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When ReelHeART International Film Festival arrived On the scene in 2004, we promised to bring you films from hard-working, passionate talented indie filmmakers from around the world.
In 2006, when we introduced the Feature Screenplay Competition, we promised to bring you the same in the form of unproduced screenplays. Every year something exciting happens to out Top 3 Finalists. Will you be one of them...?
Open to all non-optioned scripts. Any Country. Any Genre. Feature-length scripts only.
Script length MUST be between 90 pages-120 pages. Please email us if your script is a few pages longer to discuss.
We will GLADLY ACCEPT PDFs of your screenplay. However, you can send 2 hard copies of your script via MAIL. Hard copy Scripts must be attached with brass brads only.
Please use "WARNER BROTHERS"-style set up in your Final Draft or script writing software. If not using software, please format your script using the guideline for script formatting at American Screenwriters Association and for a formatting sample please use the NICHOLLS FELLOWSHIP SAMPLE, where you can copy and paste the formatted text and use for your own setup.
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When ReelHeART International Film Festival has announced their latest screenplay contest winners.
An interview with screenwriter George Sanders regarding the ReelHeART Writing Competition.
Q: What's the title of the script you entered in this contest, and what's it about?A: My writing partner, Shawn Curran, and I actually entered TWO scripts into the ReelHeART feature-length screenplay competition. One is a family/adventure comedy called "Bird Brained," and the other one is a horror script called "Chomp!". Three winners were selected, and BOTH our scripts won. We are blown away. The genres couldn't be more disparate. But then, structure is structure. Maybe we lucked out with that. That, and the fact that Shawn and I love to laugh. Even the horror genre is funny to us.
Q: What made you enter this particular contest? Have you entered any other contests with this script? If so, how did you do?A: We entered a short film, "Sneaky Snake: Lost in the Holy Land," into The ReelHeART International Film Festival in 2008. We attended the festival and won "Best Short Film" in the New Media/Animation category. Shannonn Kelly, the festival's director, showered all the winners with gifts---like scanners, digital cameras; you name it. Not to mention all the great restaurants all filmmakers are treated to. It became one of our favorite festivals. So we decided to enter their screenwriting competition as well.
Have we entered any other contests with these scripts? Yes. I like the competitions that give coverage, even if it's just a sentence or two. Those little compliments keep us encouraged. "Chomp!" was a top-100 in Project Greenlight (out of nearly 4,000 entries), and "Bird Brained" has been a finalist before---it also always receives great coverage.
A: Yes! We're very excited that professional actors will be "performing" all three winning scripts at the ReelHeART International Film Festival in Toronto in June. The third winner is "Overwhelming Darkness" by Steven Hart, who hails from the UK.
Q: How long did it take you to write the script? Did you write an outline beforehand? How many drafts did you write?A: Shawn and I come up with an idea, discuss it for a while (for weeks) and then we just bang it out. The first draft is always speedy---like ten, full days and nights. It writes itself. And it's usually over-written. We can't seem to disconnect from every moment in our main character's lives and describing everything we see, every moment of his life. It's like Proust.
SO THEN---it's re-writes, re-writes, re-writes; chop, chop, chop.
I think it's important to note that we update and revise the scripts to keep them fresh. We also sift through any suggestions that come with coverage or feedback---taking the good suggestions and ignoring the bad suggestions. There's always room for improvement. These two scripts are probably drafts three or four in the progression of sending them out to competitions. But that doesn't include all the drafts that we didn't send out.
A: MovieMagic Screenwriter.
Q: Do you write every day? How many hours per day?A: Heavens no! Unless you include Facebook posts as writing. I have a job as a singing comedian in a famous New York piano bar. It's exhausting. Plus, Shawn and I make short films, and post-production takes forever. And then there's laundry. There's always laundry.
Q: Do you ever get writer's block? If so, how do you deal with that?A: No. Never. Except right now.
Q: What's your background? Have you written any other screenplays or television scripts?A: I have a BFA from NYU in Acting/Filmmaking. I've been really lucky to get to travel the world as an award-winning entertainer/singer. Shawn's and my short films (which we write on location, usually abroad) have won dozens of awards. We can't believe Sneaky Snake, our sock puppet, is so popular. We've also written sit-com specs, reality TV specs, a children's book manuscript, live variety shows and a musical. But we still can't get an agent to read anything. Show business sucks.
Q: Do you live in Los Angeles? If not, do you have any plans to move there?A: I love Los Angeles and would relocate in a heartbeat. I've lived in New York City for three decades. Time for a change.
Q: What's next? Are you working on a new script?A: Shawn and I are actually working on making our snake puppet, "Sneaky Snake," famous in China. "Sneaky Snake" stars in our short films and we want him to do music videos. We think he could be quite popular over there in China. We're also working on a Broadway musical, and we're also turning our children's book into an animated script. And our website is currently under construction, so that needs addressing.
