Script writing

Finished the 1st Script - Corruption of Innocence and submitted to 3 screenwriting competions over the past 7 months. Clearly not quite up to standard to get into the finals. Main problems seem to be:-
a) Not "High Concept"
b) Dialogue not quite there - a little much "on the nose" i.e. characters saying what they are thinking, too frequently

Now thinking about and laying out out 2 new script ideas. Thinking of turning one into a novel.

One thing I have learnt is that the competition is very intense - hundreds, if not thousands of good writers out there and only limited opportunities. Still much better odds than winning the lottery though!

David

Criket

Finally getting some success playing Cricket. 2 innings so far with an average of 23 and 2 catches. No team wins yet this season however I'm contributing. Still can't bowl properly though. Quite frustrating as I was quite a good bowler as a kid. Anyway it's a bit of fun and I'm getting gitter and losing a few excess kilos.

Scriptwriting

Finished a massive re-write of my first script and have submitted it to a US Screenwriting competition last night. Much better than my first attempt - more structure and concise. Hoping to get to quarter-finals. Good brain work anyway.

The Unreasonable Man

"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man." George Bernard Shaw

Scriptwriting

I spent months writing my first dramatic film script a few months ago. It is a black widow story, set in the USA and Australia with some inspiration from the Ashley Judd film Double Jeopardy. It was very enjoyable putting it together. I got some great feedback from a close friends and colleagues. I started the story using Word however I found a nice free script writing website called Zhura, which helped getting the story into the right format. After a lot of editing I realised that I couldn't resolve the story in what is regarded as standard film time-frame - about 120 pages or so. I made the decision to turn the story into a two parts with a cliff-hangar ending in the first part.

I've only finished the first part so far however I submitted this to the 2009 PAGE scriptwriting competition, which is in the process of being judged. A few days ago I was excited to be advised that I'd got through to the 2nd round, the top 25%. Unfortunately I've heard today that I didn't progress any further. A lot of quality competition however I'm quite pleased I got so far with my first proper attempt. I'll keep on trying!

Philosophy

I would rather attempt to do something great with my life and fail; than do nothing at all and succeed.

Teach a man to fish and you'll feed them for a lifetime. Teach an Australian man to fish and he'll sit in a boat all day and drink beer.

Fundamentalism is fundamentally flawed. (DC)

Life is not black and white, it is various shades of grey, with some beautiful splashes of colour thrown in occasionally. (DC)

How far you go in life depends on you being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving, and tolerant of the weak and strong. Because some day in life you will have been all of these.

George Washington Carver (1864 to 1943) African-American scientist, botanist, educator and inventor

"Some men see things as they are and say, "Why?" I dream of things that never were and say, "Why not?" - George Bernard Shaw

I Love the Demotivational Poster series.

Morality was created by the elite to ensure that the rest of us don't have any fun. Danny Crane (Boston Legal)