Can we make an American Hoe?

K here.

I know I said we were going to boycott "On the Lot" but something drew me back. Was it to see how Zach Lee fared, or was it to see the obvious train wreck the show has become?

The films this week were supposed to be "romantic comedy". Zach disappointed me, not because he's not a great director, but because his film just lack story. The guest judge this week told him they needed to hook him up with a good writer. Fair enough. Will Bigham's "Unplugged", about two desk lamps that withstand impossible obstacles to fall in love was the best for me. The rest? Forgettable.

And I say "Forgettable" not because I want to be mean, or because my work is a thousand times better---but it's making me a little mad that there doesn't seem to Adbe much evolution going on, here. None at all. They have it easy--all the perks of working with TALENTED actors, a budget, and professional equiptment, yet they can't sit down and create a short film that actually says something?

*sigh*

I want them to succeed---I really do. But at the same time, I'm worried that another group of good ol' boys are going to march into Hollywood as if they own it, while women, and people of color are going to have to work a thousand times harder to break the barrier. Shalini Kantayya has beautiful vision---and even though she's been On The Lot, she'll probably never have it as easy as that Brit who got kicked off the first episode...

Adriana Costa was the same--short dress, bland lines, although her comment to the boys of "You all look sharp, I must say." followed by a halfway stifled laugh was a new low.

I've got to give it up to Spielburg and Burnett, though. About halfway through the show, Adriana goes up into the control booth. There, she says something along the lines of, "We just wanted to show America how much work it takes to make a live show." Ha! Well played.

And just so this post won't end up negative:

Steven Spielburg
Duel (1971)
The Sugarland Express (1974)
Jaws (1975)
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
1941 (1979) Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)
The Color Purple (1985)
Empire of the Sun (1987)
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)
Hook (1991)
Jurassic Park (1993)
Schindler's List (1993)
The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997)
Amistad (1997)
Saving Private Ryan (1998)
Artificial Intelligence: AI (2001)
Minority Report (2002)
Catch Me If You Can (2002)
The Terminal (2004)
War of the Worlds (2005)
Munich (2005)
Indiana Jones 4 (2008)

Mark Burnett
Survivor
The Apprentice
The Restaurant
The Casino
Rock Star
Combat Missions
The Contender
Martha Stewart
Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?
Pirate Master

Upcoming Screenplay Contests

UPCOMING SCREENPLAY COMPETITION DEADLINES--

JULY/AUGUST 2007

Bruce Geller Screewriting Competion
First Place: $25,000
2 Runners Up: $5,000

Deadline: July 31 ($45)

American Zoetrope Screenplay Competition
1st Place: $5,000, script considered for option and development
10 finalists: Script considered for option and development

Early Deadline: August 1, 2007 ($35)
Deadline: September 4, 2007 ($50)

The 2008 BlueCat Screenwriting Lab
" All screenplays entered for consideration will be evaluated for narrative promise, emotional impact, original voice and personal spirit. Based on these criteria, three writers will be named BlueCat Fellows and flown to Los Angeles for one week of intense development in the home of the motion picture industry, all expenses paid. In addition, each Fellow will receive $1000."

Early deadline: August 1, 2007 ($40)
Regular deadline: September 1, 2007 ($40)
Late deadline: October 1, 2007 ($50)

Screenwriting EXPO 6
Grand Prize: $20,000,trip to Los Angeles for Screenwriting EXPO 6
Genre Category Prizes: $2,500 plus trip to Los Angeles for Screenwriting EXPO 6

Regular deadline: July 31, 2007 ($50)
Late deadline: August 14, 2007 ($55)

Slamdance Teleplay Competition
Grand Prize: blind script deal with fox21 to develop television show, plus $30,000 (half-hour) or $45,000 (hour).

Deadline: August 20, 2007 ($30 half-hour, $40 hour)

Bruce Geller Screenwriting Competion

K here.

Heads up! A new screenplay competition has opened up. The First Annual Bruce Geller Screenplay Competition:

"To increase the richness of contemporary Jewish culture through the creation of screenplays and films that reflect aspects of Jewish life in the United States or elsewhere.

Submit a screenplay that relates to, touches upon, explores or includes some aspect of Jewish life. This could be a location, a Jewish character, a Jewish theme, or anything relevant to the Jewish experience. This competition is open to writers of all religious and ethnic backgrounds. Entries accepted from June 4 to July 31, 2007. See the contest rules to learn how to enter.

One first prize winner and two runners-up will be selected. First prize is $25,000. The two runners-up each receive $5,000.

Winners will be announced at our gala dinner."

Please, PLEASE check this out! Looks like it might be a good venture.

A Screenwriter's Guide to the Galaxy

K here.

You may have noticed the links positioned quite nicely in the sidebar to your left. These links lead you, the hopeful screenwriter or filmmaker, to some great blogs and forums on screenwriting, filmmaking and procrastination networking with other filmmakers/screenwriters.

We here at CWMM present you with:

A Screenwriter's Guide to the Galaxy:
Navigating the Links on the Lefthand Sidebar

THE WRITERS

Carolyn Haywood
Regular poster on the American Zoetrope Vertiual Studios hosted by Francis Ford Coppola. Her website includes samples from her award-winning screenplays, which could be a helpful resource. It has been to us!

Christopher Lockhard
No-longer updated blog by executive story editor and creative consultant, that answers e-mail questions about screenwriting. He also hosts the website twoadverbs.com, which focuses on giving advice to screenwriters.

Jane Espenson
Former writer for Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and has written episodes for Angel, Firefly, Gilmore Girls, Ellen, The O.C., and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (among others). Her website focuses on the ins and outs of writing spec scripts for televison...and what she ate for lunch.

Jeremy Slater
Amazingly hilarious blog featuring a writer navigating through agents, spec writing and trips to industry studios. Link to an even funnier blog: How To Write Screenplays. Badly.

John August
Blog from the writer of such films as Big Fish, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Charlie's Angels, and Go. Answers questions from readers on every aspect of screenwriting.

Lorelei Armstrong
Award-winning screenwriter and novelist who gives no-nonsense advice about screenwriting, and how to navigate through The Business.

Ted Rossio and Terry Elliot
The Grandaddy of all screenwriting blogs, and written by the geniuses who brought us Aladdin, The Legend of Zorro and the POTC Triology, Wordplay takes you to an entirely new level in understanding screenwriting and improving upon your craft. The site features 60 columns on screenwriting, a forum and essays from industry professionals. Highly recommended for all screenwriters.

The Unknown Screenwriter
In-depth blog second only to Wordplay, which gives writers the opportunity to study screenwriting without having to pay tens of thousands of dollars at USC having to go to film school.

WHO'S OUT THERE?

American Zoetrope
A "Virtual Studio" founded by Francis Ford Coppola. It operates on a peer-review system, allowing users to upload their screenplays, stories, music, pictures and more, and receive feedback from fellow users, with the occasional industry professional dropping in on the main boards to offer advice and feedback. Has four "buildings": Writing, Arts and Design, Music and Sound, and Other (Acting and Directing). The Screenwriting buildings is active, with several private offices hosted from a range of individuals, some industry profressionals.

Cinnematical
Cinnematical gives information on recent sales and upcoming movies, as well as reviews of recently released films. Check here often to see whether or not you should spend 4 months writing that spec script...

KarmaCritic
Website/blogsite created by frustrated "On The Lot" community members. Open to filmmakers, screenwriters, and anyone else involved in making a professional or semi-professional film. Also has a screenplay competion, SUBLIM, which opened on 07/07/07. How's that for good luck?

The Artful Writer
No-holds barred blog hosted by Craig Mazin (Scary Movie 3) and Ted Elliot (Pirates of the Carribean Trilogy). It features an active forum, which hosts the informative "Ask a Pro" question and answer sesssion. (Previous professionals included Ted Elliot, John Turman, Craig Mazin, Tim Talbott and others). Good resource for those wanting information about screenwriting from an industry pro's perspective.

Query Letters We Love
Started by the late Manager Guy, this website pokes fun at some odd query letters the host has received over the years. Interesting read, and may give you an idea what not to put in your query letters...

The Movie Blog
"The Official Home of Correct Movie Opinons". Enough said.

TriggerStreet
Large-scale site in the vein of Zoetrope, which focuses on peer-reviews as a means to improve filmmaking and screenwriting as a whole. It has a message board, blogging section and will soon add Plays, Short Stories and Books to its lineup.

LEARN HOW TO...

Michael Hauge's Screenplay Mastery
Site by writer Michael Hauge, with articles on screenplay structure, pitching and telling a story. Great for those who need a better grasp of screenplay structure.

Proper Screenplay Format
How to properly format a screenplay from the Academy of Arts and Sciences' Nicholl Fellowship Program. PLEASE READ THIS NOW.

FESTIVALS

American Black Film Festival

Deadline has passed for submit to the festival, but the festival itself will be held in October. Geared toward films focusing on African American and/or urban independent films.

The Sundance Institute
Institute created by the spectacular Robert Redford,which focuses on independent film. It has several contests and programs aimed at the indepedent filmmaker, cummilating in The Sundance Festival, held every January, in Utah.

Tribeca Film Festival
Annual Film Festival held in September, Tropfest@Tribeca holds an annual short film competion. This year's theme: "Slice".

Telluride Film Festival
Held August 31-September 3 in Telluride, Colorado, this festival accepts only the best shorts and films to be showcased during the it's run. The deadline for this year has passed, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't still be working!

Human Rights Watch International Fim Festival
"Each year, the festival's programming committee screens more than 500 films and videos to create a program that represents a range of countries and issues. Once a film is nominated for a place in the program, staff of the relevant division of Human Rights Watch also view the work to confirm its accuracy in the portrayal of human rights concerns. Though the festival rules out films that contain unacceptable inaccuracies of fact, we do not bar any films on the basis of a particular point of view." Check it out.

Los Angeles Film Festival
Presented by The Lost Angeles Times, this festival offers some of the best of independent film, accepting films from high school students as well.

SouthXSouthwest
Has several components but the Film Festival is probably what you're looking for. Located in Austin, this highly respected festival has several competions geared toward the up and coming filmmaker.

Ohio Independent Film Festival
Held in November in Cleveland, Ohio, this film festival, run exclusively by women(!), also has a screenplay competion.

This list is subject to change--and probably will, as we navigate the web finding the Best of the Best.

Good luck!

WHAT? No On The Lot?

K here.

"On The Lot" got bumped to next week due to sagging ratings the Allstar Game.

Not that it matters to me, anyway. Can somebody say "Boycott"??

Expect updates soon.

Confessions!

M, M, M, M.

So, earlier we told you folks that we were going to shoot on those ancient Bolex's. Well, we decided instead to shoot on a bootleg Panasonic Mini-Dv. The reason? No processing or transferring fees!!

When you're poor, you've got to work with what you've got. And what we're got here in the Big O are free Panasonic Mini DVs from the university library.

That's right . We're repping it for the poor folks!

We were even talking about making a festival for short films that require that students make their films with REGULAR Mini DV camcorders.

It's should be the story that really counts, right??

The Countdown...

M here...

We are T-minus two until we begin to shoot "Refugee". I for one, am excited as hell. I am also nervous as hell because, even though I have a solid cast that "say" they'll be there on Sunday, I'm not sure if they are really going to stick to their word (college kids).

That aside, I can't wait to KICK ASS in the film area and show the world what me and the sis are ready to do!

Look out for great things from this camp. :)

Production Pics!

M hurr...

So, we got our set together and we did some shots outside to get a feel of the light at certain periods. We also thought it would be nice to share with you guys what everything is gonna look like.

Do Not X-Ray

M here-

Life is weird. After setting up the Bolex, I freaked out for a hot second because I could not see ANYTHING in the viewfinder. The problem? I had forgotton to OPEN the viewfinder using this little nob located at the top of the camera. Up means closed. Down means open. DUH.

But in a strange twist of fate, because I had fretted over the camera for about half and hour, the sis and I were late to lunch, and in turn we were late coming back to the room.

But the thing is, if we hadn't of been late coming back to the dorm, then we would not have seen the DHL truck racing down the street to our dorm with our package of film. If we hadn't seen the truck, we probably would have had to wait for the RAs in the dorm to alert us of our package (and our film inside) until tomorrow or Thursday, totally screwing up the shooting schedule...

So, even though I almost had a heart attack wondering if I broke a school camera that I could definately NOT pay for, it was worth it. Because we got our film on time and in tact.

YES!

Can We Make a Community With You?

K here.

We've been hearing a lot of rumors about the "On The Lot" community/forums, not just from KarmaCritic, but from other writers and filmmakers as well.

It seems that if you use certain words, or talk negatively about the show, your post is censored, the offending words *bleeped* out.

According to this Aint It Cool article:

"Even to this day, if anybody, no matter how established or respected, posts the words "karmacritic" over there... the words first turn automatically into "BLEEP". Within 5 minutes the post is deleted, within 10 minutes the user's account is banned, and in 15 minutes his whole IP is banned (so he wont make new accounts). Then all the posts that person EVER made, go byebye too. OTL uses drupal, like you do in aintitcool.com, like I do in karmacritic.com, so you know all these things are possible with Watchdog triggers. They do it."

Hmm...I wonder...?

Expect an update soon.

ABC Writing Fellowship

M here!

Today, July 1st, 2007 was the last day to postmark any scripts for the ABC Writing Fellowship. For Directors and Actors, there are separate deadlines.

Good luck!

The Sekonic Light Meter

M again!

Since I am a complete dumbass and technology scares me like low income mothers and blakc people scare Paris Hilton, I decided to search out exactly how to use the Sekonic Light Meter.

And, since we did tell you all that we were gonna share any and all information with you, here below, are some sources that might help you too!

1. How to Use the Sekonic Light Meter from The New School

2. Extensive Guide to using the Light Meter.

Go Out and Do It, Damnit!

Ya Girl M. Here-

I'll admit it, I'm scared.

No, not in the "USA Terrorist Alert Raised to Orange" way, but in the "Damn, it's time to make it or break it" way.

You see, starting THIS TUESDAY (ahhhh!!), the sis and I will attempt to make our own short film. Now, even though the short is about five minutes, we're freaking nervous. The film, entitled "Refugee" is gonna be filmed on a wind-up Bolex, you know, those ancient cameras that are heavy and hard to manuever? We're gonna shoot for 3 consecutive days, in the mornings starting whenever the hell the sun chooses to rise. We're probably going to do some running and using stuff that isn't ours and trying to route people away from the set (which is outside) and blah, blah, blah (nothing too illegal).

Because we're poor and we can't afford that digital shit, we're gonna have to do a meter reading (and I swear, I just learned how to use it semi-correctly today) for each shot...and because the film is Kodak B&W Reversal, we're gonna have a helluvah time getting the light readings correct, so that when all is said and done, we're not looking at blown out or too dark film.

We just got through a shoot on another woman's film (pics will be up soon) and it was a really great learning experience. I was a bit nervous ( and still am) about how her film will develop. I don't want it to be ruined because I didn't know how to use the light meter. And I don't want MY film to be screwed up because I didn't know how to use it either. That's why I am forcing my professor (who, even though he's a nice guy, seems to be not that into teaching) to actually show me FOR REAL how to use this thing.

All in all though, that shoot was pretty exciting, even if it was tiring. Besides, the director fed us coca cola and tuna and crackers! Seriously, it was free and FREE always=DELICIOUS.

To make things a bit more complicated, as you all probably know, I have to create ANOTHER film for my class this weekend coming up, which is making this week, REALLY HECTIC. I have some actors, a location and my crew...I just gotta geta movin' on it!

Yet, even through all of my complaining, I still think that the sis and I are going to have a great time. I mean, we're making a film...and not just your lame "watch me do stupid shit" Youtube videos. We're making a film that we CAN and WILL submit to festivals.

We're making a film! We're making a film! We're making a film!

There, I said it three times, and I'm still scared.

Because even though we may try our hardest and our ideas may be the most awesome ideas to hit the film industry, we still have to rely on OTHER people to get it out there. It'd be amazing to get accepted to some film festivals, and it would be ever more so to actually win something (preferrably a cash prize for a certain someone's student loans, *ehem*), but we're still left in the hands of other people who may not agree with our philosophy or our "artistic visions".

But, I'm just happy that we're putting ourselves out there, and that at least, even if it doesn't turn out the way we want it to, we can say we gave it our best shot.

Now, off to filmming!!!