Stony Brook Film Festival

They did not win me over on the first night. Here comes night two, and hows about we see what they can do tonight?

Up tonight is a mixture of Shakespeare and vampires in “Gildencrantz and Rosenstern are Undead,” or something like that.

To the festival…..

UCLA Congrats!

Well, I don’t think anyone reads this, but if one posts something on the internet it must be real and true. So, here goes:

A BIG congrats to the 2009 UCLA screenwriting winners. Here they are:

WINNERS (in abc order)

Kate Douglas

BOOK OF THE MISSING

Forest Guider

MARY OF PORN

Aaron Hultgren

BACKYARD HUNTING WITH ROY PATTEN

Hans Montelius

COMMANDER IN LOVE

Harrison Pierce

LIKE A PRAYER

HONORABLE MENTIONS (in abc order)

Eunice Ahn

YOONA’S RHAPSODY IN BLUE

Charlotte Brewster

THE SUICIDE NOTES

David Cooper

SANTA INC.

A.J. Marchisello

SCREAM PARK

Louis Rosenberg

MONKEY ROOM

Edward Wilson

THE TREE HOUSE WAR

I was one of the masses who didn’t make the top (what turned out to be) 11. Ah well, the experience of trying with a first ever script was an education. Time to keep working, writing, reading, and watching those films. I hope these winners experience more success down the road, and I hope I am worthy of the list at some later date.

One of….

About 125 scripts in the UCLA contest. The biggest relief was getting the email that my script was accepted, which I assume means it made it into the proper format. Exporting from Movie Magic into the required pdf led to a surprising level of stress for Mr. Non-Technically Inclined here.

Hey, so it’s in the mix. Can’t ask for much more than that! First ragged script, first contest, there it is. Go UCLA screenwriters–10 deserving hard workers will win a prize. Anxious to see who the big awards go to.

Third Revision

Ahem, well, the script just went through a third revision. Here’s the deal: the thing needs so much work. Yikes. But…

I’m going to toss it into the UCLA contest on Monday pretty much as it is right now.

Going through the revision this time through and reviewing notes I have from The Respected Ones helped me to see some BIG things that need to change. There are a lot of bones in place, but this baby needs an overhaul on some major character and situational elements.

Unfortunately, no time before Monday for those things. So, I’ll clean ‘er up and let ‘er fly.

The groundbreaking realization is:

After a second revision of the script it suffers a host of trouble spots.

Wow, actually that’s not news at all.

Here’s the thought that puzzles me: How can a writer NOT go through at least a dozen (two dozen?) complete, heavy revisions before calling a script close to “done?”

Burn

Temps up into the 50′s today and so taking a break from the script to wander the yard, pick up the cracked tree limbs from winter, and burn the suckers in the fire pit.

The script is staying far from the fire, for now.

To Do:

Rewrite/revise/edit every day. Got it?