Courtesy of the Writers Store, it's The Industry Insider Screenwriting Contest. This one is a bit different in that they give you a logline and you submit the first fifteen pages of the script. If you're one of the lucky Top Ten, this is part of the prize package:
The Industry Insider Screenwriting Contest goes much further than your average competition, by providing the top 10 finalists with mentors to guide them through the entire script creation process, with the goal of completing a spec screenplay to be judged by a panel of Hollywood power players.
The logline for this competition was provided by Simon Kinberg (Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Sherlock Holmes):
A spy who has spent life wining and dining young women suddenly gets a major surprise when his daughter knocks on the door.
The entry deadline is November 30. This one actually opened October 1, but I had blown it off because of the logline. International espionage isn't a genre I've ever considered trying to write, but as I looked it over and considered some options, I realized that the logline isn't nearly as restrictive as it initially seemed. You could go any number of directions with it. I've started jotting down notes and if I can get fifteen (decent) pages down, I'll give this a shot.
Via L.A. Observed, here's a shot from KCBS Sports Anchor Jim Hill's report on the Kings 1-0 victory over Tampa Bay last night, which gave L.A. a league-leading 18 points. Not just best in the west, best in the entire league. Also, notice anything odd?
Sacramento Kings shut out the Tampa Bay Lightning. Incredible accomplishment for an NBA team.
Seriously, no one at Channel 2 caught this? Not one person noticed that not only is it not the L.A. Kings logo, but didn't recognize the Sacramento Kings logo either, or noticed that it says Sacramento and not Los Angeles? Really? Even if they don't give a crap about hockey, you'd think they'd at least twig to an NBA logo.
They also chopped off the top of the Lightning's logo. Apparently the Sacramento Kings actually defeated the lampa Bay Lightning. So with the technology they've got, they still couldn't size it correctly?
I wonder if Hill mentioned that last night's game marked the return of Drew Doughty from a concussion. Doubt it. I would be surprised if he knows who Doughty (or anyone else on the Kings) is.
Amateurs. Yet another example of why I get my news from the internet and not local media.
Image snicked from L.A. Observed article linked above.
Creative Screenwriting Magazine just announced that registration is open for the next Cyberspace Open competition. The late deadline is January 3, 2011. The premise for Round 1 will be available on the evening of Friday, January 7, 2011. Complete rules and regulations can be found here.
The Bro and I did this earlier this year and were really stoked about our entry. I felt like we really nailed the premise. Although we didn't score nearly as well as I'd hoped, it gave us an idea of what they're looking for (major action sequence). The scene we submitted was pretty talky and the big criticism was that it read more like a play than a feature. I can live with that.
I wish they'd do a TV version of this. I'd get a huge kick out of that.
Following in the grand tradition that's seen numerous Anaheim Ducks cards...uh, "go with the flow" in Staples Center men's rooms, Los Angeles Kings fans honored the visiting New Jersey Devils with these urinal reminders of Ilya Kovalchuk's free-agent decision this summer, as well as the Devils' last-place start to the season.
Must be a guy thing. I've never seen anything like this in the women's restroom in years of attending Kings games. Not that there's anything wrong with it - if there's two qualities I like in a guy, it's A) Being a Kings fan and B) A sense of humor.
Image snicked from Puck Daddy article linked above.
Last night's L.A. Kings/Colorado Avalanche game was also host to the first ever NHL Twitter Hashtag Battle as part of the NHL's Hockey Fights Cancer Campaign. Each team had selected a beneficiary (for the Kings it was Childrens Hospital Los Angeles) and pledged $1 per hashtagged tweet from fans during the game.
By the time the game ended with a 6-4 victory for the Kings, fanatically tweeting Kings fans had racked up almost 30,000 tweets, totally smoking the Avs fans and earning $29,374 for the hospital in the time it took to play a hockey game.
We absolutely destroyed the Twitternetz. In addition to dominating the Avs fans, we also got #GoKings trending at #1 worldwide. From the KIngs website:
Hashtag Battle:
Final score:
#GoKings: 29,374
#GoAvs: 13,876
The Kings were also the #1 trending topic WORLDWIDE for the majority of tonight's game. That bested UFC, which had two fights tonight/all their fighters, and bigger than Kanye West and his short film "Runaway," which debuted worldwide at 6 p.m., the same start time as our game.
The Kings added close to 1,000 Twitter followers during the battle.
Of course I took a screenshot:
For you non-Twitter types, on the left are some of the wonderful Kings fans who helped relieve Uncle Phil of almost $30k. The Trending column is on the right.
The #GoAvs hashtag never trended. Next time, we demand more worthy opponents! Either that or Ducks fans.
Also, congratulations to the Kings' Brad Richardson on his first career hat trick!!!
"The stimulus is one of the great hoaxes of all time."
Caught I Want Your Money this week. Oddly, it wasn't playing anywhere in Hollywood or the City of L.A. Go figure. Luckily, I was in the Valley running errands anyway (hello entertainment-based credit union that doesn't actually have a branch in Hollywood!) and I was able to catch it playing in an eerily deserted mall in Burbank.
Entertaining, educational and terrifying, I Want Your Money takes a complex and convoluted topic - our national debt - and explains not only what it means to us and to generations to come in an easy to understand breakdown, but also how it happened, from Franklin Delano Roosevelt to Barack Hussein Obama. The film uses a combination of interviews interspersed with historical footage and animated politicians (including Ronald Reagan, Barack Obama, both George Bushes, and both Clintons) to help explain the insanity of our current debt. Forget An Inconvenient Truth - I Want Your Money is the film that should be shown in schools and should be required viewing for every adult in America, or at least every adult who cares about America.
According to the film, President Reagan got it. Cut taxes so the people could keep their hard earned money and feel free to spend it, energizing the economy, but also - and this is equally important - control spending. Under Reagan, this two-pronged approach was wildly successful. Years later, when President Clinton veered off this course during the first two years of his administration, he was rewarded in 1994 by the people with a Republican Congress and the sense to move to a more center positiion. When George Bush moved into the White House, he appeared to get it half right, slashing taxes but failing to control spending. Part of this was due to the wars that followed 9/11, which were going to be necessarily expensive, but the point is he left office with a massive deficit. A deficit which, despite Barack Obama's bleatings about the mess he inherited, has multiplied in the less than two years since he assumed office (but for which he seems reluctant to assume responsibility). Combine our massive national debt with financially crippling entitlement programs and the current administration's determination to force redistribution of wealth on the American taxpayer and you have a complete disaster, where the country is in seemingly insurmountable debt and those that work the hardest are expected to foot the bill for those that can't or won't with no say in the process thanks to arrogant politicians who seem to view the public as nothing more than an ATM to be used and abused at their whim.
The intelligent, common sense talking heads include former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, former Republican California Governor Pete Wilson (who vacated his office in 1999 with a $16 billion surplus that his Democract successor Gray Davis quickly burned through before being recalled and replaced by Arnold Schwarzenegger), Mike Huckabee, Steve Forbes, Andrew Breitbart and Michigan Congressman Thad McCotter, a personal favorite of mine from his appearances on Red Eye thanks to his droll combination of sheer common sense and a quietly wicked sense of humor. How someone like McCotter can stand to spend a minute with the imbeciles in Congress is a mystery to me, but I'm glad he's there. The cast is a who's who of people I wish were in a current presidential administration.
Producer/director Gary Riggs is our host and guide for the film, and if he doesn't have Morgan Spurlock's impish on-camera charm, he does a great job of moving things along and representing the American everyman whose earnings will be drained by the current situation, along with those of his children and grandchildren. And if he's not the most natural on-camera talent, his off-camera talent shines with this exceptional film. Also have to give props to the voice actors here (and whoever is responsible for casting them), especially for Obama and Reagan. I really felt like I was watching and listening to "teachable moments" between the two (Animated Reagan wins that one hands-down).
Some quotes from the film:
Stephen Moore (Economist, Wall Street Journal) on trying to explain the concept of a trillion dollars to his eight year old son: "I asked him who's the greatest basketball player in the world and he said LeBron James. We looked it up and we found out LeBron James makes $40 million per year. Then I asked, how many seasons would he have to play to make a trillion dollars. You know what the answer is? 25,000 seasons."
Star Parker (Author/Founder, Center for Urban Renewal and Education and current candidate for California's 37th Congressional District) on how welfare deters participants from taking action to get off the dole: "I've lived on it, I know the rules...Do not work, do not save, do not get married and we'll keep you enslaved to this poverty plantation."
Mike Huckabee (former Governor of Arkansas) quoted Margaret Thatcher's famous comment about socialism: "The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money."
Alison Fraser (Economist, The Heritage Foundation): "We are fiscally hemorraghing and we need to do something about it."
President Ronald Reagan, on irresponsible government spending: "We could say that they spend like drunken sailors, but that would be unfair to drunken sailors, beause the sailors are spending their own money."
Pete Wilson on the same topic: "Trying to get them to stop spending is like trying to get an alcoholic to stop drinking."
Kate Obenshain (VP, Young America's Foundation and former Chairperson of the Republican Party of Virginia): "If you put the government in charge of the Sahara Desert, within five years there would be a shortage of sand."
Thad McCotter: "Well, it's a very short story. The President told the Democratic congress he wanted to spend a trillion dollars with interest. They agreed. They didn't even take the time to read the bill; they passed it into law."
Moore again: "The stimulus plan is one of the great hoaxes of all time."
My favorite exchange from the animated segments was between Animated Ronald Reagan and Animated Barack Obama, after Reagan barges into the Oval Office:
Animated Reagan: Whatcha doing here?
Animated Obama: I'm redistributing the wealth. I learned in school spreading the wealth is good for everyone.
Animated Reagan: Well, I learned from real life that it's not. In fact, there's a word for it. It's called "theft".
So what did I learn from I Want Your Money? I feel like I have a better understanding of our current economic dilemma, how we got into this mess and that as overwhelming as it seems, there is a solution to our problem (my grateful thanks go to McCotter for the pep talk near the end of the film, I needed that). I also learned that an animated Ronald Reagan would be a better President than the real-life Barack Obama.
Apparently the film is underperforming at the box office, which surprises me, considering how topical it is. While it probably won't end up doing well in theaters, I think it has the potential to do better business on DVD. In a way, the DVD format may actually work better for I Want Your Money.
One last thing: This film should be a front-runner for Best Documentary at Oscar time. Yeah, I know it won't, given its material, its predominantly Republican/conservative cast and its criticism of the current administration's off-the-charts spending and stupidity. I'm just saying it should be. But it won't, and that to me speaks volumes about how disconnected the elite in this country are from We the People. Which is one of the points of I Want Your Money. Many members of our current congress may despise the Tea Party, but they have no one but themselves to blame for the movement's spontaneous conception. It was their actions and disregard for the constituency they seem to forget they work for that prompted it.
Bad news: Drew Doughty was injured during last night's victory over Carolina. Chatter on Twitter is that he suffered a concussion. Sweet merciful God.
This is a huge loss for the Kings and Kings fans. As one of those fans, I needed to do something drastic to cope. So I just ordered this from NHL.com:
Does your breakfast lack team spirit? Spice up the most important meal of the day with this Los Angeles Kings ProToast™ toaster from Pangea®. The retro-style appliance leaves the mark of the team logo on every piece of bread. It also features adjustable settings and can accommodate 2 slices of bread.
Yes, it's frivolous, but on the other hand, you only live once. I should have just ordered it in the first place. Plus, team toast makes Doughty heal faster. Yes it does.
It's been cloak & dagger at Conan HQ as we get ready for the premiere of "Conan" on TBS... UNTIL NOW. On October 20th, 2010, at 1pm EST/10am PST, we're shoving a camera in the stairwell of our comedy bunker and broadcasting the crazy -- LIVE for 24 hours! Who's gonna show up? Dancing tacos? What's gonna happen? Intern Twister? Tune in and find out, Internets!
They did a good job on the Taco Bell costume. It looks so lifelike. If they parked it outside in L.A. I'd probably drive up to it and start ordering.