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What's New, BlueCat?                                          
The Official Newsletter of the

Bluecat Screenplay Competition   


March 19th, 2013

IN THIS WEEK'S NEWSLETTER:
  • Top Five Movie Monologues
  • An Interview With Puppeteer Christian Anderson
  • BlueCat Finalist Pens New Sundance Channel Pilot
  • Selected Script: Albert Knobbs
  • LightHouse Writers Workshop
  • Upcoming Workshops in San Francisco and Montreal
  • Screenwriting Tip Of The Week
  • A Fun Screenwriting Exercise To Improve Dialogue
BlueCat Finalist Aaron Guzowski Sells Show To Sundance Channel

The Sundance Channel recently greenlighted their next original scripted series, The Descendents (working title). Aaron Guzowski wrote the pilot for the show and was a BlueCat finalist in 2005. Read more about the upcoming show here!
The Five Best Movie Monologues

A powerful monologue is much harder to write than one would initially assume, as anyone who has tried to write one would know. Here is a collection of what some would describe as five of the best movie monologues-but feel free to have your own opinion. 
Selected Script: 
Albert Nobbs

Glenn Close, who was nominated for best actress for her performance in Albert Nobbs in 2011, was born on this day in 1947. She was also one of the writers for the screenplay that you can read by clicking here!

Workshop With Gordy at the Lighthouse Writers Workshop
   

Enjoy Gordy's workshops? Check out another one he is a part of! Lighthouse Writers Workshop is a week long or weekend intensive writing workshop for advanced fiction, poetry, screenplay or non-fiction writers. Register and find out the details here!
Connect With BlueCat!
Do you have a question for Gordy or want to stay up-to-date with all of the BlueCat happenings and workshops? "Like" us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter. Once @Bluecatpictures reaches 5000 followers, there will be a free entry contest for a 2014 entry!
Gordy's Weekend Workshops


The picture above is from one of Gordy's L.A. workshops. Check out a short tribute video on of the attendees made by clicking here!
Hey, Whaddya Say?
 

"I like to approach comedy from character, to have the stakes for the individuals in the story be very high."

-Seth Gordon
Screenwriting Tip Of The Week: 

Avoid using character names with the same first letter (e.g. Kyle & Kelly). It can be confusing to the eye on the page and slows down the reading.
Stay Tuned!

The 2013 Finalists will be announced on April 10th. To see a list of this years semi-finalists, click here
 
Cordelia and Joplin finalists will be announced April 4th. 
Christian Anderson:
The Amazing Puppeteer 

Christian Anderson is a puppeteer and the former puppet director at Avenue Q. We asked Christian a few questions in order to better understand his process of writing and creating content for his YouTube show, 88 Jade Way along with his future aspirations for it. 

 

Where did you get the idea for your YouTube puppet show?

I was working on another puppet-based show for Youtube's YOMYOMF network

with my old friend, actor Sung Kang ('Han' in the Fast and Furious films). He had to

go out of town for work and suggested I come up with something else for them. I

had just finished building a small puppet, just for fun, and thought how I'd like to do

a show with just puppets in a puppet world with no humans. I talked to my girlfriend

about it and we came up with the idea that we could incorporate the real life trials

and tribulations of our apartment living adventures. We had a schizophrenic

woman who would ramble on about having no problem killing white American

children living across the hall, downstairs we had a lovely Mongolian couple who

fought loudly-and what sounded violently-at 5 a.m. in the morning after the girl came home wasted drunk and, closer to home, my girlfriend is a 'Cat Lady' in training-A treasure trove of inspiration. And that is the story of the birth of 88 Jade Way.

 

What was the biggest challenge that came with being the artistic director of Avenue Q?

My job at 3D Theatrical's Avenue Q was director of puppetry. I think the biggest

challenge was to try to teach non-puppeteer performers to essentially become believable puppeteers in about five weeks. Puppetry is a very complicated skill. Bad puppetry can take an audience out of the story and in Avenue Q half of the main characters are puppets and the audience needs to believe in them. It was hard work, very repetitive and exhausting, but the cast was great, very dedicated and professional and I think we accomplished what we set out to do.

 

What are your future aspiration as a writer/director?

Right now, I envision creating an empire with my puppet characters. I've got a

plethora of ideas for shows for adults like 88 Jade Way, and for kids, which is what I

was working on before-a musical puppet/human adventure series ala H.R.

Pufnstuf, but in reverse. I've been fascinated with that type of entertainment for as long as I can remember and I think there's a place for it today.

 

How does using puppets help or hinder your storytelling process?

I think that puppets add a certain "anything can happen and probably will"

ingredient to whatever they're involved with. If performed well, a puppet can make an audience believe anything you might want them to believe. A puppet can get away with saying something that if said by a human performer, would probably cause great offense, but doesn't for some reason because it's being said by a puppet, as seen all throughout Avenue Q. There's something magical and

transcendent about using puppets in storytelling, but not all stories need or would benefit from that. For me and the stories that I want to tell right now, puppets are key.

 

So far, what has been the most rewarding aspect of your career?

Simply put, I think the most rewarding aspect of my career so far is having had

the opportunity to meet and work with, thus learn from, some amazing and talented people. I got trained in puppetry (Muppetry... if you will) by the amazing Peter Linz ('Walter' from The Muppets), I've been directed by the great Jack O'Brien (The Full Monty, Hairspray, The Coast of Utopia), I've taught alongside former Muppeteer Michael Earl.... blah, blah, blah. I've also been lucky enough to travel some for work-Vancouver, Japan, London, and all around the U.S. Life is good people, life is good.

 

What sort of writing do you do outside of your puppet show?

Mostly silly little songs. I'm writing all the songs for and scoring 88 Jade Way.

Outside of that, I sing silly-some might say stupid-little songs all day long and

sometimes I put them to paper. I used to write a lot when I was younger-a whole

bunch of short stories, but writing is hard and I have a short attention span so the

real sitting down and writing something doesn't happen all that much.

 

What do you think is your biggest asset as a writer/director?

I don't consider myself a writer/director as of yet. I'd like to be someday, someday

soon, but I've got a lot to learn before I feel I can actually call myself those things.

As far as 88 Jade Way is concerned, I had an idea and knew that in order to make

it the best that it could be I needed to reach out to those who are actually writing

and directing, not dreaming about it like myself. I'm at the writer's meetings (with

Nihar Patel and Aaron Strongoni, our writers) giving notes and sharing ideas and

chiming in with Anson Ho (our director) while we're shooting, but mostly I'm

watching these guys and learning what I can. 

 

88 Jade Way will likely be premiering on the YOMYOMF YouTube network in mid-May. 

 

View Christian's Puppet Reel here.

 

Read about Christian Anderson at Avenue Q in the LA Stage Times

 

Fun Screenwriting Exercise: Dialogue
 
Write a conversation between two liars. Give everything they say a double or triple meaning. Never state or indicate through outside description that these two people are lying. Let the reader figure it out strictly from the dialogue.

 
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Contact [email protected] for information and rates 
 
BlueCat Workshops
 
BlueCat Screenplay Workshops are a one-day, intensive opportunity to certifiably improve your script in a small group environment, led by award winning screenwriter and BlueCat founder Gordy Hoffman.
 
Your script will be read in advance both by Gordy as well as the other workshop participants; everyone receives in-depth feedback on their script from a number of different perspectives.
     
 
UPCOMING WORKSHOPS:  
 
 
Los Angeles - March 31st
SOLD OUT (regular registration only)

Atlanta - April 7th
SOLD OUT (regular registration only) 

 

San Francisco - May 4th

 

Los Angeles - May 18th

 

Montreal - June 29th 

Online Script Workshop - June 27th

 

Toronto - July 6th

 

Portland - August 1st
SOLD OUT (regular registration only)
 

 

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