Pitching closed for the weekend!
Last weekend, we had over 1000 logline pitches for the Blood and Ink Showdown. A lucky dozen writers got a golden ticket into the official competition. How do you get a golden ticket? Let me tell you a little about the contest first.
I have a direct line to, arguably, the biggest person in horror in all of Hollywood. And this person trusts my taste implicitly. If I send him a script, he’ll start reading it within 10 minutes. But, his bar is EXTREMELY HIGH.
So, I thought, let’s build a screenplay contest around that.
Instead of allowing anybody to enter, I will only allow good horror concepts that I know will have a realistic shot with this person. That’s where these pitch sessions come in. You pitch your horror logline down in the comments and I will tell you whether the idea is good enough to advance into the official competition, in which case, you will write the entire script. Don’t worry, you have time. The deadline for Blood and Ink will be mid-to-late February.
Here are the responses I will leave after your pitch and what they mean.
No – Doesn’t make the cut.
Soft Maybe – No but you can improve logline and pitch again next week.
Maybe – No but you can improve logline and pitch again immediately.
Strong Maybe – You’re in.
Yes – You’re in plus special treatment.
You get FIVE logline pitches. So, make sure they’re good. Last weekend people were throwing anything and everything against the wall and it didn’t work. What worked were when writers pitched well thought-out ideas. I’ve been pitched upwards of 30,000 loglines in my life so I can tell when a writer hasn’t put in the effort.
If you’re worried that I’m too hard to please, you still have a shot. Consistent Commenters, Brenkilco, Jaco, Poe, Scott Crawford, and Arthur all get ONE YES they can give out over these final three pitch weekends. But don’t get too excited. I overheard some of them saying they wouldn’t have given anything a ‘yes’ last weekend. For all I know, they may be harder to impress than me.
There is one other way to get in.
GET 15 UPVOTES
If your idea gets 15 upvotes, you’re automatically in. So, I encourage everyone here to be constantly screening the newest entries and upvoting any concept you like. It could literally change a writer’s life. And this supersedes a “no.” So, even if I “no” a concept, it can still advance with 15 votes.
For those of you re-pitching your ‘maybes’ from last week, those do not count against your 5 loglines. But, you only get one shot with them. I will decide if they’re dead or move on.
For each pitch, all I want is your…
Title:
and
Logline:
Okay, let’s get to it!
P.S. If you want more of a conversation about your logline pitches, rather than just a ‘yes’ or a ‘no,’ or you want to pitch your ideas in private, you can order my logline service. It’s $25 for a logline analysis (along with a yes or no) and $50 for unlimited e-mails where we potentially workshop a weak logline into something that is contest worthy. There are no guarantees, though. You can’t put lipstick on a pig. If you want to use this service, e-mail me at carsonreeves1@gmail.com.
