Pitching for this weekend is CLOSED. Come back next weekend (the final one) to pitch your horror loglines. Seeya then!
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.
This was the impetus for this contest. I want to send this guy a great horror script. But I thought, “How do I find a great horror script?” A truly great horror script from an amateur writer hits my desk maybe once every four years.
I wanted to speed up that process.
Which is how I got this idea. I realized that the big issue with all these horror scripts that get sent my way is that 95% of them don’t even have good concepts. So, even if the script is good, you know it can’t sell because its marketability can’t easily be conveyed to the next decision maker up the ladder.
So I thought, what if I create a contest where you only got in if you pitched a strong horror concept? This would dramatically increase the chances that we find a script that a studio would actually want to buy and turn into a movie.
So far, we’ve had two weekends of pitches and we’ve found roughly 30 concepts. We have two more weekends, which means we’re probably going to find about 60 concepts. From there, those people are in the official contest and their job is to write the best version of that screenplay possible. There will be challenges and mini-showdowns along the way in order to keep them on schedule.
We will then have a showdown here on the site where you guys will decide what the best script is and, therefore, what I send to this Hollywood producer. But it’s got to be a really good script. This guy has such a high bar for quality and if all the scripts are weak, or just average, that’s not enough.
But we have half-a-year to write this script and get it in good shape, which is the same timeline a studio would ask for. Actually, a studio would want it sooner. So, this is not an unreasonable timeline.
You’re probably wondering, how does this work?
You pitch your horror logline down in the comments. Include your title and subgenre (i.e. horror comedy, horror thriller, etc.) and I will tell you whether the idea is good enough to advance to the official competition, in which case, you will write the entire script.
Here are the responses I will leave after your pitch and what they mean.
No – Doesn’t make the cut and DON’T re-pitch.
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.
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 still have ONE YES they can give over these final two weekends.
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.
A few final rules. If you have a strong maybe or even a ‘yes’ and want to pitch more ideas to try and get a ‘yes,’ or a second ‘yes’ that’s fine. I’ve realized that if someone came up with a good idea, they’re capable of coming up with an even better idea, so have at it. If you want to campaign for your logline to get 15 votes, you only get one campaign message. You can’t keep campaigning or that idea is disqualified. Also, you can’t double post your idea and add up the upvotes from both comments to get 15 votes. You’ve got to get 15 upvotes from the original comment.
This weekend’s pitch session goes until Monday, 11:59pm Pacific Time, since it’s Labor Day Weekend here in the U.S.
P.S. If you want to have 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 workshop a weak logline into something that is potentially 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.
