HOLLYWOODSCRIPT.COM NEWSLETTER
Craig Kellem
Hollywoodscript.com Newsletter, which is published by script
consultants Craig Kellem, Judy Kellem (http://www.hollywoodscript.com)
THIS NEWSLETTER IS NEVER SPAM. You are receiving this newsletter
because you expressed an interest in screenwriting by subscribing to
this newsletter OR requested a read or a free query letter evaluation
from Hollywoodscript.Com's Craig Kellem or Judy Kellem. If you do not
wish to receive this newsletter, please reply to this E-Mail and put
the word "UNSUBSCRIBE" in the subject line. The purpose of this
newsletter is to share information, ideas etc. concerning the
fascinating (and elusive) world of screenwriting.
___________________
WE ANSWER ALL EMAIL!!! IF WE DON'T ANSWER YOUR EMAIL PLEASE RESEND IT
AND PLEASE USE THE WORD "WRITING" OR "CONSULTATION" ON THE SUBJECT
LINE. WE LOSE SOME MAIL DUE TO SPAM. NORMALLY WE GET BACK TO EVERYONE!
___________________________________________________
OUR LAST CONTEST WINNER, JACQUELINE STAHL WINS A REP AND PLENTY OF
READS IN RECORD TIME.
"The Hollywoodscript.com contest is helping new writers like me make
remarkable inroads into the movie industry. In just one week after
Craig announced my win, I not only received NINE requests for my
script, but I also gained representation! Such impressive results.
And they came so quickly. And I'm already getting read by producers
in Hollywood. Hollywoodscript.com has certainly made an impression on
me. I am infinitely thankful to Craig for pushing me to develop my
writing skills and then, with the contest, giving my work a vote of
confidence. Craig Kellem sets the standard breathtakingly high, and
then gives you the information and encouragement you need to reach
that standard. He has a wonderful ear for comedy, but he also has an
impressive feel for a character's state of mind and for the emotional
flow of a script. His feedback on these nuances helped me improve my
script tremendously. Furthermore, his attention to detail and
willingness to give generously of his time suggests a genuine love for
his work. Craig Kellem, and Hollywoodscript.com, is making a great
contribution to the art of screenwriting." JACQUELINE STAHL 6/08
_________________________________
JACK VANDAGRIFF STRIKES AGAIN -- THIS CONTEST WINNER GETS OPTIONED!!
(We consulted and then INKTIP exposure made it happen!)
Illuminary Pictures options "Angel Hair" by
Jack Vandagriff. Masiel Lusha, founder and
president of Illuminary Pictures, has optioned
"Angel Hair" from InkTip scribe Jack Vandagriff.
Lusha, who played the beautiful-but-feisty
daughter on The George Lopez Show, is building
a slate of projects to develop and package through
her various industry sources and contacts. Special
effects wiz Patrick Tatopolous (Director of
"Underworld: Rise of the Lycans") is attached to
direct. Vandagriff is a former studio publicist who has also won or
placed highly in a number of
screenwriting contests. This is his second option.
KIND WORDS FROM JACK-
"Craig, once again I thank you for giving sage advice on what you
always referred to as a "worthy project", through all the re-writes.
Working with you is always a joy because I know you have the story
and my best interest at heart (as you do with all the writers with
whom you work). Thanks again"
_____________
SERGIO F. BAMBAREN AUTHOR OF MEGA HIT BOOK, "THE DOLPHIN, STORY OF A
DREAMER" (AND OUR ESTEEMED CLIENT) HITS MOVIE GOLD
Dear Craig and Judy,
I can't thank you enough for your patience and the wonderful feedback
you gave us for our 3D Animation movie that will be released in 2009.
The guidance you provided regarding the addition of comic-relief,
strong antagonists and a spiritual message was invaluble. And your
attitude towards life is an example I guess we should all follow.
Thanks for being there!
I am pleased to tell you that our movie will now be distributed by one
of Hollywood's major Studios - initially in all of Latin America, with
a first option for the rest of the world. Your openness and
constructive criticism earned us what we were longing to hear when we
showed it to industry professionals: They told us, "YOUR SCRIPT HAS
SOUL!"
I will never forget the lesson of life you gave me Craig: "If you
strike oil, stop drilling!" Judy, thanks for your patience and genuine
interest in the project. When the movie goes to the theaters, you will
find in the CREDITS: Judy Kellem – Script Doctoring. Thank you both,
again, for all feedback that has helped make this Project a dream come
true.
Truly yours,
Sergio F. Bambaren
CEO
Dolphin –Films (Peru)
Mr Bambaren's iconic book has sold TEN MILLION copies worldwide so far
TOM SHIPLEY'S OUR NEW WINNER!
BIG CONGRATS to our latest CONTEST WINNER, "MR HAPPY GO LUCKY." It's
a comedy written by TOM SHIPLEY.
This is a funny and also fascinatingly thoughtful script about a young
man, living in a state of loneliness and quiet desperation, who
experiences something so tragic that he chooses to deem himself happy
once and for all (no matter what) and actually turns his life
around...or so it seems. So after seeing a TV program on positive
thinking, he commits himself to this new persona and good things
happen as a result. But all his good fortune is at the deeper expense
of his actually mourning his loss and truly experiencing the harder
aspects of life – which always bear the fruit of real growth. When his
best friend realizes that this young man's Colgate smile is doing more
harm than good – and that it is really DENIAL rather than true
HAPPINESS - the friend deems to help his buddy wake up and feel the
pain he buried. But it will be tough to get our hero to suffer as he
should, because pretending to be joyful can be so seductive!
This charming, eventful and ever so amusing script explores not only
the institution of bone deep denial and also the power of belief. It's
a terrific piece of work
____________________________
Tripping the Light Fantastic
By Judy Kellem
Facing the blank page has always been, for me, a struggle of epic
proportions. I spent my twenties slack-jawed, starring into the white
abyss of my computer screen, the ominous terror that I had absolutely
nothing to say looming about my shoulders like some steely eyed
patriarch who's cross armed and at the ready to yawn, "Give it up
lady, you're just a simpleton."
And yet somehow, the words always, inevitably came, reminding me that
no matter how silent my interior may have seemed - no matter how
vacuous it may have felt as I sat there floating through it's dark,
seemingly weightless ether - there is always content waiting to be
heard.
Nothing will pull you from that deafening, but substantive, silence
like having a child. You are so focused on their every breath that you
can literally forget that it even exists within you. At least, that
is what happened to me after having my daughter fifteen months ago.
A year evaporated wherein I had barely even had a dream to gnaw on as
reassurance that some part of me was still "being creative". Of
course I had an ongoing monologue of baby-related "material" streaming
through my brain – as well as an unending conversation with my
daughter, which had begun well before I even knew she was on her way.
But that eerie, infinite, terrifying space that is my own personal
cosmos and home base when it comes to writing, had seemingly vanished
from my very person.
Or so I thought.
After thirteen months of being purely steeped in motherhood, I
recently took a step out from that "head" and was flabbergasted to
find myself landing right back into that vast internal universe, as if
no baby, no time, nothing had interrupted that old, often painful,
weightless journey.
I had been gifted a ninety-minute massage at a luxurious spa in NYC,
which I had never had a moment to enjoy. Knowing that it was about to
expire, and seeing that my daughter could forget about me for a couple
of hours when in the company of her grandparents (I was always right
in the next room), I decided to book myself a much needed rub-down. I
arrived early to my mother's uptown apartment, fed my daughter, played
with her, got her settled and then with some anxiety, smiled, "Well,
this is an experiment!" to my mom, who assured me it would be fine.
This was the first time I had ever left my baby completely with
another person.
As soon as I walked out of my mother's apartment, the totally
unexpected happened: that internal space began to encroach on all the
worry and baby-related prattle in my head. This was the first time in
two years that I was hitting the streets of New York, alone, making my
way down an old worn path from my mom's home of twenty-years, to the
same subway stop I'd used for decades to get downtown. Moving along
at a fresh, brisk pace, jaywalking as I pleased, noting how
differently one is treated when not in the company of a baby, my
imagination sky-rocketed. An ancient, uncultivated story idea tucked
deep in the pocket of my soul came to the fore, and as I stepped onto
the subway platform, realizing I hadn't taken a train in over eighteen
months, that idea continued to expand exponentially like a fertilized
egg multiplying by the seconds. The packed train barreled southward,
a storm of characters, themes, plot beats and dialogue windsailing
through my inner eye.
By the time I reached my stop, made my way to the venue and was soon
lead into a circular room by an earthy, woman's woman named Annagrace,
I only lamented one detail: I hadn't brought a notebook and pen!
Laying facedown on the massage table, the din of Zen music billowing
about my ears, I sighed with relief as Annagrace beat solid knots out
of my shoulders. "There is always something to say," I thought. "No
matter when I get that paper and pen, find that hour to myself to sit
at the desk and travel the landscape of my own interior…that universe
is timeless, waiting, there for the taking when I am ready. I just
have to allow myself to enter that ether, and the words will come."
I share this as a whisper of encouragement, for I gain great solace
from such understanding: We are always writers. Settling down to a
desk is simply the act of declaring that so.
___________________________
(The following is such a common issue, thought it would be a good idea
to reissue this article)
AN IDEA ISN'T A CONCEPT!
by Craig Kellem
This is a fast world in which we live. And how anxious we all are to
get directly to our (hopefully) plentiful destinies. Perhaps I notice
this with writers more than with others out there, but maybe I'm just
more focused on our brethren. But I suspect this aspect of
contemporary living is everywhere.
What I'm trying to say is that too many writers are rushing projects,
seemingly going for the final draft TO GET IT READ PRONTO BY THE
POWERS THAT BE before they've spent enough time in the sandbox
spawning the prerequisite "art." In fact, there are more writers than
you'd believe who start writing screenplays before they even have a
solid concept.
I'm serious.
You need a real CONCEPT before you can DEVELOP a movie project. It
needs to be thought through, fussed over, examined, obsessed about,
vetted, loved etc. And please remember that AN IDEA ISN'T A CONCEPT! A
concept isn't a one or two line notion. It's a fleshed out "creative
invention" brimming with potential and ready for the next step on the
assembly line, namely development.
Sometimes, on the heels of an underdeveloped creative flash, and on
the wings of our longing to get there, writers commence with
ill-conceived projects, and via the adrenaline which ensues, don't
realize their (often) fatal mistake until it's too late.
Often writers can misunderstand what a solid concept actually is. For
example, I was talking to a writer recently who tried to justify his
screenplay which was "about nothing," with the TV shows Seinfeld and
Curb Your Enthusiasm. Boy, was he ever off! These shows are HUGE
concepts involving tremendous strategies which cleverly mine "the
little things" in life, and frame them through a prism of a certain
kind of convincing reality. What ingenuity it takes these show-makers
to convince you it's all real, and what skill and preparation it takes
to explore these kind of niche creative areas that so few other
practitioners have ever been able to exploit in such a way. Bet Larry
David and the gang took their time developing them. Lots of hit and
miss, back and forth etc etc..
Another example that comes to mind would be a recent contest winner,
Jim Janosky whose concept was about a guy intent on killing himself
and who takes a ride across the country as a prerequisite to the big
jump into eternity. There are many writers out there who might have
built nicely onto this notion but maybe not as much as is needed and
this could end up on the pages. Janosky (who's getting tremendous
reaction to the script as well as some serious action-and who's given
me permission to tell you all this) had his work cut out after
hatching the initial idea. THE IDEA WAS NOT YET A CONCEPT-he really
had only just begun. What followed included MANY hits and misses in
the INITIAL spawning process, followed by the slow carving out of the
beginnings of terrific story threads and subplots, one involving a
relationship with "a one of a kind" mangy dog, that he finds along the
way and with whom he shares many dubious and poignant parallels; a
string of unique and juicy completions of old rivalries, resentments,
and lost love situations; visits to outrageous, story rich and unique
places, and finally a fateful hookup with an old guy, and some nice
folks from whom he derives new strength and sparkle (so much so that
he finally decides to hang around on Earth a little longer). All of
these nuggetts (plus lots more) had to be invented and carefully
placed into the matrix, before the CONCEPT was fully realized and then
fully developed.
High Concept is also a candidate for real thought and scrutiny before
a script should be started. A old favorite of mine is the movie BIG.
What a good idea it was to explore what would happen to a kid who
makes a wish to be grownup and then gets it. But did the writer know
what he had when he first came up with this fanciful notion? Could it
have been, after scrutiny, just another cute idea that might make a
good sketch on a SNL, or a "C" subplot in a sitcom. Many might have
declared victory after coming up with this idea and started writing
early, on the wings of all the obvious schtick that comes to mind and
general manifest destiny -like situations. This writer didn't. The
concept was explored and tested with the many possible ways to go, and
tones to take, not to mention other important considerations, such as
what level of reality should be maintained and how much humor should
be injected, the whole nine yards. The final choices worked well.
Things such as putting the kid in a job as a toy company maven,
juxtapositioning the grown up kid with his little buddy (who even
while being aware of the situation, no longer fitted in) were
excellent choices which enhanced this idea and helped turn it into a
real concept. At some point after all this labor and sifting, a solid
framework was decided upon and then, and only then deep story
development commenced.
The point that I'm trying to make is that one must fully dance with
the idea, allow it to breathe, grow and broaden into a fully developed
concept followed by the next step, involving lists of scenes, moments,
bits, and pieces and then begin to connect them into story threads,
etc etc before even thinking about the actual writing. And in doing
these things, allow yourself to appreciate the wonderfully
uncomfortable feeling of not commencing with the screenplay until the
concept and all its adjuncts are FULLY realized.
Another symptom of this sometimes "rush to nowhere" are well-intended
writers who seek instant technical solutions to artistic problems. So
many want to be provided with the correct note on the correct page, so
that the situation or problem can be IMMEDIATELY resolved. The real
problem is that we sometimes don't grasp what's really needed, which
might be a fresh creative turn, or an ounce or two of new artistic
inspiration, which only comes from REALIZING THAT YOU NEED IT, AND
BEING WILLING TO SPEND THE TIME WALTZING WITH THE ARTISTIC MYSTERY
PROVIDER WITHIN OURSELVES, THAT ALWAYS COMES TO OUR RESCUE IF PROPERLY
NOTIFIED BY A PATIENT SUITOR. The point is that some things are simply
not found even in the fattest encyclopedia!
Hopefully my point here is clear and can be illustrated by my recent
communication to a young writer --"your material continues to feel
like the proceeds of somehow patching things together, rather than
something born out of a burning creative vision dying to be expressed.
You seem more like a guy who can't wait to write a script rather than
one who has a script to write. Please consider this and take your
time, you do good work and it deserves to be treated more delicately"
And as for the perceived urgency of getting your script read I say
this-getting your script read is NOT the problem. It's getting your
script RIGHT so that when it gets read, something good happens!
Copyright 2006--2008, all rights reserved
_______________________
FYI, WE HAVE A "HOMEGROWN" AND VERY INFORMATIVE ARTICLES SECTION ON
OUR SITE (FREE OF CHARGE OF COURSE). PLEASE FEEL WELCOME TO CHECK IT
OUT--
http://www.hollywoodscript.com/articles.html
THINK OF STORY AS PROTEIN!!
By Craig Kellem
The element of STORY in a script is like PROTEIN in your diet. You can
eat tons of salad, potatoes, veggies and even partake of dessert, but
if there's not enough protein you can still feel hungry. There's a
similarity with screenplays! Load them up with character dimension,
schtick, stunts, cute scenes etc, but if there's not a story making
itself felt, and percolating along the way (making you wonder "what's
going to happen next"), then it can feel as if something vital is
missing: STORY!! STORY RULES!!
----------------------------------------------------------------
SO HOW ARE SCRIPT NOTES REALLY GIVEN IN HOLLYWOOD?
BY CRAIG KELLEM
The short answer to this question is that folks creatively involved in
projects, where the success of the script will often make the
difference in their selling season (and help keep their jobs, do
WHATEVER THEY NEED TO DO to make things go in the "right direction."
Needed creative input may range from an "all nighter" type session, to
a necessary "philosophical" discussion, like the one I once had with a
writer who was about to start writing a pilot for CBS, that had real
potential, but whose downside was that it could also have turned into
a very corny and embarrassing mess. The basic idea was a show
involving a family that would end up with one kid from each race at
the end of the pilot. Typical gimmicky TV!
But there was a way to do it and to make it a formidable "eight o'clock" show."
The message I delivered was to simply write this "high-end," avoiding
the obvious clichés. I suggested that the writer think of the family
as an honest to God contemporary entity mired in all the realities and
verities of real life, who, with real credibility, end up in this
unique position and that he should inject real life sensibilities and
nuances into the heart of it. I asked him to take what was unlikely
and contrived and make it likely and sound, and to then give it all
the credible jazz he could muster. The result was that the final draft
retained the high concept cutesie "one of each kind" aspect, but it
also had real dimension and quality and got on the air.
There were also times when a chat and conventional notes were not
going to solve a script problem. Perhaps issues were too subtle or too
hard to identify without a certain kind of quality "inspection." Under
such circumstances, we'd "burn the midnight oil" and go PAGE BY PAGE
if necessary. No "slam-bam" cookie cutter type written reports here,
just hard, scrutinous "whatever it takes" type work.
Or perhaps a script would come in with some glaring problem creating a
need (and opportunity) for a quick "go home and fix it" mandate,
BEFORE proceeding with the notes.
In delivering script notes to folks via our consultation business, I
tend to use the same methods, which is more about GETTING IT DONE, BY
WHATEVER MEANS, than—"one size fits all," type methods, if you know
what I mean.
Although most scripts receive what's stated on our site, which is a
thorough read, a full conference, written notes on many pages of the
script etc etc, others can sometimes be handled in different ways,
depending on what's best for the project.
For example, there have been times where I believe that some macro
aspect of the script is not working and I've been known to call the
writer, point out the issue and if he/she agrees with the note,
they're invited to fix it and send the script back, no charge.
In other cases, if the script is not working but it could (with an
important adjustment or whatever), and this is very apparent say by
mid script (but I've put a lot of time into it), I've called and
discussed the issue with the writer, (and after offering a (suggested)
remedy), have given the writer the chance to fix the first half, and
then return it to me, to reread this section, (as well as the rest of
the script) for a one-half script fee.
The idea here is, to give the writer a chance to fix a glaring, basic
problem early on, so that we can be more productive in working with
the overall script. By possessing a stronger draft, we can get to a
more advanced stage of things much sooner.
There have also been times when I think a script needs serious
developmental attention before the writer moves forward with their
draft. Under those circumstances, I can sometimes suggest that the job
be converted from a straight consultation to a developmental, "Works
in Progress" with little or no additional money changing hands.
Obviously these choices are up to the writer, but they often go along
with them (and appreciate this extra caring as well) since they
usually want to cut to the chase and get the material closer to the
finish line sooner rather than later.
____________________________
CHECK THIS OUT!
The True Story of a Script, Big Dreams and Vanishing
Private Equity
By BROOKS BARNES
A would-be filmmaker is left in the lurch by nervous
lenders, and his tale is becoming a common one as private
money has become harder to obtain in Hollywood.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/19/business/media/19pitch.html?th&emc=th
_______________________
SCRIPTBLASTER has an incredibly vast data base of producers, agents,
managers
and the like. They can zap your coverage or query directly
into the hands of
many viable Hollywood producers, agents, managers
etc. A unique feature is that
the emails will be generated from your
own personal email so industry
professionals will respond directly to
you. (http://www.scriptblaster.com)
If you want to find out more about Hollywoodscript.com and the work we
do with
screenwriters and their scripts, please
visit our site at
http://www.hollywoodscript.com
Copyright 2008 Hollywoodscript.com LLC
, all rights reserved.