Screenwriter Interviews
MovieBytes Interview:
Screenwriter janyce lapore
An interview with screenwriter janyce lapore regarding the Hollywood Scriptwriting Writing Competition.
Q: What's the title of the script you entered in this contest, and what's it about?A: The title, "Screaming My Heart Out" is taken from my play, Ferris Wheel. Babs, a Maryln Monroe wanna be, whispers the line to her cousin as she attempts suicide while riding on a Ferris Wheel. Ferris Wheel was developed by Dan Lauria and Joe Ragno at Lauria's theatre in LA. When the play ended, I was advised that it would make a great screenplay. I had never written a screenplay before, but once I began working on the script for Ferris Wheel, I found that writing a screenplay allowed me to include more characters, and the visual implications were breathtaking. As I wrote I saw the entire film in my mind and was able to flesh the piece out and create a far larger world than the stage would allow. When Ferris Wheel appeared Off Broadway, I realized that the screenplay told the story much better, so I began sending the script out to competitions and have won several fsstival awards with it. I am happy about that because this script is a celebration of all small town women, who live lives of "quiet desperation".
Q: What made you enter this particular contest? Have you entered any other contests with this script? If so, how did you do?A: I entered The Hollywood ScriptWriting Monthly Awards because my script, 10 Minutes From Paradise, won earler in the year, and that win has given me the opportunity to get the script to several studios and agents. Screaming My Heart Out was a Top Ten winner in the New Century Writer Awards, a finalist in the Women's Image Awards, in the Red Ink Competition, as well as an Honorable Mention with FilmMakers & Radmin Co. Since then, I've revised the script and the win with Hollywood ScriptWriting is the latest draft.
Q: Were you satisfied with the adminstration of the contest? Did they meet their deadlines? Did you receive all the awards that were promised?A: Very satisfied. They were always prompt and the award was well publicized.
Q: Were you given any feedback on your script? If so, did you find the feedback helpful?A: The feedback was all very postive, and I have done some revsion work on it since the win.
Q: Has your success in this contest helped you market your script? Were you contacted by any agents, managers or producers?A: Yes, it has been a great help. This script was already with a couple of agents and producers. I notified them of the win right away and their interest in the script has soared. I am now excited about the possiblity of a Canadian Independent film company taking interest in making the film. Nothing is certain at this point, but I get emails everyday inquiring about the script, and I do believe that the Hollywood ScriptWriting award is an important win when I consider all of the requests I'm receiving.
Q: What's your background? Have you written any other screenplays or television scripts?A: I have been writing for live theatre now for several years. I began writing for The Acme, a wonderful, small theatre in Miami and my plays went on to be produced all over the country, including Off Off Broadway. My play Ferris Wheel was published, was nominated for a Carbonell Award and was then published in Holland and Germany and will be touring those countries. I made the jump to writing screenplays because theatre is very intimate, sometimes almost suffocating. I wanted to be able to "move" my characters around, to give my ideas more space. Once I began to write screenplays, I found being able to visualize my characters in different places, and to give them movement and expression that is impossible in theatre, was very freeing. Now I visualize their movements, see them in environments that I could never create for the stage. My script, Poppytown, is about opium dens in Hong Kong. It was really exciting to research this world and then be able to re-create it with my own vision. I even created a tree house opium den, which was great fun. I was able to people it with odd characters in a world that is seldom seen. So many things, well anything is visually possible in film.
Q: Do you live in Los Angeles? If not, do you have any plans to move there?A: I dont' live in LA. I do go there, but I like living away from that energy. I get distracted too easily.
Q: What's next? Are you working on a new script?A: I'm working on Poppytown. I did come in as a finalist with the Writers Network with an early draft of this script, and a fan of my work, Paul Aaron, of Elsboy Entertainment has said of Poppytown...."Reads like an early Steve McQueen movie". But, I still think it needs some work and have been struggling away with it. I have never been to Hong Kong, so the research is extensive and time consuming. But, the scenes in New York are fun and the script moves back and forth between the two, and somehow writing about the back alleys and the people who inhabit those worlds has been very exciting for me. As you can see, I'm passionate about my work.
Posted Monday, June 7, 2004
