First off, well done to all you enterprising bloggers and surfers who have entered the Bang2write Pitch Fest, due to go out this Wednesday, July 4th.
Secondly – where the hell are the rest of you?!?*
I haven’t counted them all yet, but we have UNDER 20 entries. Since I know in the region of 500 of you entered Fever Pitch so MUST have a logline and synopsis floating around, this is a SCANDAL!
I know some of you don’t like the idea of sticking stuff up on the ‘net in case peeps nick your ideas. Get over this. You don’t expose yourself (oooh matron), your ideas and your writing, you aren’t going to attract interest in your stuff; you don’t attract interest in your stuff, you’re not going to be the writer you want to be. Don’t believe me though – ask The Man Adrian Mead: he’ll tell you! ; )
I know a lot of you are off to The Screenwriters’ Fest too, so perhaps you think you don’t have enough time to polish your synopses. Ok, I can dig that: life in my house is one mad rush of cheerios-eating, school runs, nappie-changing, vacuuming and chucking of junk into cupboards before any actual writing gets done.
So this is what I’m gonna propose.
You ALL must have loglines floating around, right?? Well, there is going to be a second section of this competition – one for pitches with synopses, one for loglines on their own. SEND ME YOUR LOGLINES! Email them or leave them in the comments section. Make them up on the spot if you want to, see if anyone is interested on that idea that popped into your head in the last three hours… Go!
DEADLINE: Midday, Tuesday July 3rd.
*This lecture was brought to you in association with Get off Your Arse and Pitch, Pitch, Pitch! Ltd 🙂
BE MINE (Drama). When an adopted woman goes in search of her biological family, she discovers her teenage mother murdered her father.
Anya Ricketts, NYC
Thanks Anya!
Okay, since we don’t have to do the synopsis now (and I’m a lazy bastard):
THE HARVEST (sci-fi)
Genetically-modified crops gain a consciousness of their own and attack a small farming community in the future.
I do this under protest and only because you’re moving to Bournemouth and know where I live.
SHOTGUNS AND INCONTINENCE PANTS (comedy drama) Five pensioners, one zimmer frame, one cowardly son, shotguns, a container full of used Euros, and a plan. Robbery has never been so wrinkly.
Lovely Lucy
Loglines, floating around? Not me – could that be where I’m going wrong?
I’m going to the Cheltenham Screenwriters Festival next week and I’m trying to finish off a play, so I can’t think straight let alone come up with a decent logline to enter your competition.
But it’s a good idea, well done for organising it and good luck with it.
Helen x
I’m off to the Festival tomorrow. My previously lovely editor-client had promised to pay me last week. Then she said she wouldn’t till I did a round of rewrites. Now she’s claiming I have to do the bulk of the research for the book before I write the contents list and she won’t pay me till she approves the contents list… can you see where this is going?
As for posting ideas – I was at Adrian’s London workshop and I’ve read all the stuff on Wordplay and I _thought_ the general consensus was not to put bright ideas out there till you’d done enough work on them – preferably the entire script – to be able to prove authorship. *Then* you go for it. But I could be wrong.
Despite which, I would do at least a logline if my brain wasn’t fried and I wasn’t terrified about my finanancial situtation.
Liz
Cheers Artiste, though do you have a real name??
Dom – I DO know where you live, so you are wise. Flame thrower, rmbr.
Helen – cheers mate – and have a faberoonie time at The Fest, blog all about it pls! And good luck with the new play.
LizH – dunno about Wordplay, but in this post, in the comments section, Clare from Mead Kerr reminds us that putting a “feeler” out for your new idea is a good one (as does the lovely Potdoll)… I really like this idea, since I’ve had plenty of hot original ideas only to discover it’s not as original and hot as I thought! Saves a lot of bother. ; )
Re: your financial state, I live in a similar state of terror at all times, especially at the moment, so much sympathy. Anyone want anything reading btw, hit me!
Ok, Ok, I’ll play…It’s a short, not a feature: that ok?
It’s called A DOG’S LIFE:
4 teens borrow a car to go on their first holiday together and end up knocking down a dog.
I suppose it’s a comedy. Hopefully it’s funny.
Charlie in York (I’m a girl by the way)
Mine’s a B movie
A monstrous giant flying doughnut preys on size 0s.
Okay then.
Sambo was a character in Thackeray’s Vanity fair and have any of you seen Summer Holiday performed live at the theatre ? You may only know the cinema one.
Hi Lucy –
Thank you for keeping the pressure on the “lost 500”.
As far as the concern about posting a synopsis- if it’s in writing on a public blog, wouldn’t that be safer than a verbal pitch, with no record of the conversation?
I seem to recall someone on last year’s Pitch Panel comment that a certain “pitchees” idea was so good it should get stolen, bit since there were so many witnesses, it would be unlikely.
Also, if someone is concerned about it getting stolen, couldn’t they copyright it as a short story?
Sorry DC, the only Thackeray I know is the quote “Mother is the name for God on the lips and in the hearts of all small children”. And I just don’t know what you mean with the name you mention I’m afraid. I deleted your pitch ‘cos of fear of misinterpretation.
Anne of Cleves – You’re welcome! With ref to your Q’s, ideas cannot be copyrighted, so though on the surface it seems a good idea, even a short story or a pitch on a blog is not insurance. However, the notion that there’s all these ideas ripe to get stolen is a myth in my view. As a Reader I have never ever seen a script stolen – from anyone.
If it was possible to copyright an idea tho, think where that would lead us: no one would ever be able to write a script that’s a “fish out of water” tale, or one with werewolves in it or a love story. It would never stop: nightmare. Lots of films are made with the same idea, it’s the content that’s different (28 DAYS LATER vs RESIDENT EVIL anyone?). So don’t worry about your ideas getting nicked: chances are, someone’s just thought of it at the same time as you anyway. Lost count of the number of times I’ve thought of something to write about… Then a script’s ended up at Bang2write with exactly the same idea — yet I haven’t written my script yet! ; )
No I don’t have a real name. I am The Artiste formerly known as Paul.
He’s also my husband, ignore him, he likes to cause trouble.
I wondered why you often seemed to post at the same time!
Well now you know. So Lucy: you have been censoring pitches?
I objected to
this word as I feel it represents a negative stereotype, even if such writers as Thackeray include it in their works. They lived in another time, we don’t.
I realise I’m being a ” REL=”nofollow”>moral realist, philosophically speaking (so apologies to DC for that) but I would hate for a flame war to start over it.
Hey Lucy
Been finishing my 25WOL tonight, so am totally brain-fried now. Will drop in a logline tomorrow.
Commiserations on the Writers Academy. Me too. Meh. In fact this was the forth rejection I’d had this week AND I almost choked yesterday AND a bird crapped on my head (seriously- I thought this only happened in weak farces, and no my example proves it ISN’T lucky- this is just propaganda put about by People Who Take Themselves Too Seriously Who Have Been Crapped On By Birds).
Are there still plans for a scribomeet in London on the 21st? I’m gonna try and get a prodcom I’m slightly in bed with to pay for my travel, and then stay the extra day if people are still meeting for a beer.
Also, anybody know if you can enter 25WOL in each category? i.e. one scifi/lowfi idea, one Teen Hitchcock etc?
Laters
Good luck in lucypalooza (or are we not caliing it that then?)
To all who worry about them stealing yr ideas if you post them – didnt you know, they can steal yr ideas DIRECT FROM YR MIND!!
Off to cheltenham now, n not sure if I’ll have internet access so I’ll say later and look forward to meeting helen and lizh and anyone else who’s going.
Thanks Lucy – I didn’t get a chance to nip to a web cafe or the like at the weekend, so I thought I had missed my deadline. I will be able to blog from work, so will definitely put something on…
TRIAL AND ERROR (Comedy): A bumbling assassin gets jury duty for a murder case where they killed the victim. But what happens when the assassin falls in love with the defendent?
David, I love the idea of the actual murderer ending up on the jury – huge coincidence of course, but easy to let slide.
You’d have the man who disappears into the shadows facing the consequences of his actions. In which case, is the defendant the best person for them to fall for? How about the prosecutor, or the victim’s widow? Unless the defendant is the victim’s widow, you evil genius.
DONE and with 12 minutes to spare.
phew.
oh yes, and posted on my blog…
Broken Bird