Long term readers will remember the just-for-fun logline and synopsis competition this blog had back in July as a knee-jerk reaction to so many of us in the Scribosphere trying – and not making it – into The Screenwriters’ Festival Fever Pitch Comp. Scribes and Bloggers voted in a poll for their favourites and even offered feedback to one another, so it was both great fun and useful. Check out the entries here and the winners here.

Many people asked in the comments and emailed me to set up a new competition though and I’m pleased to announce the second Bang2write Logline Comp!

Rather than just recycle pitches from last time however, I thought we could do something a bit more radical and write loglines based on some given themes… Hopefully this will pull a few more writers into the fray too, since quite a few emailed from www.land last time saying they didn’t feel they could enter their spec pitches as they weren’t “polished enough”.

This way then everyone’s in the same boat and one thing Scribes always need IMHO is more practice on those pesky loglines and what makes a “decent” hook. As before I will create a poll within this blog so readers can vote for their favourite, rather than me, so it will be completely democratic. I’m hoping too we will all be able to offer each other pointers on constructing intriguing loglines too. The best news til last though – WE HAVE PRIZES!

The lovely Liz at Moviescope Magazine is offering a subscription to the lucky winner of this contest. For those of you who haven’t read Moviescope yet, it’s a bi-monthly magazine devoted to filmmaking and movies from an insider’s point of view and is well worth a look, so I think this is a great prize. Thanks Liz!

Chris Soth of Million Dollar Screenwriting has been kind enough to donate one of his eBooks to the lucky winner too and even better, promises ALL ENTRANTS a free month on Hollywood By Phone, his subscription service that connects scribes to top producers and writers and just recently, the captains of the WGA Strike. Subscribers can get MP3s of the conversations if they prefer and even transcripts, so you needn’t miss out even if time difference in locations is an issue. Let me know if you want in on this deal when you send your pitch to me. Thanks Chris!

So, here’s what you need to do to enter:

1) Compose a logline of 25 words or less (no excuses!) (Please note – no synopses this time).

2) Pick ONE of the following 5 Christmassy-type themes as the “focus” or backdrop of your pitch:

i) A long journey
ii) Crackers
iii) A child is born
iv) Confrontations and Revelations
v) Starlight

Your pitch can be for a feature, TV series, short – whatever. It’s up to you! But let me know.

3) Send your pitch to me on the usual address Bang2write”at”aol”dot”com BUT please do the following:

i) include the word LOGLINE in capitals in your email subject heading
ii) Please put your name (or nickname if you prefer), genre, format (feature/short, etc) AND theme responded to with your pitch in the email itself.
iii) Or do the same as above but in the comments section of THIS post, no other.

I will of course try and respond to all entrants to let you know your pitches arrive safefully but it *does* depend how many I receive – it’s just me on the end of the line! : )

Sorry if it seems a bit anally retentive but I had a total ‘mare admin-wise last time. I’m not going to disqualify anyone for not putting “LOGLINE” in the subject heading, it’s just so I can call them all up in my filing system – if you don’t do it, there is a chance you could get lost in my virtual filing cabinet, so you have been warned! Similarly, I will be putting all the loglines up according to theme and if you don’t tell me which it is (or what your genre is), I might have to guess since chances are I’m not going to have time to ask you as I’m mega-busy over next couple of weeks.

DEADLINE: Monday 17th December, Midday.

Looking forward to receiving your pitches!