MovieBytes Interview:
Screenwriter Lucy Cruell

An interview with screenwriter Lucy Cruell regarding the Expose It! Writing Competition.

A: It’s called “Armageddon at Coffeeheaven.” A comedy, sort of a “Clerks” meets “Caddyshack.”

Logline:

“Sharp-tongued, gen-X workers put snobby patrons and people from their past in their place while piecing together their own as-yet-unfulfilled lives and dreams in the midst of a cataclysmically chaotic coffeehouse.”

With my main character, Harmony Zolechovsky-McVee, leading the way.

A: Ah, my master strategy. I try to do sort of a two-pronged attack with contests. Hit the big ones with hopes of winning of course, but with a main goal of reaching a high finalist level to help market the script. Then hit the smaller, more targeted contests where your script has a better chance of actually winning out right - i.e. genre specific contests, regionals, or ones for minorities or women - but only then if they still have a prize worth the winning of at least $1000 cash plus industry attention. (Someone got me The Art of War recently and I’ve been reading it a bit too much lately as you can tell.)

This contest turned out to be perfect for the second prong of attack as it was genre-specific and had a $1000 cash grand prize along with a paid trip to LA to meet with industry folks interested in the script. The best part is that it was run by a management/production company looking for fresh material to market and so they have the means and are really interested in shopping the script and myself around, so to speak.

The script also won Honorable Mention (basically second place) in the 2003 Screenplay Festival.

A: So far, so good. The head of the management/production company behind the contest is a very knowledgeable, straightforward, easy-to-talk-with guy with experience in the industry that has been very good to work with especially from a writer’s point of view. While giving me really good feedback, he is very respectful of the writer and their script (rare) and not pushy (rarer still) about what direction he wants things to go (rarest of the rare). We have been in contact several times, and the check arrived in the mail! Now it will all depend on how the LA trip goes.

A: Yes. Yes.

A: Not yet, but soon as part of the contest and hopefully that will be just the beginning.

A: History of a Girl, Part I. I was born the granddaughter of a sharecropper (which is actually true) one dark and stormy night… dot dot dot… wonderful parents… small southern town… fast red sports cars… dot dot dot … strange interest in everything non-fiction especially physics, psychology, sociology, boys, and ancient civilizations… dot dot dot… hero-Buffy the Vampire Slayer (characters and creator)… travel overseas… dot dot dot… suffered horrible family tragedy, but survived, still fighting, still here… dot dot dot … And… I got a BA from Duke University where I minored in film and a JD from Harvard Law School. I quit full-time law for part-time to focus on my writing. I’ve had 25 short stories published and have written four features, a half dozen television scripts, several series bibles, and multiple feature treatments. I am currently marketing two other features “The Guardians” (sci-fi/action/conspiracy thriller) and “Last Call for Angels” (supernatural) along with television specs, all of which have also placed as top finalists or won in a dozen competitions and film festivals. I am also in the process of creating a teeny website business to help fund my adventures in screenwriting while tending to the care and feeding of my growing young student loans.

A: From the east to the west? I don’t live in L.A. currently, but I love it and travel there as much as possible. Wouldn’t mind being bi-coastal between there and the Southeast when the money comes.

A: Bright lights? Big City? As part of the prize I’ll do a quick polish on my script and then the management/production company will send it out and set up some meetings. Otherwise I am still sending out my two other features “The Guardians” and “Last Call for Angels” and working on pilots and series bibles for several original television shows some of which have already garnered the interest of a few production companies. And of course I’m working on a new script, I’m always working on a new script, aren’t we all?

Posted Thursday, January 20, 2005