Don't DeCodeMe!

Some particularly disappointing news today. I had a phone conference planned with my producer to discuss the first draft of 'DeCodeMe', the rom-com that we've been talking through for over a year now. Anyway, at my producer's request I'd sent the first draft to some of my writing contacts and she did the same. I got largely positive feedback but was nevertheless anticipating to take some hard critiques on the chin with a view to incorporating these into the second draft. What I hadn't anticipated was the response from my producer that they'd lost confidence in the concept - and by inference me - and that they were pulling the plug. So now I don't get the chance to fix the script in a second draft and the whole project has been aborted. A bit of a set-back to my writing career, I think...

Back to the Write Stuff...

I've been on holiday for the last three weeks but I'm back now and mulling over an offer to write a political drama. I was also pleasantly surprised to receive an invitation from AZ Interviews, a directory of interviews with creative professionals, to answer some questions about writing. You can read my responses here.

'DeCodeMe' off to a good start...

So, some positive initial feedback from my producer on the first draft of 'DeCodeMe'. Particularly encouraging were the comments: 'The dialogue's really strong' and 'I quite like the ending' (endings are notoriously hard!).

This is, of course, just the initial 'feel' of the first draft. I'll be getting a more detailed analysis later and I'm under no illusions that there's still a lot of hard work to come and some pretty tough choices will have to be made re: cutting down the length of the script and finessing the story. But, on the whole, I've got to be pretty pleased with my efforts on the first draft. Or, as my producer said, 'Give yourself a pat on the back'.

A good start, then. Fingers crossed we can go places with this script.

'DeCodeMe' - it's started...

So I turned in my first draft of 'DeCodeMe', the romantic comedy feature I'm writing for independent Melbourne production house, AzureCine, on Friday. My preliminary draft was 150 pages but I got it down to 122 pages. My producer wants it down to 90 pages, so we'll see how we go discussing that on Tuesday.

British Independent Film Festival

Just found out that both my feature scripts, LUCK'S RAN OUT and TABLE FOR TWO?, reached the final selection round of the British Independent Film Festival screenplay contest. But sadly didn't make the final cut. Here's what BIFF said:

"Thank you for submitting Table for Two/Luck's Ran Out. We really enjoyed and were impressed with the high quality throughout and the creativity shown creating such a film.

We have a number of selection rounds before finalising our Official Selection and your project reached the final selection round. It did not make the final cut for the festivals Official Selection, but we look forward to watching your career carefully in the future and would like to encourage you to submit to our festival in future years, with your next projects.

We are passionate about working with up-coming film-makers such as yourself and the delay in finalising our Official Selection this year is because the standard was so high, there were some big debates about which films made the selection and which didn't."

Dark Angels trailer

The trailer for DARK ANGELS, co-written by myself and director, David Raynor, is now available to watch on IMDb.

An edgy contemporary musical drama, DARK ANGELS is currently being touted round the festival circuit (no luck yet).

Led by the enigmatic and charismatic ‘KEY’, the Dark Angels are a gang of young all-female vigilantes who terrorise men guilty of crimes against women: wife-beaters, rapists and paedophiles.

Accompanied by music the Dark Angels execute well-choreographed dance routines as they mug, rob and strip their victims before KEY, their, leader sits in judgement and administers punishment. The DARK ANGELS gain notoriety by tipping off a TV journalist who records the ritual humiliation for broadcast. They become a ratings sensation.

Now a social and public phenomenon, the Dark Angels are loved and loathed in equal measure: loathed by the authorities, who have failed to catch them and are disturbed by the level of public disorder caused by copycat gangs; loved by a large following of female fans and gang wannabes who feel the Dark Angels speak for their generation.

When the authorities put up a reward for the gang’s capture a young, rising-star criminologist hatches a plan to infiltrate the cult. She is thrown together with her former lover, an arrogant detective, in a sting operation the authorities hope will crush the Dark Angels forever.

The Dark Angels, however, are on to the authorities’ plan and turn the tables on the criminologist and the detective in spectacular fashion.

If you like the trailer, please 'Like' the DARK ANGELS Facebook page.

A belated 'Congrats'

I got a belated 'Congratulations on making it to the Semi-Finals email' from the Fresh Voices Screenplay Competition today. It said:

"By making it to the final round, you have proven your ability to create a wholly original concept, engaging characters and execute a compelling screenplay. You’ve displayed not only a talent to tell a great story, but a deep understanding of what makes a good screenplay standout from hundreds of others, and you’ve captured our attention and admiration in the process. We recognize the sheer determination, energy and often times the sacrifice required to write great material on spec, and we are grateful to have an opportunity to reward writers for their efforts.

The high standard of screenwriting we seek at Fresh Voices will allow you to take immense pride in the fact that your script was amongst the very top percentile of the nearly 1,000 screenplays we considered. Six screenplays remain in each category (except Action with seven). However, only one script in each category can ultimately be named the winner, and only one of these writers will win the coveted Grand Prize."

The Grand Prize winner is announced on 12 March, I think. I doubt whether TABLE FOR TWO? will win, but you never know. Still, this is a timely reminder that I can write so I shall read these words again tomorrow before I start on 'DeCodeMe' in the hope that they will inspire me to great heights.

For the Greater Good

I'm back from a weekend of camping down the New South Wales coast at Merry Beach. It was a lot of fun, particulary watching my dog Monty chase kangaroos. I spent a fair bit of time just sat in a camping chair borrowed from my neighbours reading a book of the best Australian short stories. And while I was away, I got news that Sentinel Literary Quarterly published my short story, 'For the Greater Good'.

Now I'm back, though, my task is to press on with the first draft of 'DeCodeMe'. Here's hoping that the weekend away has done my Muse some great good and I can crack on and produce an awesome script for my producer.

Plodding on...

Wow! It's been a while since my last post. A time mostly beset with computer problems and motivational problems...

I'm still writing the first draft of 'DeCodeMe'. I'm about 70 pages into the preliminary draft, then I'll start to edit and rewrite for the first draft.

Two positive things on the screenplay contests front to report. HEART ATTACK is shortlisted for the Irresistible Films/Circalit short screenplay contest and TABLE FOR TWO? has made the Semi-Finals of the Fresh Voices Screenwriting Competition.

Right, back to 'DeCodeMe'. Catch you later.

TABLE FOR TWO? reaches Fresh Voices quarter-finals

So I've been busy trying to get back into writing my rom-com. I'm 45 pages into it. Not as far as I would have liked to have been by this stage, but it's a tough gig getting back into the story after an extended break and matching the treatment with the producer notes. Plus its a complicated story. But anyway, on the positive side, I'm forging ahead and am over a third of the way there.

But the welcome news today is that TABLE FOR TWO? has reached the quarter-finals of the Fresh Voices Screenwriting Competition. Fingers crossed it can go further.

Good luck to my friend, Gordon Slater this weekend. Gordon starred as Keithy McPhail in 2 x 3, and this weekend he's shooting his short, 'Plastic Fantastic', in Edinburgh. Break a leg, Gogs!

2012: a make or break year???

OMG! It's the 9 January already and I've only just (about) recovered from the Christmas and New Year festivities.

Now the real work starts. And I somehow have the feeling that 2012 is going to be a big year, a defining year in terms of my writing adventure.

First up is to get on and finish the first draft of 'DeCodeMe' as this is my first commission as a screenwriter. But I also want to write a stage play, revisit my two completed screenplays, write another screenplay and pick up (or rather restart) my novel. And who knows, maybe I'll get behind the camera again this year and direct a short.

The only thing of note to report that's happened over the festive period is that TABLE FOR TWO? reached the quarter-finals of the 2011 Champion Screenwriting Competition. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it makes it into the semis.

Oh, and I got an interesting review of my short film, HEART ATTACK, on Kevin Spacey's Triggerstreet under the heading 'Self Aware Parody or Soft Porn?' ('high kink' not 'soft porn', surely!). Anyway, the review says: "Writer/Director Warren Paul Glover brilliantly straddles the world of porn and parody in this "romantic" comedy about a mortician's attempt at balancing his profession and desire. Hilarious comic performances propel this comedy as the female cardiologist with romantic designs on a mortician, are kept at bay by a mortician's overwhelming connection to his "body" of work. In the end, for the main character at least, the body has more of a drawl than the heart." What to make of that...it's pretty positive (I think!), so maybe I should get behind the camera again this year...

What I do what to do this year is to make some progress migrating this blog, which is a bit cumbersome to maintain, over to my new webpage: http://www.wazman01.com/. I hope you'll follow me over and I wish everyone a happy, healthy and succcessful year.

Luck's Ran Out scores runner-up spot in the 2011 Writers' Block International Writing Competition

Got some good news today. LUCK'S RAN OUT (my 2010 Screenwriter Showcase winning script) came runner-up in the 2011 Writers' Block International Writing Competition. I'm both delighted and gutted. Delighted to have placed so highly out of over 600 entrants; gutted to have missed out on the $1,000 prize money! But still, good news that this script has again reached the higher echelons of a screenplay competition.

This means that this script has placed highly in eight screenwriting contests, as well as being granted a 'CONSIDER' by Extreme Screenwriting and CoverScript.com coverage services:

* Runner-up: 2011 Writers' Block International Writing Competition

* Quarter-finalist: 2011 PAGE International Screenwriting Awards

* Semi-finalist: WriteMovies International Screenwriting Contest 27 (2011)

* Quarter-finalist 15th Fade In Awards (2011)

* Emerging Screenwriter screenwriting contest Top 100 (2011)

* Semi-finalist: 2011 Golden Age of TV short screenplay competition

** Winner - Screenwriter Showcase 2010 Screenwriting Contest (feature)

* Semi-finalist: 2010 PAGE International Screenwriting Awards (short)

Still haven't been able to find it a home, but perhaps coming runner-up in the Writers' Block contest will increase the script's exposure and convince a producer to option it (I did turn down one option agreement for this script - the only one I've received - from a Portuguese production company, because they didn't want to offer any money for it, ie they wanted it for free).

This placing has given me a boost. Just the shot in the arm I need to get me back in the mood to start tackling the script for 'DeCodeMe', which I've been finding difficult to get into.