Research
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Competition
I
chose the blue cat short screenplay competition. The rules for this completion
are:
·
All submissions must be original, and the sole
property of the applicant(s).
·
All ages
are eligible.
·
All entries must be in English (or subtitled in
English for film submissions.)
·
Short screenplays
must be between 1-49 pages in length.
There is no limit to the number of entries you may submit.
There is no limit to the number of entries you may submit.
·
You may
submit a script or film once. You may not submit the same script or film more
than once.
·
All
script entries must be uploaded in PDF format.
·
Under
absolutely no circumstances will substitutions of either corrected pages or new
drafts of the entry script(s) be made. Scripts will not be returned.
·
If a
submitted script becomes optioned, produced or purchased between the time of
submission and the end of the judging period, that script will no longer be
eligible.
·
Competition
judges, readers and employees of the BlueCat Screenplay Competition, past and
present, and their immediate friends and families are not eligible to enter.
·
Previous
winners of the BlueCat Screenplay Competition are not eligible.
·
Scripts,
including outlines, treatments, pitches, log lines or any developmental
material related to the script, that has previously won any contest,
competition, grant, lab, fellowship, mentorship, reading or award of any kind,
are not eligible.
·
Screenplays
that have been submitted to any competition or contest prior to
February 1st, 2015 are not eligible.
·
Films
must be produced after January 1st, 2016.
·
Scripts
or films submitted under a pen name will be immediately disqualified.
·
Script or
film titles cannot be changed after submission under any circumstances.
·
Past and
present scripts and films consulted on through Gordy Hoffman’s screenplay
consultation service or the BlueCat workshops are not eligible. Past and
present USC and UCLA students of Gordy Hoff (3)
Annotated script from Casualty
Pretty Little Liars series 2 episode 1:
I think this is a well written script because there
is inner presence, outer presence and context.
There is inner presence, an example of this is
Spencer having 3 sugars in her tea, she has these because she doesn’t like
coffee she just likes the effect. This shows that she is a tired person. Emily
also shows some inner presence as she is still wearing a bracelet from Ali even
though she is dead. This shows that Emily still feels as though she has a
connection with Ali.
An example of outer presence is that they are all
wearing black funeral dresses. This shows that they have just been to a
funeral. Jenna is showing outer presence because she has dark sunglasses on and
a cane, this clearly shows she is blind, however this also gives a
misconception to British viewers as she has a red tip to the cane. In Britain this
shows that she is also deaf as well as blind however, in America which this is
based it only shows that she’s blind.
There is also context because the girls are talking
at the beginning about ‘the Jenna thing’ which meant Jenna went from being the
pretty popular girl to the blind girl because of this incident that
happened.
Screenplay examples:
Penned
I like this because it has limited speaking in it,
however, they portray the story well. Which is about a pen which he borrowed in
an exam because he pen ran out. He draws with the pen whatever he does with the
drawing happens to that object in real life. For example, he drew a picture of
his cat drinking milk. He left the drawing on the table and went to bed. In the
morning the cat was still drinking and was not moving at all, he then got angry
because he didn’t really understand what was happening. He drew a can of drink
next to him and scrunched it up, as he scrunched it up the can also did. I also
like the music which they used because it is soft dreamlike which is used for
effect and also leads to suspense. I also really like how they have done the
credits at the start of the film because they had placed them on objects in the
room, of books and object on the desk. I think this could have been better if
they show what he was drawing in some of the film.
The Applicant
Like Penned I like the credits at the start of the
film how they have put it on the question paper which appears later in the fill.
The film is about some people applying for a job and they have to do an exam
paper however, one persons’ pen ran out and he decided to write the rest of the
exam in his own blood.
My target audience is teenagers and young adults. This is
because there is violence in it.
What pulls you into a film straight away?
Do you watch drama?
Yes
No
What top 3 things do you expect in a drama?
Death
Suspense
What sort of film do you watch most?
Drama
Comedy
Romantic
What sort of ending do you like?
Happy
Sad
Annoying
Cliff-hanger
What do you think of my ending?
Locations I need:
House: someone’s house
White room: the studio
Police interview: an office
Living room for news report; same room as the start
Characters I need:
Dan
James
The colleague
Police Officer
News reporter
The Source
code is similar to my script as it has a similar story line to mine. They are
also both about codes. (1)
Themes:
My screenplay is a modern version of the classic 'heist' double cross story. It uses contemporary ideas like the internet and new technology, and also uses the modern idea that governments have lots of secrets and surveillance and spying techniques which use new technology. It is topical because these issues are present in modern day life. There are many stories in the news about misuse of data for example the GDPR issue and the ways in which Russians might have used Facebook data to influence the US election and the Brexit vote. Facebook uses your data to target advertising to you. In this world I thought a story about how someone who pretends to be someone else and gets an expert to give them data was a topical one.
Real Media Text Influences:
I started off my story after watching a Youtube video about someone pressing a red button
LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F99LYU8dVSE
I enjoyed this video because it explore the unexpected consequences of an action and it was told with humour. This is where I got the idea of pressing the button on the computer from, but as my story developed it moved away from comedy into a much more serious film about a double cross crime.
References:
1.
Jones, D., Ripley, B.,
Gyllenhaal, J., Monaghan, M. and Farmiga, V. (2018). Source Code (2011).
[online] IMDb. Available at: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0945513/ [Accessed 17
Apr. 2018].
2. Downloads.bbc.co.uk. (2018).
[online] Available at:
http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/scripts/Casualty-S31-Ep44-One.pdf
[Accessed 17 Apr. 2018].
3. BlueCat Screenplay Competition.
(2018). 2018 BlueCat Screenplay Competition Rules & Guidelines. [online]
Available at: http://www.bluecatscreenplay.com/2018-rules-guidelines/ [Accessed
17 Apr. 2018].
