heritage before construction of public works projects. I also collected historic maps of the area from the State Surveyor’s Office in Honolulu and had digital (pdf) copies made.

To share what I was learning with the world, I developed a website called BloodRedRain.com and posted information about the history of the Hawaiian royal families associated with the area on it. Relevant documents from that website are copied on this website.

I also began writing screenplays with “real” historic members of the royal families (and imaginary members, to fill in historical gaps) of the royal families as main characters by weaving together local legends and oral histories of the area (many collected by early missionaries), an area that was pivotal in the history of the Kingdom of Hawaii. Eventually, I thought it would be fun to create stories about the history of the Kingdom, sort of like Shakespeare did when he wrote his English history plays. This website documents the progress I have made in that effort.

Overview

An overview of the information upon which my stories rely is presented in these documents:

The challenge about writing Hawaiian histories is not that there is not enough information, but rather that there is too much and much of that oral histories. Below are links to a few relevant publications about ancient Hawaii history:

Screenplay Development Documents

Uakoko: Literally bloody rain, a term applied to a rainbow when lying near the ground, or to a freshet-stream swollen with the red muddy water from the wash of the hillsides. These were important omens, claimed as marking the birth of tabu chiefs.

The development documents for each Hawaii Kingdom history screenplay are presented below.

Blood Red Rain: The Inheritance

Premise: The people of the Kingdom of Hawaii revolt when an evil man becomes king. They place his illegitimate half–brother on the throne.

Draft versions of this screenplay entitled Blood Red Rain: The Inheritance will be presented (in reverse chronological order) at the link under the heading Screenplays.

Following will be links to documents that illustrate the development/evolution of this story. They are presented in chronological order, oldest to newest.

The following are links to resources relied on in the development of this story:

Blood Red Rain: The Rebellion

Logline:  The son of a king who usurped the sovereignty of the Kingdom
of Hawaii earn his right to inherit it.

Premise: When a carefree young Hawaiian becomes a crown prince after his father kills his uncle, he begins training for the kingship, only to discover his power hungry brother wants to continue the family tradition. Life gets complicated when crops begin to fail and their father has both of them marry a beautiful cousin to re-establish the usurped bloodline. He must pass dangerous kingship tests designed by his brother, overcome his sexual jealousy, and use his new skills to bring the land back to life.

Draft versions of this screenplay entitled Blood Red Rain: The Rebellion are presented (in reverse chronological order) at the link under the heading Screenplays.

The following are links to documents that illustrate the development/evolution of this story. They are presented in chronological order, oldest to newest:

The following are links to resources relied on in the development of this story:

Blood Red Rain: The Invasion

Premise: Soon after an inexperienced king and his queen put down a bloody rebellion, they must rally their war-weary subjects to repel an invasion by a powerful neighboring army and bring a second political wife into the royal family.

Draft versions of this screenplay entitled Blood Red Rain: The Invasion are presented (in reverse chronological order) at the link under the heading Screenplays.

The following are links to documents that illustrate the development/evolution of this story. They are presented in chronological order, oldest to newest:

The following are links to resources relied on in the development of this story:

Blood Red Rain: The Shipwreck

Premise: The people of the Kingdom of Hawaii revolt when an evil man becomes king. They place his illegitimate half–brother on the throne.

Following will be links to documents that illustrate the development/evolution of this story. They are presented in chronological order, oldest to newest:

Draft versions of this screenplay entitled Blood Red Rain: The Shipwreck will be presented (in reverse chronological order) at the link under the heading Screenplays.