by John | May 11, 2018 | Competition Offers, Highlights, Updates, WMC, WriteMovies News
We’re looking for a script for a two-time Academy nominee and two-time BAFTA award-winning director – and submitting your VFX-driven script to our Spring contest can make it yours! Habib Zargarpour has worked with Spielberg, Lucas, Cameron and Villeneuve, on movies that countless millions of people have seen – and soon your script could join them. We’re looking for a great commercial script for him to work with, and if you submit to our Spring 2018 contest, you will be in the running for that opportunity.
As we’ll tell you very soon, Habib and our founder Alex have been getting a lot of success in recent meetings with senior Hollywood execs about their next crossover project, and yours could be next! We’ve introduced many new categories to the Spring 2018 – long and short form TV pilots, indie and studio scripts, and video game scripts. Inspired by this opportunity, we will be giving a special recognition to the Best VFX Driven Script that we receive. There’s no special prize – just kudos – but if Habib loves it then we CAN make this happen.
Award-winning VFX expert Habib Zargarpour
What we want is the script where VFX can help drive the plot, the characters, and the script as a whole. We don’t want style over substance, we want style to give substance! We’re looking for a VFX-driven script with crossover potential to make an awesome video game. The director of this project, Habib Zargarpour (find out more about him in THESE past interviews, and in more articles we’ll publish soon!) has been VFX consultant on lots of major movies and major video games including 007 and NEED FOR SPEED titles – so we have the potential to take this to both markets, which is exactly what Habib and Alex have been doing for another project in Hollywood in the last few days – as we’ll be telling you next week!
So polish up that movie script you thought would be too expensive for anyone to make, and get it to us NOW!
Enter HERE!
by John | May 11, 2018 | Updates, WriteMovies News
After spending just over two years with us, we give our thanks to Jamie White as he pursues pastures new…
It’s been a great couple of years with WriteMovies. I came across their 8-week virtual internship by chance, and that was the portal to so many opportunities, some I wouldn’t have even thought about!
I’ve had the chance to work on script consultancies, pitching materials, meet producers, work on a couple of film projects, write reviews, Insights articles, and, of course, converse with a load of you writers!
Before I sign off, I thought I’d share a few of my highlights from the past couple of years – not all my work, but some real great stuff.
INSIGHTS: Genre and what it really tells us. This is one of the first articles Ian Kennedy wrote while I was training as a script analyst. I love a good chat on genre, what makes a genre, semantics, syntactics. But this article really helped me to understand the pragmatics of genre (bloody Altman…) and it’s such a good guide for how you should be writing your genre script.Check it out here!- GAME OF THRONES Season 7 Review. After a little while, and quite a few script consultancies, I got more chances to write reviews and critical pieces for the site. My GAME OF THRONES season 7 review was one of my earlier reviews, but I think still one of my faves. I got to review one of my favorite shows (though probably its worst season) AND revealed one of my very own conspiracy theories – that Sony were releasing trash like THE EMOJI MOVIE to deter hackers – tell me that doesn’t make sense!Check out my GoT ramblings here.
Writing for Video Games Articles. From one of my first, to one of my last… My Writing for Video Games articles. I may enjoy the medium of video games more than film and television, so it was a joy to get the chance to write about this topic and give you guys some advice at the same time. I hope you game writers take some inspiration from these articles.Read the first article here.- Attending Pitch Meetings. I’ve had the rare and exciting opportunities to attend several meetings with film producers to talk about the prospects of several of our winning scripts coming to life. Sure, I was the sidekick to our Director of World Wide Development, Ian Kennedy, but attending these sorts of meetings have been vital to my development. I got to see first hand how you should be pitching, what sort of language and tactics to employ. A great opportunity and a great experience. Loved it!
- Reading your scripts… From my start with the internship, to the very end, the one constant has been the chance to read, analyze and judge the scripts you guys have sent in for contests and consultancies. Seriously, some of these scripts I could really visualize, some to an extent I could imagine the cinematography to their inevitable film. Some really were THAT good. I wish the writers that we’re developing now get to realize their dreams – if just one of these scripts gets made, that would truly make my time with WriteMovies a success (not that it hasn’t been anyway!)
by John | May 10, 2018 | Actualités Francophones, Francais
Abonnés d’Europe et du Royaume-Uni : lisez les nouveaux accords pour mieux comprendre. Vous pourrez après les signer. On reste en contact !
Merci de soutenir Writemovies, le pont qui relie les écrivains à l’Industrie Internationale du film. Au fil des années, nous vous avons guidé et accompagné, grâce à des concours et des pitchs percutants, mais aussi plein de nouveautés et d’idées neuves. Nous vous avons récompensé par centaines, et avons assuré la représentation d’innombrables auteurs au sein de l’Industry du film.
Pour pouvoir continuer, et conformément aux nouvelles lois de protection des données au Royaume-Uni et en Europe, nous avons besoin de votre confirmation.
Voici ce que vous pourriez manquer sans notre marketing … faits saillants des derniers mois!
Veuillez simplement indiquer votre nom et votre adresse email, choisissez parmi les options, et envoyez le tout. Nous nous occupons du reste !
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Les champs marqué d’un astérisque (*) sont obligatoires
Vos données seront en sécurité avec notre politique de confidentialité. |
Les champs marqué d’un astérisque (*) sont obligatoires
Vos données seront en sécurité avec notre politique de confidentialité. |
Voici ce que vous pourriez manquer sans notre marketing … faits saillants des derniers mois!
by John | Apr 30, 2018 | Writing Insights
The opening ten to twenty pages of your script are so important in really selling top execs and producers your script. If it doesn’t grab ’em, then you got no chance. The first page is the most important of those early pages. The first impression of your script really matters. Here are 5 writing tips from us on how your opening page can stand out and shine from the rest…
1. STRIKING VISUALS OR AUDIO
Find a striking image, sound, or quick sequence of events to start on. If you can immediately make the reader visualize or “hear” your script, it makes it so much easier for them to visualize the rest of the story.
2. NAIL THE GENRE
You need to immediately establish the genre. In some ways, you can combine this with Tip #1 (sci-fi is a great genre for this). But sometimes you need to immediately set the tone of a tense horror, or the light-heartedness of a rom-com with how you write, and how your characters act.
You got a sci-fi? Show us some cool advanced tech. Horror? Give us a murder scene. Rom-com? Give us a visual that we associate with romance (sunsets, weddings, restaurants) and throw some funnies in there.
3. AVOID THE EARLY ICK
You don’t wanna put off the reader with anything yucky. Whatever happens on page one sticks with the reader throughout the rest of the script. You don’t want something icky to stick with them, do you? You have to make us care before you hit us with anything vicious, sick or distasteful
Generally, keep things subtle and ambiguous. If you want to set up a murder, avoid showing and describing the actual act with too much detail.
4. PLEASE NO VOICE-OVERS
You wanna do some world-building, set up the story, tell us all about the characters. I get it. But please, please, please try and avoid voice-overs. they just ooze with laziness and lack of creativity. Ditto for title cards, by the way.
Same goes for info-dump title cards (at the beginning and end of the script – especially for biographical stories…) Your script should be providing all the necessary info the story needs to. These types of voice-overs and title cards should not be necessary for a good script.
5. TRY TO AVOID DIALOGUE
If you don’t start with a strong image, then you’re probably beginning with a dialogue-heavy exposition scene. Bad. If you can effectively open your script without dialogue then you’ll more likely hook whoever’s reading your script.
These all fit in with each other, too. If you’re avoiding dialogue, then you’re avoiding voice-overs. Your striking image can also visually announce the genre of your script and set the tone; a horror film can start with a gruesome murder, for example. Don’t overdo it on the visuals, though. Don’t give us something too visceral and gratuitous – that’ll either put us off with the ick, or give too much of the game away. It’s a delicate balance to manage, but such good practice to get into.
Pretty straight-forward writing tips, right? Seems so obvious now that you see these written down, but you will not believe how many writers fall into the trap of lazy voice-overs and give us no idea of what the genre is.
Just remember to KISS – keep it simple, stupid.
See what we would say about the opening page of your script (and all the other pages!) with our Script Mentoring services…
by John | Apr 27, 2018 | Highlights, Our Winners, Updates
After praising Second and Third Placed David Kurtz and Simon Bowler, we finally get to our Winter 2018 Writing Contest Grand Prize Winner. And again, it’s a writer who’s come back to us, improved, and won!
It’s been two years since Tyler True won the monthly contest for his script LOVE IS SOMEWHERE ELSE. He’s been improving as a writer all that time and has finally reached the pinnacle of his career – winning the Grand Prize in WriteMovies’ Winter 2018 contest! (We’re joking, of course, but still a great achievement.)
It’s been great to see Tyler’s progress over the past couple of years and we’re delighted that he, David, and Simon have all improved upon previous placements. So proud…
Here’s Tyler’s reaction to his big win…
“I am so incredibly grateful to all of you for this prize! I think I was even sleeping with a smile on my face, which hasn’t left since I woke up. It’s just so fulfilling to realize that somebody else sees the same potential in this script that I do. I can’t wait to sharpen this up and take it to the industry!”
Here’s a little bio on Tyler…
“I’ve had various jobs on the ocean, such as a tug boat driver and commercial scuba diver, led me to the other end of the spectrum and into the skies. After serving 5 years as a pilot in the Canadian Air Force, and completing a degree in Psychology, I decided to quit the military and follow my passion to be a writer. Four years of full time writing, while working sparingly as a diver, has resulted in numerous screenplays and an autobiographical book about my debaucherous and adventure filled life.”
And here’s the logline to Tyler’s winning script, SLAVE SHIP:
A devout African man chooses to work on a slave ship in order to ensure the safe passage of other Africans sold into slavery.
There’s only one way for you to see if you’ll be our next Grand Prize winner. Take a chance with our Spring contest now!
by John | Apr 23, 2018 | Our Winners, Updates
We continue our celebration of our Winter 2018 Writing Contest top three winners – who all improved on previous placements.
Last time we commended Simon Bowler, who broke into the top three for the first time after winning two special TV awards. (Check out that article here.)
Today, it’s all about David Kurtz – our Summer 2017 Contest Third Placed winner who re-entered the Winter 2018 Contest to finish in Second Place!
We’re sure our previous Development Notes prizes have helped David out (we’ll let him tell you all about that, though!) but this is a great example of how every draft and version of your script will improve – so never give up!
Here’s what David said about his Second Placed finish…
“Doing well at the WriteMovies Screenwriting Competition brings great rewards – and you don’t have to win! 2nd and 3rd place receive the highest quality script Development Notes (+ INKTIP freebies!) – notes that have the ring of screenwriting experience and authenticity. Their readers really work at understanding what your script is all about – to you!
They not only make detailed proofreading corrections – but they offer suggestions that make you feel like you have a co-writer. For me, the most important help I’ve gotten is to give me the courage to edit – to remove scenes and dialogue I loved but knew deep down didn’t serve to move the story forward. (I save all the edited cuts to possibly be used in another story – this makes letting go easier.)
I assume that most writers (like me) are on a tight budget, but I would suggest saving money on lesser competitions to use on these amazing Development Notes. If you move up toward the top they will be free!”
Here’s a little background on David:
“I retired to Northern California from Massachusetts several years ago and took up writing screenplays – not golf. I’m a “gen Boomer” devotee of 1930s to 1950s movies that feature dialogue, romance, and humor. I naturally tend to write contemporary takes in those genres that might appeal to younger audiences as well as all age groups.
My writing education has been limited to basic composition at college, a creative writing class with a Tufts University professor and a beginner’s screenwriting course at Santa Rosa Junior College. CHARMER is my first “completed” script.”
And here’s the logline to David’s winning script, CHARMER:
A burned-out middle-aged accountant and a young daredevil woman put their polar opposite lifestyles aside when they team up on dangerous hostage-rescue mission.
Check out our script mentoring services for yourself. You could improve your script AND gain free entry into our Spring 2018 Writing Contest. View our services here…
by John | Apr 20, 2018 | Highlights, Our Winners
The Winter 2018 Writing Contest was a special one for us as we saw 3 previous winners all improve on past results! We had a previous Monthly Contest winner win the Grand Prize, a former third placed winner came in second, and an Honorable Mention and TV award winner broke into the top three.
Today, you get to meet the Third placed winner of our Winter 2018 Writing Contest Simon Bowler. Simon won the first ever “Best Teleplay and pilot award for Summer 2017. Then he won it again for the Winter Contest AND came Third overall!
A testament to Simon, and how well he used our past Development Notes prizes to improve on his previous draft.
Here’s what Simon said about his Third Placed finish…
“With WriteMovies development notes I was able to climb up from semi-finalist to finalist, to a being a winner three times in a row, which has been an extraordinary validation of my writing and has been hugely encouraging. I now look forward to working with WriteMovies to the hone the script, a pilot for a mini-series, into the best iteration possible, and to start focussing on how to market the project. The writing process, as any writer knows, is a lonely one, so to have the recognition of a triple win with WriteMovies and their continued support will make that journey all the more bearable, and hopefully, successful.”
Here’s some background on Simon:
“Originally from London, where he produced documentary films for the BBC and Channel 4, Simon has spent over twenty years in Los Angeles producing, writing and directing television docs and reality shows. Simon recently switched to drama and besides the multiple award-winning “Insurrection” mini-series (of which he’s written three episodes), he has written two award-winning plays (both at this year’s Austin Film Fest), a feature film, and is developing a classic horror anthology TV series.”
And here’s the logline to Simon’s winning script, INSURRECTION:
INSURRECTION tells the interwoven stories of three men – a farmer, a slave and a senator – whose dangerous battles against slavery led to the American Civil War. Farmer John Brown, slave Frederick Douglass, and Senator Stephen A. Douglas.
With two television awards up for grabs in our Spring 2018 Writing Contest, the chances of your pilot script winning has never been higher… enter here.
