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Meet Our Summer 2017 Screenwriting Contest Grand Prize Winner: SPOON FED by Scott LaFortune

Meet Our Summer 2017 Screenwriting Contest Grand Prize Winner: SPOON FED by Scott LaFortune

Meet Our Summer 2017 Screenwriting Contest Grand Prize Winner: SPOON FED by Scott LaFortune

Scott did anything but spoon feed our judges and readers with his winning script, and as our Grand Prize Winner, he wins a year of free script development, guaranteed pitching to industry and exclusive script and logline listings via InkTip’s script directory and increasingly popular magazine – oh, and the Grand Prize of $2000!

It’s always heart-warming to see a winner so happy after a win, and boy was Scott happy. Check out his initial reactions here…

“I’m too nervous and excited to even type right now!
I’ll respond more after I run around in circles, yelling hooray hooray…”
Later that day…
“Many thanks again for this opportunity!  First Place is still sinking in…
I first entered a WriteMovies competition in August, 2008.  Seriously, a humbling journey-
And what a wonderful life experience, that screenwriting has been!
Thanks John, you guys are the best.”

Here’s a short bio on Scott LaFortune, our Summer 2017 Contest Grand Prize Winner:

“Originally from Minneapolis, Scott currently lives and writes on historic Main Street in Park City, Utah.

He also changes lots of diapers, searches incessantly for stray sippy-cups, and can’t believe how many Lego’s can fit into a standard garbage disposal.

In his spare time Scott’s a research chemist and microbiologist, with a devoted passion for story, cynicism, science, and social commentary.”

Here’s Scott’s logline for SPOON FED:

“A feisty feminist with a sweet-tooth is hired to curb the obesity crisis, then battles USDA corruption as she brings down a chauvinistic sugar lobby. 

Based on true 1980’s events that led to the global diabesity epidemic.”

Read up on our Second (HERE) and Third Placed (HERE) Winners too, or take your chance to become our next winner with our current screenwriting contest… Will you be our next Screenwriting Contest Grand Prize Winner?

 

Meet Our Summer 2017 Screenwriting Competition Second Placed Winners – FOR LOVE OF COUNTRY by Ron and Tony Basso.

Meet Our Summer 2017 Screenwriting Competition Second Placed Winners – FOR LOVE OF COUNTRY by Ron and Tony Basso.

Let us introduce our Summer 2017 Screenwriting Competition Second Placed Winners – FOR LOVE OF COUNTRY by Ron and Tony Basso.

Ron and Tony are the second collaborative winners since our 2016 relaunch, and the first father-son writing team! They showed the love for screenwriting in FOR LOVE OF COUNTRY which earned them second place in our Summer 2017 Contest. For coming in second Ron and Tony receive a year of free script development, guaranteed pitching to industry and exclusive prizes from InkTip.

Here’s a little background on Ron and Tony…

Ron Basso: Ron is bit of a renaissance man. Among his many pursuits is screenwriter. He specializes in historical dramas; he looks specifically for unknown or minor characters and their backstories to historical events.

Born and raised in Richmond, Virginia, he has spent all but three years in the Commonwealth surrounded by historical sites that established this nation. He is currently working on a new full-length feature, and looks forward to more opportunities to share untold stories of our past.



Tony Basso: Tony is a soccer coach and EMT currently residing in Portland, Oregon. He has served on the coaching staffs of national, collegiate and local programs. His passion for screenwriting began while editing his father’s screenplays. Now, fully bitten by the screenwriting bug, Tony is working on various projects in his spare time.

In addition to For Love of Country, Tony is writing a 10-part mini-series on the lives of these spies and how their bravery and courage helped save the nation.

And here’s their logline to FOR LOVE OF COUNTRY…

70 years after an extraordinary true story of freed slaves volunteering to return to the South to spy on Confederate military forces, one spy questions if it was worth it.

For coming second in our Summer 2017 contest, they receive a year of free script consultancy, InkTip publicity bonuses, intensive pitch coaching and GUARANTEED pitching of their script to industry.

Will you follow in Ron and Tony’s footsteps in our latest contest? Click here to get your chance!

 

Exclusive: How VFX expert Habib Zargarpour turned writer-director in THE SQUADRON!

Exclusive: How VFX expert Habib Zargarpour turned writer-director in THE SQUADRON!

Taking Flight in THE SQUADRON: VFX expert Habib Zargarpour on becoming a writer-director and the getting the balance right with real VFX.

In the third of our series of interviews, our Ian Kennedy asks Habib about his transition to writing and directing, the unique eye his new film will give to WW2’s aerial warfare, and why VFX pros have to keep it real too.

IAN: So next for you is THE SQUADRON which you’ve written and are directing!

HABIB: Yes, we’re doing a lot of visual effects shots for this shoot, we’ve got a lot of actors in cockpits, we’ll have to replace the background with what’s going on in the skies. It’s very tricky to light and to put greenscreen around real authentic planes, because the light has to move to show that the plane is moving, but you don’t want something [a heavy light] that could fall and wreck the [actual] plane, so we have to be super-careful with that, there’s a lot of technical challenges to it.

IAN: I was lucky enough to be consulted by Alex Ross (THE SQUADRON producer and WriteMovies founder) about one of your very early drafts of this one, it was fascinating to see how visual your ideas were – too many writers come from the opposite direction, getting heavy with dialogue and exposition, and you’re coming from the other way round with that.

HABIB: This is interesting to hear, because I don’t know any different, from you guys’ point of view! I do know I’m getting better at it for sure, it really helps to see how things evolve once you start shooting, we also got great synergy between the actors when we shot in a warehouse in Vancouver, them playing off each other. When I wrote I had the cast in mind, and things have worked out even better than I thought – they enhance it, they also bring stuff to the table by saying things like “I think my character would be more “…” in this situation, he’d say this other thing…” – so that’s woven into it. This next shoot should come together really well because all of these elements will come together, and hopefully the continued dialogue will keep getting even better at the same time. I’m looking forward to sending you a rough cut of the trailer, see what you think!

IAN: That’ll be amazing yeah! The pictures I have in my mind from what I’ve seen in the script are a really distinctive use of that whole World War 2 setting. Sometimes we feel like we’ve seen all there is to see of that conflict, but there’s always more to explore and it felt like you’ve put a good new edge into that.

HABIB: I had a lot of fun preparing for it, even though the timeframe was very tight, I only had 4 weeks to get all that in mind, finishing the script, getting the props, getting wardrobe, all the logistics for the travel and permits and things like that. One of the more fun things was to design and 3D print and build the props that I couldn’t find, and others that I wanted to custom design, taking advantage of my ArtCenter experience, building models of products that look authentic. I was able to apply those and use the latest technology – I have a 3D printer that I use, that gets the models and then we do the finishing and polish on them. The other things are all authentic that I was able to gather over a long time, by going to air races and going online on eBay, there were these authentic goggles and flight caps. A lot of things needed adjusting for size because people were smaller then, which was interesting!

IAN: CGI has really taken over so much of VFX in recent decades. Have you missed working with physical materials and objects, like the models you’ve brought back into THE SQUADRON?

HABIB: [You should use] whatever can be done the most easily that makes the most sense and most helps the actors – you’d want to do something practical, if it’s something they’re wearing or touching. I myself had to do a lot of CGI for some of the very complex aerial combat scenes. That’s always a question of how much of the real you can bring in. Theoretically you could shoot someone against a greenscreen and put the whole airplane around them, as opposed to filming them in a real cockpit around them, each of those brings different challenges and pros and cons to it. Usually, the more you can get the real stuff in it, the easier it’s gonna be to get the right look.

IAN: And there’s been an audience backlash against overdone excessive CGI and unreal characters, so it’s important to keep that balance.

HABIB: Yes, and I recently saw Dunkirk, and I know Christopher Nolan’s a massive fan of ‘as much practical as possible’. I’ll send you my trailer rough cut soon too…

IAN: Definitely. And we’d love to talk about your work as a lead designer in famous computer games too!

© WriteMovies 2017. Exclusive to WriteMovies – To syndicate this content for your own publication, contact ian (at) writemovies dot-com.

Meet our Summer 2017 Writing Contest Third Placed Winner: CHARMER by David Kurtz.

Meet our Summer 2017 Writing Contest Third Placed Winner: CHARMER by David Kurtz.

David made the top 3 of our Summer 2017 Writing Contest with a well-written, funny, and tense action-comedy. A real CHARMER. For coming in third David receives a year of free script development, guaranteed pitching from industry and exclusive prizes from InkTip.

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.

An here’s his logline for 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.

You can head over to follow in David’s footsteps in our latest contest

Meet our Summer 2017 Screenwriting Contest Special TV Script Award Winner

Meet our Summer 2017 Screenwriting Contest Special TV Script Award Winner

Meet our Summer 2017 Screenwriting Contest Special TV Script Award Winner – INSURRECTION by Simon Bowler.

Learn all about our very first winner of the brand new “Best Teleplay or Pilot Award” Simon Bowler, and his script INSURRECTION. Simon is the first winner of the award we introduced to the Summer 2017 Contest and here’s your chance to learn more about him and why his script won him this accolade.

The fact we created these awards tells you something about the quality of the submissions we’ve been receiving in those categories lately – and now you can learn more about our TV winner Simon and his script… For winning Simon recevies free Development Notes, as well as a free re-entry to our Winter 2018 Contest.

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 is a short introduction to the script:

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].

Follow in Simon’s footsteps and enter in our current main international contest. We’ll have even more winner bios from our Summer Contest coming shortly…

Summer 2017 Screenwriting Contest Final Results

Summer 2017 Screenwriting Contest Final Results

The Summer 2017 Screenwriting Contest Final Results… And the Winner is…!

Put your hands together and cheer for our Summer 2017 Screenwriting Contest Grand Prize Winner… SPOON FED by Scott LaFortune! Huge congratulations to our new Grand Prize winner Scott – in what was one of the most fiercely fought recent contests, Scott has come out on top to prove he has the hottest script of Summer 2017.

Scott provided us with a well-written, commercially strong project with clear potential to become even stronger. So, Scott wins the $2000 cash prize, a year of free script development, guaranteed pitching to industry and exclusive script and logline listings from InkTip.

Of course, we’ve got two more overall winners to announce… in second place is FOR LOVE OF COUNTRY by Tony and Ron Basso – another strong and compelling entry that came close. And coming in Third is CHARMER by David Kurtz! Tony, Ron and David will also receive the year of free script development, guaranteed pitching to industry and exclusive InkTip prizes. We look forward to revealing more about the scripts and writers in the coming weeks!

Meanwhile, several other writers have won an Honorable Mention – check below to see if you’re one of them – another top accolade to boast about to your friends and colleagues!

To reward a greater diversity of writing than we’ve been able to before, don’t forget that we’ve also given awards to Simon Bowler and Richard Guimond for the Best Teleplay, and Book with the Best Screen Potential awards, respectively – two more ways that we’ve been reaching out to help reward and develop more writers and different kinds of submission. The fact we’ve created these awards tells you something about the quality of the submissions we’ve been receiving in those categories lately – well done to all the writers who entered and made our judging so difficult! So many of the submissions we read had significant potential – we hope that you’ll keep us in mind as you develop them further. Look closely and you’ll see that among our winners this time are submissions that have improved since entering one of our previous contests – hopefully a strong message to you all to keep going and keep us a part of your writing journey! Enter our Winter contest here

 

GRAND PRIZE WINNER
SPOON FED, Scott LaFortune
SECOND PLACE THIRD PLACE
FOR LOVE OF COUNTRY, Tony Basso and Ron Basso CHARMER, David Kurtz
HONORABLE MENTIONS
 A BOY NAMED JUNE, Steven Bryson INSURRECTION, Simon Bowler BLACK JACK, Stephen Charles Curran
SEA FEVER, Richard Guimond NAPOLEON, Kevin Karp MY SPACE LOVE, Christophe Lourenço
FINAL STATUS, Timothy Jay Smith
Summer 2017 Screenwriting Contest Final Results

Summer Screenwriting Contest Book and Television Award Winners

Congrats to the top Book and Television entries from our Summer Screenwriting Contest…

We are happy to announce the first winners of two new awards! These two winners were the best of our book and television entries from the Summer Contest. In fact, we were so happy with the quality of all entries in this field we decided to keep these awards for our Winter Contest!

“Book with the Best Screen Potential”

The book with the best screen potential is… SEA FEVER by Richard Guimond! We’re delighted to announce Richard as the very first winner of this special award and can’t wait for Richard to claim his prize!

Richard now receives FREE Development Notes to help them adapt it to a screenplay or documentary, or we’ll help them find a screenwriter who can. This could be an exciting breakthrough for them!

Oh, but there’s more… In second place is MY SPACE LOVE by Christophe Lourenço – congrats Christophe! We will also be providing Christophe free Development Notes to guide him in the process of adapting his book to a screenplay.

Hopefully, this is the first chapter of many for these two talented writers…

Meanwhile…

“Best Teleplay or Pilot”

That’s right, folks – we have another winner to announce! Another huge congratulations to our Best Teleplay award winner, INSURRECTION by Simon Bowler!

Simon now receives free Development Notes to help make their teleplay or pilot break through. With on-demand bringing the best shows into our homes whenever we want them, the appetite for scripted TV shows is massive and so are the range of new ways to get them made.

Our second placed television entry is NAPOLEON by Kevin Karp! Just as with Christophe, Kevin will receive free Development Notes on his pilot. We think there’s some great potential in these two teleplays and we’re looking forward to setting them on the path to success…

 

Great job again to Richard and Simon! You’ll be learning about them and their projects even more in the coming weeks…

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