After seven weeks, four rounds of judging and one rewrite, our 2015 experiment in writing has come to a conclusion: FiLMLaB has a winner! It was not an easy task for the Producers Circle who met last week to consider and debate the pros and cons of each finalist’s script. One script, however, to rose…
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Navigating the Notes
Getting notes on your screenplay is never fun. Thirty years of writing scripts for studios, producers, and directors has taught me that. The reason is simple: They only address what’s wrong with your work. Rarely do they applaud what you’ve done right. In fact, they can be so devoid of praise that by the time…
2015 FiLMLaB Finalists!
Oh, boy are we excited! After six weeks and three rounds of judging, we have our 2015 FiLMLaB Finalists! A very competitive set of eight scripts went through our Celebrity Judging panel where they were evaluated based on six questions for a possible 30 points (or 90 cumulative): On which page were you ‘hooked’ by…
FiLMLaB Reveals 2015 Celebrity Judges
Every year, FiLMLaB solicits film professionals to assist us in determining the Grand Prize winner of our short script writing contest. It changes from year to year, but usually we try to coordinate with the Willamette Writers Conference and pull from their list of Film Consultants: producers, managers, agents and creative executives brought up from…
The Haunting of Sunshine Girl: Or How A Northwest Trio Hooked The Weinsteins
“Nobody knows anything…” William Goldman’s famous quote about Hollywood, may very well apply to the publishing industry as well; especially during this time of digital expansion and the resulting democratization of creative expression. The tools of production and marketing are available to everyone now, not just studios and publishing houses. What the long term net…
Bug Eyed Bill? Blame It On Eric Witchey
If you follow FiLMLab at all, you know that we haven’t been around terribly long–a mere four years, including this one. But this year’s contest is by far the most challenging. In the first two years, we asked that you utilize the annual Willamette Writers Conference theme in your short script (“Fresh Brewed” and “New…
From Script To Short To Feature: Whiplash
My husband and I loved it. His mother hated it. A provocative, at times terrifying piece of filmmaking, you don’t have to like it to recognize the quality of Damien Chazelle‘s Oscar winning film, Whiplash: BLACK… We hear a HIT. A drumstick against a drum head. Crisp, sharp. Then a second hit. Then a third…
FiLMLaB At The Midpoint
We are halfway through the FiLMLaB short script contest. There’s still plenty of time to submit your seven page script for a chance at the Grand Prize: the filming and production of your story by a professional film crew. In three act structure, the second act is always the longest, and arguably the most tedious…
Don’t Short Your Chances With Film Shorts
By Danny Manus
If you’re using a short film as your calling card, you need to make sure it’s dialing the right number.
Unless you live in Denmark, where making short films can actually be a sustainable career, film shorts are basically made for three reasons; as practice; as inspiration or proof of concept for a larger feature project; or as a sample to show off your talents.
Author, Producer Bill Johnson on Short Scripts
(This blog is being reposted courtesy of the author. Originally titled, Revelation, Story, and Plot in a Script for a Film Short, it appeared in a June 2013 FiLMLaB column. It is worth reviewing, along with Bill’s short video discussing short scripts, common errors inexperienced screenwriters make, and the benefits for writers in going through a…