Just Effing Entertain Me

Looking for One Truth

As Kodjo and I drove around LA taking meeting after meeting (some meet-n-greets, some with managers), I was struck by the generosity of each of the writers we met. They very eagerly shared how they got their starts and what their key turning points were. And each had a very different story. As Kodjo and I talked about it later, we were struck by how different each story was and yet how each writer had one thing very much in common.

Ready for it? What is the thing that launched all three?

They’d written A LOT of scripts and they had some personal connection that opened a door. Every single writer made that comment.

You had to sort of lean forward to catch that – they all talk fast! – but as they talked about where they were from, what movies they liked, how they arrived in LA, etc. you’d hear this – and then I wrote this script, oh and then I had this other pilot, oh and so I was at a table read and I met so-and-so – but then a year later, we bumped into each other and I’d written this other script oh and a one-act play, so we had lunch and I gave him notes/went to his wedding/ran into him at the library and so he read the script, made a phone call AND THEN MY CAREER LAUNCHED.

None of the writers we chatted with had overnight success. None had success off one great sample; rather, they had been writing many scripts over time. And they had been networking and meeting other writers and paying it forward. That seems to be the one common thread.

Interesting food for thought.

And now, I head down to the CS Expo with Kodjo to revel in the classes and seminars and see many smiling writer faces.

Having Fun in LA With the Silver Screenwriting WINNER

Well. I am having so much fun with our Grand Prize winner, Kodjo. It’s rained his first two days here (he brought his London weather with him!) but nonetheless, we’ve done some great sightseeing and been very busy. Kodjo has shopped for his brand new MacBook Air (and because he’s won my heart, I gave him a bonus copy of the brand new Final Draft to go with it), he has met Jason Scoggins of Protocol Management to discuss his winning script and his career, he had a GREAT meeting at Rain Management yesterday with Alec Schraeger, AND he’s had breakfast with Josh Zetumer, drinks with Steve Faber and lunch with Jeff Bushell.

Oh, AND, he toured the set of Grey’s Anatomy, where he watched Ellen Pompeo and Justin Chambers shoot a scene for an upcoming episode. Oh AND he had a very fancy dinner last night at the Mondrian to discuss an option offer on SHIFT! What an action-packed past few days…and it ain’t over! He’s meeting with an executive at Jay Roach‘s office today and then touring the Writer’s Guild with my wonderful business partner Margaux Froley, for some more one-on-one career counseling time.

I just adore Kodjo – it’s rare to find such talent and such a charismatic, appreciative personality all rolled into one. Here are some pictures of our adventures!

Silver Screenwriting Grand Prize Winner Arrives in LA!

So today Quincy and I picked Kodjo Akeseh Tsakpo up from LAX after his 10-hour flight from Heathrow Airport. I must say, even after such a long flight, Kodjo was fit as a fiddle and charming as all get out. His week will be very busy, chock-a-block with meetings with lit managers and of course DUNE and BOURNE IDENTITY writer Josh Zetumer.

Kodjo brought several copies of his short film DETOUR and let me tell you, it is a chilling short film. I hope to introduce Kodjo to my dear friend, Steve Faber later on this week and Jeff Bushell, writer of BEVERLY HILLS CHIHUAHUA (and my neighbor at my office) has offered to make himself available for a quick cup of coffee too.

It’s going to be a fun week and Kodjo is so talented and personable and excited to be here that I’m so happy to be his buddy this week. Kodjo is also planning to attend the CS Expo, so if you’ll be there too, be sure to find him hanging around The Script Department booth and attending my Saturday a.m. class The Top Ten Things Readers Hate.

Welcome to LA, Kodjo!

Top 10 Finalists' Loglines

You asked for it – it took me awhile – but you got it. Here are the loglines for the top 10 finalists in the Silver Screenwriting Competition. The writers wrote them themselves and I think the different styles and approaches are interesting. Notice the top three scripts have the pithiest loglines.  A number of these scripts went out to agents and managers today, I’m pretty excited to say, including BenderSpink and Circle of Confusion. Keep your fingers crossed for the writers. And the writer of SHIFT seems to have an option headed his way. So good times!

GRAND PRIZE WINNER:

SHIFT by Kodjo Akeseh Tsakpo

Embattled and corrupt CEO Robert Ross is given a unique shot at redemption when he must relive the worst day of his life over and over.

2nd PLACE WINNER

HORROR COMIC by Stephen Hoover

A young comic book writer must stop the copycat who’s using his tales of terror as the inspiration for a series of grisly murders.

3RD PLACE WINNER

EVERLASTING by Jonis Agee and Brent Spencer

After a jet crashes in a nearby field, a small town takes in the sole survivor, a man with no memory. As soon as he arrives, people stop dying. Is he a freak of nature, a savior, or Death himself?

AND THE REST…

BET ON BLOOD by Patrick Barb

Could you survive an attack from a masked killer like Jason Voorhees or Michael Myers? Care to bet on that? A sinister organization stages their own slasher attacks and allows viewers to bet on the unwilling participants’ chances for survival.

ENDOWMENT by Ian Samplin

When Alan Bergman commits suicide he leaves his daughter, Brynn, to inherit an overwhelming sum of money.  Worrying for Brynn’s well-being, Miriam, a long-term housemaid, decides to invite her niece and her niece’s boyfriend to stay at the mansion: just the thing to bring a troubled girl back to life.

INUGAMI by Rich Figel

Set in contemporary San Francisco, a Japanese psychic forsees her own brutal death and asks a private investigator for help. When she tells him the killer is an “inugami” — a person who is possessed by an evil animal spirit — the skeptical P.I. must find a creature he doesn’t believe exists and stop it before it can fulfill the second part of her prophecy: that he will be its next victim.

LIFE AMONG THE RUINS by Anthony Fisher

Brooklyn, Summer of 1998. Overwhelmed by his situation and haunted by his past, a young deli clerk struggles to avoid following in his late father’s criminal footprints.

THE GREAT AMERICAN LOSER by Jess DiGiacinto

During a trip back to her childhood home, a young woman accidentally falls for a man who was both her teacher and tormentor in high school.

THE HAPPINESS EXPERIMENT by Alex Darrow

A garbage man with low self-esteem and poor social skills finds himself the subject of a scientific experiment to improve every aspect of his life and thereby make him happy.

WAY TO THE CAGE by Richard Michael Lucas

Inspired by true events, WAY TO THE CAGE chronicles the formation of ultimate fighting when an underdog brawler fights his way off the streets of Philadelphia and is catapulted onto the world stage to challenge the international no holds barred champion in the first Mixed Martial Arts match ever sanctioned in the United States.

Grand Prize Winner

I want to offer my congratulations to the winners of the 2009 Silver Screenwriting Competition, and in particular to our grand prize winner, Kodjo Akeseh Tsakpo, for his wonderful thriller, SHIFT. The script is a bit like WALL STREET meets RASHOMON and I couldn’t put it down. SHIFT is one of the most compelling, well executed scripts I’ve read in some time. I’m looking forward to Kodjo’s trip to Los Angeles and I know a lot of other people are too.

More than once, commenters have asked why there were no females in our top spots (finalists and the top three). I must point out firstly that Jonis Agee, co-writer of EVERLASTING, the third place script, is a woman. Beyond that, guys, I dunno. I just calls ‘em like I sees ‘em. I did notice more female writers in the top spots in other competitions and again I say – I dunno. If someone would like to have a bake sale or lasagne-off to raise the money to pay my assistant to review all 650 entries to track submissions by gender and examine their upward or downward route in the competition, let me know. I am mildly curious but not curious enough to spend the time and the money it would take to come up with statistics. I do know that of course there are definitely more aspiring male screenwriters than female (about 70/30) but beyond that I just can’t speak to this trend. As far as I’m concerned, the best scripts rose to the top and I don’t think it a great idea to take gender into consideration. May the best story and the best writer win, be that a he, a she, a gender-confused alien or a talking porpoise. Well, a talking porpoise would actually pull way ahead by dint of novelty alone, so get out there and have a chat with your aquatic pets before next year’s competition.

Again – and in all seriousness – thanks to the top winners. I’m proud of you all.

Top 10 Finalists

Hello Effers! Well – here they are. The top 10 scripts out of 650 submissions in the 2009 Silver Screenwriting Competition.  So that makes them what – the top 1%? Is that right? My math is terrible! Congratulations to everyone on this list! In five days the grand prize, second and third prize winners will be announced as well. Good times!

BET ON BLOOD by Patrick Barb
ENDOWMENT by Ian Samplin
EVERLASTING by Brent Spencer and Jonis Agree
INUGAMI by Rich Figel
HORROR COMIC by Stephen Hoover
LIFE AMONG THE RUINS by Anthony Fisher
SHIFT by Kodjo Akeseh Tsakpo
THE GREAT AMERICAN LOSER by Jess DiGiacinto
THE HAPPINESS EXPERIMENT by Alex Darrow
WAY TO THE CAGE by Richard Michael Lucas

What's Fair Gives Way to What Rocks

I think the slowest among us figured out that life is not fair in our sophomore year. What a bunch of hooey we were fed in preschool and kindergarten. I guess being taught about fairness is a stab at preventing preschoolers from descending into some kind of Lord of the Flies With Nap Time fever-dream-nightmare. But I digress, possibly influenced by the concept album artwork here on Just Effing. Forgive me.

As I write this, I have the top 10 finalists of the Silver Screenwriting Competition sitting on my dining table. Not the writers themselves, to be clear, but their scripts. You know what I mean. After having been read, vetted, argued over and rifled through so often they are terribly dog-eared, now the onus is on me.  My fellow judges at this level, Andrew Zinnes and Margaux Froley, both industry professionals and part owners of my company, have weighed in on which scripts they think should place in the top three. But the final results and choices are solely up to me. I have a couple of weeks before I have to announce the winner. Every day I walk past that pile of 10 and I think hmm…which one should I pick up and read right now? That title looks intriguing. That script looks LONG. That script I’ve heard such good things about. And like a kid reviewing the selection of ice cream behind the glass, I choose a script to read. I mean, we are talking about minimally an hour of my life I’m about to give up, right? I work all day, it’s hot, I’m tired, I want to watch reruns of “Big Love.” But no. I have to read at least one or two scripts. Okay – so which one looks the most likely to rock my world?

And I think this process really does mimic real life. Very much so. You know, after our notes were sent out to the entrants of our competition, a very tiny handful (less than 1% of entrants) complained vociferously that they were not judged fairly. As if there is any such thing as “fair” in life, much less Hollywood. Fairness is for preschool. Now, running a competition with integrity, that is most decidedly NOT for preschoolers, so that we do. I have retrieved scripts from the much larger semi-finalists pile that were tossed in the “no” pile and read them once more, giving them another chance, in case too much subjectivity entered into the “no” decision.  Every entrant deserves to be considered with focus and attention.

But beyond that – it’s like girls lined up against the gymnasium wall, hoping some will ask them to dance. Is that fair? Does the nicest girl get asked? No. The prettiest ones do.  That said, it’s my job to dance with each script long enough to know whether it truly deserves the attention I give it.  And so it is – actually – so it NOT EVEN is with your script when you send it to a manager, agent or production company. I feel a responsibility to read your script and give it my attention because entrants paid for that experience – but a manager, agent or production company could give a good god damn about you personally, what’s fair or how hard you tried or whether or not they “got it.” All they care about is how great your story is. So you really do have to develop a very thick skin. And no, it isn’t fair. Fair goes out the window when it’s not about you, it’s about the story you wrote and how it compares to others in the slithering stacks that occupy hundreds of square miles in Hollywood.

So. Onward I read. Looking for my number one.