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!!!
