THE SCRIPTSHADOW NEWSLETTER HAS BEEN SENT! And it has a new TOP 25 script review inside. Holy Moses was this script good. If you didn’t receive the newsletter, check your SPAM and PROMOTIONS folders. If you still can’t find it, e-mail me at carsonreeves1@gmail.com with subject line: “NO NEWSLETTER.” If you want to be added to the newsletter, e-mail me at that same address with the subject line: “NEWSLETTER.” Enjoy!
Read each script and vote for your favorite in the comments! Winner gets a review next Friday. Let’s find something great! Monday is a holiday here in the U.S. so I’ll be back on Tuesday…
Title: The Lone Ambassador
Genre: Sci-fi/Thriller
Logline: After a mysterious alien spaceship crash-lands near area fifty one, a ridiculed ufologist is forced to go rogue and uncover over sixty years of government secrecy.
Why You Should Read: I honestly never thought I’d be submitting one of my screenplays to script shadow, but here it is. The majority of my youth was spent in my imagination navigating beyond our world, hoping that the myth of another planet just like ours, was true. My dream was to write a story about a young-naive boy, abandoned by the naysayers who roam our society in hopes to deny our truth. Enjoy, and beat me down with brutal honesty. Thank You.
Title: The Inept
Genre: Dark Humor
Logline: Chaos ensues in quiet suburbia after Eddy finds a lost wallet and obsesses over how to return it and then win over its owner, the beautiful Lindsy Rocker.
Why You Should Read: Enter a world where dueling dildo fights, threats by midget bookies, baristas posing as psychiatrists, and mistaken identity over strippers with stomas simply represents a “bad week” for Eddy, a socially inept virgin obsessed with a photo found in a woman’s lost wallet.
Title: Damaged
Genre: Drama/Thriller
Logline: A violent ex-con is hired as an investigative crime reporter under the agreement that he will perpetrate the crimes in order to write about them.
Why You Should Read: I’ve been trying for six months now to get this script read on Scriptshadow’s Amateur Fridays. If I had to pinpoint the reason that I keep failing, I would obviously turn to my logline. I know this one comes of as generic and vague. I’ve tried re-writing it a hundred times and short of lying completely and re-vamping it to feature robots and super-hero’s, there’s not much I can do. This is the story that I have and I do truly believe that it is a good one. I was aware going in how pedestrian the subject matter could be, so I concentrated primarily on scene construction, trying to make each scene as unique and memorable as possible.
Since finishing this script I have started on something new, something more high concept and reader friendly. But I still believe that all scripts are important as they all help us to improve. This is something that I can’t do until someone reads this and tears it apart for me.
So please, I’m at the mercy of the Scriptshadow community. To paraphrase Tyler Durden, tear me down so I can build something better out of myself.
Title: Ghost Story
Genre: Horror
Logline: Soon after moving into their new apartment, a young couple’s idyllic life begins to unravel in the most horrific ways due to the presence of a malevolent spirit.
Why You Should Read: I’ve been making a living as a screenwriter here in Mumbai for the last five years, before which I studied film in Los Angeles, and even worked on a few movies as a production assistant.
I’m a horror film connoisseur, and someone who swears by the holy trinity of horror cinema: “The Exorcist,” “The Shining,” and “Alien.” Although horror is my genre of choice, I’ve also secured paid gigs writing a crime-thriller, and a Hitchcockian suspense-thriller.
Following months of depression after failing to get my first horror screenplay produced, I went about writing a story which was far more contained, thereby cheaper to produce, and thus “Ghost Story” was born. “Ghost Story” is a slow burn horror-thriller in the vein of “The Shining” and “Paranormal Activity,” but without the latter’s found footage aesthetic. What sets “Ghost Story” apart is its matter-of-fact approach in presenting supernatural events in a real and believable way. Imagine “Insidious,” but with the real world aesthetics of “The Lunchbox.” It felt great when “Ghost Story” made the quarter-finals in Screencraft’s 2015 Horror Screenplay Contest.
For the past year, I’ve been paying the bills developing concepts — two action-thrillers, and one superhero-urban fantasy — for a local production company.
I’d sincerely appreciate your feedback on “Ghost Story” — not to mention feedback from the rest of the ScriptShadow community as well — because really I want to make it better. So fingers crossed, hoping this query email piques your interest!
Title: A Falling Knife
Genre: Crime Drama
Logline: When a war erupts between two Philadelphia mob factions, a gang enforcer becomes a police informant – and falls in love with the the officer he’s feeding information. It’s THE DEPARTED meets BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN.
About Me: I started my career as a writer for a variety comedy show, but my heart was always in drama. Last year I mustered the courage to quit my comedy job and do a career pivot into drama. It’s been a challenging transition, but something I’m really happy I’ve done. It’s been tough getting noticed in a new genre, and I’ve been quite humbled by starting from scratch. So in that sense, I very much consider myself an amateur.
Why You Should Read: I think it’s a very unique twist on an evergreen world. We’ll always want gangster movies, but the same old story won’t do anymore. It needs to go somewhere new. One thing I noticed about almost every one of these movies is that the energy between these intense male characters only ever manifests itself in violence. I saw a real opening to explore the emotional side of these violent, masculine guys by creating a love story between a cop and his informant. They’re in this forbidden relationship, a star-crossed love where they are enemies and lovers at once — they have to rely on and confide in each other, while at the same time struggling to fully trust one another. It lends an inherent tension to the script that to me feels fresh. It’s not all bombs and guns (though of course, there is plenty of that) but also something deeper and wholly unexpected in this genre.
