DVXUser Scripwriting Challenge

5

500lb Productions

Well-known member
Hello screenwriters, directors, producers...

Following Jeremy's (The Yankee) excellent example in the wake of the remarkable success of the DVXuser still photography contest... I am happy to announce the...

DVXUser SHORT SCREENWRITING Contest.

Not just ANY screenwriting contest
This contest isn't about showing off your next finished masterpiece that took months or years to produce. Rather, this contest is to create small SINGLE SCENE scripts which can then be further developed and produced by our resident aspiring filmmakers... all in the spirit of cooperation and collaboration here at DVXuser.

Why?
Because the first serious obstacle aspriring filmmakers face is finding projects to produce and shoot, and the first serious obstacle most aspiring screenwriters face is actually getting anything produced. So why not put A and B together and see what happens??

This contest will be very simple:
1) Post a message to this thread saying: "SEED" w/ your AGE and Gender.

2) Then, use the forum message number to seed the random setup generator (based on an exercise in Rabiger's book) which will give you a randomly generated (but repeatable) setup for the scene you are assigned to write. The scene generating tool is HERE

3) Edit the message and paste back the setup that you generated.

4) You will have 1 week to write the short scene. Then everyone (all DVXuser members) will have a week to read the submissions and vote on them. The winner will be selected by the votes of the forum members. Keep in mind that the primary goals for this contest is that our scenes should be shootable with little or no budget by beginning filmmakers. They can be challenging, just not impossible.

5) Try to submit in standard cinema format. You can use Notepad or Word or whatever.

Prizes:
For the first week, I will be contributing up to $50 ($5 per entry) as a gift card to either: B&H, Barnes and Noble, or Adorama. Winner's choice. Additional prizes may be sponsored for future weeks contests. Also, all entries will be available for the filmmakers here to produce, so who knows what could happen. Sundance anyone?

Rights Granted:
The only catch is that in the spirit of collaboration, all scenes submitted will be granting a LIMITED free use license. This means that anyone who wants to can produce your scene (as is), or adapt it into a short film (of not more than 10 minutes running time), provided they a) notify you in advance, b) give full writing credit in their reel and c) provide you with a copy for your own demo reel / resume.

You are NOT agreeing to let anyone develop your scene into a feature without further agreement on your part. But you ARE helping aspiring filmmakers come up with meaningful projects to produce as demo reels or learning projects. Ideally this contest can give a lot of young filmmakers some interesting material to play with... not for profit, but for learning. And hopefully we can all benefit by seeing how some of these scripts are interpreted in shooting.

Let's Get This Started:
Good luck everyone, I hope we have lots of entries, and I can't wait to see what you submit!

For this first week, the submission deadline will be Friday, August 25th, at 11:59 PM.


EMAIL YOUR FINISHED ENTRIES TO: AvantGardeCreatives at yahoo dot com


Please include the following on your coverpage:
Your SETUP.
You real name. (but not your DVXUser name).

The following copyright:

Title
(c)2006 By The Author.

The author of this script grants the following LIMITED rights to DVXuser forum members:

1) Any forum member may perform, produce or direct this script in any not-for profit production (generally for a demo reel).

Said rights are granted ONLY if ALL of the following condtions are fully met:

1) The producer/director notifies the author before production begins.
2) The producer/director not adapt or produce the script in any work with a running time exceeding 10 minutes.
3) The producer/director give proper writing credit to the author in a proper credits sequence.
4) The producer/director provide a finished print of the recorded work to the Author. Performance rights are NOT granted without a recorded copy for the author.
Click to expand...


Good luck everyone, I hope we have lots of entries, and I can't wait to see what you submit!
 
Last edited:
The Message Number is found by clicking the little #X, in this case #5 which and then looking at the p= on the URL line.


This is Setup Number: 649999 (the message number of announcement).


20 Title: Visitor
91 Age of POV Character: 75 or Over
4 POV Character Gender Is Female (Opposite of Author)
3 Genre: Mystery
1 Sound and Music, but No dialog.
4 Running Time: 4 Minutes
2 Setting: EXT.
3 Crisis Timing: Two Thirds In
3 3 Beats (per Rabiger "Directing", PP 18-23)
2 2 Characters
6 Time of Day: Night
2 Conflict Between POV Character and Self

EDIT: grrrr... it lost the line breaks Had to edit.
 
500lb Productions said:
20 Title: Visitor
91 Age of POV Character: 75 or Over
4 POV Character Gender Is Female (Opposite of Author)
3 Genre: Mystery
1 Sound and Music, but No dialog.
4 Running Time: 4 Minutes
2 Setting: EXT.
3 Crisis Timing: Two Thirds In
3 3 Beats (per Rabiger "Directing", PP 18-23)
2 2 Characters
6 Time of Day: Night
2 Conflict Between POV Character and Self
Click to expand...

I think this might actually be very cool, and I visited that page you gave a link for; but I think you might want to simplify this a tad.
It's a little complicated at the moment (but that might just be so to me! :))
 
I think a "One-Script-To-Rule-'Em-All" type o' generalized topic would be a better approach. Plus they should probably be submitted anonymously (not unlike Yank's competition.) Of course, I would also suggest getting with Isaac Brody...as resident scribe mod, he could definitely be beneficial in getting something like this off the ground.
 
CallaghanFilms said:
I think a "One-Script-To-Rule-'Em-All" type o' generalized topic would be a better approach.
Click to expand...
I couldn't decide which would be better... maybe alternate... one week do "everyone has the same setup" and next time do "everyone has a different setup". The one advantage of different setups is that it offers a greater variety to pick from when deciding to shoot one of them.


CallaghanFilms said:
Plus they should probably be submitted anonymously (not unlike Yank's competition.)
Click to expand...
That would be the goal.

CallaghanFilms said:
Of course, I would also suggest getting with Isaac Brody...as resident scribe mod, he could definitely be beneficial in getting something like this off the ground.
Click to expand...
Great idea. I'll PM him.
 
If I understood it better, I'd join in, a little swamp with helping another dvx
user's script though, but not for horrorfest.

Charli
 
Looking forward to this contest. I am game.

Scenario Generator (Seed = 650173)
Title: Moment of Danger
Age of POV Character: 60
POV Character Gender Is Female
Genre: Film Noir
Up to 60% of Screen Time in Dialog.
Running Time: 3 Minutes
Setting: EXT.
Crisis Timing: At End
3 Beats (per Rabiger "Directing", PP 18-23)
Crowd
Time of Day: Night
Conflict Between POV Character and Self
 
Last edited:
Sounds cool.

Scenario Generator (Seed = 650211)
Title: Paradise Lost
Age of POV Character: 52
POV Character Gender Is Female (Opposite of Author)
Genre: Sci-Fi
100% Dialog, No Music, No Sounds.
Running Time: 4 Minutes
Setting: INT.
Crisis Timing: Two Thirds In
4 Beats (per Rabiger "Directing", PP 18-23)
1 Character
Time of Day: Midday
Conflict Between POV Character and Self
 
Last edited:
Seed: 33/m

Scenario Generator (Seed = 650217)

2 Title: The Truth At Last
7 Age of POV Character: 7
4 POV Character Gender Is Female (Opposite of Author)
5 Genre: Film Noir
1 Sound and Music, but No dialog.
1 Running Time: 1 Minutes
1 Setting: INT.
1 Crisis Timing: Near Beginning
3 3 Beats (per Rabiger "Directing", PP 18-23)
3 3 Characters
3 Time of Day: Midday
1 Conflict Between POV Character and Other Character
 
Last edited:
Scenario Generator (Seed = 650330)

10 Title: Darkest Hour
82 Age of POV Character: 75 or Over
3 POV Character Gender Is Male (Same As Author)
6 Genre: Sci-Fi
2 Sound and Music, but no more than 5 Lines of dialog.
3 Running Time: 3 Minutes
2 Setting: EXT.
1 Crisis Timing: Near Beginning
4 4 Beats (per Rabiger "Directing", PP 18-23)
1 1 Character
10 Time of Day: Discontinuous Long Overall Time
1 Conflict Between POV Character and Other Character

EDIT; DID I DO THIS RIGHT?
 
Scenario Generator (Seed = 650385)

1 Title: First Time
86 Age of POV Character: 75 or Over
4 POV Character Gender Is Female (Opposite of Author)
8 Genre: Realism
4 100% Dialog, No Music, No Sounds.
3 Running Time: 3 Minutes
2 Setting: EXT.
4 Crisis Timing: At End
4 4 Beats (per Rabiger "Directing", PP 18-23)
2 2 Characters
4 Time of Day: Afternoon
1 Conflict Between POV Character and Other Character
 
Last edited:
Scenario Generator (Seed = 650401)

23 Title: First Love
90 Age of POV Character: 75 or Over
3 POV Character Gender Is Male (Same As Author)
4 Genre: Horror
1 Sound and Music, but No dialog.
4 Running Time: 4 Minutes
2 Setting: EXT.
4 Crisis Timing: At End
4 4 Beats (per Rabiger "Directing", PP 18-23)
1 1 Character
1 Time of Day: Early Morning
2 Conflict Between POV Character and Self


you know, this is remarkably close to what i'm currently working on, but i'm filming it myself ... and it's not a horror film. how close? it's about a 75 year old man remembering his first love ... everything is exterior, there's no dialogue, but there is sound and music. and the script is 4 pages long ... this is downright creepy.
 
R!ff R4ff said:
Scenario Generator (Seed = 67885)

If someone would be kind enough to explain what Rabiger means by 4 beats? Unless he's talking about the same beats of a scene that I learned in acting class.
Click to expand...

Riff Raff,

You've accidentally set up the wrong seed number... Can you rerun the setup using your message number: 650385

A beat is "a dramatic point".

I don't fully get Rabiger's explanation, but I think what he's getting at is:
a character (or other element such as the environment) saying or doing something that impacts the advancement of the plot.

Think of a beat as a "micro plot point".

Now everyone else can correct my misunderstanding.
 
Last edited:
Ok, count me in. (Seed # 650651)

Title: Embarassing Moment
Age of POV Character: 34
POV Character Gender: Female
Genre: Sci-Fi
Sound and Music, but No Dialog
Running Time: 2 Minutes
Setting: EXT.
Crisis Timing: Near Beginning
1 Beat (per Rabiger "Directing", PP 18-23)
4 Characters
Time of Day: Evening
Conflict Between POV Character and Self
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top