As dreaded an activity as mowing the lawn can be, it does provide me a chance to be alone with my thoughts. As I mulled things over, walking back and forth, back and forth, back and... and so on, it came to me that I needed to have some sort of routine. A way to keep expanding my knowledge of screen writing as well as honing my skills. This sort of stability would help me to not only expand my mind on the topic but also help me to feel a sense of accomplishment. I need to know that my fate is not in the hands of a faceless contest judge but in my own, and the only way to do that is through focus and dedication.
I'm not saying I'm not dedicated now, but as far as dedication is concerned I could use a little improvement. Waiting for a contest for months on end is no way to start a career and hindsight being 20/20 as it is I have come up with the following stipulations for myself:
Every other evening (starting tomorrow) from 9pm-11pm (minimum) will be, hmm, let's call it "Form and Function"
The form aspect being that in that time I could choose to read up on the how behind formatting, story, selling and that ilk and the function falling into actually writing. Working on my outlines, treatments, loglines, synopsis and of course actual screenplays.
I think that this re-dedication to what I want to do with my life is a much needed kick in the pants. It will allow me to focus and of course will not pigeonhole me into a particular exercise, you can't really force creativity, it has to come. I don't want to write, I need to write, and I think this funk I've been in lately could be attributed to not letting myself do so. Standing on a precipice wherein salvation is in one direction (winning a contest) and chasm of despair the other (losing) is no way to bring about my dream. That thinking has put me in a state of flux, keeping me aloof in a lot of aspects and really making me kind of flake out. With this new routine I will regain my focus and moreover, my composure.
Things are looking up already!
Reminder: 8/15 submit to the Hollywood Lit Sales development service
Whilst I work on my craft I should also learn how to improve it through more means than my own interpretation of books and lectures. To the future!
Monday, July 30, 2007
Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting... Denied
At least this time I received a hand signed rejection letter, I must be moving up in the world. With two contest failures in as many days it seems yours truly has just solidified his case to go to a development service to figure out exactly what is wrong with "Vengeance."
I suppose it's always hardest to critique your own work, but I have had a lot of people read it and they all seemed to enjoy it. Seemed being the operative, maybe they're all humoring me, but who knows. If any of you would like to read it, please let me know, contact info is over on the right. It seems that this blog is turning into the emo pity party that I so wanted to avoid, but, with rejection comes that little but of sting that your best just isn't good enough.
The letter I received was well written, but the last paragraph kind of struck me as odd, it read "In January of next year, we'll send you a 2008 application form, which will include a list of the recipients of the 2007 Fellowships."
Now that's just kind of rubbing it in the losers faces, they might as well preface the application, "Boy, don't you wish you were these people?" Oh well, out of 5050 entries 254 made it onto the next round, and unfortunately mine wasn't one of them.
All that's left is Scriptapalooza, which I'm investing any stock into, so perhaps on the 15th of August (my next paycheck) I'll send my script off to the $75 development session to figure out exactly what needs to be improved. In the meantime, I think it's time to really put some time into rewriting One Night in Jersey... a broad comedy might be the route to take. We shall see!
I suppose it's always hardest to critique your own work, but I have had a lot of people read it and they all seemed to enjoy it. Seemed being the operative, maybe they're all humoring me, but who knows. If any of you would like to read it, please let me know, contact info is over on the right. It seems that this blog is turning into the emo pity party that I so wanted to avoid, but, with rejection comes that little but of sting that your best just isn't good enough.
The letter I received was well written, but the last paragraph kind of struck me as odd, it read "In January of next year, we'll send you a 2008 application form, which will include a list of the recipients of the 2007 Fellowships."
Now that's just kind of rubbing it in the losers faces, they might as well preface the application, "Boy, don't you wish you were these people?" Oh well, out of 5050 entries 254 made it onto the next round, and unfortunately mine wasn't one of them.
All that's left is Scriptapalooza, which I'm investing any stock into, so perhaps on the 15th of August (my next paycheck) I'll send my script off to the $75 development session to figure out exactly what needs to be improved. In the meantime, I think it's time to really put some time into rewriting One Night in Jersey... a broad comedy might be the route to take. We shall see!
Saturday, July 28, 2007
BlueCat Results
Well unfortunately I haven't made it to the finals, but hey, it was nice to be a quarter-finalist in something. Looks like I only have two more contests to hear back from, but judging from what's happened so far, it's not looking promising. Even so, I have to keep a positive outlook, not all judges are the same, and referencing an earlier post, it's all subjective.
Even so, I think I may finally have to submit to one of those professional services; the ones that give you notes on how to fix your screenplay, and hopefully make it more marketable.
I found two that seem like the could be useful:
Script P.I.M.P. Development Services
Running at about $250 it's not exactly a bargain, but if you receive a "recommended" rating you then have the ability to submit a query letter to some of the bigger studios. Of course who knows if that's going to get you anywhere, but at least it's a step in the right direction... although they claim they will help you in sending your screenplay to producers, studios and managers. So that DOES sound pretty good.
Hollywood Lit Sales Coverage Special
The places claims to do the same thing as Script P.I.M.P but for only $75. That's a heck of a price difference for what appears to be essentially the same service. What does that mean? I have no idea. Is one better than the other? I also don't know.
I think what I may do is submit it to the Hollywood Lit Sales people and see what they have to say, see how it goes, follow their recommendations... and if that works out I'll then send it over to Script P.I.M.P. By that logic, someone is bound to want to see the script provided it gets a recommended rating from both places.
Since the contest route does not seem to be working out for me, I'll have to look down another avenue, and this may be it. In the meantime I think I will start to work on one of my unedited scripts, just so I don't get too out of practice sitting on my hands. Who knows, maybe a comedy will fare better than a psychological thriller. We shall see! I'll keep you guys abreast of what happens, as well as what happens with the other contests.
Even so, I think I may finally have to submit to one of those professional services; the ones that give you notes on how to fix your screenplay, and hopefully make it more marketable.
I found two that seem like the could be useful:
Script P.I.M.P. Development Services
Running at about $250 it's not exactly a bargain, but if you receive a "recommended" rating you then have the ability to submit a query letter to some of the bigger studios. Of course who knows if that's going to get you anywhere, but at least it's a step in the right direction... although they claim they will help you in sending your screenplay to producers, studios and managers. So that DOES sound pretty good.
Hollywood Lit Sales Coverage Special
The places claims to do the same thing as Script P.I.M.P but for only $75. That's a heck of a price difference for what appears to be essentially the same service. What does that mean? I have no idea. Is one better than the other? I also don't know.
I think what I may do is submit it to the Hollywood Lit Sales people and see what they have to say, see how it goes, follow their recommendations... and if that works out I'll then send it over to Script P.I.M.P. By that logic, someone is bound to want to see the script provided it gets a recommended rating from both places.
Since the contest route does not seem to be working out for me, I'll have to look down another avenue, and this may be it. In the meantime I think I will start to work on one of my unedited scripts, just so I don't get too out of practice sitting on my hands. Who knows, maybe a comedy will fare better than a psychological thriller. We shall see! I'll keep you guys abreast of what happens, as well as what happens with the other contests.
Thursday, July 12, 2007
Loose and Lose
I figure it's time for a non-screenwriting related post. I'm writing this because at my day job I've run into a problem receiving e-mail from people that write "loose" instead of "lose" ... i.e. "I'm loosing days" or "I hope we don't loose this customer."
Now... when did this start happening? I've even seen it in several newspapers, are copy editors taking a vacation? I know that kids today can't spell for a damn, mainly because of the shorthand from text messaging and online sites, but come on, these are supposed to be professionals I'm working with!
Let me show you guys a few examples of what I'm talking about:
Why Did They Loose --- I'll tell you why, they can't spell.
Does it hurt for men when they loose virginity?Does it bleed when the foreskin is torn? --- What? So not only do they not know the difference between loose and lose... but uh... well I'm not even going to field this one.
We Win, They Loose --- I just thought I'd point out the terrible irony of the tag line of the page being "Mom is Always Right!" Now before anyone gets bent out of shape, it's not dramatic irony, it's merely "an intention or attitude opposite to that which is actually or ostensibly stated" ... ironic, though not on a deep level, merely silly. Had this been a script, we could have written her so she was valedictorian, got a 4.0 in college and went on to write this world famous blog... only to slip up loose and lose. Of course that would be an ironic commentary on the state of education today as doing less is accomplishing more, but I digress.
Ah well, I suppose that's enough venting. In the future, if someone happens to mess this up and you want to call them out on it, feel free to link them to loseloose.com ... it's about as straightforward as you can get and hopefully they'll learn something.
I doubt it... freaking loosers.
Now... when did this start happening? I've even seen it in several newspapers, are copy editors taking a vacation? I know that kids today can't spell for a damn, mainly because of the shorthand from text messaging and online sites, but come on, these are supposed to be professionals I'm working with!
Let me show you guys a few examples of what I'm talking about:
Why Did They Loose --- I'll tell you why, they can't spell.
Does it hurt for men when they loose virginity?Does it bleed when the foreskin is torn? --- What? So not only do they not know the difference between loose and lose... but uh... well I'm not even going to field this one.
We Win, They Loose --- I just thought I'd point out the terrible irony of the tag line of the page being "Mom is Always Right!" Now before anyone gets bent out of shape, it's not dramatic irony, it's merely "an intention or attitude opposite to that which is actually or ostensibly stated" ... ironic, though not on a deep level, merely silly. Had this been a script, we could have written her so she was valedictorian, got a 4.0 in college and went on to write this world famous blog... only to slip up loose and lose. Of course that would be an ironic commentary on the state of education today as doing less is accomplishing more, but I digress.
Ah well, I suppose that's enough venting. In the future, if someone happens to mess this up and you want to call them out on it, feel free to link them to loseloose.com ... it's about as straightforward as you can get and hopefully they'll learn something.
I doubt it... freaking loosers.
Tuesday, July 3, 2007
Bluecat
Bluecat
The top 10% of entries have been posted to the Bluecat results page and yours truly has made it into the top 10%. Judging by the amount of scritps in this percentage, they must have had a lot of entires. So that's good, I made it this far which makes me feel kind of good.
Even so, as usual I decided to take a look at some of the entries to see what I'm up against. We have Mother of Frankenstein by Ian Simpson and...Mother of Frankenstein by Robert Ian Simpson. The odds of that happening are simply astronomical. That or this person submitted their script twice, under two different names, and they BOTH made it! He must be thrilled.
Some of my other competitors have submitted things such as "A Guy, a Girl, a Chimp, and a Lake," "Crazy Thunder," "Every time I go to Staten Island Something Bad Happens," (I kind of agree with that one) "Hannibal," "Life Without a Face," "Sizzlean," "The Maltese Falcon."
And my comments, in no particular order, Two guys, a girl and a pizza place. I still agree. Do you mean the killer or the guy from Carthage? Man without a face. Sane thunder. I don't know if that's a word. Been done.
Hey, I haven't read them and I'm competing against them for my life's dream, I'm allowed to belittle them without actually having read their scripts. Even so, the "Life Without A Face" really also reminds me of This comic.
Oh well, I'll post again when I get more results!
The top 10% of entries have been posted to the Bluecat results page and yours truly has made it into the top 10%. Judging by the amount of scritps in this percentage, they must have had a lot of entires. So that's good, I made it this far which makes me feel kind of good.
Even so, as usual I decided to take a look at some of the entries to see what I'm up against. We have Mother of Frankenstein by Ian Simpson and...Mother of Frankenstein by Robert Ian Simpson. The odds of that happening are simply astronomical. That or this person submitted their script twice, under two different names, and they BOTH made it! He must be thrilled.
Some of my other competitors have submitted things such as "A Guy, a Girl, a Chimp, and a Lake," "Crazy Thunder," "Every time I go to Staten Island Something Bad Happens," (I kind of agree with that one) "Hannibal," "Life Without a Face," "Sizzlean," "The Maltese Falcon."
And my comments, in no particular order, Two guys, a girl and a pizza place. I still agree. Do you mean the killer or the guy from Carthage? Man without a face. Sane thunder. I don't know if that's a word. Been done.
Hey, I haven't read them and I'm competing against them for my life's dream, I'm allowed to belittle them without actually having read their scripts. Even so, the "Life Without A Face" really also reminds me of This comic.
Oh well, I'll post again when I get more results!
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