MovieBytes Interview:
Screenwriter A. Chacko

An interview with screenwriter A. Chacko regarding the Moondance Writing Competition.

A: BLACK BOX is a high concept, character driven screenplay which centers around the issue of electronic voting fraud.

A: A friend who spoke at Moondance first let me know about the contest. I was a top finalist for the Red Inkworks Screenplay Competition and also a semi-finalist for the USC based Hanks/Miller Screenwriting Fellowship with BLACK BOX. A short screenplay that I penned called, "Honor Among Thieves" was a recent semi-finalist with the "Gimme Credit Screenplay Competition".

A: The list of finalists and semi-finalists came out on time, which was helpful. I did not know until the evening of the awards that I had gotten the "Spirit of Moondance" award, which was the contest's top honor. It would have been nice to know prior to attending -- since I live in California and drove to the event, it wasn't a great expense for me, however I do know of some folks who traveled from as far away as Alaska and spent a lot to attend.

Unfortunately, I did not receive all the awards as promised, which was rather disappointing.

A: No feedback was given.

A: I did have one company contact me by email, and after I took part in a pitch session at the actual film festival, I was approached by a producer.

A: I have a master's degree in Psychology and have worked as an Educational Psychologist, which has informed my writing and understanding of character development. I also wrote songs/composed for film and video and performed professionally for many years before I learned about the very real issues of electronic voting fraud. I was so disturbed by what I read that I knew that I had to write something, and a three and half minute song was not going to do the topic justice!

Because I worked with a teacher who had once optioned a script, I decided to try my hand at writing a screenplay. I ended up being chosen from a regional pool to be one of five featured screenwriters in a documentary. During the documentary filming my pitching went well, so I received an on screen script analysis from John Rainey, the top script analyst in the country according to CS Magazine. I incorporated his notes and began getting awards.

A: I live in Northern California which allows me to get to the LA area pretty easily for special events and networking. No plans at the moment to move to LA.

A: I am getting my screenplay to production companies and other people in the industry, with an eye towards taking BLACK BOX to the next level. Otherwise, I have a book and a couple of other screenwriting projects in development, including a myth-based screenplay.

Posted Wednesday, June 20, 2007