It’s been a privilege of mine to judge numerous national and international film competitions and festivals over the years. The most exciting part for me is following some of the up-coming filmmakers and watching them implement their lessons learned from the judge's comments.
Recently I accepted the invitation to judge the Raw Talent Screenplay Contest sponsored by The Gideon Media Arts Conference & Film Festival, LifeWay, HOSFU LC and Trost Moving Pictures. While this competition is limited in scope in order to make the winning script into a picture, not to mention the $10,000 prize, there are some specific things a writer can do to prepare.
Make Your Story Universal: Too often competitions with an evangelistic bent generate stories that are preachy or over the top. The goal isn’t to bang someone over the head with a spiritual message, but rather draw them into a life situation that presents a choice and its consequences. The rest needs to be left up to the audience.
Be Relevant: Screenwriters need to be tracking the trends of society and stay 1-2 years ahead of everyone else. The stories written today that will greatly impact our society down the road are from artists that seem to always be ahead of the curve, not at it or behind it. Most Christian competitions are void of relevant stories or lag the industry by 5-10 years.
Be Compelling: Give the reader a reason to not put the script down. Make sure you raise a question in the readers mind in every scene that he must find the answer to later in the story. Raise the central question in the beginning of the story to drive the reader through the script to the climax. If your script doesn’t raise any questions, it will die a flat death.
Avoid Religious Language: Religious catch phrases or evangelical jargon are no longer being used by the millennial generation, so why script it unless you are trying to demonstrate your character is irrelevant, archaic or behind the times. However, don’t go over board in using street language, as only classic language will be universal and stand the test of time.
Create Visual Imagery: The script is your canvas to paint a visual picture that the reader can see. Some write in a style that is choppy to infer a series of camera shots to create a mood and set the tone of the film. Others write with enough latitude to energize the creativity of the reader, regardless of the production department they serve.
Based on my judging experiences, the above key elements will place the writer in the top ten category of a stiff competition. It will be fun for me to see how many scripts are worth reading past pages 17-21 (the typical end of act one). BTW, a friend of mine who used to read for Universal Studios told me that she would only pass on 1-3 scripts for consideration a week out of the 100 she received. And, the vast majority of the 97 that were rejected, she was unable to read past the first act.
God luck to the writers of the Raw Talent Screenplay Contest. I’m looking forward to reading your entries.
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