Writers on the Storm Quarterfinalists This Monday!

It may be down to the wire, but we hope to post the full list of WOTS VI quarterfinalists this Monday, March 4th. This includes the previously posted QFs from the Coverage Ink side (minus two fellows we sadly had to disqualify, Karl Schiffman and Robert Chomiak, for both having career screenwriting earnings in excess of $10,000 - great writers both, but rules is rools) and everyone else who entered on writerstorm.com or WithoutaBox. The quarterfinalists will represent roughly the top 10% of our submissions.

There's going to be shouts of joy, tears, cursing, frustration -- the works. We know. We've all been there. Rejection is one of the most "fun" things about screenwriting, and even after two decades in Hollywood, every "pass" still pains me a bit. For for the vast majority of you who will not make the cut, I hope the feedback forms will give you an idea how close to the mark the reader felt you were and what areas in particular need the most TLC. Sometimes the difference between a pass and a consider are a few tweaks you can make in an afternoon.

Hang tight. More to come, folks!

Jim C.

Are Script Expos, Coverage Services and Picthfests Scams? (Pt 1)

David Know of Deadline.com has just posted part one of what promises to be a really juicy series. As we all know, the answer to the headline (also the name of the article) is: sometimes, yeah. And let the buyer beware!

Yes, the business of screenwriting will always attract shysters willing to prey on people with a dollar and a dream. Yes, there are many people who talk a similar rhetoric about ‘paradigms’ and ‘character arcs’ so it all feels like a con or cult built around scripting for showbiz. But some people must find it all useful, right?

Check out part one, which addresses the pros and cons of pitch fests, among other things, and features quotes from yours truly as well as a nice assortment of people who know what they're talking about. There are some really smart, worth-it folks out there offering valuable help; and there are indeed a few people out there who really don't know what the hell they're talking about and really shouldn't be offering their services as script readers or consultants in any way, shape or form. Looking forward to the next installment. Bring it, David!

Writers on the Storm FINAL DEADLINE 2-10-13!

Over $25,000 Cash & Prizes
$10K Grand Prize (features) $2,500 (TV)
Two Winners Signed to UTA the Past Two Years
We’re going for the three-peat. Are you IN?

Egads, time is running short! As of midnight Sunday 2/10/13 (which is really 12:01 AM Monday,) our Without a Box contest extension is over and we close the door on Writers on the Storm VI. We know there are still a couple of you guys out there polishing, and we're psyched about that. We all need deadlines to really light a fire under our butts from time to time! As we've seen time and again in the CS and Cyberspace Open, sometimes we do our best work when there's a gun to our heads.

Tick tick tick tick....

So once more for the record: Writers on the Storm VI closes for good Sunday night at midnight. You can enter the contest right here. And yes, it's expensive ($75 for features, $70 for a TV pilot.) This is the super-LATE entry period. The entry fee was dirt cheap in the early and regular entry periods. Now we are down to the wire. But discounts are still available via Without a Box if you sign up with them on their site.

And now, we proudly present our final list of early quarterfinalists. these are folks who entered the contest via script submission to Coverage Ink (that deal has now expired.) In coverage, after the several pages of detailed analysis, there is a grid showing how you did in key areas, followed by a recommendation for both script and writer: pass, consider with reservations, consider, strong consider or recommend. Those who received a consider with reservations or better for SCRIPT (roughly top 10%) became automatic quarterfinalists, and their scripts move to the next round where they will be read again.

At least, that's the way it's supposed to go. But this year I think maybe our readers may have been a collection of stone hard-asses, because the percentage is more like top 4% instead of top 10%. So, nice work to the quarterfinalists so far! Naturally, we will be announcing the full list of quarterfinalists about 6 weeks after the final deadline (approximately March 20.)

WRITERS ON THE STORM QUARTERFINALISTS SO FAR

1) Theory of Everything by Tim McSmythurs
2) My Asshole Neighbor by Andrew Currie + Robert Chomiak
3) The Galaxy's Littlest Prince by Joe Borriello
4) On the Edge by Patrick Hunt
5) Wormweed by John + Jessica Walker
6) Russian Roulette by Karl Schiffman
7) Stay (aka Layered) by Jocelyn Osier
8) Messiah Project (TV) by David Baugnon
9) Dead Dolores by Michael Yagnow
10) American Supervillains by Andrew Watt
11) Carn Evil by Jason Siner
12) An Atom of Freedom by Yehuda Yaakov
13) Creeped by Robert Chomiak
14) Damascus Cover by Daniel Berk + Samantha Newton
15) Live from the Milky Way by Joe Borriello
16) The Thief and the Prophecies (TV) by Barry Leach
17) Second Earth (aka Divergence) by Victor Agrippi)
18) Konspirasi (TV) by W. Palmer
19) Nerdgasm by Sara Williams

LAST CHANCE - ENTER NOW! 

For full details please visit the contest website at http://writerstorm.com.

Coverage Ink/Writers on the Storm Newsletter

January 2013

1) We Need to Talk About "We Need to Talk About Kevin"
2) Writers on the Storm Quarterfinalists So Far
3) Agent's Hot Sheet: The New Paradigm

WRITERS ON THE STORM IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT

Writers on the Storm closes at midnight January 9th on writerstorm.com and coverageink.com. After that we will have a 1-month extension exclusive to WithoutaBox. 

This is your last chance to enter the contest at Coverage Ink and get coverage + contest entry for the price of coverage alone. As of 1/10, all submissions to Coverage Ink will receive our usual in-depth coverage but will NOT be entered into Writers on the Storm. From 1/10 until the final deadline (2/9,) the only way to enter will be on Without a Box. Good luck!

WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT "WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN"

Hi folks,

Short newsletter this month (but hopefully no less worth reading.) Last night I finally saw "We Need to Talk About Kevin," the 2011 Cannes darling directed by Lynne Ramsay (Ratcatcher) and written by Ramsay and Rory Kinnear, based on the novel by Lionel Shriver. If you've seen the film, you know it deals with an uncomfortable subject: how can two seemingly normal, caring parents raise a frickin' maniac? But from a screenwriting as well as moviemaking point of view, there are quite a few things worth discussing. Let's do, shall we? WARNING: SPOILERS!

In "Kevin," Tilda Swinton ("Chronicles of Narnia") plays Eva, a mom who cannot connect with her manipulative, sociopathic son, played brilliantly by three actors: Rocky Ruer (toddler,) Jasper Newell (age 6-8) and the mesmerizing Ezra Miller (teen.) We're witnessing the genesis of a killer, and we figure out early on that the film is heading towards a big Columbine-like event at the conclusion. Needless to say, the film felt horribly timely, coming on the heels of the school shootings in Connecticut (although the weapon of choice here is a bow and arrow.) Evil is as evil does, and despite ample nurturing and attention from parents Swinton and John C. Reilly ("Stepbrothers"), from a very early age, Kevin is right up there with Damien from "The Omen" -- a creepy, malevolent little shit you want to strangle.

One of the rules of screenwriting we're bludgeoned with is "show, don't tell." What this means is, since cinema is a visual medium, it's better to show us something that to tell it. For example, let's say your protagonist used to be a cop but was thrown off the force after a big scandal involving ten hookers, a senator and a llama. Now you could TELL the readers this in a clunky, expository bit of dialogue; or you could put a flashback scene at the very top SHOWING the scandal going down, which works a lot better in a movie. In "Kevin," the screenwriters sagely embraced the "show, don't tell" ethos. There's a lot of character backstory in the novel they had to get out, and they chose to depict it all visually, every bit of it, mostly using wordless flashback scenes (there is a lot of jumping around in the time continuum, which we'll discuss in a moment.) So we see young Tilda and John in love in New York, young Tilda the famous world traveler and travel writer being carried away in some crazy tomato festival, pregnant Tilda uncomfortable with impending motherhood in a Lamaze class, and so forth.

The problem is, it's a bit confusing. Oftentimes we have no idea what's going on, what we're looking at. The tomato festival, for example, starts the film. But we the audience don't know what it means. It feels like an abstract sequence, something from an art film. If we knew, for example, where she was and that she was covering this event for a travel book, then we'd go, "Oh, okay." In fact it isn't until two-thirds of the way through that we learn she used to be a travel writer. When this is finally spoken, everything finally makes sense -- the maps on the wall, her getting a job at a travel agency, and so forth. So here we have a case of a little too much show, don't tell. In "Kevin," we really, really need a dollop of "tell." Sometimes direct exposition is indeed just what the doctor ordered.

We learn in the DVD extras that the flashbacks to pregnant Eva and the scenes of her with baby Kevin were meant to illustrate -- again, with images only -- that Eva was a reluctant mother and didn't put her heart into it, perhaps because of her career. Well, this came completely out of the blue and in fact, didn't read on film at all. None of those scenes conveyed to us anything about Eva not being into being a mom. Just the opposite, in fact. We infer that Eva puts aside her career to raise her child, and patiently tries anything and everything to communicate, play with and bond with her son, who rejects all of it, even as a toddler. In other words, the filmmakers failed utterly at conveying this specific character trait through visual-only means. How about a nice husband/wife scene where they talk about how she doesn't want to have a baby, it's going to wreck her career, or that she can't handle this screaming hellion anymore and they need to hire a nanny? To be clear, I'm all for show, don't tell, and the filmmakers are to be lauded for attempting to capture the mindset of the characters from the novel visually. It just didn't quite work. In adapting a novel, sometimes you need to verbalize the thoughts and emotions which are in a character's head.

Tilda Swinton, ostensibly not feeling the whole pregnancy thing.

In order to pull off all this show, don't tell, the filmmakers utilized a rather unique structure. No Save the Cat! paradigm here. There is no inciting incident, no midpoint turning point, no black moment at the end of Act 2. Yet "Kevin" is never anything less than compelling, which certainly proves that alternative structures can work when well-handled (and well-acted.) The story ping-pongs back and forth between numerous time frames, beginning with desperate, lonely and bereft Eva's present-day semi-existence, and then flashing back to various stages of her life and Kevin's development to tell most of the movie. The three acts loosely roll out as: Kevin as a toddler, Kevin aged 6-8, and finally, Kevin as a truly insidious teen. But even within this context, there are frequent jumps to other periods, including back to the present, featuring a minor subplot about Eva's ostracization by society and making a go of it in a crappy new job. It's a tricky and difficult structure to pull off, and the writers deserve big kudos for making it work.

But one thing that doesn't quite work is that post-incident, Eva is a pariah. She is subject to a non-stop torrent of vitriol by an angry public, which includes her house and car being splattered with red paint, verbal abuse from coworkers and even a right cross from an old lady. This treatment would really only make sense if she was the killer. Sure, there are going to be plenty of people angry, and some might indeed blame the mom. But considering her husband and young daughter were also murdered in the attack, and that Eva has moved from the murder home and now lives in a dumpy shack near the railroad where it would be a stretch for people to find her, the hostility feels a bit forced. Surely many would be sympathetic. She, too, lost everything.

To be fair, there is a nice moment when one of the victims rolls up in his wheelchair and is friendly with her. The filmmakers are making a valid statement here about how we as a society react to tragedy, of course. But perhaps this too would have more resonance if they'd also successfully painted Eva as the checked-out or self-centered mom they seemed to think they were portraying, as opposed to the bend-over-backwards-to-fix-this-kid lady we see on screen. Late in the movie, Eva takes teen Kevin out to dinner in an attempt to bond with her son. He cuts her to the quick by anticipating how much she's going to drink and everything she's going to say. It's mother/son psychology folded, spindled and mutilated, and it's a breathtaking scene. But the point here was to illustrate that she's just been pretending to care for Kevin's entire life, and he knows it, so cut the shit. It doesn't really play, because we've seen her care. In fact, the one scene where she loses patience with 8-year-old Kevin and hurls him to the ground, breaking his arm, we're right there with her. You'll be ready to smash this kid's head in as well.

The point of this all is that, while this is a flawed movie, there is much to be learned from it. As writers, we often get pigeonholed into writing formulaic structure; Like "Memento" and "Pulp Fiction," "Kevin" blasts that to pieces and shows you can indeed tell a great story in a non-linear way. Add in spectacular performances, creeping tension and a theme that resonates with what's going on right now, and you have a movie that should be on every screenwriter's Netflix list. Check it out and then hit me back and let me know what you thought!

+++

It's January. Know what that means? The return of spec season is almost upon us. Every year, once everyone gets back from Sundance, they start reading scripts. February through May is usually an intense period of spec activity. Buyers have usually refilled their coffers (new fiscal year) and are ready to pick up some scripts. So now is the time to get your polish on and get ready to rock. Check out my Agent's Hot Sheet article below which I think you'll find helpful -- "the New Paradigm." I wish you all the best of luck with your screenplays and an exciting new year fraught with opportunity!

Sincerely,

 

Jim Cirile, founder

Coverage Ink/Writers on the Storm

Continue to Writers on the Storm Quarterfinalists (So Far)
Jump to Agent's Hot Sheet

Writers on the Storm Quarterfinalists (So Far!)

Hi folks, here is the updated list of Writers on the Storm 2012/13 Quarterfinalists to date. If you're wondering how we can already have some quarterfinalists to announce, it's because these folks entered the contest by submitting to Coverage Ink. When you do that, you receive full coverage and complimentary contest entry; if your script garners a "consider with reservations" or better for script, you're a quarterfinalist, and your script moves to the next round where it is read again.

Everyone else who enters the contest via writerstorm.com or WithoutaBox has to wait until after the contest's final deadline (2/9, on WithoutaBox only) to find out whether they're a quarterfinalist. Does this give the folks who entered via Coverage Ink an advantage? Damn right, because those folks get to see what we think of their scripts in advance, fix any problems and then resubmit a polished draft back to the contest before the final end date. if you want to take advantage of this, the deadline to submit at coverageink.com is midnight 1/9/13. 

A round of applause for our amazing 12 quarterfinalists (TV and features) so far!

Theory of Everything by Tim McSmythurs
My Asshole Neighbor by Andrew Currie + Robert Chomiak
The Galaxy's Littlest Prince by Joe Borriello
On the Edge by Patrick Hunt
Wormweed by John + Jessica Walker
Russian Roulette by Karl Schiffman
Stay by Jocelyn Osier
Messiah Project by David Baugnon
Dead Dolores by Michael Yagnow
American Supervillains by Andrew Watt
Carn Evil by Jason Siner
An Atom of Freedom by Yehuda Yaakov

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Continue to Agent's Hot Sheet

Agent's Hot Sheet -- The New Paradigm

by Jim Cirile

All of us have certain expectations of the way the business works -- you write a spec, hopefully sell it for a lot of dough and launch your career. But there has been a paradigm shift, and you’d better know how Hollywood operates circa today if you plan on embarking on a writing career.

Got a mail last week from a friend of mine, a noted screenwriting teacher, in response to my column "The Speck Market", about the ever-shrinking spec marketplace:

“Jim, great column. But this causes a tough time teaching screenwriting. They all have dramas. And no one is buying dramas. No one is buying much of anything from new writers. Can't get an agent for them. Half of them are over 40 (or 50) -- it's too late for them, practically speaking, but what are you supposed to tell them?  They can't come in and write ‘Shrek V.’ They can't afford bestsellers to adapt or find a way to package stars into their new scripts. They don't have the rights to TV shows or past movies for remakes or sequels. They all come out naked. I feel as though we're teaching a theoretic, classical, dead art form.”

Yep, “Sad but True” isn’t just a Metallica song. The old paradigm is dead. Long live the new paradigm. What say we bring in the panel and get their take on the issues raised?

The first point: they all have dramas, and no one is buying dramas. Sadly, yes, the days of Hollywood making a fair amount of dramatic feature films are for all intents and purposes over. With a few notable exceptions, what would have probably been a dramatic film that got a theatrical release in the 1970s is now likely a Lifetime or Showtime film. “It also depends on who that client is,” says producer/manager Richard Arlook from the Arlook Group. “If it’s somebody established who’s got some real writing credits, then it’s not impossible to get them a job. But I would tell them (not to) write a spec drama unless they had an amazing relationship with some major actor/director; some kind of element going into it.” And if you don’t have any connex? “If you’re a baby writer obsessed with writing drama, then write a small one that could be done as a small under-$1 million movie that could maybe still get into Sundance or work on the festival circuit for you. But the old days of just being able to sell a well-written drama and then get open writing (assignment) work is, for the most part, over.”

And because of that, attracting feature reps is going to be that much harder. “The problem is, (launching a new dramatic feature writer is) just a lot of work,” says Magnet Management’s Jennie Frankel. “It’s going to be a labor of love. And when you’re looking at taking on a new client, you don’t want projects that are labors of love.” Why? Months and months of working a difficult project with a tiny chance of success versus a commercial one – which would you choose? She continues, “If (a writer has) this amazing drama and understands how the business works and there’s a really obvious piece of casting, then absolutely that would be someone you’d want to sign. But if they’re like, yeah, I’m a drama writer and that’s all I want to do -- (write) movies that aren’t going to get made anywhere -- then who really has the time?” There are plenty of things you can write that are just a simple sidestep away from drama -- for example, romantic drama, or drama with a certain genre element to it. You can have your cake and eat it, too, if you’re smart about it. “That’s the difference between the people who get it and don’t get it,” says Frankel. “I mean, if you look at ‘Twilight.’ ‘Twilight’ is really a drama, but it’s hung around vampires.” And don’t overlook the most obvious path of all for drama writers right now: TV.

The next point: no one is buying much of anything from new writers. Well, of course it's never easy out there in the spec market, especially during tough times, but the market has been responsive lately. But don't expect windfalls. Up until a few years ago, the way in for feature writers was clear -- write a great script, an agent or manager will sign you and blast your script out to the town, and then when the script sells, you’re off to the races. Even if it didn’t, you’d hopefully get a pile of general meetings, and if you’re cool and easy to work with, that could turn into writing assignments. While this still happens, there have been some changes. The first is that more often than not, the specs don’t sell -- they just become writing samples. You still get the meetings, but if you land a writing assignment off them, you’ll probably be hired for scale plus 10%, a far cry from what you’d have made if the spec had sold. And the second sea-change is agents and managers are seldom blasting scripts out to the town anymore. “I haven’t gone wide with a script since last July,” says ICM’s Ava Jamshidi. “I specifically target certain producers,” she says. “For the most part, I’m trying to find one producer for a project before showing it to buyers.” She’s pleased to note several recent sales were from baby writers... sort of. “A number of them are established writers in television, but they’ve never sold anything in features before. So they do have a body of work; it’s not the same thing as coming right out of film school. I’ve helped establish a fan base off of pilots and other things like that. We didn’t break the bank on (those deals,) but, you know, they’re big opportunities.”

The next point: the dread pirate Ageism. It’s true: Hollywood is a youth-oriented town. And we’ve all heard stories that after a certain age, you can’t get arrested in the biz. And yet many of the top working writers in film and TV are in their 40s and 50s. So does ageism even really exist? “It would be ridiculous for me to say that it doesn’t happen,” says manager A.B. Fischer from Shuman Co. “If they’re looking for the next up and coming writer, the 50 year old person is probably not that person. But with an incredible piece of writing, it doesn’t matter.” Jamshidi agrees, “Breaking in is challenging no matter who you are or what age you are. Ultimately, ageism will never exist when the talent is there. If somebody’s good, they’re good. It doesn’t matter how old you are.” Jamshidi adds, it’s less about age than it is about personality. “For me, the biggest thing is how they are in a room. If somebody’s awesome and dynamic and great in a room, then that’s almost as important as being a really good writer. Having a really good script gets you into the room, but if you can’t wow ‘em once you’re there, you’re never going to get the job.”

Arlook explains the real way ageism works: “Let’s say Writer ‘A’ graduates USC Film School at 21 years old. He writes a spec, and it sells; he gets a couple of assignments. By the time he’s 25, he’s a working writer. Everybody that he knows (are now) VPs at the studios or working for producers or producers themselves. He continues to work and tends to get hired by his contemporaries. So now it’s 20 years later. He’s in his mid 40s. Meanwhile, there are other guys in their mid 20s that went to film school being hired by their contemporaries. The reality of it is that once you get to be in your 40s in this business, you’re working on a really, really senior level. How many guys in their 40s are reading samples and stuff like that? You can call it ageism. To me, it’s like a circle of life.”

On a brighter note, Fischer asserts that TV in particular shows more promise for the above-30 set than features. “Showrunners are looking for writers to bring in a lot of life experience to a room with a lot of stories to tell. And a 24 year old that just graduated from the graduate program at USC doesn’t really have a lot of stories to tell.”

And the last point of the letter: writers can’t afford to option best-sellers to adapt. Nonsense. There are plenty of places to find source material. It needn’t be a current best-seller. “I’ve gotten rights to random books that we’ve sort of agreed, wow that’s a really interesting story,” says Fischer, “and we’ve gotten (them) for practically nothing because it’s old and no one’s really ever asked about them.” And don’t forget public domain, which means everything ever written up till about 100 years ago! “I would always advise updating a classic story,” says Fischer. “A live action version of ‘Cinderella’ just sold for seven figures this week. Shakespeare is another great example. There’s been a ton of projects set up based on updating Shakespeare plays.”

So fret not, intrepid readers. The paradigm may have changed, but Agent’s Hot Sheet will continue to be your beacon in the dark. Keep the faith!

Writers on the Storm EXTENSION

Hi guys, the FINAL deadline to enter Writers on the Storm via http://writerstorm.com and www.coverageink.com is midnight 1/9/13. After that, the official contest website and Coverage Ink will be closed for entries. Screenplays submitted to CI for analysis from 1/10/13 forward will no longer be entered into the contest (but will, of course, receive our usual in-depth coverage.)

HOWEVER, due to the terms of our deal with Without a Box, we have a special 1-month final extension exclusive to WAB. This extension ends midnight 2/9/13. So you can still submit your new drafts for coverage and have time to polish 'em up and have one last chance resubmit to the contest.

It's been a real thrill bringing Writers on the Storm to everyone for year six. We've seen a couple solid scripts so far, but perhaps the winner still has not yet arrived on our doorstep (that's your cue.) Get cranking, folks, and make us proud :)

-- Jim C.

Click HERE to go to Without a Box!

"Delhi In A Day" Rated 10-Best Indie Movie of 2012

Anjali Patil in "Delhi in a Day"

Filmmaker Prashant Nair has been on a roll. His movie Delhi In A Day has been burning up the international festival circuit and winning awards -- not the least of which is scoring Nair a slot in the prestigious Sundance Lab. Today, Times of India (India's largest newspaper) released their 10 Best Indie Films of 2012 list. We're delighted to note that Delhi in a Day has been included.

Delhi in a Day was developed with Coverage Ink. Nair and CI senior story analyst Billy Fox (who received story credit) worked on the story of a idealistic, well-to-do British traveler (Lee Williams, The Tudors) whose visit throws a monkey wrench into in a nouveau-riche South Delhi home. The film is a breezy, dark comedy of manners set against the background of class struggle in contemporary India. "I'm thrilled that DELHI IN A DAY was recognized by the Times of India as a top-10 independent film," says Fox. "I'm proud to have contributed to the development of the story. But I must add it was great to begin with. But I am psyched we helped Prashant helped knock it out of the park!"

We're very excited to have had a small part in the development of the screenplay and the launching of a major filmmaking talent. Bravo, Prashant! -- Jim C.

Interesting sidebar: Delhi in a Day won the Award of Excellence from IndieFest in 2011. Guess what won it in 2012? Liberator.

We won!

LIBERATOR Director Aaron Pope at Cal Shorts Film Festival 2012

OK, I know this isn't winning an Oscar or anything. But more than anything else, LIBERATOR is a passion project. It's what Aaron Pope and I wanted to bring to the superhero genre -- grit, realism, edge, politics, sly humor -- and we did it for the price of a Prius (a nicely tricked out one, admittedly.) So the fact that we won Best Dramatic Short from Cal Shorts (our second award) means a hell of a lot to me. After 2 decades in Hollywood, this is probably the thing I'm most proud of. 

Stay tuned because we'll be hearing more from Liberator soon...  -- Jim C.

Like Liberator on Facebook!

Coverage Ink/Writers on the Storm Newsletter 12/12

December 2012

*** HURRY! WRITERS ON THE STORM DEADLINE IS MIDNIGHT 12/3! ***

http://writerstorm.com 

1. I Hate Contests.
2. Shorties - News, Tidbits and Disinformation for Writers
3. Kick It With Kickstarter
4. Agent's Hot Sheet: How to Really Break In To TV


I HATE CONTESTS.

How do I hate thee? Let me count the ways:

• Losing. It makes you feel worthless as a writer. The fact that you were probably eliminated by some college student hired off Craigslist making $7 a script, who only read the first five pages, is little consolation.
• The quality of the readers. See above.
• The amazing disappearing entry fee. You pay your 50 bucks or whatever, and often that's the last you ever hear.
• And when you do get feedback, it's often pretty worthless.
• There are too many of them, and only a very few have any juice at all. The vast majority, it's, hey, you won! Congrats! Nobody cares.
• Multiple deadlines and extensions. Just when you think you've gotten your script in under the wire, they announce an additional month.

Ho freakin' ho ho.

I'll stop there, but I think you get my drift. So now you're expecting me to say that none of these things exist in OUR contest, right? Well, sort of but not quite.

My original concept for Writers on the Storm was that it would be a nontest -- in other words, all the irritating things I just mentioned about contests, we wouldn't do. But as we quickly discovered, being truly unique was easier said than done. Readers: that was easy. We use the same tested and proven team of industry readers for the contest we use to evaluate and develop scripts for Coverage Ink. We made the mistake a few years back of augmenting with a few non-CI readers. Never again... Our readers make a fair wage and have to read the entire script. I know of some contest readers who rip through 5, 6, even 7 scripts in an hour, making serious $$$ by doing so. Yeah, not here. (Sorry, readers!)

Losing still sucks, no question, but we try to mollify the blow with education and TLC. If we can explain in the feedback why the script didn't advance, then maybe the writer won't feel so much wounded as empowered to get in there and do a little surgery. It's just a short feedback form so there's only so much we can do, but I've heard from lots of folks they really appreciated the commentary -- often it's the first time they've received constructive, professional criticism. Cool. Of course, we've screwed the pooch a few times too. A few years back I discovered we had a reader who was cutting and pasting almost exactly the same vague, meaningless three sentences onto every feedback form. That person was sacked, but not before the damage was done. She's now working for another coverage company...

As for the proliferation of contests, oy. When I started WOTS there were too damn many... now there's three times that amount. And there are still only a small handful worth your money --Tracking B, Scriptapalooza, Script Pipeline, Nicholl Fellowship, and of course Writers on the Storm. These contests have all shown consistent results and industry juice.

Now here's where we are guilty, no question: deadlines. See, for our first year I tried my noble experiment: we had ONE deadline and only one, and that was it. No extensions, no late entry period, no sliding scale entry fees -- every entry was the same low price. We let everyone know in advance that the deadline was the deadline. And we got killed. Maybe it's that writers expect there will be an extension regardless of what the company says. Maybe it's the perceived urgency of an extension propels more people to submit. Whatever the reason, we quickly realized we had to implement staggered deadlines as a matter of survival. Like everyone else. I rationalized that it's no so bad so long as you make everyone aware of it -- not "Surprise! The real deadline is 6 weeks from now. Thanks for spending the last 72 hours straight cramming to finish your script and get it in under the wire to save $5."

So now we tell everyone in advance what the early, regular, and late deadlines are. In addition, Without A Box demands a WAB-only extension period, so we tack that on at the end.

Finally, communication. I remember a contest once where I only found out I had made the top ten because I web-searched my name and found the listing on the contest website many months later. Anyway, this is an area we're trying to do better in. We try to make sure every entry gets an acknowledgement, and at the end everyone does get their feedback. Beyond that we have constant updates on our websites, our facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/writerstorm) and right here on our blog. And if you email us at writerstorm@gmail.com, either lovely Julie or myself will get back to you.

I still think contests suck. But we're trying to reduce the pain and swelling. Write us and let us know how we're doing!

Jim Cirile
founder, Coverage Ink
Writers on the Storm

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Shorties 12-12

WINGING IT. Man, we love sharing awesome news. In November, Writers on the Storm IV runner-up Jeremy Shipp -- whom we had previously gotten signed at UTA, and who is now working on the ABC comedy Family Tools -- set up his original animation project Nightglider. Wind Dancer Films and Brown Bag Films are teaming to produce the flying squirrel comedy, with a projected release in 2015. It will be the first animated project for both companies. To say this talented young man is on a roll is the understatement of the year! Jeremy's WWII magic-themed action/adventure script Sleight of Hand caught UTA agent Emerson Davis' eye and got him into the bigs. Since then he's worked on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and ABC's mid-season replacement Family Tools. We can't wait to see what his new contemporary action/thriller spec does when it hits the market next year. Go, Jeremy!

Yeah, they have reason to smile.

SIGNED. Yahoooo! Last year's winners of Writers on the Storm, Glenn Sanders and Brooks Elms, have also signed with UTA. The insanely gifted writing duo kicked our butts with their hilarious period comedy Wright or Wrong, a deliciously daft revisionist take on the Wright Bros. making things even more absurdly cool, they've signed with none other than red-hot agent Charlie Ferraro, who has sold six, count 'em, six specs so far this year (only WME's Mike Esola has sold more with seven.) Now they're readying a new comedy spec and getting meetings with movers and shakers. Nice! You know, it's easy to get frustrated with Hollywood. But when guys like Elms and Sanders and Shipp can break in -- cool guys with real chops -- it buoys our spirits. Occasionally, the town really can reward hard work and merit. Bravo, gentlemen! We expect nothing short of serious badassery from you.

FIRST PUT THE MASK ON YOURSELF, THEN THE CAT. Our pals at Blake Snyder's Save the Cat! have a new event coming up this January. We're going to be there and so should you! It's called SAVE THE CAT!® MAKES A SALE -- PRACTICAL LESSONS FROM WORKING SCREENWRITERS, and it's going to be Saturday, January 26, 2013 9:00 am - 5:00 pm at the Burbank Marriott. In addition to covering a massive amount of material to quickly whip your scripts into shape (we're all STC! evangelists here at Coverage Ink,) they're bringing in four working screenwriters to discuss how they  use the STC! principles: Dean De Bois (How To Train Your Dragon 2), Jeremy Garelick (The Break-Up), Caleb Wilson (Four Christmases) and Jon Davis (The Dukes of Hazzard.) These things always sell out, so reserve your slot today. And if you're wondering what the big deal is with Save the Cat!, pick up a copy at any bookseller and behold the wonders of Blake Snyder's simple, foolproof, studio-mandated method. If you do not think this is important, you are sadly mistaken. I have had more than one producer meeting where they insisted on a Save the Cat!-style beat sheet.

DON'T SHOOT THE MESSINGER. More good news: our pal (and CI client) Bob Messinger's script The C.O., about the early days of the war in Iraq, has taken Best Script honors in the ENDAS International Screenplay Competition. The annual competition, headquartered in Genova, Italy, draws thousands of entries from around the globe. According to Messinger, The C.O. is different than most war dramas not only because it realistically depicts the horrors of modern urban warfare, but also because it dares to challenge the world community's political, religious and moral motivations for waging war. “I’m more proud of this script than any other I’ve done,” says Messinger, who has written multiple drafts of the story, one of which was a semi-finalist in Francis Ford Coppola’s American Zoetrope screenplay competition in 2006. Messinger plans to use his €1000 prize either to prepare a trailer for The C.O. or to prepare a trailer for a new project he hopes to film himself by raising money through Kickstarter. Way to go, Bob!

WRITERS ON THE STORM QUARTERFINALISTS SO FAR. As many of you know, folks who submit scripts to www.coverageink.com for analysis during the contest period are automatically entered into Writers on the Storm at no extra charge. These folks (but not those who enter via writerstorm.com) find out in advance whether or not their screenplays have made it to the quarterfinals -- scripts that score "consider with reservations" or better for script -- historically about the top 10% -- automatically advance to the quarterfinal round. But this year, just days before our regular deadline, we have only six quarterfinalists to date -- way less than 10% of the scripts submitted for coverage. What's going on? Are our readers being supreme hard-asses? (Yes.) Or have a lot of folks been holding out on submitting until their scripts are polished and shiny? (Yes.)  Hopefully those numbers will correct as we get closer to the final deadline.

In any event, here are our spectacular, odds-defying Writers on the Storm quarterfinalists so far!

• The Theory of Everything by Tim McSmythurs
•  My Asshole Neighbor by Andrew Currie + Robert Comiak
• The Galaxy's Littlest Prince by Joe Borriello
• On the Edge by Patrick Hunt
• Wormweed by John and Jessica Walker
• Russian Roulette by Karl Schiffman

Can you join this small but mighty group? We'll see... get your script in now at http://writerstorm.com or www.coverageink.com.

INDIE FEST: LIBERATED. We are pleased as punch to tell you that Coverage Ink's new short film/pilot Liberator won the Award of Excellence from Indie Fest. We're just beginning our festival run, so Liberator will be coming to a film festival or Comic-Con near you. Next up: join us Thursday 12/6 at 4:30 PM at the Hollywood Reel Independent Film Festival. Or perhaps you would prefer Medellin, Colombia? Because we're screening there Dec. 8th at the Dark Mountain Film Festival. Sadly, we will not be in attendance for that one. Many more screenings to come, including a few big ones featuring key cast members such as Lou Ferrigno, Michael Dorn (Worf, son of Mogh) and Peta Wilson (La Femme Nikita) so please "like" us on Facebook and stay in the loop. If all goes well, we'll be bringing you a major Liberator announcement next month...

SPEC-TACULARITY. Usually this is the time of year when the spec market ramps down as we cruise into the holiday season and execs begin their long vacations to the Seychelles and Betty Ford. But there's life in the spec market yet, and three specs have been set up just last week. So far this year, 62 companies have been attached to specs that have sold (some with more than one project.) It's been a great year, and the market is still hungry. When the market sucks, it affects everything. People are less willing to read, writers' quotes take the hit which means agents and managers get grumpy... it's a vicious cycle of suckitude. So here's to a terrific 2012 -- and an even better 2013.

HOLY BAT-TASTROPHE! Warner Bros. has announced that an American legend, a true visionary, has signed on to direct the Batman reboot. Who could it be? Well, if you believe the snarky industry humor site The Studio Exec, none other than Mr. Soon-Yi himself.  Allen is reported to be considering "going back to what made the franchise great in the first place" and plans to announce casting of Adam West in the role of the caped crusader. In all semi-seriousness, this would be a pretty cool choice if it were real, which it is not. But the faux news stories on TheStudioExec.com are well worth your time. Check it out!

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Continue to Kick It With Kickstarter

Kick It With Kickstarter

Seems like almost everyone I know has jumped on the crowdfunding bandwagon. There's Robert from Brooklyn who raised $3,000 to fund his spectacular annual free Halloween show; Brian the makeup effects artist who's soliciting funds for his post-apocalyptic horror free-for-all; and Jessica, who played Lou Ferrigno's daughter in LIBERATOR, looking for funds to launch her new 13-episode web series. And they're just the tip of the iceberg. I have one word for it: awesome!!!!

Crowdfunding sites like Kickstarter and IndieGogo have indeed returned the power to the creators' hands. No longer is our messed-up corporate media the be-all and end-all for whether a movie gets made, a book gets published or a band gets their music out there. Hell yeah!

But word to the wise: these sites are not instant, free, easy money. They are amazing tools to be sure, and they can sometimes yield dramatic results. Hell, we raised almost $25K in finishing funds on Kickstarter for LIBERATOR. But the process is, frankly, a monumental pain in the ass. So if you're planning on crowdfunding to raise money for your project, go for it, but keep a few things in mind...

Our Kickstarter Liberator campaign main page.

The PBS model for rewards doesn't work. Sure, Public Broadcasting can give away a free light-up key chain with your $250 contribution. But on the crowdfunding sites that is not going to fly. Contributors expect something cool, unique and valuable in exchange for chipping in. A free DVD is fine with a $25 contribution, but for $100 you'd better give out a T-shirt, a cameo appearance, an original screen-used prop and a 45-minutes of Shiatsu from your second AD. Okay, maybe that's a bit over the top, but know this well: the better your rewards, the more likely it is that people will invest.

30 days doesn't cut it. Kickstarter recommends a 30-day campaign. They feel that people make snap decisions and thus a ticking clock works in your favor. I say: bull. It takes time to build momentum and followers.  As well, people are either going to contribute right now if they like your project; or they're going to watch and wait, and jump in at the end if they have to. Either way you've got 'em. Elect a 60-day campaign and use that time to spread the word and pimp the hell out of your project.

Plan on 30% of your intake going out the window. Yeah, this one really bites, but it's true: it costs money to print T-shirts, DVDs, stickers, and mail all that crap out. Kickstarter's take is about 10%. (Note that if you do not hit your goal, with Kickstarter you don't get a dime. With IndieGogo, you can collect whatever has been contributed, but for a higher fee than if you hit your goal -- around 14%.) In other words, if you need 10 grand, you'd best ask for 13.

Oh, did I mention that these funds are also considered taxable income?

There is no "Kickstarter community." Kickstarter says you need to create the most appealing sizzle reel you can in order to appeal to the Kickstarter community. While the first part is very true, this statement makes you think that there is a large group of individuals, perhaps bored at their 9 to 5s, who browse crowdfunding sites much like they do espn.com and eBay, looking for cool new projects to invest in. Yeah, not so much. I mean, there are a few, and they did indeed come in at the end and help us with LIBERATOR. But probably best not to expect this massive groundswell of support from people you don't know.

"Gray State" won big with their killer, FX-laden trailer and by appealing to activist groups.

YOU have to do all the work. This is the messed-up secret no one wants to divulge, but here it is. None of these sites do jack to help you, other than simply giving you space on their server. It's up to you to create the campaign and broadcast it. That means relentlessly hounding your friends (they love that) for contributions, tweeting, Facebooking, trying to get publicity however you can, and providing constant updates for contributors and potential investors. This, by the way, is inordinately time-consuming.

Social media is key. We hired a social media consultant because we had zero Twitter presence, and everyone says Twitter is the key to a successful campaign. So in the space of less than 3 weeks, Erika built us up from zero to over 500 Twitter followers. And some of them really became invested in the project, spreading the word for us. It really did start to snowball. But Erika spent a LOT of hours getting to know each of those people so that they became part of the family. If you have thousands of Facebook friends and Twitter followers to start, you've got a leg up. If not, you'd best hire someone to help you, because otherwise you will not hit your goal. Which, by the way, means another chunk of dough off the top of your take.

Most of the money you raise will likely come from your friends and family, by the way. So why do we need these sites then? You don't, really. You can build your own fund-raising website if you are so inclined. Or just have a big potluck and make a nice speech and pass the hat.

Stack the deck in your favor. Browse through any crowd-funding site and you will see great campaigns, shitty ones and everything in between. Study the great ones, obviously. Check out their sizzle reels, how they present the material. Your stuff had better look slick and pro. Check out Gray State, above, for a great example.

Did I mention, by the way, how much time it takes to put together a slick, professional presentation for crowdfunding purposes? If you're starting to get the impression that crowdfunding is anything but easy, you're beginning to get my point.

One other thing: a LOT of projects out there have no name actors attached. This is because most of us assume we can't afford "real" actors. This is nonsense. You may not be able to afford Brad Pitt, but you may well be able to get a few folks who mean something to genre fans, like we did with LIBERATOR. Hell, you're raising money online anyway. Add in an extra 10 grand for talent. There is a big difference between how a project with no names is perceived versus one that has some. And getting them is easy. Make your list, then contact their agents and make an offer. Some may laugh in your face, but others may be interested. At that point it's up to your script to seal the deal. Make sure it rocks.

Now go kick(start) some ass!

Jim C.

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Continue to Agent's Hot Sheet: How to Really Break In to TV

Coverage Ink/Writers on the Storm October Newsletter

October, 2012 Edition

1) The Impatient Screenwriter by Jim Cirile
2) Shorties - Screenwriting News, Tidbits and Disinformation
3) Should You Choose an Agent, Manager or Attorney? by Steve Kaire
4) Relationships, Relationships, Relationships -- Guest blog by Barri Evins

***NEWS FLASH: Writers on the Storm 2011 Winners Brooks Elms & Glenn Sanders have just signed with UTA!*** 

THE IMPATIENT SCREENWRITER

Hello, friends! I think it's high time we discuss... wait for it... patience, specifically as it applies to writers. No one talks about this, and yet it may be the single most important issue for us to comes to grip with. Specifically I mean: we writers don't freaking have any. And this lack of patience can often lead to us making bone-headed mistakes, over and over again.

Got brains?

There are two key ways in which lack of patience really screws us. The first and probably most important is in expectations. I was talking to a friend a few weeks back who complained that he had been in Los Angeles almost four years and still hadn't made any headway with his scripts. Four years. That seem like a long time to you? Really?

Let me put it to you like this: how many years should a professional athlete have to practice before making the bigs? Or how about an architect who designs state-of-the-art high-rises -- how about it, four years from beginning his studies to designing that building is plenty of time, right? (Hell, I ain't renting a suite in there.) Or how about the surgeon who's going to remove your appendix -- if she started studying medicine four years ago, then, brother, you'd best have a good probate attorney. And all those professionals are likely studying their field intensely, doing nothing else, for four, six, eight or more years. Screenwriting? Most of us allocate an hour or two a day maybe, read a couple articles, watch a movie. Please.

Why should writing be any easier to master than any other well-paid profession?

When you break in, you may be entrusted with a project with significant investment behind it as well as, potentially, the careers of a whole bucketload of individuals. You have to be able to prove you have a steady hand on the till. If you've written five scripts and have one time made the quarterfinals of the Karbunkle, Indiana, Writing Kompetition, I'm sorry to say but you probably are not there yet. Like any other field where you're being paid a decent wage, you'd best be insanely great at what you do. That means a solid educational pedigree, real dedication to your craft and being a student of the business.

Now I know what you're thinking -- Hollywood is not a meritocracy. If you're the roommate of a high-powered agent, that's good enough. Sadly, this is 100% correct. For those dudes, the rules don't really apply. I hate them. But nothing we can do about that. But for the REST of us, you have got to be the absolute most bad-ass shizzbombdigitty at what you do in order to stand out from everyone else. And that means lots of practice, lots of passes, lots of rewrites and frustration. In short it means: patience. It may take a decade. It may take TWO. But if you keep at it, eventually you should become great.

The other part of the equation is, since we are all impatient, we all make this same mistake time and again: sending out your damn script too freakin' early. Here's how it goes: You finish your first draft; you're psyched to get eyes on it. Of course you really only want to hear how awesome it is. So you fire it off to your friends and connex; but instead of "I love it! Don't change a word!," you get back... notes. Groan.

So here's what we do: we hit the notes -- well, the easy ones anyway -- and discard the ones that would require real work, such as the disappearance of your protagonist from pages 46 to 93. And then, satisfied the script is awesome, we contact our connex, send out queries, go to pitchfests, the usual routine. And then comes the deafening silence of never hearing back from anyone (the silent pass.) Maybe six months later you get some coverage or notes from a friend pointing out all the remaining problems in the script you never fixed, plus new ones created when you tried to fix the previous ones. Oh, crap.

And then on the next script, we repeat the whole damn ugly cycle. And the next. Because writing is HARD. It's a pain in the ass to do a million drafts. There are always more things to fix, and oftentimes our craft level is just not strong enough yet to really be able to nail those problems efficiently. And so eventually we pull the plug and say "it's ready!" and, you guessed it, we do the whole process all over again.

Next thing you know, it's four years later.

Solutions? Education is key, and if you're not taking writing classes somewhere, you should. They keep the creative juices flowing and will slowly up your game. Getting into a writing group, same thing. And of course, reading anything and everything you can about writing, getting smart feedback or coverage from people who know what they're doing, and dedicating real time to this craft -- all good. But ultimately the best thing I can tell you is... chill, my brothers and sisters. It may not happen on this script, or the next, or even the next. You have to find a way to be okay with that. As writers, we should have plenty of ideas, and when one project flames out, make sure you have another one already on the burner. Eventually it's gonna all really begin to click. All we need is just a little... wait for it... patience.

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Much awesomeness for you all in this month's newsletter, including Steve Kaire as usual and a terrific guest blog from our pal the amazing Barri Evins. All coming at you right about now.

Onward and downward!

Jim Cirile
Coverage Ink
Writers on the Storm

Continue on to SHORTIES - Screenwriting News, Tidbits & Disinformation below.