by Ruth Witteried

Ruth Witteried, Film Coordinator

Sometimes opportunity comes knocking exactly when you expect it; other times it just shows up, unexpectedly late, waiting for you to open the door.

Such is the case with FiLMLaB. Last week we received an email from a Northwest production company that features short film in many of its projects. They had only just discovered FiLMLaB and its Script-to-Screen contest and wondered, “…..how do we get access to these scripts to read through and look for possibilities?”

I’ll tell you how: you contact Bill Johnson, Master of All Things Willamette Writers.

To be clear, this company is looking for scripts that have already been vetted to avoid being deluged with short scripts. Not only will all of this year’s finalists and semi-finalists be eligible to forward their scripts; last year’s will, too. We will be providing contact information for the production company to those eligible and will update this column with any new opportunities that arise.

In other FiLMLaB news; we’ve had a few contestants express an interest in receiving feedback on their scripts and we are interested in opening the topic for discussion. If you are one of those people, please let us know in the comment section what kind of script notes would be helpful to you?

For example:

• How did the votes split (Yes/No)?
• What were the top three comments judges made?
• General weakness (technical or story deficiencies)
• Comprehensive written notes.

Most contests charge extra for notes. Would you be willing to pay an additional fee for such a service? If so, how much? Keep in mind that our judges are volunteers. Asking them to provide notes requires a far greater commitment of time and energy. Although it is unlikely we can proceed with comprehensive notes for 2013, we are interested in knowing how many contestants are interested in receiving feedback of some kind this year. Please let us know by leaving a comment with your contact information below and we will take your suggestions into consideration.