2010 BlueCat Screenplay Competition CALL FOR ENTRIES

 
Since 1998, we have built a large community of writers passionately committed
to writing original, unforgettable work.


This starts with our exchange of feedback to each writer who enters BlueCat.

EVERY SCREENPLAY RECEIVES WRITTEN SCRIPT ANALYSIS

This
year, we’ve created two new awards for international screenwriters,
expanded our early analysis deadlines and resubmission programs and
brought back our popular title contest to further our support and find
the new writer.

 
PRIZES

Winner receives $10,000
Four Finalists receive $1500 each.
The best screenplay from the UK will be awarded the Cordelia Award and will
receive $2500.
The best screenplay outside the USA, Canada and the UK will be awarded the
Joplin Award and receive $2500.
The screenplay with the best title submitted in November and December, as voted
by the public, will receive $1000.

 
SCRIPT ANALYSIS DEADLINE SCHEDULE

Nov 1 -  receive  analysis by November 10
Dec 1, - receive analysis by January 5
January 20  - receive analysis by February 1Feb 1 - receive analysis by March
1
March 1 – receive analysis by March 20

 
SAMPLE SCRIPT ANALYSIS:   http://www.bluecatscreenplay. com/script_analysis

 
COMPETITION DEADLINE:

March 1, 2010 with an entry fee of $50.
LATE:  April 1, 2010 with an entry fee of $60.

Any
screenplay submitted early and having received our early analysis can
be resubmitted by April 1, 2010 for the reduced fee of $35.

 
SUBMIT YOUR SCREENPLAY:    http://www.bluecatscreenplay. com

 

BlueCat Screenplay Competition
PO Box 2635
Los Angeles,  CA 90078
Email:  info @ bluecatscreenplay.com
Website:  http://www. bluecatscreenplay.com
Facebook:  http://facebook. com/pages/BlueCat-Screenplay-
Competiton/140069287677
MySpace:  http://www.myspace.
  com/bluecatscreenplay
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ BlueCatPictures




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I might have already told you this, but I put a hooker on layaway for Christmas.
The only reason I bring it up, is because you might consider doing the same to
treat yourselves for Christmas. It's the gift that keeps on giving.

Kramer
http://www.StephenKramer.com
http://www.FansGoWild.com

I'm on MySpace as BuzzyEviLA, Facebook as BuzzReviewNews, and Twitter as
BuzzyBeyond.
�
Buzzy


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[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Hi Group!
      I am looking for people to read my hot-off-the-press comedy screenplay and
give feedback. It is draft Number 3. It's topical, so I need to get it completed
ASAP. ahj_2000@.... Here is an overview. I have it copyrighted.

Wall Street � Main Street
A super-wealthy, arrogant, Wall Street CEO � Montague Brassington - is enjoying
the high life, with the $517 million he makes his in time as CEO. He takes on
risky debt, such as subprime mortgages, to maximize his bank's short-term
profits and his bonuses.

His bank goes bankrupt much sooner than he suspected it might. His wife and
mistress turn their backs on him. He is forced to testify before Congress on the
bankruptcy. He is tried; the judge gives him massive fines, making him bankrupt,
and sentences him to work in a convenience store as a clerk for 5 years, in a
working class town. If he is fired or quits, he will have to do the 5 years in a
maximum-security prison.

He works under the assistant manager Josh, an ill-tempered jerk, whose father
was laid-off from Monty bank. In addition, Josh's parents got a large mortgage
from Monty bank with little money down, which they can no longer afford to pay.
They cannot afford to send Josh to college, so Josh tries to make Monty life a
living hell, it an attempt to make him quit to get him sent to prison.

Monty toil is eased somewhat by spending time with the lovely, single mother
Lori, her spirited son, Riley and their talented Labrador retriever.

Can Montague adjust to his penniless, working-class life? Can he get along with
the local colorful characters? Will he survive Josh's onslaught?

The movie is Clerks meets Wall Street.

Thanks!
Andrew

I've been doing the MySpace and Twitter thing.
�
�
Buzzy
www.myspace.com/buzzyevila
www.twitter.com/thebigbuzzy

�
�
Buzzelle-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
�
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Buzzelle/?yguid=292679648
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The 2009 BLUECAT SCREENPLAY COMPETITION accepts feature length screenplays only.

*Winner receives $10,000

*Four finalists receive $1500

*Every writer who submits to BlueCat receives a written script analysis of their
screenplay

Entry fee $65


FINAL DEADLINE MAY 1


Quarter-finalists will be announced on June 15th
Semi-Finalists will be announced on July 15th
Five finalists will be named on July 23rd and awarded $1500.
The winner will be named on August 1st and awarded $10,000.

SUBMIT YOUR SCREENPLAY:  http:www.bluecatscreenplay.com


BlueCat Screenplay Competition
Hollywood, CA 90028
http://www.bluecatscreenplay.com
http://www.myspace.com/bluecatscreenplay
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1480202464

There is a new comedy screenwriting group in Facebook. This will be spam free.

http://www.facebook.com/policy.php?ref=pf#/group.php?sid=d5f811e030a1d341e25cf11\
\
7d3079ba6&gid=66389236740&ref=search

(For more articles on screenwriting, visit
www.bluecatscreenplay.com/news/advice.php)


You’re an Idiot: Making Value from Reaction to your Screenwriting
By Gordy Hoffman



If you’re like me, if someone doesn’t like something about my screenplay, my
very first reaction is always the same.

You’re not as smart as me. If you knew what I knew, you would understand what
I wrote. And you don’t understand what I wrote, because you don’t know as
much as I do. About everything, in general. In short, life. You know, people.
Planet Earth.

If you really don’t understand what I’m doing in my script, my first feeling
is I don’t respect you. I have contempt for you. I feel attacked personally,
and with my feelings hurt, I want to denigrate your position, and while I
won’t call you an idiot, basically the foundation of my exchange with you in
the wake of you reading my script is you are, in fact, some kind of idiot.

Someone once told me I can be right or I can be happy. Or you can be right, or
you can get your screenplay produced into a motion picture. I have had this
happen twice, and I can tell you if I had committed myself to being right about
everything during the development of the screenplay, they would still be living
as files in my hard drive. Any produced screenwriter will attest to this.

Whenever a reader doesn’t get information from my screenplay, facts crucial to
the function of the story, stuff I feel is so obvious that the only reason they
could’ve missed it all is carelessness, I know I am responsible for the
breakdown. Writers over and over complain about this, appalled that someone
could miss something so blatant in the script. Two ways you can take this note.
One, reader read poorly. Two, you have clarity problems. What is the
constructive reaction? You have a clarity problem.

You might get a note saying they don’t believe a character would do or say
something, particularly dialogue or actions of a certain time period or
profession, such as a cop, or a farmer from the 18th century in Russia. The
writer defends the charge by citing historical facts, or stating they have seven
relatives in law enforcement, or they grew up in Canada, and they do, indeed,
talk like that. Well, it doesn’t matter. If your audience is distracted by
your authenticity rubbing them as cliché or improbable, you need to revise.
Screenwriting is compression and art. It’s truth, not a transcription. Where
do clichés come from anyway?

I recently got a reaction from an audience member to a movie I wrote that I had
never heard from anyone EVER. My first instinct was to say to myself, well, um,
that’s stupid, because EVERYBODY else thinks differently. This is another
reaction I’ve run into quite a bit with writers. “Everybody else thinks
it’s funny or realistic or a perfect movie or…”
Who is your “everybody else”? Consider your sources, and keep your mind
open. In the end, “everybody else” doesn’t exist.

Notes on your screenplay are not a personal attack. They might feel like that.
You have made an investment of self, and you love what you have created. It is
you. But someone’s reaction to your writing is not a reaction to you. It is a
reaction of the person who read your screenplay. Same screenplay, different
people, different reactions. So the reactions are personal to the readers.
Detach from the notes to the degree to which you can improve your screenplay.
Their reactions are formed primarily from their lives, not your words. Which
leads me to this.

Do not embrace the extremes. Listen to the ends of the spectrum of opinions, but
do not wallow there. If someone thinks your script is the worst attempt at
screenwriting on record, take what you can, but do not stay with this, toss it
off as something off and wild. If someone thinks your script is so awesomely
perfect and beautiful that there’s really nothing to be changed, take what you
can, but do not stay with this, toss it off as something off and wild.

Let’s say you’ve offended someone. They think your choices about language or
characterization or action are patently offensive, maybe immoral, bigoted,
racist, or sexist, disturbing to the point of quit. Do you need to change
something? Perhaps. It’s up to you. Know that you’ve offended someone. I
have written disturbing material and I didn’t change it. But I’ve learned to
sincerely respect that reaction and allow it to help strengthen my creative
positions.

Do not listen to hysterical advice about formatting, but if people say they
found typos, that means you don’t respect your movie and you need look at your
attitude to your work on story.

Don’t ever question the credentials of your reader. We can seek the
experienced and the professional, but in the end, to discredit notes because the
reader is “not a screenwriter” or “some punk in a mailroom” or “the
assistant fresh out of blah blah”, I put this to you. Where exactly do you
think the studios come from? Do you know where the executives started? Do you
know how Hollywood began? Who is sitting in the movie seats every Friday night
across the planet? Screenplay consultants? No. Your audience.

Seek their reaction. They are the flashlight that works. You can gleam the most
incredible insights from any one who reads your screenplay, if you put aside
your fight and remember the goal of production. We can’t wait for the
“qualified” to tell us what’s wrong. We don’t have to.

I don’t remember what the newspapers wrote about the movies I’ve written,
but I do remember what the audiences said. The hell with right. I want to make
movies, and I strive for that direction.



About the Author
Winner of the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award at the Sundance Film Festival for
LOVE LIZA, Gordy Hoffman has written and directed three digital shorts for Fox
Searchlight. He made his feature directorial debut with his script, A COAT OF
SNOW, which world premiered at the 2005 Locarno Intl Film Festival. He is the
founder of the BlueCat Screenplay Competition. Dedicated to develop and
celebrate the undiscovered screenwriter, BlueCat provides written script
analysis on every script entered. In addition, Gordy acts as a script consultant
for screenwriters, offering personalized feedback on their scripts through his
consultation service, www.screenplaynotes.com.

For more articles by Gordy on screenwriting, visit
www.bluecatscreenplay.com/news/advice.php.

If you would like to publish these articles, please email:
info at bluecatscreenplay.com