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Screenwriter Interviews
MovieBytes Interview:
Screenwriter Erick Pausz
An interview with screenwriter Erick Pausz regarding the Scriptapalooza TV Writing Competition.
Q: What's the title of the script you entered in this contest, and what's it about?A: Almost Normal.
It's about my family, growing up on the South side of Chicago. Logline complete.
A: I entered this contest because Cha Cha the dog, a dog I happened to be dog sitting for at the time, told me in a dream. Actually it was more of a nightmare. She stood over me holding a pitchfork, surrounded by all of my deceased pets from the past. Fire blazed as Hell was near. I rememer it like it was yesterday, she said, "Erick write a super spectacular script about your family entitled Almost Normal and enter it in Scriptapalooza."
I woke up in a sweating rage, called my boss at 4AM and quit my job at the watermelon factory, purchased a typewriter, moved to California, and began writing. The first few weeks I didn't know why I was writing, or what Scriptapalooza was, but when the smoke cleared I was sitting pretty with a kick butt script. I googled Scriptapalooza and bingo-bango my nightmare materialized. And thus I won second place.
Yes sir. I was a finalist in Scriptapalooza two years ago? And recently was a Semi-Finalist in Slamdance. I said Semi-Finalist. Obviously Scriptapalooza has better taste.
A: Overall, yes I was happy. The only problem was after we were told about our placement, they had us make copies of a bunch of scripts to send them, which costed some dough. I just thought there should be a better system set up, so if you win, then you send them a Adobe Acrobat file and they eat the costs of printing and shipping.
Q: Were you given any feedback on your script? If so, did you find the feedback helpful?A: Nope. That would have been great. I think all winning scripts along with finalists and semi-finalists should get some free gosh darn feedback.
Q: Has your success in this contest helped you market your script? Were you contacted by any agents, managers or producers?A: I'm still waiting to be contacted by someone.
Q: What's your background? Have you written any other screenplays or television scripts?A: My background is in the Martial Arts. But you can only get to a certain degree in the belt ranking. Black belt being the top-top. So I felt I was putting to much time and energy into one path, and decided to branch out. I went to a film school in Chicago, studying film making and TV writing. Wrote about five specs, two pilots, and a feature.
Q: Do you live in Los Angeles? If not, do you have any plans to move there?A: I'm from Chicago. I live in LA now.
Q: What's next? Are you working on a new script?A: Heck yeah. A feature about a young kid from New Jersey, who moves to California, meets a girl, learns Karate, and does household chores.
Posted Friday, June 2, 2006
