Screenwriting Contest, Round 1 Score

Just got my judge's score from the Screenwriting Expo CS Open: 91 out of 100. 23/25 for Structure, 22/25 for Dialogue, 23/25 for Style, and 23/25 for Originality. Judge's other comments: "You have a strong sense of stakes and action. Well done." But there was no mention of advancing to the next round or not. I guess that's a separate notification? Maybe? I'll be optimistic.

First Draft

Well put the bubbly on ice, I just finished my first draft. Okay, maybe that's a little extreme and by a little extreme I mean a lot. But I really did finish my first draft. Woo hoo! Sorry, I'm excited. You should be too. Just kidding, but not really.

Anyway, I am off to bed. Tomorrow will be a day of proofreading and Monday I will send it off to be torn to shreds. Yay for being ahead of schedule!

Screenwriting Expo, Round 1

So, Round 1 of that screenwriting contest started at 8:00 PM tonight. I have until noon on Monday to write a 5 page scene. Here's the premise they gave:

Cyberspace Open Round 1 Premise

"Your PROTAGONIST is in a jam. He (or she) had been relying on deception in order to further his objective, but his ENEMY has figured out the ruse. Write the scene in which your protagonist’s LOVE INTEREST confronts him with this information acquired from the enemy – while in staging it in a tricky or dangerous situation."

End Of Premise

I have a few ideas. Guess we'll see what happens.

ACT III

Right now I'm taking a break to boil some water for a cup of tea, but I've just finished writing the Climax. Woo hoo!

But I'm having trouble deciding how to end the story. I definitely want to end with Benjamin leaving Boston for Ohio Country but I have a few options on how to do it. Benjamin can 1) Leave alone and leave everything behind. 2) Forgive Abby and take her with him as planned. 3) Forgive Abby, take her with him as planned, and bring his mother & sister as well. 4) Not forgive Abby, leave her behind and take his mother & sister with him.

I'm not sure. At the moment I'm leaning towards the last one, but I'm not sure if I like that. I don't particularly like the idea of Benjamin forgiving Abby so soon either. I mean because of Abby, Benjamin's father is dead (along with two other Patriots), his family's home & business has been ransacked and destroyed, they've all been listed as traitors, and Benjamin's mother & sister have nowhere to go now. I suppose, I could have him leave alone and have John Hancock offer to take care of Benjamin's mother and sister but that's just lame I think. Although, I do like the idea of him going off alone. Or I could just use an entirely different ending altogether. Damn it. I hate endings.

Screenwriting Expo...huh?

So, one of the recent emails sent out to the film students from Sharon was about an online screenwriting contest. I figured why not, could be fun. If nothing else it's practically free criticism. After entering I came to realize how completely asinine it is. As the contest goes on and more people are eliminated, the amount of time you have to write a 5 page scene decreases.

The first round you have from 5:00PM Friday to 9:00AM Monday to write a 5 page scene (Pacific time of course, so that kind of sucks for us East Coasters). A weekend for 5 pages is not bad at all, especially since they provide the characters and the premise. May not be perfect, but you can pump out something somewhat readable. Round two, you have 16 hours to write a 5 page scene. And if you think that's ridiculous, then wait til you hear what the last round is. A 5 page scene in 90 minutes. 90 minutes?! Clearly the people who thought of this contest are not only not real screenwriters but have no idea how to write a decent script. I hope they don't expect anything fantastic out of this contest. I feel like this is along the same lines as Matt joking about someone writing a script in one weekend.

Oh and I forgot to mention how they decide the winner. They take the top 3 scenes from the third round, professional actors perform them in front of a live audience and the audience decides which scene was best. I don't know about you guys, but I would be completely embarrassed to have a scene I wrote in 90 minutes performed in front of a live audience.

Well, we'll see how it all goes, I suppose. Silly people make me laugh.