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Dear Screenwriter:
The deadlines for some of the best script competitions of the year are
approaching. You have just enough time to polish and proof your favorite
script.
So, let's get on with it...
_____________________
SCRIPT
MARKET
NEWS MARCH 10, 2002
IN THIS ISSUE...
MARKET TIP: Think
Ahead!
TUTORIAL: Five Fatal First-Timer Mistakes
WHAT'S NEW: Toot Horn, Clang Cymbal
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MARKET TIPS
----> NICHOLL FELLOWSHIPS IN SCREENWRITING
This international competition is sponsored by the American Academy of
Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (sponsor of the Oscars). It's open to
writers who have not earned more than $5,000. writing for film or television. Each year they offer up to five delicious $30,000. fellowships to aspiring screenwriters. Read their guidelines carefully and FOLLOW them.
If you only enter ONE contest this year - let this be the ONE!
Deadline => May 1, 2002.
Details => www.oscars.org/nicholl/index.html
----> SUNDANCE SCREENWRITER'S LAB
Robert Redford's legendary creation, The Sundance Institute in Utah, has
launched countless writing and filmmaking careers. Each year 15 to 20
screenwriters are selected to participate in one of the labs which are held in January and June. Veteran screenwriters act as advisors throughout the process involving individual story conferences and group
problem-solving sessions.
Sundance provides airline travel to Utah, accommodations and food for one writer/filmmaker per project selected. Check out their guidelines and the specific details about their selection process so that you make the most of this professional opportunity.
Deadline: May 2, 2002 for the 2003 screenwriter labs.
Guidelines + Application => www.sundance.org
Specific questions => featurefilmprogram@sundance.org
----> CHESTERFIELD WRITER'S PROJECT
The Chesterfield Film Company based in Santa Monica, California, sponsors this project offering year-long fellowships for aspiring
screenwriters. Unlike most fellowships for new screenwriters, Chesterfield accepts the submission of plays, short stories, and novels, as well as screenplays. Chesterfield seeks to award fellowships to a mix of writers in each form. HINT: They want to be assured that you can create more than one masterpiece.
Prizes: Up to five writers will be chosen to participate, and each will receive a $20,000. stipend to cover his or her living expenses. During the 12 month program in Los Angeles, each writer creates two original, feature-length screenplays.
Throughout the program year, selected film professionals and Paramount
Pictures executives share their opinions and experience with the Fellows.
Deadline: May 15, 2002
DETAILS => www.chesterfield-co.com
QUESTIONS => info@chesterfield-co.com
----> INSIDER TIP
These contests and career opportunities are worthwhile for many reasons:
1) They generate significant industry BUZZ.
2) Film industry insiders recognize them as legitimate professional
endorsements -- what every unproduced writer needs.
3) They're well-established and respected because they have proved
themselves and they have kept their promises.
4) They publicize their winners and finalists. Check out the press releases and winner endorsements on their Web sites.
----> BEFORE YOU ENTER
Have you read my mini-guide on researching and evaluating writing contests?
IF NOT... find it HERE => www.breakingin.net/choosey.htm
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TUTORIAL
FIVE FATAL FIRST-TIMER MISTAKES
(AND HOW TO AVOID THEM)
Copyright (c) 2002, Lenore Wright
All screenwriters, whether aspiring or experienced, benefit from the achievements of produced screenwriters. We can learn from the excellence of these writers; but we can also benefit from the common mistakes screenwriters have made in the past by learning to avoid common pitfalls.
# 1 Mistake => Thievery!
Instead of writing an original script, some screenwriters piece together great scenes from popular movies (with small innovations to disguise the theft). Perhaps this explains the origin of the word 'hack'; they hack up the creations of others and stitch the various pieces together and claim it as their own.
Sometimes writers cover up their shameless pilferage by calling their script an homage or a valentine. HA! It is merely a misguided attempt to write a 'commercial' movie without actually doing any original work. The script ends up to be a poor substitute for digging deep and coming up with an effective, compelling story on their own.
How do you avoid this mistake? Find your own voice, discover your own story. A simple answer, but not an easy one to achieve. Do the work, put it on paper.
Of course writers who aspire to sell screenplays must take steps to be aware of the film market. They need to know what films have been made, what films are shooting, what scripts have been bought and which topics are hot with the stars, directors and producers who have studio deals. But the way to stand out from the crowd is to write a movie all your own. Write the movie ONLY YOU can write.
# 2 Mistake => The Guru Glitch
Many screenwriters today slavishly follow the structural guidelines in one of the scriptwriting books or lecture courses created by popular script gurus. This is not a potshot at any of the script gurus - the best of them are brilliant teachers with useful, provocative ideas. Many of them offer a very helpful system for focusing a writer's thinking on solving common storytelling problems.
However, I think aspiring writers can benefit from writing several scripts on their own BEFORE they take on one of these strenuous scriptwriting systems.
Tips to avoid the guru glitch:
~ Let the first draft be YOURS alone.
~ Experiment on your own, see where YOUR story leads YOU.
~ On the rewrite or polish, check in with your favorite guru and see if their guidelines stimulate you somehow to improve your script.
# 3 Mistake => Not knowing when your script is finished.
I was working on a movie with an English crew and they loved to tell stories. One of them had worked on location in India with David Lean (Lawrence of Arabia). “Lawrence" was playing at a local movie theatre while they were shooting this other movie (decades after Lawrence's original release). At night after shooting, Lean would stop in to watch Lawrence, and inevitably he would go up to the projection booth and pound on the door, demanding to get in so he could make one little cut
here or there. He did this so often, they had to put a padlock on the projection booth door. Lawrence of Arabia is one of the greatest pictures ever made; and yet Lean wanted to give his masterpiece one more tweak.
I admire that creative ethic; but there is a point when every script needs to be experienced by others. That's the only way a writer really knows if the script is ready to go to market. The safest way to accomplish this without exposing a script prematurely is for the writer to arrange a script reading.
Make it a fun learning experience. Gather a group of friends and read the script through. Or contact a local acting class or community theatre group to arrange a reading of your script. Don't use this as a backer's audition, this reading is for you -- the writer -- to help you take your work to the next level.
Many successful Hollywood writers hear their work read aloud by actors before they send it to market. This process will boost your own confidence in your work. And it may motivate you to do that last creative tweak - the one that makes all the difference.
# 4 Mistake => Confusing action with story
So many screenwriting articles and books emphasize that writers must learn to think ‘visually’. This phrase -- thinking visually -- conveys the wrong impression. It is more important for writers to learn how to turn words into actions. That is the job of the screenwriter, along with allowing the characters to communicate through all the dimensions of storytelling, not just dialogue, but gesture, action, quirks, facial
expressions, emotions. Convey your story using all the forms of communication, not just conventional action.
To help you discover the important difference between action and story try this exercise:
=> Download a movie script from the Web that features an involving, well-told story. Many Web sites offer free script downloads for educational purposes. Here are a few of them:
www.scriptcrawler.net; www.iscriptdb.com; www.simplyscripts.com.
=> Then go to a video store or library and rent or borrow a video of this movie.
=> Watch the opening sequence, then stop the tape and read the opening sequence in the script.
=> Watch the next sequence and then read that sequence in the script.
=> Work your way through the movie and script in this manner. You will come to understand two important concepts: how magic is made on the page and how the page is transformed into magic on the screen.
# 5 Mistake => Reading too many articles like this one.
Let's face it, some writers would rather READ about writing, than actually WRITE. Unfortunately, most screenwriters I know learned to write great screenplays by writing screenplay after screenplay.
Of course I realize most unproduced writers need input or helpful guidance. So I will cautiously recommend four well-known books that might help you transform your story into a screenplay. They are not difficult to read, however they are challenging to absorb. There is so much to learn. Don't expect to polish them off in one rainy weekend.
~ The Screenwriter's Bible: A Complete Guide to Writing, Formatting, and
Selling Your Script by Dave
Trottier. TIP: Read this book first. Dave is a great teacher as well as a screenwriter, so he has a gift for making ideas
understandable.
~ Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting by Syd
Field.
~ Writing Screenplays that Sell by Michael
Hauge. Michael explores the
essential elements of a successful screenplay in a practical and helpful way.
~ Making a Good Script Great by Linda
Seger. This concerns rewriting. Read this book after you've completed a draft of your script.
The motion picture offers a rich history of achievement for writers. We can learn from their triumphs and from their mistakes for they faced the same creative challenges we face with our scripts.
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What's New?
==>
ANOTHER WINNING SCRIPT
Allen Cody Taube's prize-winning script
KIDNAPPING CASTRO just won another prize. Five winners were chosen out of 400 entries in the WordFromHere
screenplay
competition, Allen's script was among them.
Allen reports that he's had over 20 requests from producers to read his screenplays. Congratulations!
==> Send us YOUR good news: mailto:screenwriter@breakingin.net
==> Back issues of SCRIPT MARKET NEWS:
www.breakingin.net/tocscriptmarket.htm
_______________________
Polish that script till it begs for mercy. The best contests attract the
best scripts. Let YOURS be one of them!
Lenore Wright, Editor
Script Market News
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Jumpstart YOUR writing career!
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