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This week’s writing festival is a showcase of some of the best spec screenplays in the world today. We will be performing the winning Thriller feature screenplay, 3 short scripts, plus the winning May 1st scene screenplays.
Here are the details:
Feature Screenplay: THE BOO, by Scott McEntire
Genre: Thriller, Suspense, Horror, Drama
Synopsis: Ronnie is a small-town sheriff in the South who still talks to his dead wife on a daily basis. His estranged sister-in-law, Brooke, is dealing with the sudden loss of her husband while still trying to conquer the mental demons of her past. Healing an old family rift becomes all the more difficult when those demons turn out to not merely be figments of her imagination.
1st Scene Screenplay: PUPPETS, by James Griffiths
Genre: Sci FI, Thriller, Noir
Synopsis: A rebellious New Yorker suspects his warehouse retail employer is controlling the minds of it’s staff and causing them to commit suicide.
CARRION is a dramatic short film about two 11-year-old girls who scour the crumbling streets of Detroit looking for items needed to perform black magic against their abusive foster father.
“Carrion” is about two 11 year-old-girls who scavenge the streets of Detroit looking for items to perform witchcraft against their abusive foster father.
Why should this screenplay be made into a movie?
It’s a hopeful story, told in a place and through a premise that initially seem pretty bleak. We could use more stories like that!
This week’s writing festival is showcasing the best of TV screenplays from around the world. We are showcasing a Sci-Fi/Fantasy TV PILOT, a Sitcom/Comedy TV PILOT, and a spec screenplay from the hit television show “The Mindy Project”.
Here are the details of the scripts we’ll be performing:
#1 TV PILOT: THE REAPER: REBELLION “AFTERLIFE” by Mark S. MacDonald and Darsey Meredith
Genre: Sci-Fi, Fantasy
Synopsis:
Eva, who may or may not be Eve from the Book of Genesis, inadvertently creates Death in the world by inciting her siblings and lover to eat the Divine Apple from the Tree of Life. It’s an interesting spin on the immortal story about how the humans lost paradise and incurred the wrath of God.
#2 TV PILOT: SMITHEREENS by Hersh Rephun
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Synopsis:
The story of a man, in pieces: This one-hour episodic dramedy series chronicles the journey of a man fished out…
WILDsound Announces its 3 Feature Screenplay Winners for April 2016. Each script was performed by professional actors at the festival. Watch now:
#1 – Feature Screenplay – CATCH THE DEVIL
April 2016 Reading
Written by Martin Blinder
SYNOPSIS:
Genre: History, War, Adventure, Drama
Synopsis: A Civil War true adventure tale of three Union soldiers, the first winners of a Congressional Medal of Honor, whose audacity and bravery trumped the superior lethal technology of the Confederate South in their daring raid into the heart of Dixie.
CAST LIST:
NARRATOR – Danielle Nicole
EVERETT – Geoff Mays
MABEL – Scott McCulloch
VARIOUS – Hugh Ritchie
— #2 – Feature Screenplay – DEAD NORTH
April 2016 Reading
Written by Alexander Nachaj
SYNOPSIS:
Genre: Horror, Comedy, Adventure
Survivors battle zombies and rival groups in post-apocalyptic Northern Canada
CAST LIST:
NARRATOR – Frances Townend
OWEN – Rob Notman
MAG – Christina Santos PILOT – Kaleb…
A professional thief pilfers money from the super-rich at weddings until he is caught stealing from the Italian mob and then is forced to take a priceless work of art from the Russian mob or die trying.
A good, old fashioned “B” picture for your first scene enjoyment.
EVGENY and VLADIMIR discuss when the supply plane will arrive. Outside, Evgeny is almost knocked down by a moving ridge in the ice, but Vladimir saves him. The ridge destroys shacks and machinery, and the incoming plane just manages to rescue them.
A professional thief pilfers money from the super-rich at weddings until he is caught stealing from the Italian mob and then is forced to take a priceless work of art from the Russian mob or die trying.
Interview with Brett Bacon:
1. What is your screenplay about?
A disciplined thief who specializes in super-rich weddings must take on an unpredictable and madcap rival or else lose his criminal operation, get apprehended by the police and taken out by the mob.
2. Why should this screenplay be made into a movie?
It’s a fun blend of two popular movie genres: romantic comedy and the heist. And who doesn’t like weddings?
3. How would you describe this script in two words?
comedy heist
4. What movie have you seen the most times in your life?
Enter the Dragon
5. How long have you been working on this screenplay?
1 year.
6. How many stories have you written?
6
7. What motivated you to write this screenplay?
I love the idea of combining the excitement and suspense of a heist with the fun and tension of a romantic comedy.
8. What obstacles did you face to finish this screenplay?
Making sure that each major character gets their due in terms of character development.
9. Apart from writing, what else are you passionate about?
Family, travel, fly-fishing, movies and reading.
10. What influenced you to enter the festival? What were your feelings on the initial feedback you received?
I am a big fan of the Wildsound Festival and they have a great reputation. The feedback was very constructive and helpful. I felt that it was tough love– but not so tough that I wanted to jump off a bridge!
11. Any advice or tips you’d like to pass on to other writers?
Keep writing, never give up, don’t be afraid of taking risks and putting yourself out there.
***
Director/Producer: Matthew Toffolo
Casting Director: Sean Ballantyne
Editor: John Johnson
Aided by their human friends, chimpanzees with typewriters try to climb the Evolutionary ladder.
Interview with Steve Mikals:
1. What is your screenplay about?
My screenplay is about the comedy of Evolution, how bigger forces than we realize are at work on this planet. It begins with a book shop putting a chimpanzee with a typewriter in the window, to see if he will type Shakespeare. It then follows that thread to some logically absurd conclusions. Along the way this will involve a secret program of one hundred typing chimpanzees and the canon of Western literature, spoofs of Mafia loan sharks and “going to the mattresses”, and the DNA of Custer’s scalps. Plural.
Trust me, it works.
2. Why should this screenplay be made into a movie?
It deserves to be a movie because it entertains AND challenges the audience to think beyond comfort zones. Two examples of this are the classic comedy Groundhog Day, and one of my current favorites, Lucy, Luc Bresson’s provocative look at human potential welded to a Hong Kong action flick.
3. How would you describe this script in two words?
The Ruminant.
4. What movie have you seen the most times in your life?
Annie Hall. It’s one of the all-time greats, especially for an ending that refuses to pull punches.
5. How long have you been working on this screenplay?
I recently wrote a novel, my first. It took me three years, on and off. It took only three months to adapt it into the rough draft of this screenplay, but it has been polish and edit ever since.
6. How many stories have you written?
I have two others in progress. One, a followup to MSM, set in the same book shop with a few of the same characters. It has a killer opening sequence, but I have yet to settle on the metaphysical instrument it revolves around. The second is a romantic comedy that follows the aftermath of a divorce, and I hope captures some of the poignancy as well as the comic possibilities. I will submit both of the openings to this festival.
7. What motivated you to write this screenplay?
This screenplay began as a novel (my own), and as I watched the publishing world collapse in the Internet Age, I decided I had a better shot at success with a screenplay and film festivals like this one. Plus, I’ve given up reading novels, except for clean stylists that I find helpful in my writing, like Jonathan Franzen, Raymond Chandler, Elmore Leonard, and George Higgins,
8. What obstacles did you face to finish this screenplay?
I was working from a novel (my own) with TOO MANY funny plots, characters and scenes. I had to teach myself a great deal about editing and make tough but rewarding choices.
9. Apart from writing, what else are you passionate about?
You can be passionate about more than one thing? 🙂
10. What influenced you to enter the festival? What were your feelings on the initial feedback you received?
Critiquing the first ten pages is a great idea. That’s the easiest part to write, so it had better rock. The feedback is objective and helpful.
11. Any advice or tips you’d like to pass on to other writers?
Accept all feedback in the constructive spirit it is given. Let it sink in over time. These people are now where you want to be.
***
Director/Producer: Matthew Toffolo
Casting Director: Sean Ballantyne
Editor: John Johnson
A good, old fashioned “B” picture for your first scene enjoyment.
EVGENY and VLADIMIR discuss when the supply plane will arrive. Outside, Evgeny is almost knocked down by a moving ridge in the ice, but Vladimir saves him. The ridge destroys shacks and machinery, and the incoming plane just manages to rescue them.
Get to know writer Jerry Kokich:
1. What is your screenplay about?
In the early 60’s, a Russian Arctic research station uncovers a horrible monster.
2. Why should this screenplay be made into a movie?
We need a good, entertaining, popcorn movie, and this is it!
3. How would you describe this script in two words?
Midnight movie!
4. What movie have you seen the most times in your life?
Raiders of The Lost Ark!
5. How long have you been working on this screenplay?
On and off, three years, more off than on.
6. How many stories have you written?
Six books, two published, a number of short stories, three audio dramas, several screenplays, four or five low budget filmmaking articles, a ballet blog, five scripts for a Doctor Who parody series I produced, and eight for an unproduced comedy scifi web series.
7. What motivated you to write this screenplay?
I knew a former Navy intelligence officer, who was actually stationed in the Arctic, who told me stories. Not about any monsters…
8. What obstacles did you face to finish this screenplay?
I ran into writer’s block about the ending, which I usually get first when I start a story. I’m going back and forth between a couple of endings.
9. Apart from writing, what else are you passionate about?
I was a ballet dancer with The Joffrey Ballet, and I teach in Los Angeles. I’m very passionate about my students and their development.
10. What influenced you to enter the festival? What were your feelings on the initial feedback you received?
I felt this first scene was one of my better ones, and I needed some feedback, so when I found about wildsound’s contest, I thought, here’s a golden opportunity!
11. Any advice or tips you’d like to pass on to other writers?
Never assume a woman is pregnant. Seriously, though, keep writing. Keep writing everything. Screenplays, short stories, poems, articles, blogs, everything. Writing is like anything: you have to do it to get better at it.
***
Director/Producer: Matthew Toffolo
Casting Director: Sean Ballantyne
Editor: John Johnson
First Scene Screenplay Festival 