Screenwriting links: Tuesday, March 26

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Slamdance script competition early deadline approaching

Planning on entering Slamdance this year? Apply by the early deadline of March 25 to save some cash! (The regular deadline is May 13.)

From their website:
The Slamdance Screenwriting and Teleplay Competition is dedicated to discovering and supporting emerging writing talent. To that end, we are unveiling an exciting new partnership this year with JuntoBox Films who will be awarding a Grand Prize of $10,000 cash and a $50,000 production grant to the winning feature length script. JuntoBox Films’ goal of producing films and finding writers with innovative and interesting stories is a great fit with what Slamdance strives to achieve. 
We welcome screenplays in every genre, on any topic, from anywhere in the world. A unique feature of the competition is providing constructive feedback for every entrant. In addition to this, we also offer a more intensive coverage service for a supplementary fee. Now in our eighteenth year, we have a history of highlighting talented, independent screenwriters and introducing them to the entertainment industry. All of our readers approach scripts differently, but in general we are looking for originality and promise in a work. As an organization, we strive to foster an independent spirit among new writers and filmmakers. We've established a strong track record through our competition successes and are committed to continuing our pursuit to champion outstanding new work.
Categories:

• Feature
• Short
• Horror
• Original Teleplay/Webisode

Deadlines:

• Early Deadline: Feb. 25th - March 25th, 2013
• Regular Deadline: March 26th - May 13th, 2013
• Late Deadline: May 14th - June 25th, 2013
• WAB Extended Deadline: June 26th - July 2nd, 2013

Prizes:

• A total of $19,000 will be awarded to the winners this year.

• Slamdance Grand Prize by JuntoBox Films: $10,000 cash and $50,000 in production funds for the best feature length screenplay regardless of category.

• The winner of the Feature, Horror, and Original Teleplay/Webisode categories will receive $3,000 each.

• The winning Short screenplay will have an option to be produced and screen at Slamdance 2014.

• The top three screenwriters in each category will receive prize packages that include Festival Passes good for all screenings and parties at the Slamdance Film Festival in Park City, Utah (January 2014)

• The top three screenwriters in the Feature and Horror category are eligible for membership in the Writers Guild of America’s Independent Writers Caucus.

• The winning Short and winning Feature screenplays will receive $2,500 in legal services from Pierce Law Group, LLP.

• The top three screenwriters in each category will receive merchandise from the Slamdance SHOP (T-shirts, beanies, etc.).

• The top three screenwriters in each category will be included in the 2014 Slamdance Film Festival program which is distributed to industry professionals in Park City and year round.

• Production companies, studios, top agencies and managers request to read our top scripts
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Screenwriting links: Friday, March 22

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Get inspired by pro writers' early scripts!

Note: this post was written by new blog contributor Rob Pilkington. 


If you’ve logged even just a couple years in this whole “aspiring screenwriter” thing, you’ve probably discovered that revisiting your old material isn’t always a picnic.  Sure, there are lessons to be gleaned from some of those crude, bumbling, early pages, but the spirit of learning is likely trumped by the urge to lock those embarrassing attempts forever inside a fireproof safe - and to drop that safe into some shark-infested waters.

If nothing else, it's comforting to know that even the most successful professional screenwriters were once just like us. We now have proof: a few online resources have cropped up that allow us to examine early scripts by actual working writers. Show Us Your Specs is a new online library of the spec scripts that first got now-showrunners noticed. Early entries already include Revenge’s Gretchen J. Berg & Aaron Harberts, Once Upon a Time’s Jane Espenson, and Don't Trust the B’s Dave Hemingson.

While all these writers can stand to leave these specs off their resumes now, it’s easy to see why they’ve become responsible for what’s piped into our living rooms every week. I haven’t watched Homicide: Life on Street in over a decade, but Matt Olmstead’s spec, which landed him both a Sopranos offer and a NYPD Blue gig, conjured tone and character voices I recognized in an instant. Here’s hoping that more TV pros join int he fun and send Show Us Your Specs a little love.

If you’re looking for something a little more on the raw and vulnerable side, look no further than the Scriptnotes podcast by John August (Big Fish, Frankenweenie) and Craig Mazin (The Hangover Part II, Identity Thief). In episode 58, John and Craig are brave enough to summarize, discuss, and even post (post!) the first three pages of their very first screenplays (Here and Now and The Stunt Family, respectively). It’s heartwarming and inspiring to hear these two pros tear apart their maiden voyages, knowing that they've both grown into highly successful and super cool screenwriting dudes.

Ideally, this level of transparency that Show Us Your Specs and Scriptnotes offer will continue to rise on the web, particularly concerning those first (and sometimes gruesome) milestones every TV and film writer must endure. As John eloquently puts it, “you just need to get that [first] one out of your system” before graduating to the good stuff.  And if you can, and people pay you for it, the good news is that sharing your first scribbles will be an enormous generosity…and not a requirement.

Because seriously: no one is finding that safe.
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Screenwriting links: Tuesday, March 19

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