LOGLINE January / February 2014 The Screenwriter’s eZine Volume 7: Number 1 Published by: Letter from the Editor The PAGE International The 2014 PAGE Awards competition is now accepting entries! Does your script have what it Screenwriting Awards LO takes to go all the way? Enter your script by January 15 to take advantage of our very lowest 7510 Sunset Blvd. #610 entry fees of the year. And to make the most of your entry, order Judge’s Feedback. PAGE Hollywood, CA 90046 www.pageawards.com Judges are among the best evaluators in the business, and will provide you with practical, incisive advice about the strengths, weaknesses and future potential of your screenplay. In this issue: It’s a new year and LOGLINE is here to get your 2014 off to a great start. 2013 Gold Prize winner Chris Molinaro breaks down the pros and cons of beginning a writing career from the East Coast. PAGE Judge Joe Riley explains how the notes you get from Hollywood will help Latest News from you navigate the wilderness between writing a spec and selling one. Genre guru John Truby the PAGE Awards 1 assesses the approach American Hustle takes to the comedic caper form. Format whiz Dave Trottier examines establishing shots and the use of “CUT TO:”. Producer Marvin V. Acuna offers advice on what to do with that great movie idea. As always, we conclude with “hot leads” for writers with scripts to sell on InkTip. The Writer’s Perspective Confessions of a Newbie 2 Happy reading, Screenwriter Living on the Wrong Coast GLINEChris Molinaro The Judge’s P.O.V. Script Notes: Your Compass in the 3 Wilderness Joe Riley Latest News from the PAGE Awards What’s Your Genre? ◊ Two PAGE Award-winning screenplays made the 2013 Hit List: the 2007 Gold Prize-winning Writing the Caper Film: 4 American Hustle Science Fiction script Tranquility Base by Dan Turkewitz and the 2013 Silver Prize-winning John Truby Sci-Fi script Omega Point by Cameron Alexander. And 2006 PAGE Award winner Sang Kyu Kim placed on the 2013 Black List with his new drama The Line. Spec Writing Tips Establishing Shots and 5 ◊ Three 2013 PAGE Award winners are now repped by Judges who read their scripts during Transitions the contest: Gold Prize winner Chris Molinaro signed with Jeff Belkin of Zero Gravity, Silver Dave Trottier Prize winner Sage Mears signed with Zach Cox and Julian Rosenberg at Circle of Confusion, and Bronze Prize winner Kathryn Wood signed with Chris Cook and Carrie Isgett at Industry Insider Madhouse Entertainment. A Great Idea Is Only 6 the Beginning ◊ The original TV pilot Alice in Arabia, by 2013 Grand Prize winner Brooke Eikmeier, was Marvin V. Acuna picked up by ABC Family and Brooke is now writing the next five episodes of the show. She was also hired to write a book adaptation for Ellen Pompeo's production company, Calamity Sell Your Script Jane. Brooke was signed by Circle of Confusion and WME. Hot Leads 7 from InkTip ◊ 2012 PAGE Award winner Zeke Farrow sold the series pitch for his Gold Prize-winning comedy The Untitled Sarah Palin Sex Doll Project to MTV. He has also written a new script for Escape Artists, which Will Speck and Josh Gordon are attached to direct, and a Recommended new TV pilot that is currently being packaged. Zeke is represented by Management 360. Resources 8 ◊ 2009 Gold Prize winner Rob Sudduth was hired as a story editor on the new CBS hit The Crazy Ones, starring Robin Williams and Sarah Michelle Gellar. He wrote the episode “Outbreak,” airing January 16th. “Fun writing staff,” Rob tells us, “great crew, and of course the cast is awesome!” Previously a staff writer on the network sitcoms GCB and The New Normal, Rob is represented by MetaMorphic Entertainment and UTA. 2014 PAGE Awards Early Entry Discount Deadline: January 15th © PAGE International Screenwriting Awards 1 THE WRITER’S PERSPECTIVE Confessions of a Newbie Screenwriter Living on the Wrong Coast by Chris Molinaro If the rap wars of the ‘90s taught us anything, it was my bio, loglines, and any other important information I this — in the end, it didn’t matter who was from the wanted to keep handy during the call. I even had my kids’ East Coast or West Coast. Every voice had a place at the names and ages ready, in case I really froze up. table, regardless of geography. However, my guess is Taking notes: I have a pretty lackluster memory, so phone that if you were a gangsta rapper living in L.A., you meetings enabled me to take copious notes about enjoyed a significant everything that was said. That way I didn’t miss a beat and Chris Molinaro won the 2013 advantage if you had a the next time we speak, I can refer back to my notes. Oh, PAGE Gold Prize for his spec script you wanted Joe Producer said his daughter just got into Northwestern? comedy Impending Dom. to sell. Just one of many Guess what... Next time I talk to him I’m asking how his He was signed by PAGE reasons why we’ll daughter is enjoying life as a Wildcat. Judge Jeff Belkin of Zero probably never see Gravity Management and is Biggie’s sci-fi rom-com NOT LIVING IN L.A. — THE CONS now taking meetings and come to fruition. pitching his work to the Training wheels: Taking phone meetings while reading industry long distance. Chris I’m from the East Coast. loglines from my cheat sheet and scrawling notes, I realized lives in Nutley, New Jersey I live in New Jersey and this was the Hollywood equivalent of training wheels on a with his wife and two work in Manhattan. I knew bike. I wasn’t forced to commit my loglines (or my kids’ daughters. Find him on since I was a kid that I names) to memory. Thus, my in-person meeting skills are Twitter @chrismolinaro. wanted to write movies still unproven — potentially a major detriment to anyone and I probably should have hoping to make a career out of screenwriting. moved to L.A. in my early 20s, but for one reason or Short shelf life: Producers are busy people, constantly another, I just didn’t… (Okay, I met a girl in New York.) reading scripts and meeting countless writers. It’s hard to Anyway, over the years I learned all I could about the stay on their radar even if you’ve met face to face. My craft, kept my head down and wrote. Of course, I was expiration date in their minds is much sooner, since we’ve 3000 miles away from the people I was writing for. never actually seen each other. A voice on the end of the After I won a 2013 PAGE Award in the comedy category phone is a far cry from actually connecting with another with my script Impending Dom, I signed with a manager. person in the physical realm. Thanks to PAGE, I was finally on my way. My manager The experience: I’m only guessing here, but after years of really liked my newest script, Babymoon, which was toil, finally walking into a producer’s office must feel pretty inspired by a terrible vacation taken with my wife (the phenomenal. Not having experienced that, I feel a little aforementioned girl) before our first child was born. disconnected, almost like none of this is really happening. The script got a good amount of interest from producers THINGS I LEARNED and I was able to score some meetings out of it. (The irony is not lost on me that the script that got my foot Go in prepared. Research the companies, producers, and in the door never would have happened if I’d moved to their credits beforehand, so you know exactly who you’re L.A. and hadn’t met my wife in New York.) dealing with and what they’ve done in the past. Over the last few weeks, I’ve had a bunch of meetings Have new ideas ready with rock-solid loglines. I thought I over the phone and here is what I’ve learned as a knew how to write loglines. My new manager politely made newbie writer getting his first taste of Hollywood, if it clear to me that I didn’t. They are their own beast and only from afar. will go further in selling your screenplay than any other tool at your disposal. NOT LIVING IN L.A. — THE PROS Write more scripts. I didn’t have that many scripts ready to No L.A. traffic: The number one complaint of Angelinos? go when I unexpectedly won a PAGE Award. Now my foot is The terrible traffic. So if you’re not in L.A., be happy in the door, but all I have to give these producers are ideas that you don’t have to lose all those hours you’ll never for new scripts. I don’t have a stockpile of finished work get back sitting in your smelly car on the way to that they can read right now. See my note above regarding meetings (albeit in beautiful weather). expiration dates. The clock is ticking for me. The time difference: If I lived in L.A., in order to get to Know the lingo. Read the trades. I like to think I keep meetings I’d have to take off from work on short notice pretty up-to-date on the goings-on in Hollywood, but and at odd times.