LOGLINE March / April 2016 Volume 9: Number 2 the Screenwriter’S Ezine
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LOGLINE March / April 2016 The Screenwriter’s eZine Volume 9: Number 2 Published by: Letter from the Editor The PAGE International Have you submitted your screenplay to the 2016 PAGE Awards competition yet? Our Late Entry LOScreenwriting Awards Deadline is now just two weeks away (Tuesday, March 15), so submit your script today for a 7510 Sunset Blvd. #610 shot at winning one of 31 Awards in 10 different genre categories. The PAGE Awards contest Hollywood, CA 90046 has launched countless careers over the last decade, and you could be next! www.pageawards.com As always, the LOGLINE eZine is here to prepare you for life as a professional screenwriter. In this issue, 2015 PAGE Grand Prize winner Gareth Smith explains how evaluating scripts for In this issue: Everest Entertainment made him a better writer. PAGE Judge Heidi Hornbacher reveals how breaking down your favorite movies and TV shows will reveal their hidden secrets. Genre guru Latest News from John Truby makes a case for Veep and Game of Thrones as the gold standard for TV writing. the PAGE Awards 1 Our in-house format expert, Dave Trottier, discusses montages, hyphens and cross-cutting. Industry insider Marvin V. Acuna informs us about a writing team that successfully navigated a difficult situation. And to put a cap on this issue, we share the latest leads from InkTip! The Writer’s Perspective My Journey From Script 2 Happy reading, Reader to Screenwriter GLINEGareth Smith The Judge’s P.O.V. Story Got You Stumped? 3 Have a Breakdown! Heidi Hornbacher Latest News from the PAGE Awards What’s Your Genre? Truby’s Take: The Best 4 Shows on TV ◊ The 2010 PAGE Bronze Prize-winning drama About Scout, written and directed by Laurie John Truby Weltz, will open in New York and L.A. on March 11. Produced by Brownbag Pictures and Decipher Entertainment, the movie stars India Ennenga, James Frecheville, Danny Glover Spec Writing Tips and Ellen Burstyn. It is being distributed by Reel Red Films and Breaking Glass Pictures. Questions From 5 Dave’s Mailbag Dave Trottier ◊ The TV One drama White Water, based on the 2005 PAGE Bronze Prize-winning short film script by the same name, was nominated for two 2016 NAACP Image Awards. Our own Industry Insider Michael S. Bandy and Eric Stein were nominated for Outstanding Writing in a Motion Picture Don’t Sell Your Soul, 6 for Television, and Rusty Cundieff was nominated for Outstanding Directing in a Motion Just Kill Your Ego Picture for Television. Marvin V. Acuna ◊ 2009 PAGE Gold Prize winner Rob Sudduth (Red Band Society, The New Normal) wrote an Sell Your Script episode of the NBC comedy series Telenovela this season, entitled “Evil Twin.” Rob is Hot Leads 7 from InkTip represented by MetaMorphic Entertainment and UTA. ◊ 2008 Gold Prize winner VJ Boyd (Justified, The Player) co-wrote the new ABC drama pilot The Jury, which is now in pre-production. The Jury is the story of a single murder trial as Recommended Resources 8 seen through the eyes of each of the individual jurors. VJ is also executive producing the show with Carol Mendelsohn (CSI). He is represented by WME and Plattform. ◊ 2015 Bronze Prize winner Steven Canals has been hired as a staff writer on the new Freeform horror series Dead of Summer. Shortly after winning his award, Steven wrote to us: “I’m still in shock over my win. Since the awards were announced, I've been on several meetings scheduled by my management company. Hope Projects is being read, and most recently has been used as a sample for staffing (fingers crossed).” And a few months later, this is the happy result! Steven is represented by PAGE Judge Jarrod Murray at Epicenter. 2016 PAGE Awards Late Entry Deadline: Tuesday, March 15 © PAGE International Screenwriting Awards 1 THE WRITER’S PERSPECTIVE My Journey From Script Reader to Screenwriter by Gareth Smith I have a confession: I used to be on the other side. I was coverage from some bloke in NYC. the guy reading and rejecting scripts, helping decide That is why perhaps the most valuable lesson I take from my which films my company would finance. From 2009- time on “the other side” is the simple fact that not 2013, I worked for Everest Entertainment in New York. everyone will like everything I write. And that’s okay. I am With just three people, we all straddled creative, fully prepared for the fact that my scripts will be rejected development and executive by some — perhaps even most — of the people who read Gareth Smith won the 2015 roles while producing the them. But all it takes is one person who connects with the PAGE Grand Prize for his films Mother and Child, material and feels that buzz. One company with whom the drama Immaculate, which Win Win, 127 Hours and convergence is just right. was optioned by PAGE Judge Mud over those four years. Mitchell Peck of Peck For the scripts produced by Everest, we were that company. Our mandate was Entertainment. Gareth is The fact that others had passed was just “the process,” the somewhat unique: to find currently working on his path most films must take to reach that one champion who important stories with a next screenplay, a sci- can guide a script on the next steps of the journey. fi/thriller. A British expat strong message and a based just outside Knoxville, philanthropic angle. We And oh, what a journey it is! I was privileged to work with Tennessee, you can find him sought quality writing some incredible directors, producers and crew. I drafted on Twitter @garethps. above all else, considering contracts and budgets, helped with casting, worked on the script the most location and in studios alongside exceptional artists. Of important factor. And we were prepared to take our course, these experiences inform my writing, too, but more time to find the perfect convergence of story, package than anything, I am simply excited for the day one of my and timing. own scripts is on that path. Needless to say, this created an incredible opportunity When I get there, it will be in part due to the lessons I for me to learn firsthand about the journey from blank learned simply from reading scripts while wearing a page to silver screen. I have always loved film, and producer’s hat. You don’t need to get an industry job to storytelling has been a part of my life ever since I was share those lessons, though. There are several things any able to construct sentences. But it was with Everest that writer can do to study the art exactly as I did: those passions converged into a love for the art of 1) Read everything. Read produced screenplays to learn screenwriting, specifically. what the industry is buying and figure out why they I devoured every script I could find. I scoured the worked. Read unproduced scripts and figure out why Internet for material that the bigger companies might they haven’t yet found their champion. Even read bad have missed: amateur submissions on ScriptShadow, scripts. There are lessons on every page. writing forums, back-channeled PDFs through friends of 2) Become an expert on your genre, but read other friends of friends. I found sharing sites where hot scripts genres, too. If your knowledge is too one-dimensional, were uploaded on the sly, and trawled the annual Black it can show in your writing. List for anything interesting. When we were between projects, I could easily get through 30+ scripts a week. 3) Consider budget, because your readers definitely will. Producers see dollar signs in every slugline, location, The thrill upon finding that rare standout was special effect, stunt or crowd scene. Every film is a incredible. I would eagerly share the script with my gamble for the financier, so keeping the budget colleagues, passionately extolling its virtues, and I tried appropriate to your story and genre can help mitigate a to find the source of my colleagues’ passions when they potentially huge obstacle. lauded something else. My job helped me to develop innate instincts in my writing, Obviously, with just four films in as many years, we but I was trying so hard to find strong voices and stories passed on a lot of screenplays. The reasons were (and playing my small part in bringing them to life) that my innumerable: budget too big/small; timing not right; own voice became hard to discern amidst the noise. My genre not what we were looking for, etc. Sometimes we stories were dormant — seeds left unwatered while I tended loved a script but had to pass for reasons a writer could other gardens. never anticipate. For example, there was one project we absolutely loved, but the subject matter conflicted But my experience was telling me “I can do this.” Set with a charity the company’s founder supported. The against all the screenplays I’d read, I felt confident that film went on to win multiple awards and we were with enough work, my stories could stand on their own delighted for the filmmakers. merits. My voice would be strong, if I gave it a chance to There were also, inevitably, screenplays that I simply develop. That’s when I knew I had to leave my job. didn’t like. There were some, even by seasoned pros, Now, my script is crossing desks. Execs are reading, that I thought were poorly written. But reading is considering, and recommending/passing on it just as I once utterly subjective, and many of those scripts were later did.