Spring 2018 Screenwriting Contest – Winners Announced!

Spring 2018 Screenwriting Contest – Winners Announced!

We are delighted to announce the winners of our Spring 2018 Screenwriting Contest!

 

We’ve read many fantastic scripts over the last few months, but at long last, our Spring 2018 Contest comes to a close. In every genre and in every format, there have been many scripts that shone – but we’ve finally managed to decide on our winners!

A massive thanks to everyone who entered, and who gave us so much great material to read! If you want to find out why your script placed where it did in our competition, we strongly encourage you to take advantage of our Script Report services – which are currently on special offer until 31st August 2018!

ScriptOur Grand Prize Winner walks away with:

  • $2000 cash prize
  • A year of script and pitching development worth $3200
  • Exclusive previews of our Virtual Film School and a copy of our Confidential Studio Manual

And the top three submissions all receive:

  • Guaranteed pitching and promotion to the top of the film industry
  • Exclusive prizes from InkTip – an InkTip Script Listing and the winning scripts’ loglines will be featured in InkTip’s Magazine, read by thousands of writers and producers.

 

So, a huge congratulations to our GRAND PRIZE WINNER:

DESERT RUN
by
Christopher Thomas

A great win for Christopher, and a thrilling script with strongly voiced characters. Christopher now takes home those wonderful prizes listed above.

 

But we must also congratulate our SECOND PLACED WINNER:

KLONDIKE MIKE
by
Thomas Zmiarovich

 

And our THIRD PLACED WINNER:

FIRE ON THE ISLAND
by
Timothy Jay Smith

 

A round of applause also for our Honorable Mentions: BLUT WIRD FLIEßEN by Urs Aebersold, LOVERS IN PARIS by Andy Conway, THE CRACK IN PEGGY SUE’S FLOOR by John Woodard, THE UNDERTAKER’S CHILDREN by Natasha Le Petit, THE ELECTRIC WAR by Arthur Tiersky, and HOLLYWOOD’S MOST WANTED: I’M READY FOR MY CLOSE-UP, ESE by Manny Jimenez Sr.

A very well done to everyone named here and the many other impressive scripts we read this time around. It’s been a tough field to choose from! See the results in full below.

We’ll be telling you all about our winners in the coming weeks, and getting their script development phase underway.

Head to our Facebook page and our Twitter feed to congratulate our top three winners and Honorable Mentions yourself!

Here are the Spring 2018 Screenwriting Contest Winners and Honorable Mentions…

 

GRAND PRIZE WINNER
DESERT RUN
by Christopher Thomas
SECOND PLACE THIRD PLACE
KLONDIKE MIKE
by Thomas Zmiarovich
FIRE ON THE ISLAND
by Timothy Jay Smith
HONORABLE MENTIONS
BLUT WIRD FLIEßEN
by Urs Aebersold
LOVERS IN PARIS
by Andy Conway
THE ELECTRIC WAR
by Arthur Tiersky
THE UNDERTAKER’S CHILDREN
by Natasha Le Petit
HOLLYWOOD’S MOST WANTED:
I’M READY FOR MY CLOSE-UP, ESE
by Manny Jimenez Sr
THE CRACK IN PEGGY SUE’S FLOOR
by John Woodard

Best Long and Short Form Pilots announced – Spring 2018 Contest

Best Long and Short Form Pilots announced – Spring 2018 Contest

writing notes

We’re delighted to be announcing the winners of two more awards from our Spring 2018 Contest: Best Long and Short Form Pilots! These are both demanding categories, requiring a writer to tell a condense their story down to a small number of pages. In addition, any pilot episode needs to both tell a complete story and be the first instalment of a larger, overarching plot – meaning that these scripts have to pull double duty to achieve their goals!

(more…)

Meet our Spring 2018 Best Video Game Script Winner – BIG BALLS aka FUTUREBALL by Richard Guimond!

Meet our Spring 2018 Best Video Game Script Winner – BIG BALLS aka FUTUREBALL by Richard Guimond!

We recently announced the winning script in this brand new category: BIG BALLS aka FUTUREBALL by Richard Guimond!

A big congratulations to Richard for being the very first winner of Best Video Game Script – he now receives a copy of our Confidential Studio Manual and exclusive previews of our Virtual Film School.

Read on to find out about the winning script: BIG BALLS aka FUTUREBALL!

Here’s Richard’s summary of his script…

“A Whole New Ballgame: A 21st Century sport, utilizing an incredible history-making vehicle. A classic underdog, Rocky-themed script that levels the playing field for men, women, and teenagers. Will the Reynolds family bring this revolutionary new sport to fruition? With big business stealing their Futureball concept away from them, this script charts their battle with this business entity, as well as their family adventures and comical mis-adventures in launching this new sport of man and machine.”

Best Video Game Script Winner Richard Guimond

And a short biography of Richard too…

“I am a former deep sea fisherman, and award winning screenwriter and novelist.  I have won over thirty-five awards including but not limited to from Grand Prize, Gold, Silver, and Finalist for many of my screenplay works in adult fiction. Over the last few years, I have won seven Finalist Awards and a Special Jury Award from The West Field Screenplay Competition for METACOMET. I also won First Place in The Kids First Media Competition at the Santa Fe Film Festival for my Family PG Screenplay titled: FUTUREBALL aka BIG BALLS, which now has won WriteMovies competition in their Video Game category.

I began my fishing and writing career at an early age. I started with a small skiff which eventually grew into a fleet of one hundred foot vessels, engaged in the trapping of offshore lobsters on the virgin Continental Shelf. At the time, I was the youngest fisherman in New England to venture out into this no-man’s land of risky, profitable opportunity. On the high seas, I did battle with competitive fishing fleets, stormy weather, winter nor’easters and cranky crews. Some of my novels and screenplays have captured some of those incredible adventures. I have written Fifteen Screenplays, Six Novels, and a Stage Play.”

 

If you’ve got a great idea for a video game script, check out our Elite Mentoring serviceMark Brendan, our Video Games and Board Games Elite Mentor, can give you valuable advice that will help you develop your script to its maximum potential.

Take a look at Mark’s profile here!

How to Write a Great Character Arc

“Use the Force, Luke.” It’s one of the most iconic phrases in the history of film – and if you haven’t heard it before, you must have been living on a backwater desert planet for the last forty years.

 It also contains a valuable lesson for writers. In our latest Writing Insights article, Edward Smith takes a look at how these four words unlock the secrets of the character arc. (more…)

Spring Contest 2018 closes Sunday June 17 – Last Chance to Enter!

Spring Contest 2018 closes Sunday June 17 – Last Chance to Enter!

The Final Deadline is fast approaching for our Spring Contest 2018! Add the finishing touches to your script and submit it by this Sunday, June 17 to win fantastic prizes.

There are 9 winning categories, $2000 available in prize money, plus over $3000 in script development for the 3 winners, bonuses and promotion through InkTip – we promise to develop and promote them to the top of the international film industry.

Plus, twice Academy Award nominated director Habib Zargarpour and WriteMovies founder Alex Ross are looking for VFX driven scripts to take to Hollywood – make it yours by entering our competition!

In addition to our Overall Winner, we also have prizes for the Best Studio Script, Best Indie Script, and Best Short Script – and we’re not just interested in screenplays, either. Our competition includes several other categories: get your television series started with Long and Short Form Pilots, raise the curtain on a future in theatre by sending in your Stageplay, and unleash the screen potential of your Book!

And don’t forget our newest category: Best Video Game Script! Guide us into your gaming universe and show us how creative you can be – we’d be thrilled to read your projects!

See the prizes available below, and enter our competition here!

Prizes and awards up for grabs in each category… Click on the prizes to learn more about them!

PRIZES Overall Winner Best Studio Script Best Indie Script Best Short Script Best Long Form Pilot Best Short Form Pilot Best Book Best Stageplay Best Video Game Script
$2000 Cash Prize YES
Year of script and pitching development worth $3200 YES YES YES
Elite Consulting YES
Development Notes YES YES YES YES YES YES
Studio Coverage YES YES
Judging Feedback YES YES
Confidential Studio Manual YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES
Inktip prizes guaranteed to winner 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Placed Winners

 

Guaranteed Pitching to Industry 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Placed Winners

 

YES YES TBC TBC TBC
Virtual Film School exclusive previews YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES

ENTER HERE!

5 Writing Tips for Your Opening Page

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… (more…)

Meet our Winter 2018 Writing Contest Grand Prize Winner – SLAVE SHIP by Tyler True

Meet our Winter 2018 Writing Contest Grand Prize Winner – SLAVE SHIP by Tyler True

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!