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Archive for the Category "My Experiences"

Industry Insider Contest Scripts Available Author: Aug 02

Industry Insider Screenwriting ContestA while back I discussed my experience with the first Writers Store’s Industry Insider Screenwriting Contest. Even though my submission wasn’t what they were looking for, I was still very impressed with the contest itself and the opportunity.

However, if you’re like me, I’m sure you’d like to see how your 15 pages compared to the ones that made the top ten. Well now you can! The Writers Store has just posted nine of them.

To see them all (including the winner’s pages) for the Simon Kinberg contest logline, please click here.

UPDATE: For those entering the current round of the Industry Insider Screenwriting contest, here’s a great tip from Dana Hahn, Industry Insider Contest Coordinator, who was kind enough to provide it to me:

“The main thing that we’re looking for in our contest is the quality of the writing, and a unique take on the logline.”
- Dana Hahn, Industry Insider Contest Coordinator

Thanks Dana! And good luck everyone!

Professional script critique, logline and page notes for $59.
(Yup, the rumors are true. It’s the best frikken deal on the web.)
Category: Contests, My Experiences  | 3 Comments
Vote for your favorite in the Cyberspace Open Author: Jul 12

CyberSpace Open - Cast VoteThe first (and last) time I entered Creative Screenwriting’s Cyberspace Open, it was a very, ahem, gut-wrenching experience.

The contest has changed a bit since 2009. There’s no more 24 hour phase or two hour rush final. They also film the three finalists utilizing actors and a narrator.

I’m not a big fan of the filmed scenes. While they’re better this time around, they still smack of a high school drama class rehearsal, with most actors reading from scripts, and showing only a modest regard for the actual scene direction.

But overall the contest is a great way to test your scene-writing chops. I’m pleased to report that one of the finalists this year is Elisa Graybill from my screenwriting group. Way to go Elisa!

I genuinely think her written scene was the best, and most closely followed the scene cue. So please show Elisa some Scriptwrecked love and give her your vote if you agree with me!

Category: Contests, My Experiences  | 2 Comments
Actors and Screenwriters – Together at Last Author: Jul 07

RecommendThe Recommended

Last night was really cool. At my semi-monthly writers’ group meeting (we’re known as The Recommended), we had a table read for the first act of my screenplay, and one other.

Professional actors were invited to participate, and some truly talented individuals came by to bring our characters to life.

I’ve been in other groups before, and have had my scripts read aloud by my fellow screenwriters, but having professional actors perform your script is an entirely different experience.

Some great things I discovered:

  • There’s real professionalism at play here. Even though they didn’t have to, these actors reviewed the scripts ahead of time, and gave careful consideration to the characters.
  • An actor’s take on a character may be something completely different than what you had in mind, yet powerful and equally valid. It gives you a new way of seeing your character and another possible direction to go in.
  • Some actors will nail your character so precisely, that you’ll walk away having difficulty distinguishing the two in your head afterwards.
  • Some line readings will be different than what you had envisioned — and by different, I mean better.
  • Lines or jokes that fall flat, force you to ask yourself whether it was the delivery, or the writing (hint: it’s usually the writing).
  • Actors give great feedback on the writing itself! They’ve all read a lot of scripts, and have an innate sense of what works and what doesn’t.
  • Make sure the narrator (the one who reads the action lines, scene headings, etc.) that you utilize for your script is an eloquent reader.  Otherwise the end result will be something decidedly less than it could have been.
  • Actors are way better looking and charismatic than my usual crowd. I definitely need to expand my circle of friends. :)

The best part of this experience was that all of the actors really enjoyed my script! A wonderful validation for all the  hard work.

Join Us!

Screenwriters

If you’re in the greater Los Angeles area and would like to submit a 15 page sample to see if you qualify to join our group, please contact me for more information. We’d love to have you.

Be forewarned: Our panel will review your submission to make sure it demonstrates an advanced level of screenwriting. Many more screenwriters are turned away than make the cut.

There is no charge for submitting (but for the love of all things holy, please don’t waste our time if you’re brand new to screenwriting). No notes will be given.

Actors

If you’re in the greater L.A. area and would like to gain valuable table read experience, or cold read practice, in a fun, supportive atmosphere, let me know!

Want me to read your screenplay? Please take a look at my script services.

Category: Actors, My Experiences, Writing  | Leave a Comment
Industry Insider Screenwriting Contest Submission Author: Jan 17

Industry Insider Screenwriting ContestThe Contest

The Writers Store recently held an intriguing Screenwriting Contest. An industry screenwriting veteran — in this case, Simon Kinberg (screenwriter of Mr. and Mrs. Smith) — would provide a logline that contest entrants would then need to craft into the first 15 pages of a screenplay.

Here was the logline provided:

A spy who has spent life wining and dining young women suddenly gets a major surprise when his daughter knocks on the door.

Let’s Do It

It sounded like a lot of fun, and implied an action comedy genre, so I decided to enter it. So did over 1,000 other people. Which meant the odds of making it to the top 10 was less than 1%. Difficult, but not insurmountable (my kind of challenge).

What’s the Frequency Kenneth?

According to the Writers Store, there were so many “stellar scripts” that they “came close to increasing the final count to 20.” I believe them.

Unfortunately, like many contests, the screenwriters aren’t privy to the final judging criteria. Maybe they were looking for a very specific genre? Maybe they were looking to appeal to a specific demographic (e.g. kid-friendly)? Maybe they were looking for something similar to a previously released movie?

If anyone at the Writers Store has any insight into this final process, or even the other 11-20 names that were in contention, I’d love to hear from you.

At any rate the top 10 finalists beat me, so well done!

If any of the finalists (Araby Patch, Sarah Newman, Mary Krell-Oishi, Leo Sardarian, Jacob Snyder, David Steiner, Kenneth Lemm, Yuri Shallan, Bob Giordano, and Alex Berger) feels like sending me their submission to read, I’d love to check them out (I promise I won’t blog about it).

UPDATE #1 (August 2, 2011): Nine of the finalists’ scripts are now available for download.

UPDATE #2 (August 2, 2011): For those entering the current round of the Industry Insider Screenwriting contest, here’s a great tip from Dana Hahn, Industry Insider Contest Coordinator, who was kind enough to provide it to me:

“The main thing that we’re looking for in our contest is the quality of the writing, and a unique take on the logline.”
- Dana Hahn, Industry Insider Contest Coordinator

Thanks Dana! And good luck everyone!

My Submission

For those interested, here’s my submission entitled BLOWN. I think it’s really good, yet it didn’t qualify. So, if your 15 pages didn’t qualify either, don’t feel bad about it. It’s not necessarily a reflection of your writing. You win some; you lose some. That’s just the nature of the game.

Want me to read your screenplay? Please take a look at my script services.

Category: Contests, My Experiences  | 15 Comments
The Late Villain Reveal in Television Author: Dec 06

There can be only one... scriptMany years ago, when I was young(er) and dumb(er), I decided to write a Highlander: The TV Series script on spec. In my story, someone was trying to kill Duncan MacLeod, and the episode was about finding out who it was.

Through a combination of tenacity and ignorance, I was actually able to get the show’s producer/writer, David Tynan, to read it.

Lucky for me, he was a really nice guy and gave me some great advice and encouragement. I’ll save the lessons I learned for another day. Today’s post is about one of his criticisms of my script. He said that I had introduced my villain too late.

You know how in every whodunnit type of show, you’re introduced to all the suspects early on, then the episode serves up a platter of misdirection, until the end when you realize it was the person you least expected?

Well I hate that crap. When you know the rule, and you see the meek school teacher with the cute stutter, you know you’ve found your killer.

So I framed my episode this way:

  • introduce all the suspects early on
  • serve up a platter of misdirection
  • have the main characters realize toward the end it was the person they least expected, but…
  • have them be WRONG
  • have the actual killer be someone we hadn’t seen previously in the episode (but had been referenced)

I thought it was a clever play against the standard framework, but perhaps it was too unfamiliar. So unfamiliar in fact, that I’ve never seen it. Ever…

Until the last episode of Castle entitled “Close Encounters of the Murderous Kind.”

In that episode, which involved an unholy mix of UFOs and Lyle Lovett,  a doctor was referenced early on, but we never saw him.

Towards the end of the episode, I thought they were going to zero in on the cute female observatory assistant — but no! The doctor, who we’d never seen before, turns out to be the villain. It was a true surprise and I thought it worked really well.

Did anyone else see the episode? What did you think?

Have you ever seen this type of late villain reveal in any other show?

Want me to read your screenplay? Please take a look at my script services.

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Category: My Experiences, Structure, Television  | One Comment
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