The bar has been set, my friends. Yesterday we had an IMPRESSIVE amateur script. And it’s all thanks to those of you who did the dirty work, read through each script, and voted. So let’s find some more great material. Here’s a new batch of scripts and a new challenge. Will Johnny Boogers prevail? Or will one of the other four take the top slot?
Title: Progress
Genre: Historical drama
Logline: Romance, rivals and incompetence take center stage in this mostly-true story about the madcap turmoil surrounding the White House on the eve of World War I.
Why you should read: I am a high school teacher who told my students to follow their dreams–only to have a particular smart-ass throw it back at me and say, “Why don’t YOU follow YOUR dreams?” I am a regular reader of ScriptShadow, but I’ve never submitted anything. Without the eyes and minds of others, I fear my ability is plateauing.
So here I am, still trying to improve my craft, submitting a script unlike any other and taking one step closer to my dream of being a professional storyteller.
Damn teenagers.
Title: The Pitch
Genre: Comedy
Logline: Three advertising gurus compete for a lucrative contract to sell L’Oreal tampons during the Super bowl.
Why you should read: This is an edgy high concept grounded comedy with creative risk attached. You will certainly not get bored. As an amateur, I have tried to learn and absorb everything in a condensed six year period. And now it’s time to throw that all away and just let those creative juices flow…..Who says you can’t sell tampons during the Super bowl?? The topic is taboo, the campaign controversial and the plan is brilliant. I really hope you enjoy the read and you feel the passion in every word. For what it’s worth, if you decide to review it, I would be more than happy to buy you a beer. Thanks for the consideration.
Title: Rigged
Genre: Contained/Action
Logline: Working overtime at the Freedom Tower on Super Bowl Sunday, a stressed out family man’s day becomes a cat-and-mouse fight for survival when he stumbles on a homegrown terrorist’s plot to blow up the building then goes from bad to worse when he discovers the only way down is in a perilous swaying window washing rig.
Why you should read: Trying to write a script set almost entirely in a high-rise window washing rig and keep it entertaining throughout at first thought may appear extremely difficult, yet by the end we had to edit some of the action out.
The lead character is no tough guy action man either and the antagonist purposely doesn’t have any dialogue. Always go big, so the continual height and precarious situation being the main fear factor played on along with endless calamitous events which befall the lead, keep the script fitting the Goals, Stakes, Urgency rule and the midpoint shift.
We, my brother and I write apart, post work and family and really hope you enjoy Rigged and look forward to your informed comments which will undoubtedly prove invaluable.
Title: Bugged Out
Genre: Dark Comedy – Sort of…maybe…well, not sure
Logline: As society collapses all around them, a hen-pecked doomsday prepper reaches deep inside himself to do whatever he needs in order to lead his reluctant family to the safety of their bug out location.
Why you should read: This is my second script, with my first, Ship of the Dead, pulled through the knothole that is Scriptshadow just over a year ago. Thanks to your reviews, Ship did fairly well in contests and festivals: winning its genre at the Toronto International Film Festival, taking second at Denver’s Mile High Film Festival, and was a Top Ten Finalist in the 2013 PAGE International Screenwriting Awards, among others. I’m hoping for constructive criticism, if for no other reason than to hone my craft. This stuff’s hard! And thanks!
Title: Johnny Boogers
Genre: Supernatural Dramedy
Logline: When a delusional drunk retires to the Mexican Border to be left alone, dead desert barflies, a video-game gunslinger and the local drug lord just won’t leave him be.
Why you should read: Everything I’ve written to date has placed at either Nicholl or Austin. This latest effort, I believe, is my best so far, but I write full-time next to the Santa Susanna Nuke plant out in West Hills/Simi Valley. JOHNNY BOOGERS is pretty out there. The percolates, PCE contamination and plutonium migration might be clouding my judgment — I could use some honest opinions, and a new place to live. I would gladly settle for the former.
