Okay, today’s going to be an informal day off. But because I’ve seen so many comments asking, “what the hell does Carson’s response mean?”, I’ve decided to decode some of my more common replies for you.
Keep in mind that I’m very rushed when I analyze each logline so if I don’t like something, I’m typically spending less than 10 seconds coming up with a reason why. For that reason, I’m going to screw up sometimes. There are often times when I write a response and think, “I probably could’ve said that better.” But I have to keep moving cause there are so many loglines.
If you really want to know why I didn’t like something. Or you think us working on it together could bring out a movie you truly believe in (which actually just happened this evening with one reader), get a logline consult. 25 bucks for 1 e-mail and 1 reply. 50 bucks for unlimited back-and-forth where we get the logline in the best shape possible.
carsonsreeves1@gmail.com – e-mail me!
Okay, now for the replies.
“Mythology heavy, I want concepts” – What this means is that you’re creating entire worlds and rules instead of actual story ideas. A dinosaur theme park gone bad is a story idea. A trip to the mythical land of Booshalius, where vampires feast on possum-walkers, and a young fairy must learn the value of the “cocopasada” in order to evolve to the next phase of existence — that’s all mythology. There’s no clever story idea in there.
“Need to learn how to simplify loglines” – Once you go over 35 words, you’re probably in logline danger. The whole point of loglining a movie concept is to help yourself get to the core of the idea. That helps you write it. And it helps everyone else understand it. There are so many loglines being pitched where the writer just babbles on. Or they try to fit in every single little detail. Ironically, the more you try and tell everyone what your movie is, the less clear the movie idea gets. Instead, create the simplest version possible so that we get it immediately.
“Not big enough” – It means that there’s something in the main character and the story he’s in that feels small. “Years after a female serial killer spared his life and then turned herself in, a reclusive ex-journalist must confront the enigmatic woman’s cultish fans drawn to his hometown by a copycat murder… and the killer’s request for one final interview.” You may think just adding a serial killer here is enough to make it big and high concept. It isn’t. Or that there’s a copycat murder. It isn’t. Because there are a million serial killer ideas. And the ending: get an interview. Who cares? An interview is only big if it’s the most important interview in the world, like getting the president’s interview at the end of Civil War. This is a high concept contest. The ideas have to feel BIG.
“Not buying into the setup” – “When the deciding task in the Guardian Angel Selection Course is to help a human charge to experience the full gamut of emotions…” Every idea requires buy-in from the reader. If you present them with a setup that seems overly manufactured or forced or too complex, the reader simply isn’t going to buy in. So I don’t even need to read beyond the beginning of this logline. I’m already out because I don’t buy into the setup. Guardian Angel Selection Course? I don’t believe that that exists no matter how hard you try and convince me it does.
“A lot of build up for not a lot of payoff” – This is when loglines go on for way too long and set up way too many things and then instead of giving us a big climax to excite us, end with a whimper or end with something vague. “Joe must learn x and y and then he goes to a, before conquering b, and before he climbs up the ladder at company c, he must complete a set of challenges from s, t, u, and v. And then when an earthquake hits and w, x, y, and z happen… he must learn what’s truly in his heart.”
“Not clever enough” – This gets to the heart of what I’m really looking for in these concepts. I’m looking for ideas that are clever. Where the first half of the logline connects to the second half in that special way that makes you go, “Oooh, cool.” We see it in the only ‘yes’ from this week: “When treasure hunters search the Bermuda Triangle for a legendary pirate ship that disappeared, they’re swept back in time and hunted by the very ship they came to find.” Perfect. Now, notice what happens when you change the second half: “When treasure hunters search the Bermuda Triangle for a legendary pirate ship that disappeared, they must deal with the National Coast Guard, an angry clan of Bermuda nationals, and the captain’s ex-wife.” You see how easy it is to un-cleverize an idea?
“Seen too many variations of this” – This is a nice way of me telling you, you’re not being original enough. Too many writers assume they’re competing against 27 other people in Hollywood. You’re literally competing against hundreds of thousands. Millions if you consider everyone all over the world. There has to be something in your logline that is truly special to stand out against all those other pitches Hollywood is getting. Whether it’s a subject matter we’ve never seen before. Or a new twist on a genre we’ve never seen before. Or some clever take on an idea we’ve never seen before. If you’re just putting serial killers and vampires in your logline and creating one slightly new angle, such as being in a coma, that’s not enough.
“Feels lazy” – I can tell when a writer has spent a long time with an idea. You can see it in the pride behind the logline. That they believe in this idea because they’ve thought about it a lot. And because of that, they’ve made the wording as perfect as they can make it. And it just has this glossy sheen on it that communicates: “I tried a bunch of different ways to express this idea and this is the best one I came up with.” Meanwhile, when you slap an idea together that you’ve thought about for 30 minutes and you barely think about how to write it up, I’m going to call you out on it. It’s lazy. You’re being lazy. Which is the second worst thing you can be as a writer. Anybody know the first?
“Too simple”/“Too simplistic” – What this means is that the idea’s missing that thing that turns it into a bigger story or a more high stakes situation or makes you contemplate something you haven’t contemplated before. Instead of that, it’s just a regular normal obvious idea: “After suffering a nervous breakdown and losing her job, Celia returns home during her high-school reunion only to discover a childhood friend is missing and her three ex boyfriends still hold a grudge.”
“Too much going on here” – Writer adds too many variables to his pitch, to the point where they start stepping on each other or obscuring what the movie is. “After a billionaire obsessed with Ancient Egypt dies, his wife and his two lovers wake up buried in his mausoleum and must work together to escape the sadistic AI hologram of the deceased and its deadly games determining who is worthy of becoming its queen of the afterlife.”
“You hint at the concept but stop before telling us what it is”/“Ending too vague!” – This is one of my biggest pet peeves. The writer hides the actual movie. Instead, they use their ending to hint at it. “After a husband gaslights his wife into believing he’s not having an affair with her best friend, she books a weekend cabin retreat with the friend, unaware that the husband’s machinations have awakened something primal and unhinged in the jilted lover.” The “primal” and “Unhinged” part are the movie. Tell us what has been awakened. I understand what these writers think they’re doing. They think they’re creating mystery that will result in readers requesting the script. But it actually achieves the opposite. Because you don’t tell us what the antagonist is, we’re not interested! Because without that, we can’t envision the poster, the trailer, the freaking movie itself! Nobody wrote the logline for Jurassic Park and didn’t include dinosaurs.
“Execution dependent” – This means that you’ve chosen the kind of idea that is going to require an extremely high writing skill level to pull off. “Seeking a fresh start, a traumatized Indigenous woman enters a mysterious escape room, only to discover it’s a living labyrinth that builds itself from each victim’s deepest trauma. To escape alive, she must survive a series of deadly puzzles that weaponize the abuse, fear and cultural disconnection she’s spent years trying to bury before the maze consumes her identity forever.” The second you make this a metaphor and it’s about trauma and cultural disconnection and abuse… integrating it through simile and hiding it inside of scenes through subtext and carefully constructed character relationships, that’s the highest difficulty of writing there is. I wouldn’t trust any writer with that. Meanwhile, three loglines previous to that pitch, I’m getting a group of characters in the Amazon who are stuck in a giant web with a giant spider chasing them. I’m way more confident that a writer can pull that idea off.
Time to pitch your way into the yummiest, swankiest, most luscious club in Hollywood. The High Concept Club!
If you haven’t been to one of these yet, here’s the lowdown. This is a screenwriting contest where you have to EARN your way into the contest with a great pitch of your movie idea. This will be done by giving me your title, your genre, and your logline.
You get to pitch 5 loglines each weekend. We are in weekend 3. Weekends 1 & 2 resulted in 36 pitches making the contest. If you want to see how high the bar is, you can check out the 16 loglines that made it through in Week 1, as well as the 20 that made it in in Week 2.
If you aren’t sure what a high concept is, go back to the inaugural contest post where I explain what ‘high concept’ means, and give you examples of high concept as well as examples of what’s not high concept.
Before you start pitching your ideas, you’re going to want to read the rules.
If you come up with a script idea strong enough to get into the contest, you will have 6-7 months to write your script. The prize is the exposure. Industry people are watching this contest. I’m meeting with two new industry folks next week who contacted me specifically because of this contest. People are listening. They like what we’re doing here. So keep the loglines coming!
And by the way, I love your enthusiasm for this contest. I think this is great for writers and great for Scriptshadow.
All these other writers come up with an idea and write it ON A WING AND A PRAYER. Which means that it’s very likely the idea isn’t very good.
You guys are writing ideas that have literally been vetted. You have SUCH AN ADVANTAGE over all these other aspiring writers in Hollywood. Cause you’re writing something that you know, for a fact, people like.
I can’t express how valuable that is.
Okay, let’s get to the rules!
1) Pitching each weekend ends on Sunday at 11:59pm Pacific Time. This is the third of those four weekends.
2) You can pitch five loglines each weekend.
3) Make sure you pitch each logline in its own comment. Do not pitch all 5 loglines in a single comment. This is because I need to vote yes or no on individual loglines.
4) (**CHANGED**) I will vote on every single logline pitched. I will give you either “yes,” a “strong maybe,” a “maybe,” or a “no.” A “yes” is the Holy Grail. It means you not only get in, but you can also send me a 5 page outline of your script before you write it and I will give you notes on it. This is HUGE because what I learned from the Blood & Ink contest is that a lot of writers went down weak creative paths that I could’ve prevented had I seen their outline.
5) If you get a “maybe” or a “strong maybe,” your loglines will be moved into a separate voting day, either Tuesday (the strong maybes) or Wednesday (the maybes). The readers of the site will vote on the best of those loglines and only a portion of them will go through. Also, not every “maybe” will make the Wednesday list.
6) The large majority of ideas will get a “no.” The bar is high here. In fact, I think, so far, it’s something like only .9% of loglines will make the cut. I’m not here to make you feel good. I’m here to find great movie ideas. However, I will try to explain why I didn’t pick a logline after my vote. If you want a more extensive breakdown of your logline, e-mail me at carsonreeves1@gmail.com and get a $25 logline consult.
7) (**CHANGED**) Upvoted Entries – Upvote any loglines that you like (besides your own). If an idea gets 20 upvotes, the concept gets in. However, if I don’t like the concept, I’m vetoing it.
8) Golden Weekend Ticket – The ‘strong maybe,’ ‘maybe’ or ‘no’ entry with the most upvotes each weekend automatically gets in. Therefore, even if I’ve voted “no” on something, and you like the idea, you still want to upvote it because that entry might win the Golden Ticket.
9) Posters – You can include an AI poster with your logline for TWO IDEAS PER WEEKEND.
10) You can get multiple ideas into the contest. But you must choose only one to write.
11) You CAN pitch scripts that have already been written.
A quick reminder that my popular logline consultation service ($25 per logline, $100 for 5) is available. If you want a more extensive reason for why I didn’t pick your logline, order one. If you want to see ahead of time if a logline has a shot, order one. You can also do a deluxe logline consult ($50) where we keep workshopping the logline until it’s perfect. I believe 4 loglines got into Blood & Ink that way. But most of them did not. So, don’t think it’s a guarantee. If you want to use this service, e-mail me at carsonreeves1@gmail.com.
Finally, I’m doing a couple of fun Carson personal life things this weekend. So don’t freak out if you get stuck in moderation or if it’s been a while since I voted on your idea. I will get to it eventually. I also have to sleep. So, if you’re in the UK or Europe, I’m unfortunately going to be asleep for a big chunk of your day. Again, be patient! I WILL vote.
And one final little addition.
I will anoint a “HOLY SHIT LOGLINE OF THE WEEKEND” award to the best logline of the weekend.
Who’s going to get it???
Pitching begins… NOW!!!
No voting today. Just appreciation for those who made it in.
If you want to see the 16 scripts that made it in Week 1, you can check them out here.
If you haven’t made it into the competition yet or if you’re gearing up to play for the first time, we have TWO MORE PITCH WEEKENDS. Starting this Friday (through Sunday) is Week 3. And the following weekend is Week 4. You can pitch five loglines each weekend.
Our contenders from Week 2 are…
Title: SEIZURE
Genre: Action
Logline To stop terrorists who have seized a maximum security mental hospital, a visiting FBI agent running low on ammo teams up with an escaped prisoner running low on meds and whose violent blackouts make him a perfect killing machine.
Writer: Scott
Title: How To Lose a Job in 10 Days
Genre: Comedy
Logline: A desperate employee has ten days to get herself fired and collect the severance that will save her family’s home, but every sabotage only makes her more indispensable and fast-tracks her toward CEO.
Writer: Moscow Mule
Title: Peacekeeper
Genre: Action/Comedy
Logline: When 2 bickering married CIA agents threaten to divorce right before completing a major covert operation, the agency dispatches its most versatile “peacekeeper” operative to save the marriage – and the mission.
Writer: AlexE
Title: Dungeon Brawler
Genre: Fantasy Action Comedy
Logline: When his impoverished village can’t afford the king’s crushing tax, a scrappy peasant enters an illegal bare-knuckle fight circuit against trolls, orcs, and other mythical creatures to win enough gold before the crown comes to collect.
Writer: Joseph Jay Carroll Jr.
Title: Fireballer$
Genre: Action Comedy
Logline: Four Philadelphia construction workers must climb to the roof of a towering inferno to retrieve a lunch box containing a life-changing lottery ticket.
Writer: CJob
Title: Escape from Avalon
Genre: Sci Fi/Adventure
Logline: After an American tech executive crashes his yacht on an uncharted Pacific island, he must coordinate his escape with the island’s only other occupant – a 17th Century Spanish explorer who claims to have crashed only two weeks earlier.
Writer: wlubake
Title: Star Fall
Genre: Sci Fi
Logline: As a massive prison ship spirals toward a nearby star, its crew must fight their way through hundreds of the galaxy’s most dangerous criminals, now released from containment, to restore the ship’s power and prevent total annihilation.
Writer: Romer6
Title: The Family Jewels
Genre: Comedy
Logline: When a clueless American influencer pulls Excalibur from the stone during a viral publicity stunt, an ancient law makes him the rightful King of England, forcing the greedy royal family to scheme, sabotage, and manipulate their way into stopping a well-meaning idiot from inheriting the crown.
Writer: Josh Bullock
Title: TBC
Genre: Horror thriller
Logline: When the first English ship arrives in the New World, a Powhatan warrior discovers the settlers are savage vampires who have crossed the ocean not for land but for fresh blood.
Writer: Gavin John
Title: WAR GODS
Genre: Action
Logline: An elite Delta Force team is shot down during a hostage rescue mission in Greece, forcing them to pursue terrorists and their hostages into the original Labyrinth, where humanity’s oldest monsters never died.
Writer: David Cahill
Title: ACTION REPLAY
Genre: Action/Heist
Logline: After years in prison two legendary old tough guys get hired as consultants on a movie about their famous last (failed) heist and decide to use the filming as cover to try the heist again…
Writer: Mike Hurst
Title: CELLAR DOOR
Genre: Thriller
Logline: After breaking into her neighbor’s basement for shelter during a tornado, a disgraced detective unearths an intricate tunnel system that secretly connects to numerous houses including her own—and to the homes of multiple missing teens she failed to find.
Writer: Redd
Title: I Think I Hate You
Genre: RomCom
Logline: After professing his love to his best friend and subsequently being ghosted by her even though they work together every day, a crushed young man hires a tech startup to edit his brain chemistry so he can finally move on. But now that he finds her repulsive, she finds him irresistible.
Writer: FloydC
Title: FOOL’S GOLD
Genre: Comedy/ Western
Logline: During the California Gold Rush, a struggling backwater town fakes a gold strike to lure fortune‑hunters and boost its own fortunes. But when real gold is found, the townsfolk try to drive away the prospectors and keep all the gold for themselves.
Writer: Formation Wave
Title: THE JUMP
Genre: Action/Sci-fi
Logline: When terrorists seize a commercial airliner and threaten to crash it, a SWAT team must use experimental teleportation to board the plane. But they only have four jumps, each lasting ten minutes, to retake the aircraft before time runs out.
Writer: mahyar
Title: INFERNO LINE
Genre: Action/Thriller
Logline: A jobless smokejumper teams up with a veteran thief to rob $3.4 million from a postal train. But the plan derails when the arson he started becomes a massive wildfire, cutting every way out.
Writer: Florent Hendrickx
Title: From Suburbia With Love
Genre: Comedy
Logline: When a socially awkward 14-year-old discovers a banged-up international spy hiding in his pool house, they strike up a deal: the kid will keep the spy’s whereabouts secret while the suave spy helps the kid win over his crush.
Writer: Mason Elliot
Title: Contraflow
Genre: Action-Thriller
Logline: After robbing a bank under the cover of a Category 5 hurricane evacuation, the South’s best wheelman must turn Florida’s gridlocked exodus into a moving shell game, leapfrogging his crew and the stolen cash between vehicles to evade police checkpoints as the storm closes in behind them.
Writer: Sam Kerr
Title: Mistletoe Joe
Genre: Comedy
Logline: Every year, Santa prides himself on granting everyone’s Christmas wish. So when a socially inept man sends Santa a wish wanting to lose his virginity, in desperation, Santa sends him a foul-mouthed, womanizing elf, known as Mistletoe Joe, to help him get laid by Christmas.
Writer: Noah B
Title: Vice Stream
Genre: Crime thriller
Logline: After a popular Miami streamer is murdered during a live broadcast, his fanatical online community turns the ongoing stream into a weapon, using every clue hidden in the footage to hunt his killer through Miami’s neon underworld.
Writer: Tencoach
Only FOUR go through!
Okay, another day of voting! It’s like Vote-a-palooza here at Scriptshadow. I have already locked in the 7 winning loglines from yesterday, which will move into the official competition. But I don’t want to bog today’s post down so I’ll wait until tomorrow to post the entire list of scripts that made it through in the second week.
Today are the maybes from the weekend. Not every maybe makes it into today’s post. I went through all of them and I went through everyone’s extra 300 word pitch, if they made one. So, if you’re wondering where your ‘maybe’ idea went, it unfortunately went to idea heaven.
These are not going to be as strong as yesterday’s bunch. And, for that reason, only FOUR IDEAS are going to get into the competition today. So every vote counts. You can vote for multiple loglines. Again, I encourage everyone here to stick to the spirit of the competition and not just vote for your friends. Vote if you would want to see that movie. Cause that’s the ultimate goal of this contest – is to get movies made.
No need to waste time. Here are your contenders…
Title: Snakeboy
Genre: Comedy
Logline: After surviving a bite from what he mistakes for a deadly venomous snake (but is really a harmless garden snake), a delusional comic book nerd becomes convinced he’s developed snake-like superpowers and adapts a vigilante persona, oblivious to the very real danger he’s putting himself in as he haphazardly makes waves taking on the city’s criminal underworld.
Writer: AEL
Title: Untitled
Genre: Slasher
Logline: When a legendary horror director reunites the surviving final girls from his franchise at his remote estate, someone in the franchise’s iconic mask crashes the party, and the women must band together to survive their deadliest role yet.
Writer: Rupert Pumpkin
Title: What It’s Like
Genre: Horror-Comedy
Logline: When a die-hard fan and her favourite pop star accidentally swap bodies, the singer desperately tries to switch back, but the fan revels in her new fame and refuses. However, when she commits a public faux-pas and gets cancelled, she’ll do anything for her own life back, even murder.
Writer: JakeG177
Title : You have died of Dysentery
Genre: Comedy
Logline: Two tech addicted siblings whose phones have been destroyed by their fed up parents find an old copy of The Oregon Trail. When they get transported into the game, they must lead a group of pioneers and survive the entire nightmarish journey west in order to get back home.
Writer: T D
Title: Contraflow
Genre: Action-Thriller
Logline: After robbing a bank under the cover of a Category 5 hurricane evacuation, the South’s best wheelman must turn Florida’s gridlocked exodus into a moving shell game, leapfrogging his crew and the stolen cash between vehicles to evade police checkpoints as the storm closes in behind them.
Writer: Sam Kerr
Title: Mistletoe Joe
Genre: Comedy
Logline: Every year, Santa prides himself on granting everyone’s Christmas wish. So when a socially inept man sends Santa a wish wanting to lose his virginity, in desperation, Santa sends him a foul-mouthed, womanizing elf, known as Mistletoe Joe, to help him get laid by Christmas.
Writer: Noah B
Title: The Triangle
Genre: Adventure/Sci-Fi
Logline: When a small cruiser touring the Bermuda triangle sends out an SOS after incurring storm damage, it is rescued by the surviving crew of the HMS Atalanta, last seen 1880, and who are unaware a day has past since their own battering at sea. Our heroes now wonder how long they themselves have been lost in the triangle, and what kind of world awaits them if they can find their way out.
Writer: Mason Elliot
Title: Vice Stream
Genre: Crime thriller
Logline: After a popular Miami streamer is murdered during a live broadcast, his fanatical online community turns the ongoing stream into a weapon, using every clue hidden in the footage to hunt his killer through Miami’s neon underworld.
Writer: Tencoach
Title: Bad Review
Genre: Comedy
Logline: A young go-getter is tormented by the disturbed inventor of a product after he writes a review online that causes its downfall.
Writer: Patrick
Title: From Suburbia With Love
Genre: Comedy
Logline: When a socially awkward 14-year-old discovers a banged-up international spy hiding in his pool house, they strike up a deal: the kid will keep the spy’s whereabouts secret while the suave spy helps the kid win over his crush.
Writer: Mason Elliot
Voting ends 11:59pm Pacific Time Wednesday.
To see all 10 entries together, filter Disqus comments by “Oldest”
Vote on your favorite script ideas now! If you want to jump straight to the loglines in contention, you can scroll down to the marker!
Today we’re going to vote on a dozen loglines to see which ones get into the HIGH CONCEPT CLUB CONTEST.
But, before we do that, I want to talk about the frustration behind the pitching this past weekend. Believe it or not, I hate giving “no’s.” I’m constantly hoping that every idea is that awesome idea I’m looking for. So, it was discouraging that the quality of the ideas wasn’t as good as the first weekend.
But let me say this….
Coming up with a good movie idea is hard.
And I think, for some reason, a lot of you think it shouldn’t be.
But the fact that it is is good. Cause if everyone in the world could keep coming up with great movie ideas, then nobody here would be needed. It’s the very reason that good ideas are hard to come by that we need you. Because you are the people who are willing to keep coming up with ideas, to keep trying, until you find one that stands out from the pack.
Everyone else out there has quit. They had their two “big” ideas. Both of which were lame. When nobody responded, they gave up. You guys are different. You are artists. You are the ones who keep pushing through the mud to get to enemy lines. The very act of continuing is what’s going to make you succeed.
However, I’m not here to reward effort. I still need a good idea. Trust me when I say, you don’t want me to let in an idea that I don’t believe in. People in this industry can tell when you don’t believe in something. So, if I’m pitching some idea of yours that I never believed in six months from now, you better believe that people will not hear the passion in my voice. And they will pass for that reason.
You want me to be excited about your idea because that excitement will translate when I’m pitching it.
If you have an idea that didn’t get into the contest but you still love it, WRITE IT. I’m not the only way to get your script noticed. But if you’re trying to convince me to like something that, deep in my gut, I’m not into, that’s probably not going to work out. You still have TEN pitches over the next two weekends. Buckle down and keep generating ideas. There’s a great one in you. You just have to dig deeper than you’ve ever dug before!
Okay, let’s announce the big winners of the weekend.
It starts with our golden ticket winner, Scott, with his overwhelmingly popular pitch, Seizure!
Title: SEIZURE
Genre: Action
Logline To stop terrorists who have seized a maximum security mental hospital, a visiting FBI agent running low on ammo teams up with an escaped prisoner running low on meds and whose violent blackouts make him a perfect killing machine.
Writer: Scott
We also have two yes’s. These ideas are automatically in the competition. They are…
Title: How To Lose a Job in 10 Days
Genre: Comedy
Logline: A desperate employee has ten days to get herself fired and collect the severance that will save her family’s home, but every sabotage only makes her more indispensable and fast-tracks her toward CEO.
Writer: Moscow Mule
Title: Peacekeeper
Genre: Action/Comedy
Logline: When 2 bickering married CIA agents threaten to divorce right before completing a major covert operation, the agency dispatches its most versatile “peacekeeper” operative to save the marriage – and the mission.
Writer: AlexE
And we have SIX projects voted in by you guys. These loglines received the requisite 15 votes to get in, and also did not get vetoed by moi.
Title: Dungeon Brawler
Genre: Fantasy Action Comedy
Logline: When his impoverished village can’t afford the king’s crushing tax, a scrappy peasant enters an illegal bare-knuckle fight circuit against trolls, orcs, and other mythical creatures to win enough gold before the crown comes to collect.
Writer: Joseph Jay Carroll Jr.
Title: Fireballer$
Genre: Action Comedy
Logline: Four Philadelphia construction workers must climb to the roof of a towering inferno to retrieve a lunch box containing a life-changing lottery ticket.
Writer: CJob
(Carson Note: I originally vetoed this. But the fact that it got 42 votes and that I think it has more potential than Cjob’s other entry, Mrs, means I’m reversing my veto and will place that veto on “Mrs.” instead)
Title: Escape from Avalon
Genre: Sci Fi/Adventure
Logline: After an American tech executive crashes his yacht on an uncharted Pacific island, he must coordinate his escape with the island’s only other occupant – a 17th Century Spanish explorer who claims to have crashed only two weeks earlier.
Writer: wlubake
Title: Star Fall
Genre: Sci Fi
Logline: As a massive prison ship spirals toward a nearby star, its crew must fight their way through hundreds of the galaxy’s most dangerous criminals, now released from containment, to restore the ship’s power and prevent total annihilation.
Writer: Romer6
Title: The Family Jewels
Genre: Comedy
Logline: When a clueless American influencer pulls Excalibur from the stone during a viral publicity stunt, an ancient law makes him the rightful King of England, forcing the greedy royal family to scheme, sabotage, and manipulate their way into stopping a well-meaning idiot from inheriting the crown.
Writer: Josh Bullock
Title: TBC
Genre: Horror thriller
Logline: When the first English ship arrives in the New World, a Powhatan warrior discovers the settlers are savage vampires who have crossed the ocean not for land but for fresh blood.
Writer: Gavin John
Okay, now it’s time for the scripts that will be voted on today. I’ve got some strong maybes for you, as well as some maybes that I’ve upgraded. Here are today’s 12 contenders. The TOP 7 will get through.
Each entry will have its own individual comment in the comments section. To vote for them, simply upvote that comment. You can vote for as many entries as you want. Just please don’t vote for stuff you don’t like.
TODAY’S ENTRIES START HERE
Title: INFERNO LINE
Genre: Action/Thriller
Logline: A jobless smokejumper teams up with a veteran thief to rob $3.4 million from a postal train. But the plan derails when the arson he started becomes a massive wildfire, cutting every way out.
Writer: Florent Hendrickx
Title: THE PAIRING
Genre: Comedy/Romance
Logline: A disgraced golf icon and the newly crowned queen of the LPGA—who can’t stand each other—are forced to team up in the sport’s only mixed-team tournament, the Grant Thornton Invitational.
Writer: Chrishillwrites
Title: RAMREE
Genre: Thriller
Logline: (based on a true story) A World War II assassination mission on Ramree Island becomes a nightmare when 5 British soldiers are trapped in crocodile-infested mangroves with hundred of crocodiles to face to reach freedom.
Writer: nicohajj
Title: THE JUMP
Genre: Action/Sci-fi
Logline: When terrorists seize a commercial airliner and threaten to crash it, a SWAT team must use experimental teleportation to board the plane. But they only have four jumps, each lasting ten minutes, to retake the aircraft before time runs out.
Writer: mahyar
Title: ACTION REPLAY
Genre: Action/Hesit
Logline: After years in prison two legendary old tough guys get hired as consultants on a movie about their famous last (failed) heist and decide to use the filming as cover to try the heist again…
Writer: Mike Hurst
Title: FOOL’S GOLD
Genre: Comedy/ Western
Logline: During the California Gold Rush, a struggling backwater town fakes a gold strike to lure fortune‑hunters and boost its own fortunes. But when real gold is found, the townsfolk try to drive away the prospectors and keep all the gold for themselves.
Writer: Formation Wave
Title: The UnSub
Genre: Psychological Thriller
Logline: A formidable and domineering District Attorney must find a way to try and convict a sadistic crime boss, without revealing her secret past as his BDSM submissive.
Writer: Sthside
Title: CELLAR DOOR
Genre: Thriller
Logline: After breaking into her neighbor’s basement for shelter during a tornado, a disgraced detective unearths an intricate tunnel system that secretly connects to numerous houses including her own—and to the homes of multiple missing teens she failed to find.
Writer: Redd
Title: WAR GODS
Genre: Action
Logline: An elite Delta Force team is shot down during a hostage rescue mission in Greece, forcing them to pursue terrorists and their hostages into the original Labyrinth, where humanity’s oldest monsters never died.
Writer: David Cahill
(Carson Note: This got 15 votes but I’m still on the fence about it).
Title: It Lurks Beneath
Genre: Creature Feature/Survival Horror
Logline: A family fishing trip turns into a desperate fight for survival when an ancient sea creature relentlessly hunts them after they unknowingly kill its offspring.
Writer: D. Lawrence
Title: THE KILLING WATERS
Genre: ACTION/ADVENTURE
Logline: During the American Civil War, Confederate and Union soldiers clash in the Second Battle of Sabine Pass in Texas. In the aftermath they find themselves hunted by a huge shark from the Gulf of Mexico
Writer: Mr Macca49 Fizzerton
Title: I Think I Hate You
Genre: RomCom
Logline: After professing his love to his best friend and subsequently being ghosted by her even though they work together every day, a crushed young man hires a tech startup to edit his brain chemistry so he can finally move on. But now that he finds her repulsive, she finds him irresistible.
Writer: FloydC
Voting ends at 11:59pm Pacific Time Tuesday July 21st!
Good luck everyone!
