Karl Iglesias to Guest on USA Scriptchat June 17, 2012 Source: @scriptchat #screenplay #screenwriting #film “Scriptchat is excited to have screenwriting guru Karl Iglesias at our Sunday, June 17th USA chat, 5PM PDT (8pm EDT).TOPIC:  Writing for Emotional Impact: Maximizing the reader’s emotional response to your written pages. Karl @KarlIglesias is an MFA screenwriter and sought after script doctor and consultant, specializing in the reader’s emotional response to the written page.  He is the author of Writing For Emotional Impact: Advanced Dramatic Techniques to Attract, Engage, and Fascinate the Reader From Beginning to End, The 101 Habits of Highly Successful Screenwriters, and a contributor to Now Write! Screenwriting. He teaches at UCLA Extension’s Writer’s Program, where he was named Outstanding Instructor in Screenwriting in 2010, and he has led workshops globally at conferences, as well as Fortune 500 companies.  He can be reached through his website at www.karliglesias.com.  Don’t miss our USA chat this Sunday, June 17th, at 5pm PDT. “
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Karl Iglesias to Guest on USA Scriptchat June 17, 2012

Source: @scriptchat

#screenplay #screenwriting #film

“Scriptchat is excited to have screenwriting guru Karl Iglesias at our Sunday, June 17th USA chat, 5PM PDT (8pm EDT).

TOPIC:  Writing for Emotional Impact: Maximizing the reader’s emotional response to your written pages.

Karl @KarlIglesias is an MFA screenwriter and sought after script doctor and consultant, specializing in the reader’s emotional response to the written page.  He is the author of Writing For Emotional Impact: Advanced Dramatic Techniques to Attract, Engage, and Fascinate the Reader From Beginning to End, The 101 Habits of Highly Successful Screenwriters, and a contributor to Now Write! Screenwriting. 

He teaches at UCLA Extension’s Writer’s Program, where he was named Outstanding Instructor in Screenwriting in 2010, and he has led workshops globally at conferences, as well as Fortune 500 companies.  He can be reached through his website at www.karliglesias.com. 


Don’t miss our USA chat this Sunday, June 17th, at 5pm PDT. “
MP hoping to hit big time with screenplay Source: Thisisnottingham.co.uk #screenwriting #film #screenplay “NOTTS MP Patrick Mercer is hoping a Hollywood film will be made based on his own screenplay, after agents were impressed with the script. The Conservative MP has almost finished a screenplay set around the Crimean War in the 1850s. It is a subject that Mr Mercer is passionate about. He has visited the Republic of Crimea – a part of Ukraine – every year since 1993 and has written a number of pieces on the war, including a novel. Mr Mercer was approached by film company Forma Pro, based in Latvia, and asked to write a synopsis of the film, which is called England’s Gold. He said: “I got the reply ‘this is fantastic; it’s exactly what we wanted. It exceeds our expectations and it’s been well received by our agents in Hollywood’.” Mr Mercer then produced a “treatment” – a section of dialogue for each of the scenes to give a flavour of the film. After it was well received by two film studios in the United States, he started writing the full screenplay. “Then we’re in the business of attracting big names, first of all a producer and a director,” said Mr Mercer. “Then three or four major artistic names. “I want a hero or an anti-hero; I want Queen Victoria cast and probably a middle-ranking Englishman.” He is also looking for a Russian actor to play the crucial role of Leo Tolstoy, the Russian writer who was a second lieutenant in the Crimean War. “We’ve got to have someone who will appeal to the Russian market and the enormous American Russian audience,” said Mr Mercer. “The budget we’re looking at is 50 million euros. That sounds like a significant amount of money but it’s not that much; it’s about three times the budget for The King’s Speech.” The Newark MP said he hoped filming would take place in Newark Market Place and Alnwick Castle, in Northumberland, as well as Latvia and the Ukraine. “I’m very excited but I’m also realistic,” said the MP.”
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MP hoping to hit big time with screenplay


Source: Thisisnottingham.co.uk

#screenwriting #film #screenplay

“NOTTS MP Patrick Mercer is hoping a Hollywood film will be made based on his own screenplay, after agents were impressed with the script.

The Conservative MP has almost finished a screenplay set around the Crimean War in the 1850s.

It is a subject that Mr Mercer is passionate about. He has visited the Republic of Crimea – a part of Ukraine – every year since 1993 and has written a number of pieces on the war, including a novel.

Mr Mercer was approached by film company Forma Pro, based in Latvia, and asked to write a synopsis of the film, which is called England’s Gold.

He said: “I got the reply ‘this is fantastic; it’s exactly what we wanted. It exceeds our expectations and it’s been well received by our agents in Hollywood’.”

Mr Mercer then produced a “treatment” – a section of dialogue for each of the scenes to give a flavour of the film.

After it was well received by two film studios in the United States, he started writing the full screenplay.

“Then we’re in the business of attracting big names, first of all a producer and a director,” said Mr Mercer. “Then three or four major artistic names.

“I want a hero or an anti-hero; I want Queen Victoria cast and probably a middle-ranking Englishman.”

He is also looking for a Russian actor to play the crucial role of Leo Tolstoy, the Russian writer who was a second lieutenant in the Crimean War.

“We’ve got to have someone who will appeal to the Russian market and the enormous American Russian audience,” said Mr Mercer.

“The budget we’re looking at is 50 million euros. That sounds like a significant amount of money but it’s not that much; it’s about three times the budget for The King’s Speech.”

The Newark MP said he hoped filming would take place in Newark Market Place and Alnwick Castle, in Northumberland, as well as Latvia and the Ukraine.

“I’m very excited but I’m also realistic,” said the MP.”

Film Financing Still Snarled in Legal Fight Source: Courthouse News #screenwriting #film #legal “A screenwriter-director asked a state judge to rule that a vote ousting him from a film project is invalid, as is the contract to find much-needed financing that endorsed his removal.      The complaint, filed by Tennyson Bardwell and his Daydreamer Films LLC, comes less than a month after the two were named as defendants in a separate, related case.     Common to both lawsuits in Schenectady County Supreme Court is an attempt to make an $8 million feature movie from “Dancehall,” a murder-mystery set in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York.     Bardwell, a writer-director with two movies to his credit, created a screenplay from the book by local author Bernard Conners and delivered it in early 2010 to Dancehall LLC, a company formed to steer the project. Bardwell was one of three managing members of the company.     But after a contract promising $7.5 million to the movie fell apart, a group of Albany-area business executives that had pledged $1.1 million for development became concerned about their investment. They had one of their group, retired banker Daniel Hogarty, named as investment manager of the company in 2011, and Hogarty, voting with Edwin Graham, another managing member of Dancehall LLC, moved to oust Bardwell early this year, saying he stood in the way of new financing.     Dancehall LLC sued Bardwell and Daydreamer Films in early April, asking the state court to affirm the vote.     Bardwell and Daydreamer countersued, claiming the vote came “without proper notice, authority or cause.”     Named as defendants in the countersuit are Dancehall LLC; Graham and his Puddle Jumper Films LLC; and Hogarty, individually and as investment manager.     Bardwell claims in the countersuit that Hogarty, when he was named investment manager, was given “certain designated and limited powers set forth as negative covenants” - including that no agreements for a third party to help secure financing and no establishment of foreign or domestic distribution rights could be made without his consent.     These agreements “do not confer upon Hogarty the authority to vote on the removal of a voting manager of the company,” the complaint states.     That would make the Hogarty-Graham vote to remove Bardwell as managing member “unauthorized and void,” according to the complaint.     The countersuit also contends that when Graham signed an agreement in August 2011 to bring on Crescendo Capital Advisors LLC to help secure new financing for the film, he overstepped his authority as a managing member.     According to the complaint, Hogarty and the local investors had contacted Crescendo - unbeknownst to Bardwell - and hammered out an agreement that offered Crescendo a $250,000 up-front payment and another $250,000 once new financing was secured.     The countersuit contends the contract constituted a “significant matter” that required a unanimous vote of the three managing members of Dancehall LLC: Graham, Bardwell and Anne Marie Lizzi, who has worked with Bardwell as an editor.     The countersuit contends Lizzi was a managing member when the Crescendo contract was being negotiated. But Graham and Hogarty say she had relinquished that role a year earlier.     The lack of a unanimous vote on the contract “constitutes a breach” of Dancehall LLC’s operating rules, according to the complaint. “[W]ithout the necessary unanimous vote and agreement of the managers, it is invalid and subject to rescission.”     The countersuit contends that after the contract was signed, Crescendo began suggesting that “significant changes” to the management structure at Dancehall LLC “would have to be made purportedly in order to attract the interests of foreign investors to the picture.”     In October 2011, the complaint states, Hogarty advised Graham and Bardwell by letter of the changes, which required that they resign as managing members and become at-will employees of Dancehall LLC.      Graham, who originally was to be………”
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Film Financing Still Snarled in Legal Fight


Source: Courthouse News

#screenwriting #film #legal

“A screenwriter-director asked a state judge to rule that a vote ousting him from a film project is invalid, as is the contract to find much-needed financing that endorsed his removal.

     The complaint, filed by Tennyson Bardwell and his Daydreamer Films LLC, comes less than a month after the two were named as defendants in a separate, related case.
     Common to both lawsuits in Schenectady County Supreme Court is an attempt to make an $8 million feature movie from “Dancehall,” a murder-mystery set in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York.
     Bardwell, a writer-director with two movies to his credit, created a screenplay from the book by local author Bernard Conners and delivered it in early 2010 to Dancehall LLC, a company formed to steer the project. Bardwell was one of three managing members of the company.
     But after a contract promising $7.5 million to the movie fell apart, a group of Albany-area business executives that had pledged $1.1 million for development became concerned about their investment. They had one of their group, retired banker Daniel Hogarty, named as investment manager of the company in 2011, and Hogarty, voting with Edwin Graham, another managing member of Dancehall LLC, moved to oust Bardwell early this year, saying he stood in the way of new financing.
     Dancehall LLC sued Bardwell and Daydreamer Films in early April, asking the state court to affirm the vote.
     Bardwell and Daydreamer countersued, claiming the vote came “without proper notice, authority or cause.”
     Named as defendants in the countersuit are Dancehall LLC; Graham and his Puddle Jumper Films LLC; and Hogarty, individually and as investment manager.
     Bardwell claims in the countersuit that Hogarty, when he was named investment manager, was given “certain designated and limited powers set forth as negative covenants” - including that no agreements for a third party to help secure financing and no establishment of foreign or domestic distribution rights could be made without his consent.
     These agreements “do not confer upon Hogarty the authority to vote on the removal of a voting manager of the company,” the complaint states.
     That would make the Hogarty-Graham vote to remove Bardwell as managing member “unauthorized and void,” according to the complaint.
     The countersuit also contends that when Graham signed an agreement in August 2011 to bring on Crescendo Capital Advisors LLC to help secure new financing for the film, he overstepped his authority as a managing member.
     According to the complaint, Hogarty and the local investors had contacted Crescendo - unbeknownst to Bardwell - and hammered out an agreement that offered Crescendo a $250,000 up-front payment and another $250,000 once new financing was secured.
     The countersuit contends the contract constituted a “significant matter” that required a unanimous vote of the three managing members of Dancehall LLC: Graham, Bardwell and Anne Marie Lizzi, who has worked with Bardwell as an editor.
     The countersuit contends Lizzi was a managing member when the Crescendo contract was being negotiated. But Graham and Hogarty say she had relinquished that role a year earlier.
     The lack of a unanimous vote on the contract “constitutes a breach” of Dancehall LLC’s operating rules, according to the complaint. “[W]ithout the necessary unanimous vote and agreement of the managers, it is invalid and subject to rescission.”
     The countersuit contends that after the contract was signed, Crescendo began suggesting that “significant changes” to the management structure at Dancehall LLC “would have to be made purportedly in order to attract the interests of foreign investors to the picture.”
     In October 2011, the complaint states, Hogarty advised Graham and Bardwell by letter of the changes, which required that they resign as managing members and become at-will employees of Dancehall LLC.

     Graham, who originally was to be………”

L.A. story: ‘Dorfman’ screenwriter pens a love letter to her city Source: @jewishjournal #screenwriting #film #screenplay ““I would like to share the story of how ‘Dorfman’ came to be, in the very location where our mini-miracle occurred,” screenwriter Wendy Kout e-mailed last week. She insisted on meeting at the tiny block on Industrial Street, a revitalized strip in the Los Angeles Downtown Arts District that inspired her to write a movie. Just a few blocks east of the Midnight Mission, where hundreds of homeless camp on the sidewalks, is a gentrified stretch that seems like another world. Between Mateo and Mill streets, where twisting train tracks serve as a kind of neighborhood border, lies a quiet, medium-scale block spotted with art galleries, chic restaurants and fashion boutiques, a little urban oasis in an otherwise industrial landscape. “You know the old adage, ‘Let’s put on a play, my dad has a barn’?” Kout asked as she opened the door to a high-ceilinged, two-story condo owned by the film’s producer, Leonard Hill. “In my case, it’s, ‘Let’s make a movie, my friend has a loft.’ ” Almost every scene of “Dorfman,” a romantic comedy starring Sara Rue and Elliott Gould, who plays Rue’s father, was shot in Hill’s Toy Factory loft, named for its history as a manufacturing site. Hill and his real-estate partners purchased the building in 2002, as part of a preservation project, and converted the space into live/work lofts. Kout was so taken by the building and its role in downtown L.A.’s urban renewal that she wrote the movie around the setting. For a self-described “Valley girl,” it was L.A.’s promised land: Soho meets SoCal, bohemia meets Hollywood. Indeed, one star of the movie is downtown L.A. itself. When the film’s protagonist, a nebbishy Jewish girl named Deb, gets an opportunity to spend a week at her unrequited love’s downtown loft (she plans to woo him by cat sitting), her ensuing saturation in the new culture becomes a catalyst for her self-realization. In this L.A., people do astonishingly urban things. They walk! They take the Metro! They dine on rooftops! Not a chain store in sight, they buy everyday items at specialty, artisan shops. A trip to the Los Angeles Flower Market, where luscious orchids sell for $10 a pop, bursts on screen in bright, beautiful colors, giving away one of L.A.’s best-kept secrets. Deb’s transformation from an aimless single gal into the self-assured, made-over Deborah, mirrors the transformation of a newly revitalized city, from something known, mundane and expected into a place that is alluring, exciting and new. Truly being seen, whether it’s cityscapes, other people or even for oneself, is a leitmotif in the film, but it’s also the central challenge for a little independent film like this one (Hill wouldn’t say what the budget was): Will anybody actually get to see it? It screens here on May 10, the closing night of The Los Angeles Jewish Film Festival, co-presented by The Jewish Journal, but beyond the festival circuit, where it has been doing the rounds for several months now and has even won several awards, the film does not yet have a distributor. “Look at this; is this crazy?” Kout said from the Toy Factory’s rooftop pool, admiring its panoramic view of the downtown skyline. I recognize the spot from a scene in the film. “Basically, I tried to use every square inch of this building,” she added. “I knew the locations before I wrote the script — it’s the repurposed, revitalized city.” Kout had just about given up screenwriting when she ran into Hill, a veteran television producer, across the street from the building, at the restaurant Church & State. They had worked together decades earlier on one of Kout’s pilots that was never picked up, but had since lost touch. “I said, ‘What the hell are you doing here?’ And he said, ‘Well, I kind of own the block.’ ” Next, Hill invited her for lunch and a tour. “He was all excited and twinkly, showing me his world,” she recalled of that propitious meeting. Then she got twinkly, too, seeing a side of Los Angeles she had never known existed……..”
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L.A. story: ‘Dorfman’ screenwriter pens a love letter to her city

Source: @jewishjournal

#screenwriting #film #screenplay

““I would like to share the story of how ‘Dorfman’ came to be, in the very location where our mini-miracle occurred,” screenwriter Wendy Kout e-mailed last week. She insisted on meeting at the tiny block on Industrial Street, a revitalized strip in the Los Angeles Downtown Arts District that inspired her to write a movie.

Just a few blocks east of the Midnight Mission, where hundreds of homeless camp on the sidewalks, is a gentrified stretch that seems like another world. Between Mateo and Mill streets, where twisting train tracks serve as a kind of neighborhood border, lies a quiet, medium-scale block spotted with art galleries, chic restaurants and fashion boutiques, a little urban oasis in an otherwise industrial landscape.

“You know the old adage, ‘Let’s put on a play, my dad has a barn’?” Kout asked as she opened the door to a high-ceilinged, two-story condo owned by the film’s producer, Leonard Hill. “In my case, it’s, ‘Let’s make a movie, my friend has a loft.’ ”

Almost every scene of “Dorfman,” a romantic comedy starring Sara Rue and Elliott Gould, who plays Rue’s father, was shot in Hill’s Toy Factory loft, named for its history as a manufacturing site. Hill and his real-estate partners purchased the building in 2002, as part of a preservation project, and converted the space into live/work lofts. Kout was so taken by the building and its role in downtown L.A.’s urban renewal that she wrote the movie around the setting. For a self-described “Valley girl,” it was L.A.’s promised land: Soho meets SoCal, bohemia meets Hollywood.

Indeed, one star of the movie is downtown L.A. itself. When the film’s protagonist, a nebbishy Jewish girl named Deb, gets an opportunity to spend a week at her unrequited love’s downtown loft (she plans to woo him by cat sitting), her ensuing saturation in the new culture becomes a catalyst for her self-realization. In this L.A., people do astonishingly urban things. They walk! They take the Metro! They dine on rooftops! Not a chain store in sight, they buy everyday items at specialty, artisan shops. A trip to the Los Angeles Flower Market, where luscious orchids sell for $10 a pop, bursts on screen in bright, beautiful colors, giving away one of L.A.’s best-kept secrets. Deb’s transformation from an aimless single gal into the self-assured, made-over Deborah, mirrors the transformation of a newly revitalized city, from something known, mundane and expected into a place that is alluring, exciting and new.

Truly being seen, whether it’s cityscapes, other people or even for oneself, is a leitmotif in the film, but it’s also the central challenge for a little independent film like this one (Hill wouldn’t say what the budget was): Will anybody actually get to see it? It screens here on May 10, the closing night of The Los Angeles Jewish Film Festival, co-presented by The Jewish Journal, but beyond the festival circuit, where it has been doing the rounds for several months now and has even won several awards, the film does not yet have a distributor.

“Look at this; is this crazy?” Kout said from the Toy Factory’s rooftop pool, admiring its panoramic view of the downtown skyline. I recognize the spot from a scene in the film. “Basically, I tried to use every square inch of this building,” she added. “I knew the locations before I wrote the script — it’s the repurposed, revitalized city.”

Kout had just about given up screenwriting when she ran into Hill, a veteran television producer, across the street from the building, at the restaurant Church & State. They had worked together decades earlier on one of Kout’s pilots that was never picked up, but had since lost touch. “I said, ‘What the hell are you doing here?’ And he said, ‘Well, I kind of own the block.’ ” Next, Hill invited her for lunch and a tour. “He was all excited and twinkly, showing me his world,” she recalled of that propitious meeting. Then she got twinkly, too, seeing a side of Los Angeles she had never known existed……..”


A “Precious” moment for screenwriter Geoffrey Fletcher Source: @The_Upcoming  #screenwriting #film #screenplay “In 2009, Geoffrey Fletcher’s adapted screenplay Precious won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay (making him the first ever African American to win within that category). The film was also the first ever work to win both the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival. Now he is launching a competition in association with The Bombay Sapphire Imagination Series, at the world famous Tribeca Film Festival. Budding film-makers will adapt a specially released script by Fletcher and five winners will go on to direct and produce their own individual films, which will premiere at a star-studded international event in early 2013. The Upcoming spoke to Geoffrey Fletcher about the competition, what is important to him within film and about his renowned career to date.  Hello, thank you so much for speaking to us. Geoffrey Fletcher: Hi! Yeah, fine, fine. How are you?  I’m great, thanks. How are you? Oh, great. Happy! Very happy.  So, I really want to speak to you about the competition you’re launching, which sounds so exciting, but before that, I’d like to ask you more generally about any advice you would give to new film-makers and screenwriters about how to get themselves out there and get their work noticed. Is there any particular advice you would give?  Sure. Well, I would advise any budding film-makers to do at least two things, which are to keep working on your craft and to try every door. That way, opportunity will… emerge. A lot of people think, “I just want to do the art” but you really have to do the other parts as well. And there are so many factors outside of your control – especially for actors – so every factor within your control has to be rock solid. So, developing yourself as an artist and not only search for opportunities, but also create opportunities.  Well, this competition that you’re launching is an amazing opportunity for loads of film-makers. Is there anything, any quality that you think a film should have? What, for you, will make a film really stand out? Well, we believe that the most important thing a film can have is passion and imagination. It’s not a big budget on a shoot that an audience will connect with. A project, one that will be remembered for a long time, will consider not necessarily what the film-maker has seen in other films, but will think about things that they want to say – things that excite them.  The film-makers that enter the competition need to interpret one of your scripts. When will it be available? Can you tell us anything about it?  Well, it’s available tomorrow through the website. And the script is about… Well, it’s a short film script and it’s very much a framework for reaction. So, although it has a structure, it also has an enormous amount of room to take the story wherever you wish. And that’s what we love about it. Some degree of structure is helpful, certainly, but within the structure of the script people can really, reallygo off their own way.  So it’s imagination, mainly, that you’re trying to encourage? Exactly. Trying to encourage it in budding film-makers and then also in the average person. For me, that engagement with imagination sustained me for many years. Looking back, I feel that’s what kept me going. Before Precious, I taught at Columbia University and one of the assignments that I set was very similar to this. Students would have to interpret a very minimal script and see where they take it. The script for this is made solely for this competition and we really can’t wait to see where………”
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A “Precious” moment for screenwriter Geoffrey Fletcher

Source: @The_Upcoming 

#screenwriting #film #screenplay

“In 2009, Geoffrey Fletcher’s adapted screenplay Precious won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay (making him the first ever African American to win within that category). The film was also the first ever work to win both the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival. Now he is launching a competition in association with The Bombay Sapphire Imagination Series, at the world famous Tribeca Film Festival. Budding film-makers will adapt a specially released script by Fletcher and five winners will go on to direct and produce their own individual films, which will premiere at a star-studded international event in early 2013. The Upcoming spoke to Geoffrey Fletcher about the competition, what is important to him within film and about his renowned career to date. 

Hello, thank you so much for speaking to us.

Geoffrey Fletcher: Hi! Yeah, fine, fine. How are you? 

I’m great, thanks. How are you?

Oh, great. Happy! Very happy. 

So, I really want to speak to you about the competition you’re launching, which sounds so exciting, but before that, I’d like to ask you more generally about any advice you would give to new film-makers and screenwriters about how to get themselves out there and get their work noticed. Is there any particular advice you would give? 

Sure. Well, I would advise any budding film-makers to do at least two things, which are to keep working on your craft and to try every door. That way, opportunity will… emerge. A lot of people think, “I just want to do the art” but you really have to do the other parts as well. And there are so many factors outside of your control – especially for actors – so every factor within your control has to be rock solid. So, developing yourself as an artist and not only search for opportunities, but also create opportunities. 

Well, this competition that you’re launching is an amazing opportunity for loads of film-makers. Is there anything, any quality that you think a film should have? What, for you, will make a film really stand out?

Well, we believe that the most important thing a film can have is passion and imagination. It’s not a big budget on a shoot that an audience will connect with. A project, one that will be remembered for a long time, will consider not necessarily what the film-maker has seen in other films, but will think about things that they want to say – things that excite them. 

The film-makers that enter the competition need to interpret one of your scripts. When will it be available? Can you tell us anything about it? 

Well, it’s available tomorrow through the website. And the script is about… Well, it’s a short film script and it’s very much a framework for reaction. So, although it has a structure, it also has an enormous amount of room to take the story wherever you wish. And that’s what we love about it. Some degree of structure is helpful, certainly, but within the structure of the script people can really, reallygo off their own way. 

So it’s imagination, mainly, that you’re trying to encourage?

Exactly. Trying to encourage it in budding film-makers and then also in the average person. For me, that engagement with imagination sustained me for many years. Looking back, I feel that’s what kept me going. Before Precious, I taught at Columbia University and one of the assignments that I set was very similar to this. Students would have to interpret a very minimal script and see where they take it. The script for this is made solely for this competition and we really can’t wait to see where………”