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What's New, BlueCat?
The Official Newsletter of the
Bluecat Screenplay Competition
May 21st, 2013
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IN THIS WEEK'S NEWSLETTER:
- Screenwriting Lessons We Can Learn from STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS
- Storytelling Flaws in THE GREAT GATSBY
- Paul Thomas Anderson On His Early Struggles
- Women in the Film Industry
- Crunching Numbers to Analyze Screenplays
- Selected Script: STAR TREK (2009)
- LightHouse Writer's Workshop
- Newly-Added Workshops in New York, Philadelphia, & San Francisco
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2014 Call for Entries
We are now open for submissions!
This year, BlueCat establishes one of the largest cash prizes in the world for a Short Screenplay, with a Grand prize of $10,000, along with an increase in our Feature prize to $15,000.
Students will be eligible to submit their short screenplay at a discounted rate of $29 for the duration of the competition.
Each Short Screenplay submission will receive one written analysis, while each Feature Screenplay entry will receive two.
All Feature Screenplay submissions received by June 15th will receive their feedback by July 1st.
Best Feature Screenplay
$15,000 Grand Prize
Four Finalists
Best Short Screenplay
$10,000 Grand Prize
Three Finalists
$1,500 Prize
The Cordelia Award
Best Feature Screenplay from the UK
$1,500 Prize
The Joplin Award
Best Feature Screenplay from outside the USA, Canada or the UK
$1,500 Prize
Movie Title Contest:
Three Winners $250 each
Recent achievements by BlueCat Alumni include:
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Young Il Kim's script, RODHAM, a 2012 Blacklist Script, recently attached director Jason Ponsoldt (THE SPECTACULAR NOW). Young recently won the 2013 Alfred P. Sloan Commissioning Grant from Sundance, where he will write a biopic on Stephen Hawking.
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Aaron Guzikowski's PRISONERS, starring Hugh Jackman, Jake Gyllenhaal and Melissa Leo, will be released September 2013. The Sundance Channel recently bought Aaron's TV pilot, THE DESCENDENTS, making it their second scripted show after RECTIFY.
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Ashleigh Powell sold her script, SOMACELL, to Warner Brothers, with David Goyer attached to produce.
- SOMACELL, along with RODHAM, were two 2012 Blacklist Scripts written by BlueCat Alumni.
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Screenwriting Lessons from
STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS
BlueCat Blog
Ryan David Jahn dives into the latest STAR TREK film for another round of screenwriting lessons.
Ryan writes, "STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS is very nearly a complete success."
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written by
Roberto Orci & Alex Kurtzman
Head over to the Internet Movie Script Database to read the screenplay.
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The Cordelia Award
Best Script from the UK
The BlueCat Screenplay Competition remains committed to the development of screenwriters worldwide. The Cordelia Award winner, for the best script from the UK, will receive a cash prize of $1,500 USD.
Head to the blog for more information.
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Workshop With Gordy at the Lighthouse Writers Workshop
Enjoy Gordy's workshops? 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.
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Cinephilia and Beyond Paul Thomas Anderson Early Struggles
Take a writing break and head over to the Cinephilia and Beyond blog for a retrospective glance at Paul Thomas Anderson's first feature film. In an old clip, Anderson talks about fighting for his film, and in the accompanying article, he discusses "...his horrifying experience on his first directorial feature, SYDNEY (aka HARD EIGHT), and how he survived and overcame."
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Women in Film
Celluloid Ceiling 2012 Results
They say the summer blockbuster season starts earlier every year. When you're blasted by trailer after trailer of upcoming summer flicks, it's hard not to notice the dearth of films directed or written by women. So what's the story? Where's the female presence in mainstream Hollywood?
Well, look no further than Dr. Martha Lauzen's annual study of women in the film industry. As IndieWire.com says, "The results are, unfortunately, what you'd expect. In 2012, women were 18% of the directors, executive producers, producers, writers, cinematographers, and editors working on the top 250 domestic grossing films. This represents no change from 2011, which is supremely depressing." Click here for the article, and here for the study.
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In Case You Missed It...
Number Crunchers Usher New Era of Screenplay Feedback to Hollywood
A company in Culver City is now using an evaluation process akin to the mathematical analysis more commonly seen in the financial industry to advise studios and production companies on whether a screenplay will be a moneymaker. Is there going to come a day when we can submit our screenplay into a computer and get instant feedback? What industries today can predict a sure thing? Head to the BlueCat Blog for more.
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Storytelling Flaws in the
THE GREAT GATSBY
BlueCat Blog
Ryan David Jahn tackles another blockbuster with an examination of THE GREAT GATSBY.
Ryan says the film is "...flashy and extravagant to a fault; distractingly, though intentionally, anachronistic; and lacks, for me, even a hint of humanity until the very end, at which point it's simply too late."
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Hey, Whaddya Say?
"There is no moment when you become that person you want to be...You are that person right now. The key is to find a community."
--filmmaker J.J. Abrams on the importance of community in the TV/film business during a visit with students in the School of Film and Television at Loyola Marymount University
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Advertise With BlueCat
Would you like to advertise in our newsletter? Interested in a dedicated e-blast? We have nearly 13,000 screenwriters who read our newsletter every week. To discuss, please contact Heather at info@bluecatscreenplay.com.
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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:
Online Script Workshop - June 27th - REGISTER
Online Workshop - September 26th - REGISTER
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