tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-157932242024-03-06T21:46:49.666-08:00Mark's Screenwriting BlogA screenwriting blog for new and experienced screenwriters to find information and share ideas for marketing their screenplays.Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16112204190477355156noreply@blogger.comBlogger68125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15793224.post-37852213573246299222021-04-19T13:32:00.000-07:002021-04-19T13:32:39.851-07:00<p> <span style="background-color: white; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-weight: inherit; white-space: inherit;">Mark Atwater</span></p><div class="css-1dbjc4n r-6gpygo r-14gqq1x" style="-webkit-box-align: stretch; -webkit-box-direction: normal; -webkit-box-orient: vertical; align-items: stretch; background-color: white; border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; display: flex; flex-basis: auto; flex-direction: column; flex-shrink: 0; font-size: 15px; margin: 4px 0px 12px; min-height: 0px; min-width: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; z-index: 0;"><div class="css-1dbjc4n r-1wbh5a2 r-dnmrzs r-1ny4l3l" style="-webkit-box-align: stretch; -webkit-box-direction: normal; -webkit-box-orient: vertical; align-items: stretch; border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; display: flex; flex-basis: auto; flex-direction: column; flex-shrink: 1; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; min-height: 0px; min-width: 0px; outline-style: none; padding: 0px; position: relative; z-index: 0;"><div class="css-1dbjc4n r-1wbh5a2 r-dnmrzs r-1ny4l3l" style="-webkit-box-align: stretch; -webkit-box-direction: normal; -webkit-box-orient: vertical; align-items: stretch; border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; display: flex; flex-basis: auto; flex-direction: column; flex-shrink: 1; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; min-height: 0px; min-width: 0px; outline-style: none; padding: 0px; position: relative; z-index: 0;"><div class="css-1dbjc4n r-1awozwy r-18u37iz r-dnmrzs" style="-webkit-box-align: center; -webkit-box-direction: normal; -webkit-box-orient: horizontal; align-items: center; border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; display: flex; flex-basis: auto; flex-direction: row; flex-shrink: 0; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; min-height: 0px; min-width: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; z-index: 0;"><div class="css-901oao r-18jsvk2 r-1qd0xha r-adyw6z r-1vr29t4 r-135wba7 r-bcqeeo r-1udh08x r-qvutc0" dir="auto" style="border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; color: #0f1419; display: inline; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 800; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-18u37iz r-1q142lx r-poiln3 r-adyw6z r-135wba7 r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0" style="-webkit-box-direction: normal; -webkit-box-orient: horizontal; border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; display: inline; flex-direction: row; flex-shrink: 0; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; white-space: inherit;"></span></div></div><div class="css-1dbjc4n r-18u37iz r-1wbh5a2" style="-webkit-box-align: stretch; -webkit-box-direction: normal; -webkit-box-orient: horizontal; align-items: stretch; border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; display: flex; flex-basis: auto; flex-direction: row; flex-shrink: 1; margin: 0px; min-height: 0px; min-width: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; z-index: 0;"><div class="css-901oao css-bfa6kz r-m0bqgq r-18u37iz r-1qd0xha r-a023e6 r-16dba41 r-rjixqe r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0" dir="ltr" style="-webkit-box-direction: normal; -webkit-box-orient: horizontal; border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; color: #5b7083; display: inline; flex-direction: row; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-poiln3 r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0" style="border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; display: inline; font: inherit; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; white-space: inherit;">@Shortkill</span></div></div></div></div></div><div class="css-1dbjc4n r-1adg3ll r-6gpygo" style="-webkit-box-align: stretch; -webkit-box-direction: normal; -webkit-box-orient: vertical; align-items: stretch; background-color: white; border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; flex-basis: auto; flex-direction: column; flex-shrink: 0; font-size: 15px; margin: 0px 0px 12px; min-height: 0px; min-width: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; z-index: 0;"><div class="css-1dbjc4n" style="-webkit-box-align: stretch; -webkit-box-direction: normal; -webkit-box-orient: vertical; align-items: stretch; border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; display: flex; flex-basis: auto; flex-direction: column; flex-shrink: 0; margin: 0px; min-height: 0px; min-width: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; z-index: 0;"><div class="css-901oao r-18jsvk2 r-1qd0xha r-a023e6 r-16dba41 r-rjixqe r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0" data-testid="UserDescription" dir="auto" style="border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; color: #0f1419; display: inline; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-poiln3 r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0" style="border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; display: inline; font: inherit; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; white-space: inherit;">Midwest Screenwriter. DFS Grinder Speciality Horror/Thrillers. Email me @ mark@markatwater.com</span></div></div></div><p>https://twitter.com/Shortkill</p>Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16112204190477355156noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15793224.post-56120603821729794032010-12-20T13:48:00.000-08:002010-12-20T13:49:32.461-08:00"Stiff Luck" screenplay<div>My screenplay "Stiff Luck" at Amazon</div><div><br /></div><a href="http://studios.amazon.com/scripts/2676?ref=fb_share">http://studios.amazon.com/scripts/2676?ref=fb_share</a>Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16112204190477355156noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15793224.post-86563497238657298632007-10-12T13:12:00.001-07:002007-10-12T13:12:54.599-07:00New Links<a href="http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/movies/la-scriptland-sg,1,4937523.storygallery?coll=la-util-entnews-movies&ctrack=2&cset=true"><b>Scriptland</b></a> a weekly feature on the work and professional lives of screenwriters from the <a href="http://www.latimes.com/"><b>latimes.com</b></a>.<br /> <a href="http://14dayscreenplay.com/"><b>14 Day Screenplay</b></a> challenges you to write a feature length screenplay (90-120 pages) in just 14 days. <a href="http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/index.php?"><b>Absolute Write Water Cooler</b></a> great forum to find screenwriting related topics. <a href="http://www.aintitcool.com/"><b>Aint it Cool News</b></a> an old standby for movie news. <a href="http://cinemavault.com/home.php"><b>Cinema Vault</b></a> and <a href="http://www.comicworldnews.com/cgi-bin/index.cgi"><b>Comic World News</b></a>. <a href="http://bventertainment.go.com/tv/buenavista/ebertandroeper/index.html"><b>Ebert and Roeper</b></a> where you can watch the movie reviews of the show online. <a href="http://www.writingtreatments.com/"><b>Writing Treatment</b></a> a central site for all things dealing with treatments. <a href="http://www.chicagoscriptworks.org/"><b>Chicago Scriptworks</b></a> is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to producing a series of staged screenplay readings. <a href="http://www.studioreaderstan.com/"><b>Studio Reader Stan</b></a> a comic strip about the film biz. <a href="http://www.trackingb.com/"><b>TrackingB.com</b></a> script tracking board. <a href="http://horror.invids.com/"><b>Independent Horror Movies, Films, Videos</b></a> Horror Movie News, on a daily level.Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16112204190477355156noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15793224.post-40354620303780947022007-08-22T13:00:00.000-07:002007-08-22T13:01:42.405-07:00Film FestivalsBahamas International Film Festival, Nassau, BAHAMAS<br />AUGUST 23, 2007 - WAB Extended Deadline<br />Upgraded projects save $15<br />Watch List: http://www.withoutabox.com/watch/3580<br /><br />FILMSTOCK International Film Festival, Luton, UNITED KINGDOM<br />AUGUST 23, 2007 - WAB Extended Deadline<br />Upgraded projects save $10<br />Watch List: http://www.withoutabox.com/watch/3909<br /><br />Chicago International REEL Shorts Festival, Chicago, IL<br />AUGUST 24, 2007 - WAB Extended Deadline<br />Upgraded projects save $15<br />Watch List: http://www.withoutabox.com/watch/3925<br /><br />Taos Mountain Film Festival, Taos, NM<br />AUGUST 24, 2007 - WAB Extended Deadline<br />Upgraded projects save $20<br />Watch List: http://www.withoutabox.com/watch/3948<br /><br />Turks & Caicos International Film Festival, Turks & Caicos Islands,<br /> CARIBBEAN<br />AUGUST 24, 2007 - WAB Extended Deadline<br />Upgraded projects save $5<br />Watch List: http://www.withoutabox.com/watch/5203<br /><br />KIDS FIRST! Film Festival, Santa Fe, NM<br />AUGUST 25, 2007 - WAB Extended Deadline<br />Upgraded projects save $15<br />Watch List: http://www.withoutabox.com/watch/1716<br /><br />New York City Short Film Festival, New York, NY<br />AUGUST 25, 2007 - WAB Extended Deadline<br />Upgraded projects save $15<br />Watch List: http://www.withoutabox.com/watch/4611<br /><br />Middle East International Film Festival - Abu Dhabi, UNITED ARAB<br /> EMIRATES<br />AUGUST 27, 2007 - Regular Deadline <br />Upgraded projects save $5<br />Watch List: http://www.withoutabox.com/watch/6323<br /><br />H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival, Portland, OR<br />AUGUST 28, 2007 - WAB Extended Deadline<br />Upgraded projects save $5<br />Watch List: http://www.withoutabox.com/watch/3820<br /><br />Cackalacky Film Festival, Charlotte, NC<br />AUGUST 30, 2007 - WAB Extended Deadline<br />Upgraded projects save $15<br />Watch List: http://www.withoutabox.com/watch/5200<br /><br />Hell's Half Mile Film & Music Festival, Bay City, MI<br />AUGUST 30, 2007 - WAB Extended Deadline<br />Upgraded projects save $15<br />Watch List: http://www.withoutabox.com/watch/5065<br /><br />Atlanta Film Festival Screenplay Competition, Atlanta, GA<br />AUGUST 31, 2007 - WAB Extended Deadline<br />Upgraded projects save $10<br />Watch List: http://www.withoutabox.com/watch/6197<br /><br />Hollywood Film Festival, Hollywood, CA<br />AUGUST 31, 2007 - WAB Extended Deadline<br />Upgraded projects save $15<br />Watch List: http://www.withoutabox.com/watch/1177<br /><br />Vail Film Festival Screenwriting Competition, Vail, CO<br />AUGUST 31, 2007 - WAB Extended Deadline<br />Upgraded projects save $15<br />Watch List: http://www.withoutabox.com/watch/5266<br /><br />__________________________________________________________<br /><br />THESE BIG DEADLINES APPROACHING FAST:<br /><br />Foyle Film Festival, N. Ireland, UNITED KINGDOM<br />AUGUST 23, 2007 - Regular Deadline<br />Upgraded projects save $5<br />Watch List: http://www.withoutabox.com/watch/1733<br /><br />Barbados International Film Festival, St. James, BARBADOS<br />AUGUST 24, 2007 - Regular Deadline<br />Upgraded projects save $5<br />Watch List: http://www.withoutabox.com/watch/6150<br /><br />Big Bang Film Festival, Philadelphia, PA<br />AUGUST 24, 2007 - Last Chance Deadline<br />Upgraded projects save $15<br />Watch List: http://www.withoutabox.com/watch/5807<br /><br />Festivus Film Festival, Denver, CO<br />AUGUST 24, 2007 - Earlybird Deadline<br />Upgraded projects save $5<br />Watch List: http://www.withoutabox.com/watch/6272<br /><br />IFP/Chicago Flyover Zone Film Festival, Chicago, IL<br />AUGUST 24, 2007 - Earlybird Deadline<br />Upgraded projects save $5<br />Watch List: http://www.withoutabox.com/watch/5168<br /><br />Kern Projections Film Festival, Bakersfield, CA<br />AUGUST 24, 2007 - Late Deadline<br />Upgraded projects save $5<br />Watch List: http://www.withoutabox.com/watch/6102<br /><br />Lake County Film Festival, Libertyville, IL<br />AUGUST 24, 2007 - Earlybird Deadline<br />Upgraded projects save $5<br />Watch List: http://www.withoutabox.com/watch/4022<br /><br />La Femme Film Festival, Beverly Hills, CA<br />AUGUST 27, 2007 - I Forgot Deadline<br />Upgraded projects save $15<br />Watch List: http://www.withoutabox.com/watch/4060<br /><br />Vine Shorts Fest, Santa Monica, CA<br />AUGUST 29, 2007 - Earlybird Deadline<br />Upgraded projects save $5<br />Watch List: http://www.withoutabox.com/watch/6351<br /><br />Forster Film Festival, Forster, AUSTRALIA<br />AUGUST 30, 2007 - Late Deadline<br />Upgraded projects save $5<br />Watch List: http://www.withoutabox.com/watch/6269<br /><br />Montezuma International Film Festival, Montezuma, COSTA RICA<br />AUGUST 30, 2007 - Regular Deadline<br />Upgraded projects save $5<br />Watch List: http://www.withoutabox.com/watch/6104<br /><br />Queens International Film Festival, Rego Park, NY<br />AUGUST 30, 2007 - Regular Deadline<br />Upgraded projects save $5<br />Watch List: http://www.withoutabox.com/watch/3994<br /><br />Red Rock Film Festival of Zion Canyon, St. George, UT<br />AUGUST 30, 2007 - Work in Progress Deadline<br />Upgraded projects save $5<br />Watch List: http://www.withoutabox.com/watch/4410<br /><br />Accolade, La Jolla, CA<br />AUGUST 31, 2007 - 3rd Early Deadline<br />Upgraded projects save $5<br />Watch List: http://www.withoutabox.com/watch/5207<br /><br />Beloit International Film Festival, Beloit, WI<br />AUGUST 31, 2007 - Late Deadline<br />Upgraded projects save $5<br />Watch List: http://www.withoutabox.com/watch/4503<br /><br />Cleveland International Film Festival, Cleveland, OH<br />AUGUST 31, 2007 - Earlybird Deadline<br />Upgraded projects save $5<br />Watch List: http://www.withoutabox.com/watch/1112<br /><br />Filmmaker Festival & Filmmaker Award, Kent, UNITED KINGDOM<br />AUGUST 31, 2007 - Earlybird Deadline<br />Upgraded projects save $5<br />Watch List: http://www.withoutabox.com/watch/6100<br /><br />Gen Art Film Festival, New York, NY<br />AUGUST 31, 2007 - Earlybird Deadline<br />Upgraded projects save $5<br />Watch List: http://www.withoutabox.com/watch/1151<br /><br />GoLeft.TV Progressive On-Line Documentary Film Festival, Hurley, NY<br />AUGUST 31, 2007 - Regular Deadline<br />Upgraded projects save $5<br />Watch List: http://www.withoutabox.com/watch/6290<br /><br />INDIE FEST USA, Garden Grove, CA<br />AUGUST 31, 2007 - Late Deadline<br />Upgraded projects save $5<br />Watch List: http://www.withoutabox.com/watch/6055<br /><br />Miami International Film Festival, Miami, FL<br />AUGUST 31, 2007 - Regular Deadline<br />Upgraded projects save $5<br />Watch List: http://www.withoutabox.com/watch/1241<br /><br />Miami Short Film Festival, Miami, FL<br />AUGUST 31, 2007 - Regular Deadline<br />Upgraded projects save $5<br />Watch List: http://www.withoutabox.com/watch/4565<br /><br />Phoenix Film Festival, Phoenix, AZ<br />AUGUST 31, 2007 - Earlybird Deadline<br />Upgraded projects save $5<br />Watch List: http://www.withoutabox.com/watch/2410<br /><br />Screenwriting Expo Screenplay Competition, Los Angeles, CA<br />AUGUST 31, 2007 - Late Deadline<br />Upgraded projects save $5<br />Watch List: http://www.withoutabox.com/watch/6201<br /><br />Show Off Your Shorts Film Festival, Los Angeles, CA<br />AUGUST 31, 2007 - Regular Deadline<br />Upgraded projects save $5<br />Watch List: http://www.withoutabox.com/watch/5396<br /><br />TREO Mobile Comedy Film Festival, Los Angeles, CA<br />AUGUST 31, 2007 - Regular Deadline<br />NO ENTRY FEE<br />Watch List: http://www.withoutabox.com/watch/5075<br /><br />Tenerife International Film Festival, Tenerife, SPAIN<br />AUGUST 31, 2007 - Earlybird Deadline<br />Upgraded projects save $5<br />Watch List: http://www.withoutabox.com/watch/5337<br /><br />Terror Film Festival, Frazer, PA<br />AUGUST 31, 2007 - Really, Really Late "Last Chance" Zombie Deadline<br />Upgraded projects save $5<br />Watch List: http://www.withoutabox.com/watch/5081<br /><br />The International Sweet Onion Film Festival, Walla Walla, WA<br />AUGUST 31, 2007 - Regular Deadline<br />Upgraded projects save $5<br />Watch List: http://www.withoutabox.com/watch/6085<br /><br />The Santa Barbara Ocean Film Festival, Santa Barbara, CA<br />AUGUST 31, 2007 - Regular Deadline<br />Upgraded projects save $5<br />Watch List: http://www.withoutabox.com/watch/3834<br /><br />The Thriller! Chiller! Film Festival, Grand Rapids, MI<br />AUGUST 31, 2007 - Late Deadline<br />Upgraded projects save $5<br />Watch List: http://www.withoutabox.com/watch/5189Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16112204190477355156noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15793224.post-91611982051421865172007-08-16T21:42:00.000-07:002007-08-16T21:43:10.035-07:00DeadlinesThis week, we present 8 great new Calls For Entry, 9 fine WAB Extended<br /> Deadlines, and more than 50 (nifty) additional deadlines for you to<br /> pick from. Be sure to check out these festivals, and the dozens of others<br /> open for submissions below...<br /><br />- Miami International Film Festival<br />- Florida Film Festival<br />- Phoenix Film Festival<br />- CHINH INDIA KIDS FEST<br />- Vail Film Festival Screenwriting Competition<br />- Atlanta Film Festival Screenplay Competition<br /><br />FINAL DEADLINES, just days away:<br /><br />- Middle East International Film Festival - Abu Dhabi (UNITED ARAB<br /> EMIRATES)<br />- New Hampshire Film Festival<br />- Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival<br />- Bahamas International Film Festival<br /><br /><br />GET DISCOVERED ON WITHOUTABOX<br />You probably won't submit to 700 festivals, but it's now possible to<br /> get in front of them ALL for a fraction of the cost. Splash an ad for<br /> your project right in the back offices of the worldwide festivals that use<br /> Withoutabox's online tools to program and manage their events. Help us<br /> launch the Discovery Ads program and you can enjoy a huge savings over<br /> regular pricing. Get $75 off a Discovery Ad right now by being one of<br /> the first films to sign up! Inventories will be strictly limited, and<br /> this offer may end at any time. You'll find a link to LEARN MORE about<br /> Discovery Ads on your Account Home page, grouped with the Settings for<br /> any project.<br /><br /><br />SCREENWRITERS: EXPLORE THE EXPO<br />The 6th Annual SCREENWRITING EXPO SCREENPLAY COMPETITION is affiliated<br /> with one of the world's largest screenwriter trade shows, the<br /> Screenwriting Expo in Los Angeles, California. The competition offers more than<br /> $150,000 in cash and prizes to award recipients, including the $20,000<br /> Grand Prize and $2,500 prizes to five lucky (and talented) feature<br /> writers. Called a "carnival for the screenwriter" by ESQUIRE magazine, this<br /> opportunity is rich with networking and educational possibilities, as<br /> well as a rare chance to win fantastic prizes and awards.<br /><br />Be sure not to miss the next big deadline, on August 31st - submit to<br /> the SCREENWRITING EXPO today!<br />View Listing:<br /> http://www.withoutabox.com/03film/03t_fin/03t_fin_fest_01over.php?festview=1&festival_id=6201<br /><br /><br />BE A BUDDY...ON THE BOARDS.<br />Share your stories and advice about the festival circuit with your<br /> fellow filmmakers on the Withoutabox Messageboards.<br />http://www.withoutabox.com/boards<br /><br />___________________________________________________________Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16112204190477355156noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15793224.post-35033283462993365942007-08-16T21:40:00.000-07:002007-08-16T21:41:18.381-07:00Pacific Northwest Screenwriters Contest 2007The Pacific Northwest Screenwriters Contest 2007 sponsored by 928<br /> Talent Management is now taking entries.<br /><br />1st Place Winners in the 5 categories will receive: 1 Year of Full<br /> Representation, Final Draft Software, and the Writers Award.<br /><br />Deadline for entries is 9/15/07. All entries received after that date,<br /> must have a postmark no later than that date.<br /> <br />*All entries must be WGA Registered or Copyrighted<br />*Entries must be the original work of the author/s<br />*All Film/TV Movie Scripts must be over 75 pages<br /><br />Categories:<br />Drama Feature<br />Comedy Feature<br />Sci-fi - Action Feature<br />Thriller-Horror-Mystery-Suspense<br />TV Movie – Mini Series<br /><br />Fees for entering:<br />1 Category Fee $20.00 (entering your script in 1 category)<br />2 Category Fee $25.00 (entering your script in 2 categories, no<br /> project can be entered in more than 2)<br /><br />The panel of 10 judges includes:<br /><br />Daniel Yost, Screenwriter Drugstore Cowboy<br />Billy Cougar, Director of Development Here Networks<br />JR O'Neil, CEO 928 Talent Management<br />Grammnet Productions<br /><br />For complete contest details and entry please visit:<br /> http://www.928talentmgt.comMarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16112204190477355156noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15793224.post-85401997926694000362007-08-16T21:39:00.000-07:002007-08-16T21:40:14.506-07:00Scriptapalooza Screenplay Competition Announces WinnersFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE<br />Scriptapalooza Screenplay Competition Announces Winners<br /><br />LOS ANGELES, CA, AUGUST 16, 2007<br /><br />Brian Price & Samuel W. Gailey of Los Angeles have captured the $10,000 1st Place Prize in the 9th Annual Scriptapalooza Screenwriting Competition. The comedy “Whale Farts†is about a likable loser, Skip Shaw, who is content sailing thru life on his Dads money, until he's cut off. Now he must face his Dad, a killer whale, a fishing tournament, oh yeah and water in order to get back some self-respect and the inheritance.<br /><br />2nd Place Winner "Code Name Veil" by Matt Billingsly.<br /><br />3rd Place Winner, "Emily's Numbers" by Paul Chepikian.<br /><br />Over 50 producers, managers and agents were involved in the reading of the competition.<br /><br />Scriptapalooza makes winners packages and loglines available to established production companies and literary representatives.<br /><br />Scriptapalooza Inc. was founded in 1998 with the intention of discovering talented writers and promoting them through the Scriptapalooza Screenwriting Competition. Since then, the partners have branched into ScriptapaloozaTV, a television writing competition and Scriptapalooza Coverage, a professional analysis service for writers. <br /><br />Keeping good company, the competition is supported by the WGA,west and sponsored by legendary screenwriting software company Write Brothers Inc. <br /><br />For application and rules visit www.scriptapalooza.com or call the office 323-654-5809<br /><br />Press Contact: Mark Andrushko 323Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16112204190477355156noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15793224.post-19356214062981428942007-07-26T05:51:00.001-07:002007-07-26T05:51:54.165-07:00Lighthouse Screenplay CompetitionLighthouse Screenplay Competition<br />Deadline August 1st!<br /> <br />http://www.lighthousescreenplay.com<br /><br />Submit all genres<br /> <br />Grand Prize - $5,000<br /> <br />1st & 2nd runners-up - $1,500/each<br /> <br />Top two scripts guaranteed to be optioned to be produced!<br /> <br />All scripts will receive feedback from working industry professionals.<br /> <br />All submissions must be post-marked by August 1st.<br /> <br />Send submissions to: <br />Lighthouse Screenplay competition<br />5160 Vineland Ave, Ste 107-220<br />North Hollywood, CA 91601<br /><br />http://www.lighthousescreenplay.comMarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16112204190477355156noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15793224.post-11997262693149199952007-04-18T12:37:00.000-07:002007-04-18T12:38:40.027-07:00Upcoming Screenwriting ContestsScriptapalooza (entexded deadline)<br />April 20th, 2007<br />http://www.scriptapalooza.com/<br /><br />Script Pimp<br />May 1st, 2007<br />http://www.scriptpimp.com/writing_competition/home.cfm<br /><br />Nicholl Fellowships<br />May 1st, 2007<br />http://www.oscars.org/nicholl/Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16112204190477355156noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15793224.post-1176356586026403732007-04-11T22:41:00.000-07:002007-04-11T22:43:06.280-07:00GrindhouseGrindhouse<br /><br />Review by John Dodd<br /><br />Directors: Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino<br /><br />(guest directors Eli Roth, Edgar Wright, and Rob Zombie)<br /><br />The first must see movie of 2007 has arrived. Grindhouse is for all those guys who spent their teenage years in theaters or (as in my case) in front of the VCR watching hours of cheap monsters, excessive gore, and abundant bare breasts. <br /><br />Grindhouse was produced as a loving tribute to the by-gone era of grindhouses, drive-ins, and exploitation films produced in the late 60s through the early 80s. These films gave the viewer what he wanted to see (sex, blood, nihilism) with little attention to finesse or art. Some might question the idea of a 53 million dollar exploitation film with Bruce Willis and Sidney Poitier’s daughter. Nay sayers may also point to the incredulous idea of a three hour homage to films that were not overly good, in the objective sense of the word, to begin with.<br /><br />I dismiss all such objections. Grindhouse is a lot of fun. Some cutting might have helped an occasional lapses in pace, but this is the first film in 2007 that I did not get up to go pee during. Besides passing the piss test, how many other movie going experiences offer double features anymore? <br /><br />The first feature is Planet Terror, which resembles a schlocky low-budget zombie movie. The model is Night of the Living Dead where survivors are held up in a secluded area defending off hoards of undead. The cast of characters include a tough sheriff, inept deputies, a nurse in mourning, a stripper, and a mechanic with the killing know-how. All hold up in the Bone Shack ran by J.T., BBQ maker extraordinar. <br /><br />The story moves fast and furious with tongue in cheek and gore aplenty. From a tank of amputated testicles to a dripping, oozing phallus, Planet Terror has enough gross out moments to satisfy fans of Troma movies. It’s also fun to see the cast interact. Michael Biehn, the onetime king of 80s action films (Terminator, Aliens, Timebomb), plays the sheriff. Jeff Fahey of the TV show The Marshal plays J.T. and gets the role of his career. These two have the best dialogue while Rose McGowan as stripper Cherry Darling makes watching easy on the eyes. <br /><br />My only (mild) complaint is that Planet Terror is a bit too tongue in cheek. When one watches a zombie film from the 1970s, no matter how ridiculous they become (and they get pretty darn ridiculous) the filmmakers, either out of ignorance or out of cynicism, took their story dead seriously. For example, let’s take Dr. Butcher M.D., a teenage favorite. There was a film with zombies, cannibals, a psycho doctor, and a woman chained to the world’s giant Jell-O mold all served up without a wink at the camera and thus making the whole mess endearing. Planet Terror is first and foremost self-aware and aware of all the films that inspired it. This is not actually bad, but it does make for a film that is more splatstick than scary, less Evil Dead than Evil Dead 2. <br /><br />I’m being nitpicky. With more blood than The Hills Have Eyes remake and the best coitus interruptus in movie history, Planet Terror kicks the undead ass of Land of the Dead. <br /><br /><br />Quentin Tarantino’s Death Proof rounds out the double bill. A combination psycho on the loose picture and car chase spectacular, the feature has Kurt Russell playing Stuntman Bob, an impotent nut with a custom hotrod built to withstand any crash. It is as safe as it is, with skull and crossbones for decoration, scary. Bob gets his kicks by running his car into the unsafe vehicles of pretty young women. Unlike the more infamous psycho films like Maniac or Last House on the Left, Russell’s character is pushed into the background. The stars are the women who have caught his eye, including two Hollywood daughters, Sydney Tamiia Poitier and Jordan Ladd (the gymnast from Club Dread), as well as Rose McGowan making her second Grindhouse appearance. <br /><br />Death Proof has received the lion’s share of critics’ praise, which says a lot negatively. Critics were not the intended target audience for any film playing in a 70s grindhouse. Death Proof shows off a good car chase in its final twenty-five minutes. The rest of the feature consists of people in cafes and bars talking. Although the conversation is about movies, TV shows, and dope, it is still talk and not action. This may be a trait of its director, but Death Proof would have made the average grindhouse patron to either nod off or wander off in search of something more immediate. Tarantino shows that while he clearly loves the exploitation films of old, he cannot quite bring himself to make one. <br /><br />This is not to say that on its own terms, Death Proof is a failure. As usual, the film references provide active viewing. I caught Telefon and Dixie Dynamite but missed Used Cars and Convoy (and I’m a Peckinpah fan!). The actors give good performances. I especially liked stuntwoman Zoe Bell playing a stuntwoman named Zoe. She is surprisingly good and leaves the impression of being one tough broad. The car chase, when it finally comes, does deliver. Tarantino also provides a doozy of a last shot. I liked Death Proof, but if I had been an exploitation producer in the 1970s and an auteur wanted to sell me Death Proof, I would have said: cut ten minutes, make the psycho scarier, and get the women out of their clothes. <br /><br /><br />There is much more to Grindhouse. I will leave its best moments (like the fake trailers by guest directors) to be discovered by the viewer. I am saddened that Grindhouse seemed to have been a disappointment in its first weekend. This is the most entertainment that a red blooded, sleazy movie watching, American boy can have at the movies anymore. <br /><br />To end, I would like to highly recommend Sleazoid Express by Bill Landis and Michelle Clifford, a book about the grindhouses of New York City. Buy it and read it! For those that may not be as experienced with the films Grindhouse is paying tribute to, here is a list of the best of some of the major grindhouse genres. Line up that queue at Netflix and dig through those VHS clearance bins. <br /><br />Best Biker Gang:<br /><br />The Losers <br /><br />Best Blaxploitation Flick:<br /><br />Truck Turner <br /><br />Best Car Chase Movie:<br /><br />Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry<br /><br />Best Chop Sockey Not Starring Bruce Lee:<br /><br />The Chinatown Kid <br /><br />Best Gangster Film from Italy:<br /><br />Violent City (aka The Family) <br /><br />Best Giallo (European Thriller) Not Directed by Dario Argento:<br /><br />The Slasher Is a Sex Maniac (aka So Sweet So Dead) <br /><br />Best Outlaws on the Lam Picture:<br /><br />The Great Texas Dynamite Chase <br /><br />Best Revenge film:<br /><br />Rolling Thunder <br /><br />Best Slasher Movie Not Featuring Jason, Michael, or Freddy:<br /><br />Rituals <br /><br />Best Spaghetti Western Not Directed by Sergio Leone:<br /><br />The Big Gundown <br /><br />Best Film about Women in Prison:<br /><br />Caged Heat <br /><br />Best Zombie Film Not Directed by George Romero:<br /><br />Let Sleeping Corpses Lie <br /><br />Best Title for a Grindhouse Movie:<br /><br />The Great Hollywood Rape Slaughter <br /><br />(haven’t seen it myself, but who can argue with a title like that?)Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16112204190477355156noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15793224.post-1168642682690853362007-01-12T14:56:00.000-08:002007-01-12T14:58:03.026-08:00The Death of VHS (2006)The Death of VHS (2006)<br /><br />By John Dodd<br /><br />On November 14, Variety published an obituary for VHS citing retailers decision to pull the last of the format for reasons of shelf space. I have been thinking about this announcement for some time now. Last winter, just a year ago, my friend Rich and I went on half a dozen road trips to buy cheap VHS tapes from rental outlets like Family Video and Second Cinema Video selling off their VHS stock. Some stores were down to the bottom of VHS. At one all that remained were aerobic work out tapes and Pauley Shore Must Die. Fortunately, other stores had more variety.<br /> <br />For the last year I have been watching the fruits of these expeditions. Some might ask why go to this trouble for VHS. After all, DVD is clearly superior. DVDs have extras. DVDs have remastered sound and high resolution pictures. DVDs have presented obscure films in their most pristine and unedited quality, some for the first time in America. Almost none of the VHS tapes I bought were even letterboxed. All of this is true, but VHS will always hold a place in my heart. It was what I grew up with. <br /><br />In December 1985 my family bought their first VHS player. A video cassette recorder was heavy machinery back then, one weighed (and cost) a substantial amount. It occupied the entire top of a television set. The first video I watched on my family’s player was Ice Pirates with Robert Ulrich. I have not watched it since! <br /><br />The idea of a video library appealed to me back when videos were $50-$100. . . except for the cheap ones at the convenience stores. The first VHS tape I bought was The Most Dangerous Game. The EP recorded film cost only $10! Bruce Lee’s The Chinese Connection and The Mad Bomber with Chuck Connors soon followed. There were others that got away. I did not buy House of Psychotic Women the one time I saw it at Wal-Mart and in later years regretted it. All of the others would over the years come down from $10 to $5 to finally $.99. Back in the mid/late 80s, $10 was pretty much my monthly allowance except for some loose change for odd jobs around the house. I wanted to collect the movies but renting was much more cost effective. Renting movies was done on Saturday. I, as a young lad, was restricted to “PG” or “PG-13,” except for the video boxes that luckily had no rating listed. My family began renting videos when outlets were clubs (an annual membership fee was required). All of this changed over time. Clubs were out. To rent a videotape required only a driver’s license. Tapes slowly came down in price. With time, my video collection grew and grew. <br /><br />Finally, last year’s buying trips netted me more than 100 movies (at a cost of about $150-200, not counting the considerable gas expense). I did not always buy the films that looked the best. Instead, the loudest callers were those films that I remember watching on beat up VHS tapes with friends and at home when mom and dad were gone or the videos I remembered on the shelves way back in the mid/late 80s that I never got around to renting. Many would argue that for the amount of money spent last winter, I could have instead purchased some of them on high resolution DVDs through one of the many online retailers and saved on gas. True, I could not have bought every film, but the ones that I did buy would be uncut, letterboxed, and with prints not looking like they were edited with a chainsaw. Less could be more. I do not argue, but what I do say is a death is usually marked by a wake. What follows is a sampling of the titles purchased. None of which, I might add, are available on region 1 DVD. <br /><br /> <br /><br />The Applegates (1990) - Michael Lehmann<br />(a.k.a. Meet the Applegates)<br />Michael Lehman is known as the director of Heathers. Few remember his follow up film, an equally bizarre, socially relevant comedy. A family of giant cockroaches venture from the Brazilian rain forests to the suburbs of the U.S. of A. Their mission is to assimilate and sabotage the humans. Since humans are destroying the rainforests, the cockroaches are going to return the favor. Unfortunately, suburbia proves too much of a temptation as the cockroaches fall into illicit sex, binge shopping, and drug use. This film is just as acidic as Heathers and almost as good. The only misstep is the decision to have Dabney Coleman in drag. <br /><br /><br />Housekeeping (1987) - Bill Forsyth <br />Based on the first novel by Marilynne Robinson, this odd movie is a real sleeper. It tells the story of two young girls who go to live with their eccentric aunt (Christine Lahti) in a small town during the 1950s. One girl falls under the spell of her aunt while the other longs for a normal Rockwell life. Although the aunt’s oddities are charming, director Forsythe never lets the viewer forget the bitter side of the story. Christine Lahti gives a great performance and both of the actresses playing the girls build distinct characters.<br /><br /><br />The Fast Kill (1972) - Lindsay Shopteff<br />I was tipped off about this film via an extra on a DVD (how can I dis the format too badly if it led me to The Fast Kill?). Guy Maddin in the documentary to The Saddest Music in the World praised the “can do” quality of this low budget British heist film. A gangster (with the help of his girlfriend) recruits a mercenary, a race car driver, a lesbian sharp shooter, and a bomb expert to pull off a daring jewel robbery. Of course, greed and divided loyalties lead to complications. Director Lindsey Shopteff is often dismissed as a hack, but he keeps this film moving quickly and the action swift, violent, and in limits with the film’s low budget. The videotape (courtesy of The Congress Video Group) features some of the least subtle pan and scanning I have ever seen. Despite this, the film’s story and pacing grabs one and the technical glitches add to the old school charm. <br /><br /><br />The Little Drummer Girl (1984) - George Roy Hill <br />For those of us disappointed with the more recent Constant Gardener, this fellow John Le Carre adaptation has all the suspense and intrigue one would expect of a thriller. Diane Keaton, not one of my favorite actresses, may be miscast as the left wing political actress drafted into spy service by Israeli agents. Still, she gives it her all and earned my respect. The film plays the moral ambiguity card well and delivers 130 minutes of interest. Klaus Kinski even appears as the head Israeli agent. <br /><br /><br />The Slasher (1972) - Roberto Bianchi Montero<br />(a.k.a. The Slasher Is a Sex Maniac)<br />From my VHS purchases, I had to pick one film of a sleazier variety and this was the best one. Farley Granger, a long way from Hitchcock’s Rope, plays a police detective out to catch a serial killer who preys on unfaithful wives. This is an Italian giallo (violent murder mystery) with sleaze, nudity, gore, the adorably unclothed Sylvia Koscina, and one nasty of an ending. In other words, it’s an exploitation masterpiece. <br /><br /><br />Wise Blood (1979) - John Huston<br />Flannery O’Connor is hard to adapt. She reads like Faulkner with a sense of humor. The theme is the decaying south. The characters are misfits, murderers, and conmen, but O’Connor was a devout Catholic, not a nihilist. Wise Blood shows her traits well. It’s funny in an odd way that many will not care for. Brad Dourif, in his best role, plays Hazel, a bitter young man who starts The Church Without Christ. Hazel’s messages are sincere as his arrogance. Hazel soon becomes bombarded with odd characters: huckster preachers, horny virgins, and a dull witted, monkey obsessed zoo keeper. With a terrific supporting cast including Harry Dean Stanton, Ned Beatty, and William Hickey, the film is flawlessly acted. The viewer just has to role with the weirdness. For those who can Wise Blood proves to be on of John Huston’s strangest and most intriguing later films. <br /> <br /><br />There is no question that VHS is dead and buried. What these half dozen VHS tapes show is that the format left us some good memories.Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16112204190477355156noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15793224.post-1168370776573679372007-01-09T11:23:00.000-08:002007-01-09T11:26:16.876-08:002007 Already!Wow 2006 went fast. <br /><br />Goals for 2007:<br /><br />Post more.<br /><br />Finish two new scripts.Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16112204190477355156noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15793224.post-1163998100150912432006-11-19T20:47:00.000-08:002006-11-19T20:48:20.293-08:00DUKE CITY SHOOTOUTDUKE CITY SHOOTOUT DIGITAL FILMMAKING FESTIVAL ACCEPTING SCRIPT SUBMISSIONS FOR 2007 FESTIVAL<br /><br />High-Definition Digital Filmmaking Competition Brings Artist’s Visions from Script-to-Screen in One Week<br /><br /> <br /><br />For Immediate Release<br /><br />Date: November 10, 2006<br /><br />Contact: Alexis Kerschner, Rick Johnson & Company, (505) 266-7220, akerschner@rjc.com<br /><br /> <br /><br />ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.— The Duke City Shootout, the only digital filmmaking competition in the world where screenwriters race to shoot, edit and premiere their 12-minute film in seven days, is now accepting script submissions from filmmakers and screenwriters around the world for next year’s festival, which will take place in Albuquerque N.M July 20-28, 2007. <br /><br />Representatives of New Mexico’s Digital Filmmaking Institute (DFI) and renowned screenwriters from around the country will select the seven best scripts to be produced and ultimately compete for the “Palm de Grease,” the festival’s most prestigious award. The Shootout will fly the seven winning screenwriters to Albuquerque, where they will be given a cast, high-definition digital camera and lighting equipment, a production crew, post-production facilities, transportation and even a professional mentor—everything they will need to bring their script to life—a $50,000 value. <br /><br />Last year, more than 270 scripts were submitted to the Shootout, and for the first time, Shootout movies were made available online via file-sharing giant BitTorrent. Past festival participants include: script judges Morgan Freeman, Peter Fonda and Phillip Kaufman, producers Ellen Sandler (Everybody Loves Raymond), Michael Steinberg (There's Something About Mary), Linda Goldstein (Whale Rider); directors Jay Roach (Austin Powers), Dan Mirvish (co-founder of Slamdance), Jim Mercurio (Hard Scrambled), Jack Hill (Foxy Brown), Anthony Drazan (The West Wing); Patricia Cardoso (Real Women Have Curves); actors Donal Logue (Grounded For Life), Talia Shire (The Godfather); editor Barry Alexander Brown (Inside Man); and cinematographers Alan Walker (Roseanne) and James O'Keefe (Timecode).<br /><br />A script by Toronto writer/director Ralph Lucas has been selected as the first of seven movies to be produced at the 2007 Duke City Shootout. Lucas’ script, “The Next Best Thing to War,” was selected from entries submitted to the Screenwriting Expo 5 contest sponsored by Creative Writing magazine. Lucas’ selection was announced at the Expo, held in Los Angeles on October 19-22.<br /><br />Script submission requirements include a cover page including name of author, address, telephone number; 12 minute script (i.e. 12 pages); and entry fee of $30 (before April 16, 2007) or $35 (April 17-May 18, 2007). The deadline for entry is May 18, 2007. There are two ways to submit scripts:<br /><br /> <br /><br />Mail hard copies of script, including check or money order payable to the Digital Filmmaking Institute to:<br /><br />Duke City Shootout<br /><br />P.O. Box 37080<br /><br />Albuquerque, NM 87176<br /><br /> <br /><br />Submit electronically and pay by credit card, at www.withoutabox.com.<br /><br /> <br /><br />For more information and updates on the 2007 Shootout, visit www.dukecityshootout.org, or email questions to info@shootdfi.net.Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16112204190477355156noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15793224.post-1163998019406114502006-11-19T20:46:00.000-08:002006-11-19T20:47:09.316-08:009th Annual Scriptapalooza Screenplay CompetitionAs seen on CNN.com<br />9th Annual Scriptapalooza Screenplay Competition<br /><br />http://www.scriptapalooza.com<br /><br />With Write Brothers, Robert McKee and The Writers Guild<br />of America,west Registry all supporting Scriptapalooza, this is the<br />competition to enter.<br /><br />First place prize is $10,000<br /><br />All the judging is done by 60 production companies<br />Entertainment Weekly Magazine calls us 'One of the Best'<br />We promote the top 13 winners for a full year<br />5 scripts in the 2006 Competition have been OPTIONED<br />Finalists, Semifinalists and quarterfinalists get requested <br />consistently<br /><br />Early bird deadline January 5<br /><br />Visit http://www.scriptapalooza.com <br />or call 323-654-5809 or email<br />us at info@scriptapalooza.comMarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16112204190477355156noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15793224.post-1162699125162884052006-11-04T19:57:00.000-08:002006-11-04T19:58:45.486-08:0041 horror movies in 29 daysJohn Dodd watched 41 horror movies in 29 days. Here's his report.<br /><br />10/1<br /><br />** House On The Edge of the Park <br /><br /> A Last House on the Left ripoff with David Hess, Krug himself, turning in his most unrestrained performance as Alex, a disco dancing psychopath. Alex and his somewhat more stable friend Ricky crash a party, hold the revelers hostage, rape the women, and torture the men, until the tables turn. This is a film that wallows in its nastiness, unrepentant in its sleaze, and saves its grossest moment for an unclothed, very hairy Hess in the shower. Talk about obscene!!!!<br /><br />10/2<br /><br />*1/2 The Slayer<br /><br /> When starting I was unsure if this was going to be a slasher film, a monster movie, or an Italian thriller (giallo). After watching it, I’m still not sure. The plot has two couples going to a deserted island for fishing and relaxing. One of the tourists has seen this place in her nightmares. Her companions don’t believe her. Then someone, or something, begins to pick the minimal visitors off one by one. Five deaths, one potential victim survives, no *convincing* gore, no soothsayer, and no mask. The first death is at the ten minute mark. I’m not seeing good numbers here. An early film from the director of 8MM part 2. <br /><br />10/3 A Tuesday with Mr. Lee<br /><br />* Dark Places<br /><br /> If you are frightened by doors slamming shut, then you will be scared shitless by this creeky old house film. Most everyone else will be bored. Christopher Lee plays a kindly doctor who may not be as benevolent as he seems. Joan Collins before she was the hag on Dynasty plays the temptress (and is still about ten years too old for the role). <br /><br />**1/2 Dracula A.D. 1972<br /><br /> Dracula (my man, Lee) gets resurrected in 1972, bites down on Caroline Munroe (Yummy), and plots to take revenge on Van Helsing’s great-great-granddaughter. Fortunately, her grandfather (Cushing) is an expert in vampirism. The early 70s British music sucks, but Cushing and Lee are fun as always. And the setting is 1972, so it’s like Dracula, Daddy-O. <br /><br />10/4 Post-Scream Slashers<br /><br />** Slaughter Studios <br /><br /> A Scream variation as only New Concorde studios would do: DV cinematography, a cast of actresses with more sand than Daytona Beach, and a tongue in cheek presentation. Slaughter Studios was once a top line grindhouse. Following the death of an actor in the early 80s the studio closed. Now, a film fan breaks in the doors, smuggles in his cast and crew, and is determined to covertly make a movie after hours. Too bad there is a killer on the loose. 9 deaths (2 off screen) with the first murder at the twenty-three minute mark; three potential victims survive; a half pint of blood; no soothsayer or mask; but more uncovered breasts than I can count. Cheers for the line, “I bet Eric Roberts doesn’t work like this!” <br /><br />** Cut <br /><br /> I bought Cut for one reason and one reason only: to see Molly Ringwald die a horrible death. She has it coming for her The Breakfast Club. Most everything else I could forgive but not murdering this brat packer brings rage to my eyes. Too bad because for the first hour, Cut comes in toward the top of the Scream ripoffs. This Australian import is surprisingly well acted, decently directed, and follows the model right on down to the opening guest murder victim (here, singer Kylie Minogue). A group of graduating film school students are going to make a name for themselves by finishing an 80s slasher film believed to be cursed. When the actor playing the killer went crazy and murdered his director (Minogue), the film was shut down. Since then anyone who has tried to finish the film has met with a strange “accident.” Despite warnings from their film professor (the soothsayer), the kids hire a down on her luck actress from the original production (Ringwald), retreat to the countryside, and begin filming. The last half-hour sucks and Molly Ringwald does not die. Thirteen other characters do (three off screen); Ringwald and two others survive; half pint of blood; six minutes for the first murder; generic mask and Francois Truffaut reference. <br /><br />Oct 5 Corman, Poe <br /><br />**1/2 Tales of Terror <br /><br /> Corman loosely adapts three Poe stories in this anthology. All star Vincent Price. The first is poor. The second with Peter Lorre as a drunk in a wine tasting contest is funny if overlong. The third with Basil Rathbone as a hypnotist is the best even. Acting honors go to Lorre in episode number. “My wife’s right there.” “But she’s dead.” “You notice every-thing.” <br /><br />*** House of Usher<br /><br /> While not as good as Tomb of Ligeia, this is film that started them all, Corman’s first foray into Poe. It is quality on a budget with good cinematography, set design, Vincent Price not overly hammy for a change, and Myrna Fahey is good as the woman who may or may not be going mad. The film seems slightly padded even at 80 minutes. Beyond that, this is a solid adaptation. <br /><br />Oct 6 <br /><br />** Deadline<br /><br /> Steven Lessing (called Stevie or Steve-O) is a successful writer of horror novels and film scripts. One might say he’s a real King of the genre. Steven is going through a bad time. His family is falling apart, his producer cares only about blood and guts, and the public accuse him of contributing to real life violence. The film contrasts gory scenes from Lessing’s films/books with his melancholy home life. The end result is ambitious but schizophrenic serving up gory moments while condemning them. <br /><br />*** Feast<br /><br /> Co-scripted by a former Cinema 1&2 employee, Feast is made by and for horror movie fans. A surviving the night type movie in the From Dust Till Dawn mode, Feast does get a bit slow in the middle, but there are enough funny bits to carry the day. Henry Rollins as the motivational speaker Coach is worth the price of admission alone. <br /><br />Oct 7<br /><br />*1/2 The Texas Chainsaw Massacre - The Beginning <br /><br /> Flat prequel to the remake of the 1970s classic plays like a remake of the remake right on down to the lone surviving woman hiding in a slaughterhouse as Leatherface stalks her. The Vietnam era period detail feels like dress up. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is my vote for the horror series that has fallen the farthest. Believe it or not a customer asked me what this film was about! I squinted my eyes and said, “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre - The Beginning?” Clueless, he answered, “Yeah, what’s that about?” <br /><br />Oct 8 It Played in Peoria!<br /><br />** Blood Feast<br /><br /> The world’s first gore film stands as humbling beginnings. Would good, respectable people in 1963 see a film so unrepentantly lurid? Where to test it? Peoria, Illinois, if it would play there it would play anywhere. It played! Today, Blood Feast is a slow, stagey affair with red paint thrown around at random. The early-60s era Playboy Playmates Connie Mason and Ashyln Martin are the film’s best visuals. I did like the chase where villain Faud Ramses (as if his name didn’t tell you that) is chased across a garbage dump in the finale. Peoria’s Journal Star did a front page story on it in 2003. <br /><br />Oct 9 <br /><br />***1/2 Demons of the Mind <br /><br /> As the title suggests, there is no monster in this Hammer horror film. A highly impressive film that at long lasts reflects the time it was made. Unlike the same period’s Beast Must Die, this film has all of the ambition that most other early 70s Hammer films did not. It is about the end of superstition, the dawn of psychology, and early 70s filmmaking. That’s a compliment! <br /><br />Oct 10<br /><br />***1/2 Cat People <br /><br /> Producer Val Lewton’s first horror film is also my favorite. Kids these days have a hard time with Cat People because there is so little onscreen horror. My students were bored. They grew up expecting onscreen monsters. By showing almost nothing but darkness and shadows, this film is saved the hokey, camp quality of many of the monster movies seen now. The walk in the park and the swimming pool scenes are justly famous due to their simplicity regardless of what eighteen year-olds think. <br /><br />Oct 11 Femmes de Woof <br /><br />½ An American Werewolf in Paris <br /><br /> The mind boggles at what I will set through just to get a glimpse of Julie Delphy’s breasts. This has to be the bottom! A film with such bad CGI effects that whole scenes appear to be animated. A film with possibly the most annoying American college kids put on film. You will be rooting for the fascist lupin. . . but Julie Delphy is topless for half a second (hence, the half star).<br /><br />*** Ginger Snaps<br /><br /> Those looking for a female werewolf film would do well to catch Ginger Snaps, an intriguing metaphor for coming of age. The Fitzgerald sisters are the outcasts of suburbia. They stage suicides for their photography class and dream of escaping into the city. Then Ginger, the elder sister, is bit by some big dog or wolf and she starts to change. She becomes interested in boys, punches out a bullying homecoming queen, and develops an urge for slaughtering dogs in the neighborhood. Sister Brigitte looks for a cure as her sister becomes more and more animal like with the next full moon slated for Halloween night. <br /><br />Oct 12 Jason at twenty-six<br /><br />***1/2 Friday the 13th <br /><br /> The first, the best, and some might argue the only watchable one. Eleven deaths (four off-screen) with the first murder at the four minute mark. Four potential victims survive (one camper, two cops, and Crazy Ralph). No mask, a gallon of blood, and Crazy Ralph as the soothsayer. <br /><br /><br />*1/2 Jason So Lo Monta De Miedo <br /><br /> I bought (cheaply) this film after reading the following description in a catalog. “Hockey masked killer wields knives and chainsaws mixed with scenes of damn near hard-core sex with drop dead gorgeous bitches.” Lots of gore and sex, sounds like a fun slasher movie to me! As P.T. Barnum said there’s a sucker born every minute. Nine deaths with the first one being thirteen minutes in. With a hockey mask, no soothsayer, and Jason blowing away Michael Meyers with a shotgun. <br /><br />Oct 13 <br /><br /> I took off from work just so I could watch my Friday the 13th box set. I even started a day early just to get a taste. A taste was all I was to get thanks to my students (“Friday is the only day I can make up the test”), the state of Illinois (mandatory ethics training), and my father (“this will just take an hour or two”). Instead, I went to the theater. <br /><br />**1/2 The Grudge 2 <br /><br /> Of this series (two Japanese direct video features; two theatrical Japanese movies; and two American remakes), the second Japanese theatrical film (Juon 2) is the scariest of the bunch. That film unnerves. The American remake of that film, Grudge 2, isn’t bad. It intertwines three stories, one painfully familiar (Sarah Michelle Gellar’s character and her sister), one ghostly fun (the schoolgirls), and one genuinely creepy (the apartment complex). I split the difference on the star rating. <br /><br />Oct 14<br /><br />*1/2 Class Reunion Massacre (The Redeemer-Son of Satan) <br /><br />I try to give a break to the pre-Halloween slasher <br /><br />films, but this one is both dull and confusing. Six former friends show up for their high school reunion only to find the school deserted and a killer picking them off. Could it be tied into the strange boy who rose out of the water in the first scene? How about the priest giving the sermon on greed, lust, and vanity? I’m not sure and I did see this film. Eight deaths (one off-screen) with the first at the seven minute mark. None of potential victims survive, which is the most noteworthy part of the film.<br /><br />(On October 15, I went out of town to see The Departed and Science of Sleep, a film better than any of the horror films I watched this season)<br /><br />Oct 16 <br /><br />* Asylum of Satan <br /><br /> A young woman finds herself transferred from a hospital to an asylum ran by a mysterious doctor who is actually a coven leader. During the snake attack, a woman thrashes around holding the painfully obvious rubber snakes. At the end, the devil is conjured up complete with seam running down his back (methinks the Prince of Darkness should switch tailors). And the effects are still better than those in An American Werewolf in Paris. <br /><br />Oct 17<br /><br />*** Cat People<br /><br /> Despite being dismissed by fans of the genre, I like Paul Schrader’s kinky rethinking of the 1942 horror classic. It is not scary going for a more oblique (some might say “arty”) monster in all of us theme. The film boasts good acting, good music, and good cinematography. It’s also very 80's. <br /><br />Oct 18<br /><br />* Dead Waters (aka Dark Waters)<br /><br /> There is an old saying in film criticism if nothing happens in the first reel (20-30 minutes) nothing is going to. I sat through two reels of this early 90s Italian spook show before engaging the fast forward button. What we have here is half-assed Lovecraft with an island convent, a cult worshiping the image of a monster, and a quick ending look at the creature. It’s all very tedious. A three disk set under the title Dark Waters was released this October. One advertisement read, “the most anticipated DVD release this Halloween.” By whom? <br /><br /><br />**1/2 Diabolical Dr. Z<br /><br /> What would Halloween be without one Jess Franco film? The man has made almost 200 movies (hardcore porn to children’s films, with the horror film his favorite). This one is early on, before the guy went for quantity over quality. The black and white cinematography produces half a dozen atmospheric scenes. The film still suffers from Franco’s slack pace but the Mondo Macabro disk looks great. <br /><br />Oct 19<br /><br />**1/2 Cabin Fever <br /><br /> I had heard less than thrilling reviews from fellow horror fans/Cinema 1&2 employees. The film tries too hard to throw in splatter, comedy, atmosphere, local color, and contagion. It’s awkwardly paced and undisciplined for sure, but clearly made by horror fans. Any film that has the drunk college kids cruising down the road listening to “The Road Leads to Nowhere” from the Last House on the Left soundtrack can’t be all bad. <br /><br />Oct 20 <br /><br />* Devil’s Daughter<br /><br /> No country can top the Italians for evocative nightmarish visuals. In the first scene when hippies paint themselves as America sings, “I’ve been through the desert on a horse with no name.” All atmosphere goes out the window. Kelly Curtis, Jamie Lee’s better looking but no more talented sister, finds herself a target of devil worshipers. The title of the film is incorrect. Curtis is the daughter of the leader of the devil cult; she is going to be the mother of the Devil’s son, which I guess makes her The Devil’s Wife. At the end the baby antichrist gives up his life to save his mortal mother (huh?). <br /><br />Oct 21 <br /><br />½ The Vampire Happening<br /><br /> My choice for the worst horror film of the Halloween season goes to Freddie Francis’ vampire comedy. How bad is it? It makes Love at First Bite look like Young Frankenstein. It’s so bad that despite considerable amounts of nudity, Larry R. Jarvis did not want it!!!! Sample joke: the heroine grabs the Communist vampire’s copy of Mao’s Little Red Book and shoves it in another vampire’s mouth. The communist vampire goes over to his fellow undead, grabs his book back, and yells: “bloodsucker!” And if you laughed at that joke, you have just won your very own copy of The Vampire Happening. <br /><br />**1/2 The Living Dead Girl <br /><br /> This is another example of Jean Rollin working out his personal fetishes as expressionless, half dressed, pale women commit horrible acts amongst gothic locations. In this one, a dead woman is revived by chemical waste. She craves blood. Her childhood friend/lesbian lover seeks out victim’s to keep her companion going. This is not one of Rollin’s best, the pacing is at times leaden with bad actors from multiple continents. There are some impressive images which mix the beautiful and the profane wonderfully. Rollin leaves the viewer with a slam dunk final shot. <br /><br />Oct 22<br /><br />*1/2 The Devil’s Wedding Night <br /><br /> Yet another title that lies. The most accurate title would read Dracula’s Widow’s Wedding Night. With endless shots of Mark (no relation to Matt) Damon riding a horse and walking across blank walls, this is a cheap production to be sure. The last twenty minutes do pick up. The vampire countess played Lady Frankenstein. <br /><br />Oct 23<br /><br />** Symptoms<br /><br /> Angela Pleasence (who looks a lot like her father) moves with a friend into a country house where someone died. Something is wrong. Is the house haunted or is one of the two women going crazy? Jose Larraz once again tries his hand at slow burning, claustrophobic unease (Vampyres; Coming of Sin). This one tips its hand too early (BIG HINT: Angela is a closeted lesbian with a crush on her friend). The Fall colors are nicely photographed. Too bad my copy sucked! <br /><br />Oct 24<br /><br />*** Demons <br /><br />*** Demons 2<br /><br /> I saw Demons numbero uno way back when I was a sophomore in high school and it kicked ass. Today, these films bring back fond memories of the 1980s: blue lighting, hairspray abuse, gratuitous bladder effects, shoulder pads, post MTV music imagery, and gore galore. The Scorpions, Motley Crue, The Cult, and The Smiths are all on the soundtracks of these movies. There are missteps. Any punker in 1985 listening to Billy Idol should have a cap put in poseur ass. Those who did not like these films in the 80s can probably skip buying the Anchor Bay DVDs. For the enlightened ones, buy ‘em up while you still can. <br /><br />(On October 25th I watched A Scanner Darkly, which while technically not a horror movie, will make one uncomfortable) <br /><br />Oct 26 short people<br /><br />** Burial Ground<br /><br /> Yes, this is the zombie film where the short man with a receding hairline plays a young kid. This is very obvious! It is done for one reason: because no parent, no matter how stage struck, would let their child do a scene where he bites his screen mother’s breasts off. It’s a good scene! Too bad there aren’t more of them. Plenty of gore and tastelessness, I would have loved it at sixteen. Maybe I’m getting old. <br /><br />***1/2 Freaks <br /><br /> With the exception of King Kong (which is more of a fantasy), Freaks is my choice for the best 30s horror film. It’s a slowburner but the ending makes it all worth while. The vengeance of the freaks is the scariest moment in 30s horror. The DVD of this is quite good with a particularly noteworthy documentary which provides background on many of the performers playing the freaks. <br /><br />Oct 27<br /><br />** The Red Shoes <br /><br /> I didn’t get to watch a J-Horror film this season, but the next best thing is K-Horror. In this one, a pair of ghostly red shoes kills all those who wear them until being taken home by a single mother and her daughter who dreams of being a dancer. This Korean import is more ambitious than most but it stumbles on the horror front. There is nothing overly scary about the movie. Not to be confused with the Powell/Presburg ballet movie. <br /><br />Oct 28<br /><br />**1/2 Creep<br /><br /> I had read good reviews for this British horror film from last year. On it’s own terms, Creep might work, but horror fans will feel deja vu. A cannibal preys on commuters and the homeless in the London subway terminals. Yes, fans, it’s Raw Meat all over again, with the focus shifted to a slasher set up with Franka Potente (Run Lola Run) and others trying to survive a long night. The film is reasonably well paced and does hold interest. Creep is the best slasher film of the season, but how about an original idea?<br /><br />Oct 29 Steele the show <br /><br /> (to think, I almost went the month of October without watching a Barbara Steele movie!) <br /><br />*** An Angel for Satan<br /><br /> Atmospheric, black and white photography and the charismatic Steele highlight this mystery/horror film. A restorer journeys to a small island village to do restoration on a statue believed to be cursed. There he meets the niece of the village mayor. The niece (Steele) looks exactly like the statue and seems to be of two halves. One is a chaste innocent and the other a superslut who destroys men. Is she cursed or crazy or something else? <br /><br />** Curse of the Crimson Altar <br /><br /> Any film that has supporting turns by Christopher Lee, Boris Karloff, Barbara Steele, and Michael Gough can’t be all bad. This is true but one wishes Curse of the Crimson Altar was better. An antique dealer travels to a mysterious lodge to search for his missing brother. There, he finds strange characters, dreams of being at a witches’ sabbath, and sleeps with the proprietor’s niece (an attractive Virginia Wetherell from Demons of the Mind). A make it up as you go along feel permeates the film which is not helped by a dull leading man (Robert Eden). And whose idea was it to have Barbara Steele, a beautiful horror icon, done up in green face? WTF! <br /><br />Oct 30 <br /><br />*** Curse of the Cat People <br /><br /> Since I liked the original Cat People so much and since the DVD came also with Curse of the Cat People, I knocked off one more Val Lewton film. This one is not really a horror movie despite a few atmospheric shots. It’s a fantasy about a troubled girl who lives in an imaginary world. The film is quite good but not what I was expecting. This was Robert Wise’s first directing job. It’s better than the Sound of Music. <br /><br />Oct 31<br /><br />*** Homecoming (Masters of Horror)<br /><br /> I liked this one more the second time through. It’s still heavy handed but does do what Masters of Horror was designed for: to make a film without interference that could not be made otherwise. The only other one of the series that does that is John Carpenter’s much different Cigarette Burns. The politics (the undead soldiers of the Iraq conflict coming back) are none too subtle but certainly heartfelt. My students liked it. <br /><br />*** Saw 2 <br /><br /> I had planned to watch both Saw 2 and Saw 3 on Halloween night. Oh well. Most have seen Saw 2. Tobin Bell is a better actor than most actors playing horror icons. I also liked the killer’s plan when it is at last revealed. More of a horror film than the first movie but not quite as clever. <br /><br />Well, everyone that’s it for me this year. Maybe we’ll do it again next year.Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16112204190477355156noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15793224.post-1161318503651324382006-10-19T21:27:00.000-07:002006-10-19T21:28:23.763-07:00InkTip updateInkTip continues to make magic happen for both producers and writers. <br />In 2006 alone, 15 feature films have been produced through InkTip. <br />That's the highest number of features we've had produced in one year, and <br />we've still got 2 months left!<br /><br />Three feature scripts were optioned and three writers were hired last <br />week alone. You too can gain exposure for your script on InkTip. Don't <br />wait for another writer to get optioned first!<br /><br />To list your script, go to www.InkTip.com now! Please let us know if <br />you have any questions.<br /><br />Best Wishes,<br />Jerrol LeBaron<br />www.InkTip.comMarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16112204190477355156noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15793224.post-1161318194472610412006-10-19T21:22:00.000-07:002006-10-19T21:23:14.630-07:00Two Screenwriting ContestTwo Screenwriting Contest to enter: <a href="http://www.fadeinonline.com/Contests/AwardChoose.html"><b>11th Annual Fade In Awards</b></a> 2006 Awards Entry Deadline<br />October 31, 2006 <a href="http://creativescreenwriting.com/AAA/index.html"><b>The AAA Screenplay Contest</a></b> sponsored by Creative Screenwriting Magazine Deadline December 15, 2006.Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16112204190477355156noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15793224.post-1161309986878679822006-10-19T18:59:00.000-07:002006-10-19T21:24:35.870-07:00"Feast"<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3026/1474/1600/feast.0.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3026/1474/320/feast.0.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br />Feast (2005)<br /><br />Director: John Gulager<br /><br />Review by John Dodd<br /><br />Feast was the third and probably final of the Project: Greenlight winners. The film played some festivals and did a brief booking at midnight shows before arriving on DVD last Tuesday. I was lucky enough to catch Feast when it played the opening weekend of the inferior but far more advertised Texas Chainsaw Massacre - The Beginning at my hometown theater.<br /><br />Feast is a low budget horror film in the tradition of Night of the Living Dead or The Evil Dead where a group of losers hold themselves up in a secluded location (here a sleazy bar in the middle of nowhere) and fight the oncoming siege, in this case hungry aliens, and wait for dawn. While certainly not the equal of the films that influenced it, Feast is a down and dirty little movie that keeps on punching. <br /><br />Each character is introduced with a title card explaining who they are and giving the chances of survival. Some of the dozen or so strandees include a brawny, take charge type nicknamed Hero (Eric Dane), his tough as nails wife (Navi Rawat), the town screw-up (Balthazar Getty), a stoic bartender (Clu Gulager, the director’s father and star of Return of the Living Dead), the sleazy bar owner (Duane Whitaker), a single mother waitress (Krista Allen) and her young son, and Jason Mewes from Jay and Silent Bob playing himself. Acting honors go to the hysterical Henry Rollins as Coach, a motivational speaker with a less than convincing plan to scare the aliens away. <br /><br />Feast boasts an in-joke cleverness that does not condescend. Clearly made by fans, the film has a good time playing with genre expectations, surprising the audience a half a dozen times. Feast will be best received by those who have watched a fair amount of horror movies and like genre benders such as From Dusk Till Dawn. <br /><br />I should admit to being psyched to like Feast before watching it. One of the writers, Marcus Dunston, is a hometown boy. Although he and I met only briefly, we both graduated a year apart from high schools less than ten miles from each other, we’re both Dario Argento fans from a community that believes he is the Prime Minister of Mexico, and we both worked at the same movie theater (albeit years apart). Nonetheless, I will be the first to say that Feast, while enjoyable, is not a horror classic. The middle section drags. The editing has much of that herky jerky, can’t-follow-what’s-going-on style en vogue this decade. Lastly, the super low budget clearly gets in the way of the filmmakers’ ambitions. If Feast had the budget of Texas Chainsaw Massacre - The Beginning, it would have looked professional, but professionalism isn’t everything. Feast is far and away the better of the two movies, budget or not.Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16112204190477355156noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15793224.post-1160715773677023472006-10-12T22:02:00.000-07:002006-10-12T22:02:53.733-07:00Film Literary GroupPassing this along:<br /><br />As we’re entering into the final quarter of 2006, this is a favorable <br />time to enhance your writing career by finding a new home for your <br />screenplay. Film Literary Group can help you accomplish this goal. <br /><br />Once again we will be attending the upcoming American Film Market <br />(AFM) in Santa Monica, CA from November 2 - 8 , 2006. We look forward to <br />generating further business with new and established distribution and <br />production companies. <br /><br />Our consultants are former literary agents from Beverly Hills, <br />California. They have more than twenty years of experience helping writers <br />package and sell their scripts. If you'd like to learn more about our <br />unique packaging service, log onto our website at Film Literary Group.com or <br />call 323-650-1270 for a free consultation.<br /><br />Currently, Film Literary Group has clients located in Australia, <br />England, Uruguay, Canada, United States and other nations worldwide.<br /><br />For a free consultation, give us a call to discuss fees and which <br />package would be appropriate for your screenplay.<br /><br />Let Film Literary Group help create positive results for you as it has <br />for others. <br /><br /><br />http://www.Filmliterarygroup.com<br /><br />Or give us a call: 323-650-1270Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16112204190477355156noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15793224.post-1159590542919795402006-09-29T21:24:00.000-07:002006-09-29T21:29:03.286-07:00"Peter Seven"<p>You can read my screenplay <a href="http://www.writesafe.com/storage9/Peter_Seven.rtf.pdf"><b>"Peter Seven"</b></a> at <a href="http://writesafe.com"><b>WriteSafe.com</b></a>.<br /><br /><br /><p>The discovery of a painting that opens a doorway to another realm puts a Boston loanshark at odds with the mob and the police. Script is WGA registered.</p>Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16112204190477355156noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15793224.post-1158822950041900272006-09-21T00:08:00.000-07:002006-09-21T00:15:50.263-07:00Passing this along.<br /><br />We want 30-second video ads for the web made in bulk. Are you capable of producing good quality videos at around $100 and $500 each? Looking forward to hear from you. ByteCaster Team www.bytecaster.comMarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16112204190477355156noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15793224.post-1158820682084380122006-09-20T23:36:00.000-07:002006-09-20T23:38:02.410-07:00Rabid DogsRabid Dogs (made in 1974; released in 1997)<br /><br />Review by John Dodd<br /><br />Director: Mario Bava<br /><br />Throughout the 1970s, a prolific genre in Italy was the crime film. Some of these were meant to cash in on the success of Dirty Harry. Others focused on criminals and revenge. One of the very best is Rabid Dogs. Out of print for several years, this film is back on DVD in the United States and available through Amazon.com and other retailers.<br /><br />Rabid Dogs has a simple set up. Four criminals rob the weekend payroll of a pharmaceutical company. After one is killed by the police, the others ditch the getaway car. They steal another belonging to everyman Riccardo (Riccardo Cucciolla). They take him, his young sick son, and a woman off the street named Maria hostage and head for the open road.<br /><br />The robbers are the usual mix of thugs. Doc (Maurice Poli) the leader is cold, without a conscious, and all business. Thirty-two (Luigi Montefiori, aka George Eastman) is the lustful one, a strong man with a lascivious eye on every young female. That leaves the psycho, Blade (Aldo Caponi), who can kill in a rage and not realize it until the cold body limps lifelessly against his own. Needless to say the hostages are in trouble. Riccardo accepts the situation with a stoic quality but Maria falls into hysterics, which is reasonable considering she has seen a neighbor murdered by Blade and feels the ever watchful eyes of Thirty-two on her. The child sleeps on, not knowing what danger he is in.<br /><br />Seldom in the ninety-five minute running time does the viewer leave the car or the presence of the sociopath Doc and his two loose cannons. The film simmers in expectation. Will Thirty-two rape Maria? Will the sick child become a liability? Will Blade kill everyone during a dark mood? The film further stirs the pot with a fender bender, a talkative tollbooth attendant, a stranded motorist, and a depleting gas tank, all the while the radio informs the hostages of their captors’ crimes and the futility of the police search. The violence when it does come is both startling and often surreal (a spinning top, insert shots of a pinball game). Stelvo Cipriani’s score further unsettles the viewer.<br /><br />This is a film that Hitchcock might have made. Like Lifeboat or Rope, the premise and setting is simplicity itself. The film rides on the character dynamics and the growing suspense on what will happen to these unfortunates. Hitchcock might have been turned off by the lurid, more exploitative aspects of the story. Surprisingly, Mario Bava has no such qualms. This is a mean spirited, ugly movie and one that certainly holds interest. The middle section might drag a little but the conclusion is nearly perfect and in keeping with the mood that came before. Rabid Dogs is credited to Mario Bava, the famous Italian horror director whose work in the 1960s are considered masterpieces of colorful, gothic horror. Not a personal favorite, Bava is known for more stylish, less visceral filmmaking (Black Sunday and Kill, Baby. . . Kill!). On the other hand, Mario Bava did make Twitch of the Death Nerve (aka Bay of Blood), another grim piece of nastiness. It is Bava’s second best film in my book, second to Rabid Dogs. Fans of crime films, Italian or otherwise, should buy this DVD before it goes out of print again.Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16112204190477355156noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15793224.post-1154678887264451542006-08-04T01:05:00.000-07:002006-08-04T01:10:58.786-07:00"Miami Vice"<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3026/1474/1600/vice.1.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3026/1474/200/vice.jpg" border="0" /></a><br />Miami Vice (2006)<br /><br />Director: Michael Mann<br /><br />Review by John Dodd<br /><br />A Quick checklist for Vice fans:<br /><br />Gina - Present and actually doing something<br /><br />Trudy - A major character<br /><br />Switek - In the background and played by a bodybuilder<br /><br />Zito - In the background until the final shootout<br /><br />Castillo - Present but not much of a character<br /><br />Calderone - None of the Calderone family make the movie<br /><br />Miami Vice debuted on television in September of 1984 when I was eleven years-old. It left a lifelong impression. At that age, I did not know what GQ was and had never heard the term “noir,” but I knew that this show was unlike Hunter and the other cop shows I watched. The plots were darker. Often the happy endings were tinged with bitterness. Then there was the style. The show filmed extensively outdoors, usually at night. Action scenes were cut like a movie, a change from the usual claustrophobic set pieces. The combination of (relatively) downbeat stories and flashy, quick cutting style made Miami Vice the cop show for the MTV generation.<br /><br />The film Miami Vice is an unusual animal. Resembling the show only in its two leads and in its ending, the film shows that times have changed. The clothes are neutral. The music is rougher. Sonny Crockett (Colin Farrell) and Ricardo Tubbs (Jamie Foxx) have lost the comedic banter that would lighten the show’s darker moods. The editing no longer punches like snap, crackle, and pop. Instead, like with Collateral, Mann shifts the mood to reflection with shots held a long time for a crime story.<br /><br />The film jumps into the plot in the first scene. While on a stakeout, Crockett gets a call from an informer on the run. The informer had been loaned out to federal agents working a weapons sting on a group of white supremists. The deal has gone bad. The agents are dead. The informer’s family has been murdered. Crockett and Tubbs agree to take over the investigation, jumping ahead of the supremists to their weapons supplier, a drug/weapon smuggler named Jose Yero (John Ortiz), known for his murderous personality. Yero leads the undercover pair to Jesus Montoya (Luis Tosar), a drug lord, and Montoya’s’s business partner and girl Isabella (Gong Li). Crockett begins playing her but finds himself crossing the line.<br /><br />The plot bares a few tangent similarities to the season one episode “Smuggler’s Blues.” Like in that episode, most of the show is set outside of Miami (Uruguay standing in for Columbia) and Trudy is kidnaped and attached to a bomb, but the moods are different. The film Miami Vice is more of a downer, which is a compliment. Not one old cast member makes a cameo. The film makes only one injoke to the original series (a cover of “In the Air Tonight”), but that is as light as the film gets. This is a somber affair. Do not expect Elvis the alligator to show up.<br /><br />As portrayed here, Crockett and Tubbs are characters who Jean-Paul Sartre could embrace. These are men defined by their actions. Crockett’s father was either a musician or a trucker or both. Tubbs is seeing fellow vice cop Trudy (Naomie Harris). Both are furious with the Federal agents that got their snitch killed. The most important person in each’s life is his partner. That is all for characterization. The rest is how the two act. Comfortable making million dollar deals, experts at drug smuggling, and consciousless in killing those who deserve it, Crockett and Tubbs fit in just as well in the criminal world as the police one. Perhaps Mann is returning to his central theme of Heat: the gulf between cop and hood is not that wide. If their lives had gone differently, perhaps Crockett and Tubbs would have been the druglord’s seconds instead of the underhanded Yero.<br /><br />In either world personal relationships are liabilities, except amongst the one person you can trust, trust to back you in front of your superior Castillo (Barry Shabaka Henley, no Edward James Olmos) and trust you to take out as many enemy combatants as yourself. Crockett and the girl are doomed but Tubbs will still be there.<br /><br />The film Miami Vice will never capture the pop culture Zeitgeist the series did. The pacing is too slow for action fans. While those that remember the series may be startled by the different vibe. The film is not as good as the best of Miami Vice episodes (The Pilot, “No Exit,” and “Lombard,” to name three from season one), but it is a solid Michael Mann crime film, better than Collateral but not as good as Heat.Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16112204190477355156noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15793224.post-1154497423022308142006-08-01T22:43:00.000-07:002006-08-01T22:43:43.356-07:00InkTip<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3026/1474/1600/ink1.gif"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3026/1474/320/ink1.png" border="0" alt="" /></a><br />InkTip has helped another writer get produced! <br /><br />Our latest feature film made:<br />The feature film 'After Midnight,' written by Carol Mulholland and <br />directed by <br />Rob Walker, has completed production and is currently in post. Walker, <br />of <br />Commotion Pictures, connected with Mulholland through our network a few <br />years <br />ago, and after maintaining a working relationship they decided to work <br />together <br />on 'After Midnight.' The film stars Marcus Dean Fuller (Guiding Light, <br />Charmed).<br /><br />Posting your script on InkTip provides invaluable exposure. To place <br />your <br />script now, go to www.InkTip.com <br /><br />Sincerely,<br />Jerrol LeBaron<br />President<br />www.InkTip.comMarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16112204190477355156noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15793224.post-1154273204502954622006-07-30T08:24:00.000-07:002006-07-30T08:26:45.106-07:00Scriptapalooza QuarterfinalistsCongrats to my buddy Frank and his cousin for their script "Eleven" for making the quarterfinalists.<br /><br /><br />Thank you for entering the 8th Annual Scriptapalooza Screenwriting <br />Competition. Decisions in the judging process have been made. We received a <br />total of 3600 scripts. That was narrowed down to 336 Quarterfinalists. <br />A list of Quarterfinalists can be found on our website <br />www.scriptapalooza.com<br /><br />Semifinalists will be announced July 31. If you are not listed as a <br />Quarterfinalist, your script is not moving forward in the competition.<br /><br />Once again, thank you for participating in the Scriptapalooza 2006 <br />Screenwriting Competition and we wish you the best of luck with all of your <br />future writing endeavors. <br /><br />Below is a list of all Quarterfinalists.<br /><br />Sincerely,<br />Mark Andrushko<br />President<br />323.654.5809<br />www.scriptapalooza.com<br /><br />QUARTERFINALISTS<br /><br />2012: Year of the Kukulcan by Rene Andre<br />7 Tales of Desperation by Mando Alvarado & Michael Ray Escamilla<br />A Deadly Game by Jake Quint<br />A Man Named Sue by William David McLeod<br />A Meadowlark Calling by Thadd Turner<br />Allie by David O'Hara<br />Almost Paradise by Jessica Yuen<br />Almost There Express by Armando Figueroa<br />Always Greener by Adam B. Hocherman<br />Ambulance Chaser by Stephen Lang<br />American Alligator by Barb Doyon<br />American Dream by Chris McCann & Nessa Gordon<br />American Hero by Andy Shrader<br />American Vampire by Gregory Davis<br />Ameristan by Charles Welty<br />Among Thieves by Matt Caruso<br />And She Was by Susan Avallone<br />Andi vs. Candi by Kevin Perry<br />Anna & the Art Thief by Rebekah L. Fraser<br />Avatar, The Quest to Save Earth by Kirstie Palmer<br />Avenged by Paul Hall<br />Barter Boys by Jared Seide<br />Baseball Cards by Daniel McPeek<br />Because I Said So by Lindsay Andresen<br />Before Midnight by Jennifer A. Lewey<br />Beg to Differ by Sabina Sattar<br />Behind The Veil by Paul Lobo Portuges<br />Between The Lines by Jeri Smith-Ready<br />Beyond the Beyond by David E. Wilson<br />Billable Hours by Tommy Butler<br />Black Ice by Dean Mitchell<br />Black Orchid by Steven Berger & Bridget Sullivan<br />Bliss Vandals by Louis Frederick<br />Blue Blood by Mark Davidson<br />Blue Hole by Rex Wilson<br />Bread and Roses by Mary McKay<br />Brilliants by Christopher Godfrey<br />Butler School by Jami Burke<br />Calculated Risk by RJ Lavallee<br />Can’t Live With ‘Em by Chris Pentzell<br />Casey Blue Eyes by D. E. Taylor<br />Castle by Vivienne Walshe<br />Caustic by Robert James Spurway<br />Changers by Matt Slovick<br />Chastity by Stefan Stenudd<br />Chill by Christopher Stires<br />Cinder by Ross MacLeod<br />City of Sighs by Ken Henderson<br />Cocoon Crash by Kathleen Latlip<br />Cold Kiss by Philip DiGiacomo & Wendy Salz<br />Conceive by Troy Owen<br />Conditional Love by Lisa Arbuckle<br />Conduct Unbecoming by Mandel Holland<br />Coney Island Babies by John Malecki<br />Cory’s Hero by Alexis & Rudy Croyle<br />Counting The Days by Richard LeBlanc<br />Criminal Activity by Jonathan Wood<br />Dagger in the Heartland by Guy Magar<br />Dance for Your Daddy by Mike Walden<br />Dandelions by Ariel Johnson<br />Danny Longlegs by Keli Rowley<br />Danvers’ Echo by Pete Peterson <br />Dark Hollow by Danny Ray<br />Dark Image by Joe Kozak<br />Daughter of Heaven by Chris Raymond<br />Deadweek by Geoffrey Yeh<br />Dear Jen by Jim Beggarly<br />Death & Taxes by Nur Nur Cummings<br />Death Is Relative by Robert Collie<br />Death Voice by Barbara M. Hammond<br />Destiny Maker by David Lourie<br />Diminishing Returns by Constance Kopriva<br />Dogfighters by James Nathan Post<br />Done by Frank J. DiStefano<br />Dot in the Sand by Jay Tormohlen<br />Double Bind by Tucker Parsons<br />Double X by Kristin Levine<br />Down The Aisle by Jase Ricci<br />Dreamers by Adam Jaquette<br />Drops of Ink by Shane K. Gooding<br />e-Sins by Terrilyn Phillips<br />E.R.A. by Michelle Molhan-Zang<br />Eating Buccaneers by Bill Keenan<br />Eleven by Francis Cormier & H. Jarrod Courtemanche<br />Enclave by Linda Armstrong<br />Endangered by Mick Kennedy<br />Equilibrium by Peter Kaitlyn<br />Every Day’s Goodbye by Santiago Yazigi<br />Far From Maddy by C.C. Saint-Clair<br />FBI Juniors by Megan C. Johnson<br />Felix The Flyer by Christopher Canole<br />Final Effect by Dean Alan Roller<br />FireFly by Derek Neville<br />Fish Out of Water by Shirley Raun<br />FishEye by Kitty Griffin<br />Flush by Eric Klein & Ray Works<br />Fly Me to the Moon by Rebecca Sanders & Gordon Rothwell<br />Foie Gras and Grits by Sharon Saks Soboil<br />Foreseer by Michael Lightsey<br />Four Alone, Four Together by Mikael Hanson<br />From the Moon to Mercury by David W. Kopp<br />Gamemasters by Matthew Gray & Phill Daniel<br />Getting Van Gogh by Lisa Kirazian & Scott White<br />Giant Blue by John J. Austrian<br />Girls’ Night Out by Mark Jaffe<br />Gods and Robots by Stephen Stanley<br />Going Grey by Mark Witzen<br />Goshen, Indiana by Gabriel Snyder & Michael Alber<br />Goy Meets Girl by Peter Vouras<br />Gray Hats by Mike Townsend<br />Harm’s Way by Gordon Pengilly<br />Harold by Caroline Friday<br />Heavenly Rain by Noble Fares<br />Hell on Earth by Chris Lair<br />High Beams Harry by Gary A. Campbell<br />Holding on to Joshua by Naomi Wender-Milliner<br />Holding Out by Scarlett Rocourt<br />Horrorscope by Dak Rasheta<br />Hostage Crisis by Mark Cohen<br />Hot Dog by Kenneth Cavander<br />Hurricane Mona by Marguerite A. Pellegrin<br />If Not Now by Jeff Menell<br />In The Light by Dan Fabrizio, Josh Ravitz & Louie Martinez<br />In Your Dreams by Jeff Seeman<br />Inca Gold by Sandy Steers<br />Jekyll & Heidi by Lisa Yoffee<br />Jet Lag by Kim Townsel<br />Joy by Cassandra Gibbons<br />Just Molly and Me by Charles Kray<br />Keys to the Kingdom by Vincent F. Rocchio<br />Kingsbury Run by Troy Hunter & Geof Miller<br />Kissing A Suicide Bomber by David Mango<br />Knockers by Joe Berglove & Dennis Douda<br />Lady Dragon by Desiree Cifre<br />Last Stop by Nena Eskridge<br />Leapers’ Hill by Jonathan Wood<br />Lightnin’ In A Jar by Kevin Cutts<br />Like My Father by Gail Kerns<br />Like Water for Metamucil by Karen Harrison<br />Lincoln’s Ghost by Jim DeLong<br />Little Seed by Martin K. Leicht<br />Lizzie Fox by Mike Murphy<br />Lost Direction by James D. Patterson<br />Love Dance by Parker Babbidge<br />Love Unexpected by Antoinette Ojeda<br />Lucky Star by Ted Sod & Edie Demas<br />Lyrical by Carter Stewart<br />Made With Love by Debra Hardy<br />Mama's Wayward Helpers by Teresa Latterman<br />Marine in Hyacinth Blue by Jack Swanzy<br />Match This by Anne Wallace<br />Matter of Honor by Jeff Meredith & Dustin Kitchens<br />McPherson Square by Joan Aylor Kirby<br />Meant To Be by George Constantine<br />Middleberg by Matt Healy<br />Migration by Broderick Fox<br />Mind’s Eye by Sharon Scott<br />Minor Deaths by Paul Hall<br />Mister Trivia by Robert G. Garmany<br />Monarch by Kevin Threadgold<br />Moon Madness by John Mongillo<br />Morning Sickness by Frank Richard Faller<br />Murder Between Friends by Sarah Newman<br />My First Lady by Mary Kaiser<br />Near Mint Condition by Morgan Ireson & Paul Traviline<br />Necessary Evil by James Kearney<br />Neighborhood Watch by Christina Delgado<br />Never Let You Go by Cheryl S. Smith<br />No Hablo Ingles, Papa! by Paul T. Abramson<br />Nora Kahn by Scott Bristol<br />North of Girard by Joe Faragalli<br />North of the Border by Alcides Delgado<br />Now You See Me by Beth Szyperski<br />On The Bayou by Sean Bridges<br />Once Upon A Time In A Little Town by Matt Wieclawski<br />One Armed Bandits by Bruce Dundore<br />One Last Look to Heaven by Daniel Bilodeaux<br />One Way or Another by Michael Levin<br />Only by Walter Ostlie<br />Operation: UnderLord by Stephen Blackehart<br />Ouija by Robert Hayhurst<br />Overdue by Courtney Daniels<br />Pandora’s Box by S. L. Hutchison<br />Parking Ticket by George Patrick Hernandez<br />Passage by Robert Lewis<br />Pencil Men by Grant Janes & Brian Edgar<br />Pentecost by Cinthea Stahl<br />Pico de Gallo by Jack Colmenero & Janet Colmenero<br />Pink Viagra by Jeffrey R. Field<br />Plan B by Gina Cresse<br />Pup by Maggie Lawrence<br />Puppy Love by Tony Boland<br />Race City USA by Daniel R. Solomon<br />Random Acts by Cynthia Benjamin<br />Raspberry Sunday by Amanda LaFantasie<br />Red Riding-Hood by David Daniels<br />Redemption Crusade by Kevin Schmadeka<br />Remembrance by Jeremy Thurswell<br />Richard by Noel Maxam & Jim Boulgarides<br />Richter by Aaron Denius Garcia<br />Ripple Effect by Mack Baniameri<br />Rise in Peace by Timothy Jeffrey<br />Robbie Crane by Jeffrey Miller<br />Rocket Docket by Brooks Barnes<br />Rogue Scholars by Eric Reierson & Louie Calvano <br />Roundhouse by Charlie Jett<br />Sabino Days by Conrad E. Gomez<br />Sacred Cow by Martha Moran<br />Sahara Cassidy and the Extinction Caverns by Kevin Emerson<br />Sanguinaries Anonymous by Richard Alan Nelson<br />Saving Halli Weaver by Lynne Logan<br />Saving Par by Michael Licwinko<br />Served Cold by Mike Sherer<br />Shark Valley Slough by Christopher D. Brown<br />Shoeless by Granville Burgess<br />Sight Unseen by Evette Vargas<br />Sins of the Father by Kevin R. Frech<br />Sleepwalkers by Stephen Smith<br />Smashed by Eric Austen<br />Some Love, Some Cash by Richard C. Haber<br />Song of Myself by Ryan Reed<br />Soul by Dave Becker<br />Soul Catcher by Marlene King<br />Spirits of the Snow by Andrew Grauman Kramp<br />Stagemom by Maggie Franks<br />Stairway to Heaven by Lyndon McGill<br />Star Guards by Wayne Edward Sherwood<br />Still by Sarah Tatting<br />Storm by Rick Adams<br />Street With No Lights by Brennen Arkins<br />Superior by Susan Wescott & Katrina L. Coombs<br />Swap by Steve Finly<br />Talent by Stephen Gray<br />Tan Ha - The 7th Deadly Sin by Edward J. Blair<br />Tasupi by Laverne Stringer<br />Ten Minutes With the President by Beverly Jones & Tarpley Jones<br />The Alaskan Conspiracy by Steve Miller<br />The Alchemist by William D. Wolff<br />The Amazing Unbreakable Circle by Peter E. Groynom<br />The American Family by Adam Moore<br />The Anatomy of Desire by Helene Macaulay<br />The Annoyance Man by Dianna Ippolito<br />The Bad Brother by Anton Hill<br />The Banner by Ernestina Juarez<br />The Baron of Whitfield Beach by Robyn Laguzza<br />The Black Tulip by Gena Ellis<br />The Captain's Wife by Richard Hammerstrom<br />The Carolinas by Jacqueline Tadros<br />The Cure by Steven Hathaway<br />The Dance by John T. Frederick<br />The Dogs of Sun Valley by Brad Small<br />The Doomsday Order by Ken Miyamoto<br />The Engagement by Rene Andre<br />The Expendables by Erin Engman<br />The Fall of Dreams by Ryan LaSalle<br />The Fix by David Poulshock<br />The Flame and the Sword by Adam Adrian Crown<br />The Following by Andrew Connell<br />The Gargoyle by Eduardo Oliveira<br />The Gentlemen Makers by Elisa Wolfe<br />The Ghost of Christmas Past by Michael Hebler<br />The Ghost of Delaford Grange by Jessica Scalise<br />The Good Brother by Jim Zachar<br />The Good Harvest by Daniel Forrest<br />The Goodman by Steve Simonson<br />The Great Crime by Gregory R. Alvarez<br />The Grieving by Roy McDonald<br />The Groomer by Greg Caplan<br />The Guest by Ben Ketai<br />The Guide by Kris White<br />The Hajj by Kelly Crigger<br />The Home Front by David Buttaro<br />The Innocent One by Keith Warburton<br />The Lamb by Guy Winch<br />The Last Chardonnay by Linda Armstrong<br />The Last Flight of the Blackbird by David Cooper<br />The Last Mile by Sejal B. Ravani<br />The Lily White Lie by Katherine Koonce<br />The Line of Departure by Michael J. Cramer<br />The Lottery by Michael Werwie<br />The Mark by Alex Pajcin<br />The Merging by Thomas J. Herring<br />The Note by Michael D. Morra<br />The Numbers by James Westerholm<br />The Patriot Act by Steven C. Oppenheimer<br />The Petal Game by Jillan Oppenhuizen<br />The Real Truth by Thomas Moore<br />The Restorer by Dean J. Augustin<br />The Road of Marnie Hill by Katherine Koonce<br />The Scattering of Ernest by Michael Hebler & G.P. Quinlan<br />The Shot by Laura Corey<br />The Shotgun Waltz by Ji Un Choi<br />The Sixth Commandment by Greg & Dane Nielsen<br />The Skid Row Tales by Lawrence Kane<br />The Smiths and the Coelacanth by Ceridwen Dovey & Lindiwe Dovey<br />The Soul of the World by Brian Winfrey<br />The Sound of the Game by Zack Van Eyck<br />The Spanish Island by Steve LaMontagne<br />The Stadium by Zer Gonzales<br />The Stunning Box by David Bertoni<br />The Sunshine Blond by Marilyn Mallory<br />The Sweetest Day Guy by Shohn Turner<br />The Taste of her Name by Bill Biggar<br />The Templar Killings by Keith Davidson<br />The Third Story by Nathan Witkin<br />The Truth About Tattoos by Joanne Parrow<br />The Two Sides of Sorrow by J.W. Ruff<br />The Uncertainty Principle by David Ullendorff<br />The Uncertainty Principle by Nathan Bransford<br />The Ups and Downs of Elvis Brown by Mike Walden<br />The Wizard, the Farmer and the Very Petty Princess by Daniel Fox<br />The Wolves of Brighton by Tyler C. Jensen<br />Three Boys’ Woods by Greg Giovinco<br />Time of the Jaguar by Andrew Arthur<br />Time Warp by Sean Simmons<br />Triage by Shane O’Neill<br />True North by Eric W. Carlson<br />Ultraviolet Child by James Ossi<br />Up Against The Brass by David Shifren<br />Venus Retrograde by Carole Ryavec<br />Violet by Gregory Davis<br />Vows by Tom Bilyeu & Ron Jansen<br />Waking Up Normal by Scott Keen<br />Washington’s Ax by John M. Strawbridge<br />When It Snows by Joseph F. Brown<br />White Room by Hiroshi Nakajima<br />Wild Oats by Claudia Myers & Gary Kanew<br />Willful by Nathaniel E. Mason<br />Winning At All Costs by M. R. Franks<br />With The Fishes by Christopher Harwood & Craig Gadsby<br />Wrath by Jason C. Hinton<br />Xanadu by Peter Lower<br />Year of the Sheep by Frank Richard Faller<br />You Don’t Say by Michael Breggar<br />You May Say I’m A Dreamer by Cinthea Stahl<br />Zig Zag by Heather HughesMarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16112204190477355156noreply@blogger.com0