Posts Tagged ‘Shane Black’
Your Final Chance Looms!
No pressure or anything! But the final deadline for the Silver Screenwriting Competition is nigh. Like, super NIGH. It’s in one week.*
Give that script one more once over and scan it briefly for typos, dense action lines, etc. As the Psychedelic Furs once said, you can never win or lose if you don’t run the race. So give it a shot and see how you do. There is tremendous validation in placing on any level and let’s not forget the real possibility of actually winning. Somebody is going to win. Might as well be you pocketing cash prizes, setting up your new MacBook Air and enjoying lunch in Hollywood with Shane Black (Lethal Weapon, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang).
Toward that end, today between 3pm and 4pm PST I will be available for brief phone chats to answer any questions you may have about your script, the competition or the prizes.
Email me HERE to set up an appointment for today, May 25th, between 3pm and 4pm Pacific.
*Without a Box members have until June 11th
Enter Now or Forever Hold Your Piece
Well the Silver Screenwriting Competition closes its doors for 2010 in just over two and a half hours. Phew! The scripts have been pouring in and especially in the last few days and hours!
This is your last chance for 2010, to win a MacBook Air, lunch with Mr. Shane Black (LETHAL WEAPON, KISS KISS BANG BANG), $3,000 in cash, hotel and airfare for three days in Los Angeles and tons more.
So either get to entering that script NOW or start writing one for NEXT year!
Silver Screenwriting 2010 Latest
It’s Not About How You Play.
It’s About What You WIN.
With over $15,000 in prizes, The Silver Screenwriting Competition awards our Grand Prize winner with something even more awesome than a new MacBook Air, an all expense paid trip to Los Angeles, script reads by managers and producers, three grand and lunch with Shane Black.
More than all that?!
Yeah. That’s right.
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80% of success is showing up.
-Woody Allen
Add a good script to the mix and you’re golden.
-The Silver Screenwriting Competition
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There’s nothing like coming out to Hollywood and playing the part of a writer on the rise.
Hey, we figure meeting the right people might be just the opportunity you’ve been waiting for. So enter today and see what happens. You might be coming to Hollywood sometime very soon and having the time of your life and the chance of lifetime. No pressure.
We’ll also back you to the hilt by developing the winning scripts with The Script Department’s Julie Gray and a host of top flight studio readers. Winning is just the first step and we’ll see to it that all the professional and commercial help you’ll need is on tap.
See what last year’s winner, Kodjo Akeseh Tsakpo had to say about his amazing week in Los Angeles, meeting Steve Faber (WEDDING CRASHERS) Josh Zetumer (THE BOURNE IDENTITY) and Jeff Bushell (BEVERLY HILLS CHIHUAHUA) to name only a few!
The Silver Screenwriting Competition seeks and rewards new screenwriting talent and encourage writers to raise the bar by writing innovative, well-executed scripts that take risks and think outside of the box office. Did you enter competitions for show, or do you want a real Hollywood writing career? The Silver Screenwriting Competition is the only contest with ongoing script and professional development. With over $15,000 in prizes, the 2010 SSC is better than ever in its third year, and taking entries until June 1st, 2010. Enter today for a chance to win an all-expense paid trip to Los Angeles where you will meet 3 managers to discuss your career and Kirsten Campo, CE at Fuse Entertainment with a new seven figure deal at Fox, plus Bedrock, Back Lot and Bedford Falls.
Execs from Fuse Entertainment and Bedford Falls are on the SSC selection committee, and will select the top three winners from the Competition’s top ten finalists. The Second and Third Place winner each receive two manager and producer reads of their screenplay, plus prizes totalling $6,750 in value: screenplay coverage and notes from The Script Department, gift certificates to the Writer’s Store, and $1,000 and $750 cash, respectively. All winners are also invited to attend SSC’s awards party in Los Angeles, where they will be recognized among industry players.
GRAND PRIZE
- MacBook Air
- Round trip flight to Los Angeles
- Lunch with SHANE BLACK
- A one-on-one conversation via Skype with Chris Sparling, writer of red hot Sundance feature BURIED, starring Ryan Reynolds
- 3 nights accommodations
- A meeting with Kristen Campo, CE, Fuse Entertainment, plus Bedrock, Backlot and Bedford Falls. Fuse just signed a 7 figure deal with Fox.
- A day of meetings with 2 managers
- $3,000 in cash
- Pilar Alessandra’s amazing 12 Week Weekly Workbook
- A free 30 Minute phone consult with Karl Iglesias
- A copy of Save the Cat Goes to the Movies plus the STC software package
Who We Are
Julie Gray, the founder of The Script Department, Hollywood’s premier script coverage service also directs the Silver Screenwriting Competition. Julie consults privately with a wide variety of writers and teaches classes at Warner Bros., The Great American PitchFest, The Creative Screenwriting Expo and has taught at San Francisco University in Quito, Ecuador, Columbia College in Chicago, West England University in Bristol and The Oxford Union at Oxford University. Julie lives in Los Angeles, California; her book Just Entertain Me is slated for release by Michael Wiese Publishing in April, 2011.
Named one of MovieMaker Magazine’s top blogs for writers and filmmakers, Just Effing Entertain Me is the destination for screenwriters interested in learning the ins and outs of Hollywood. With classes and workshops offered year round, mini-competitions and a forum for writers, Just Effing Entertain Me is the place to connect with Julie Gray. Read More
The Script Department
Let our crack team of professional readers give you the feedback you need to get your script into the right hands. Hands down the most respected coverage service in Hollywood, The Script Department has helped writers from all over the world get meetings, representation, options and competition wins time after time. Read More
Shane Black
Shane Black is one of the iconic screenwriters, justly famous both for his style, his headline grabbing ability to sign big ticket deals and his lasting contribution to the craft through his work with the Screenwriting Expo.
He sold his first screenplay Lethal Weapon released in 1987 for $250,000 and was paid $125,000 as a co-writer of Lethal Weapon 2 released in 1989. Since then he made substantially more money as a screenwriter. He received $1.75 million for his screenplayThe Last Boy Scout released in 1991, and $1 million for Last Action Hero released in 1993. At the height of his career he was the highest paid screenwriter in the Hollywoodmovie industry, making $4 million for penning The Long Kiss Goodnight. Black was the writer and director for Kiss Kiss Bang Bang.
Kristen Campo – Fuse Entertainment
Fuse Entertainment, a full service creative management company with a production arm has clients like Josh Schwartz (THE OC, CHUCK, Gossip Girl), Matt Nix (BURN NOTICE), James Vanderbilt (Zodiac, Spiderman 4) and producer Dan Lin (Terminator 4, Sherlock Holmes). Kristen Campo, CE at Fuse will be judging the top ten scripts along with Julie Gray.
KARL IGLESIAS teaches at UCLA Extension’s Writer’s Program and Writers University. He is the best-selling author of The 101 Habits of Highly Successful Screenwriters, and Writing for Emotional Impact. He also writes the regular column on the craft for Creative Screenwritingmagazine. As a script consultant passionate about great storytelling, he specializes in the reader’s emotional response to the written page. He is a STAR Speaker of the Screenwriting Expo. Karl will be doing a 30 minute phone consult with the lucky Grand Prize winner.
PILAR ALESSANDRA is the director of the popular writing program “On The Page.” A sought after teacher and lecturer, she’s traveled the world teaching screenwriting and is in high demand at major writing conferences and film festivals. As a consultant, she’s helped thousands of writers create, refine and sell their screenplays. Her students and clients have sold to Disney, DreamWorks, Warner Brothers and Sony and have won prestigious competitions such as the Austin Film Festival, Open Door Competition, Fade-In Competition and Nicholl Fellowship.
Pilar jump-started her career in film as a script reader for Amblin Entertainment. With the formation of DreamWorks, she became Senior Story Analyst and a reader liaison between the studio and Robert Zemeckis’s company, ImageMovers. Her expert script analysis was also sought out by The Robert Evans Company, Cineville Entertainment, Handprint Entertainment and Saturday Night Live Studios, and work at Interscope Communications led her to a position as Senior Story Analyst for Scott Kroopf’s production company Radar Pictures.
Pilar teaches screenwriting and story analysis at the UCLA Writers’ Program. In 2001 she started her own company, “On the Page,” and in 2004 opened the On the Page Writers Studio in Sherman Oaks, California. In the interest of expanding access to her teaching tools, Pilar has created a new instructional “On the Page” DVD. She also presents weekly “On the Page” podcasts with guest hosts from within the industry. The shows regularly appear in the iTunes Top 100 list of film and TV podcasts.
What Happens if You Win?
If your script does well in a competition this season, first of all, congratulations. That means your script was more original and better executed than the majority of other scripts in the same competition. This puts you in the top percentages. And that’s something to be very proud of. And maybe you even meet Shane Black and fly out to Hollywood for some meetings.
But what happens next? Is your phone going to start to ring? And if it does – what can you expect? Does this mean success is knocking at your door? It might. But proceed with caution.
Two things to think about:
One: Please be measured and thoughtful in your response to those who may contact you asking to see the script. Don’t freak out with joy and promise them exclusive rights to your script, all future scripts or your first born child. Don’t make a $1 option agreement with the first person who calls. Don’t be overly flattered; be cool and do a little research. Look up the person on IMDB Pro. What are his or her credits and professional credentials? Where is their office located? This may be a new company which has no credits, but click on the names of the principals; at a different company they probably do have credits of some kind. Or maybe this is a manager or producer who is starting off and is hungry and ambitious. That can work very much in your favor. But take a moment and look people up.
Two: You do have an arsenal, right? More than the one or two scripts you entered this year? Are you writing within the same genre? I hope so. You want to establish yourself as an expert in one genre. Many writers feel that they should write in many genres to prove that they have flexible chops. Don’t do this. It won’t prove anything, it just makes you less marketable. Line up your arsenal and have a look. Do you have another sample ready to send out if requested? Is it in great shape? Now is the time to get some feedback and assurance on your other scripts. A rep who calls and asks for more samples will be greatly turned off if it turns out the competition winning (or placing) script was your best work and that, in other words, you do not have “legs” as a writer.
So as you ready to turn in your script to competitions this year, make sure that while you wait for the results, you are hard at work on the next script. And the next one.
Stop Tweaking and SUBMIT
You know you do it. You compulsively tweak your script. A little here a little there, you can’t leave it alone. You go back through the pages and change dialogue. And change it back. And fix an action line. And fix it back. But then the real trouble begins. You tweak something on page thirty-two which necessitates changing something on page seventeen. And page forty-nine. Now you’re done. Time to send that script off to a competition, consultant, friend – whoever. But wait – one more tweak r-i-g-h-t here…
When does a writer know when to leave well enough alone? Make sure that every time you open your script you have an actual goal in mind. Maybe you are in the midst of adding new scenes, aka actually completing your script. Maybe you just got some notes and you’re addressing the pertinent sequences. Maybe you’re just rereading it one last time and OH LOOK there’s something to tweak.
The problem with tweaking ad infinitum is that you can’t see the forest for the trees. Yes, tweaking can improve your pages, but if you do it compulsively, sort of like chewing a fingernail, you can actually damage your script and/or just be wasting your valuable time. Because your time is very valuable, as a screenwriter. Anyone can go back through and rearrange punctuation, but what actually improved and shifted in your last session with your script?
So before you open your script for the day, ask yourself: what is the goal of this writing session? Am I tweaking here and there but ultimately getting the work done? Or am I stalled out in tweak-mode? In many ways, tweaking is the way screenwriters justify to themselves that they are working on the script so lay off! But – it’s a little lie they tell themselves because they aren’t actually being productive at all.



