Today’s batch of scripts comes with, probably, the most original-sounding idea I’ve heard all year. I have no idea if the execution matches up with the imagination, but it should be fun finding out. Also, a head’s up. Just like Halloween, I’ll be doing a HOLIDAY AMATEUR OFFERINGS right before Christmas. So if you’ve got that great Christmas or Hanukkah or New Years or “I Hate The Holidays” script just waiting to be discovered, you’ll want to get it ready!
Another heads up. I’m probably going to review The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (on Netflix) on Monday. Interested to see if the Coen’s, two of the best screenwriters ever, have got their mojo back. So check it out if you want to be part of the discussion. If I change my mind and decide to review something else, I’ll give you a head’s up in the comments.
If you haven’t played Amateur Offerings before, all you have to do is read as much of the 5 screenplays below as possible and vote for your favorite in the comments section. Voting closes on Sunday night, 11:59pm Pacific Time. Winner gets a review next Friday. — If you’d like to submit your own script to compete in Amateur Offerings, send a PDF of your script to carsonreeves3@gmail.com with the title, genre, logline, and why you think your script should get a shot.
Title: MARENIGHT
Genre: Musical Drama
Logline: In the late 1800’s, a Native American teen finds his remote western town under siege from an extraterrestrial force.
Why You Should Read: As a writer, sometimes you get an idea that comes fully imagined in your mind including the score. Luckily, I have some limited ability to tinker out a tune on a keyboard and I applied that to this story. I’ve never done anything musically on this scale before, however. Certainly no experience with music software, but I’m pleased that in presenting a musical, I’ve also created 23 tracks that give an idea to those who always say upon reading a musical script, ‘Well, I need to hear the darn music!” Those sample tracks are marked throughout the script and can be found here.
As a musical, this is a story that wears its heart on its sleeve. I’ve written the story and score to be accessible and appeal to the older audience, young people who like singing with their spectacle, and the gay crowd who like to see a prominent character they can identify with. All have been from beginning of time the backbone of support for the musical in all its forms. I’ve attempted to make the “strange attractor” in this story as big as it is, to take a balcony seat to the central relationships, the human element. I hope that’s apparent, but I also hope the spectacle, the odd and atmospheric will delight.
If chosen, it gets its premiere here with an audience of readers that know their stuff and hit the high notes every time in critiquing entries and making them better.. I do hope I get the chance to hear them sing.
Title: Raw Meat
Genre: Horror
Logline: When troublesome student, Mason, gets sent to an isolated boarding school under suspicious circumstances, he discovers that the teachers are secretly killing the students and then eating them.
Why You Should Read: Some of you might remember me posting the logline for this script in the comments some time ago (under the title ‘The Dead of Winter’), as well as a link to the script. The goal was to get some real feedback so I could attack my next draft with an actual purpose. The comments I received were amazing, which resulted in a totally new direction, turning this script from what was once a psychological horror/thriller to a straight up horror film. On top of that, I used Carson’s logline service – which I really, really recommend if you want to get your logline in order (shameless plug) – and now I believe I have a great horror script ready to go. — But most importantly, I took Carson’s advice in the first place and actually wrote myself a horror. More than that, I wrote a high-concept horror set in a single location that would require minimal special effects/costs to produce and make. Do I think that this will be made? I sure hope so! But if not, I believe it’s a step in the right direction.
Title: BURDEN
Genre: Drama/Superhero
Logline: A struggling single mother’s world is turned upside-down when Atlas, the world’s only superhero, decides to transfer his powers over to her.
Why You Should Read: Hey, Osagie here! Love reading SS, deciding to put myself out there with AoW. The impetus for this two-hander script was a stressful period where I wondered how other people dealt with overwhelming liability, leading me to imagine how a real-world “superman” or “superwoman” would cope. And so a “hero” finds his way out of the job by thrusting it on a single-mother, already making her own reckless choices in her normal life. How’s this flawed character supposed to handle the weight of the world on her shoulders? How would any real person deal with “great power and great responsibility”? The superpowers drive the plot, but the characters drive the story. Hopefully my focus on real-world situations and characters meld well within the fantastical, sometimes discounted, element of superheroes. “I just tried to write characters who are human beings who also have superpowers” – Stan Lee
Title: SMITH 23
Genre: TV Pilot – Sci-Fi
Logline: After global warming and several wars have taken their toll on Earth, most of humanity has been thrown into starvation and anarchy while the elite thrive in a few fortified cities, the last bastions of civilization. From the teenage prostitute to the genocidal leader of the powerful city-state Smith 23, all struggle to survive in this new uncharted existence.
Why You Should Read: This script offers something for everybody. Important issues like sexual exploitation, global warming and income inequality should appeal to the Scriptshadow gatekeepers while big set pieces, and old-fashioned sex & violence will entice Larry The Lyft Driver. More importantly, over the years I’ve figured out that the only way to present this stuff is through character. These characters are not necessarily likable but always interesting.
Title: Ushar
Genre: Romantic drama
Logline: A trepid documentary filmmaker falls in love with a beautiful African tribeswoman, and then discovers that the native women sacrifice their husbands as part of the wedding ceremony.
Why You Should Read: I’ve been writing short fiction since I was 9 years old, and trying to break into the film industry since high school. I try to watch movies on a daily basis, and I’ve written a handful of screenplays, many of them unfinished. However, I felt Ushar was such a good concept that I sent it out to Script Pipeline — I even paid to get some script notes. Needless to say, although I didn’t place in the competition, I did get some very positive feedback, including some things to think about for future rewrites. However, to my knowledge, that was just one judge’s opinion, and I would like to send my script out to as many people as I can, if anything just for some exposure. I don’t care if someone says my script sucks, but I’d really like to get a sense of where I’m at in this crazy world of screenwriting. I thought you could help.
