British Feature Screenplay Competition

BFSCSay what? A screenplay competition? That’s right… Not just any screenplay competition but .

Why this competition you ask?

Because the winning Screenplay goes into production with a budget of up to $2 million U.S. Let me say that again… The winning screenplay GETS MADE INTO A FILM.

And that’s what we’re here for, right?

As their web site also says, this is the BIGGEST PRIZE of ANY screenwriting competition — EVER. You also know that I’m not very fond of screenwriting competitions. I get it but I don’t get it. I certainly understand it with the bigger competitions but that really leaves a hell of a lot of other screenwriting competitions existing to simply take your money and have some idiot MAYBE review your screenplay.

I have a friend who wrote a screenplay a year ago and his plan was to enter it into the big competitions as well as many of the smaller ones that — HOLD ON TO YOUR FUCKING HAT — offered analysis or critique.

One of the IN-DEPTH critiques he received contained FOUR FUCKING WORDS: I DIDN’T GET IT.

I read the script and it has potential but for some fucking backwater screenwriting competition to even bother writing I DIDN’T GET IT as their in-depth critique makes me wanna puke.

So here you go… You want to enter a competition? This is IT. This is the BIG ONE. I have it on very good authority that the winning film will in fact get made even if it takes a couple of years to bring it off.

In other words — it AIN’T no different than Hollywood, Baby…

The British Feature Screenplay competition is actually being brought to you by and .

Who can enter? ANYONE from ANYWHERE.

How does the prize work? The winning writer will be required to sign an assignment (writers agreement) which offers the writer a purchase price (rights fee) of not less than 1% of the budget with a floor of $15,000 Dollars (U.S.) and a ceiling of $40,000 Dollars (U.S.) less any sums paid — payable on the first day of principal photography of the film. The fee will be pro-rated downwards if a credit were to be shared with any other writer.

When’s the DEADLINE? EARLY DEADLINE is 12 September 2008 while FINAL DEADLINE is 14 November 2008.

Hmmm. That’s over three months to finish, tweak, rewrite, or begin and finish a screenplay of any genre.

Get it?

Some important notes:

The judges:

Links:

Suffice to say, visit their site and read EVERYTHING until you completely UNDERSTAND it. If there’s something YOU DO NOT UNDERSTAND, contact them. Their email address is located right there on their web site.

If you enter only one screenplay competition in 2008 — I believe this is the ONE.

Unk

July 30, 2008 | Filed Under Competition

38 Comments 

The Central Question Part 2

central-question-chart

I was reasonably sure Josh’s question would get a lot of play and it certainly did… Time to throw a little more fuel on the fire.

I think we’ve comfortably established that the central question is capable of change.

Cool.

Why does it change? When does it change? Think about it… Methinks it’s reasonable to assume that the central question changes because the want or desire of the Protagonist changes. And WHEN the Protagonist’s want or desire changes, that can and often does change the central question of the story.

There, I said it twice.

There’s still something we’ve not yet discussed that is definitely worth discussing as part of the central question.

The Protagonist’s overall want or desire…

In the previous post, we more or less danced around the Protagonist’s immediate want or desire and how it changes and when it changes, so MIGHT the central question.

In what I consider some of the best stories and movies, the central question does keep changing… The Protagonist searches for an answer and in conducting that search, discovers his or her overall want or desire. They more or less SHED the immediate want or desire as they make their way on their journey into the new world and as they explore and learn what they need to learn in the new world, their immediate want or desire develops and grows to an overall want or desire that drives them through the rest of the story or movie.

This is another reason why we want to keep all these changing central questions related… The overall want or desire is usually directly related to the story’s theme — i.e., the overall want or desire that divulges your truth… One of life’s questions you want this story and movie to explore.

And whether you have a story or movie with a Protagonist that doesn’t actually transform but transforms the story OR a Protagonist that does in fact transform — this works very nicely. Even with Protagonists that do not necessarily arc — per se — we still usually see their noble philosophy become even stronger than it was in the beginning. That’s growth — and to me, that’s still a KIND OF CHANGE they go through.

Whew…

No emails, please… LOL.

But with stories and movies containing Protagonists that DO undergo a , this works even better. For lack of a better phrase — a kind of internal structure for your Protagonist if you will.

A requirement? Not at all. But does it make for a great story? Of course, as long as it’s done correctly.

At some point, the new and now defined overall desire can be your Protagonist’s . Not only does it offer him or her the ability and opportunity to resolve the story — whether he or she succeeds or not — it brings up theme and affords us the opportunity to ponder the question and or truth you want to let us in on.

It’s almost as if our Protagonist begins our story bleeding profusely…

Without stopping the bleeding, he or she will die (NOT change enough to resolve the story).

Each wound (if more than one) being one of his or her flaws… They move through the story trying to figure out how to stop the bleeding so they can heal and be whole again (change) — achieve their goal — ANSWER THE CENTRAL QUESTION.

Just thought I’d throw that in…

Unk

July 24, 2008 | Filed Under Questions

78 Comments 

The Central Question

central-question

More questions… But to be precise, THE CENTRAL QUESTION. Also sometimes referred to as THE CENTRAL DRAMATIC QUESTION.

Hey Obi-Wan…

When you get settled down and whatnot, got coffee and feel like it, would you mind a few more elaborating words on THE CENTRAL QUESTION… either email or on the dear old blog - I was surfing through there, but maybe I missed it… but it’d be cool to hear anything more you have to say on it…

I’m probably overcomplicating it in my head, I’m sure… When I break it down, I see it as basically related to the call to action… once the hero accepts the call, the question is will he / she succeed at whatever the call requires… will Frodo return the ring to the pit, will Marlin find Nemo, will Angelina take her shirt off (oops, different question, perhaps more central to my viewing habits than it is to any movie story she participates in)… etc.

Just curious, what would you see as the central question of TRAINING DAY, is it, will the rookie survive training day?

Anyways, no rush, boss… just muse when it hits you.

The Central Question is like a lot of screenwriting elements… We can make it as complicated as we want.

Or not.

The first thing we should probably get out of the way is that normally, the central question poses itself somewhere in the first Act. Does it have to be in the first act? Nope… But if yours isn’t in the first Act of your screenplay, you better keep me glued to my seat with something while you make me wait for it to reveal itself. And that something needs to be related to the story to keep me glued. Don’t just toss some spaghetti up against the wall to keep me interested UNLESS it really has something to do with the story.

I’ve seen the central question CREATED in a myriad of ways in even more than a myriad amount of movies. In stories and movies where ye old Protagonist doesn’t really have a character arc — rather — they are used as elements of change i.e., they don’t really change or arc themselves but they try to change something major that’s happening in the story — usually something being done by the antagonist or antagonistic forces. In a lot of these kinds of stories and movies, the central question is pretty simple. Will the protagonist defeat the antagonist and bring about the necessary change to set the world back in balance? Not in balance like it was before but just a little better than it was before that nasty old antagonist was working his or her plan.

In most of these kinds of stories and films, the central question evolves from the inciting incident and once the inciting incident occurs, hopefully both the reader of the screenplay and the audience of the story is immediately asking themselves a couple of questions:

1) What does the protagonist want?
2) What or who is gonna try and stop him or her from getting what he or she wants?

Together, these two questions normally infer the story’s and once a reader or audience member’s gotta decent understanding of a story or movie’s premise — once again, the subconscious kicks into high-gear makes the central question clear:

Will the protagonist stop the antagonist?

In stories and movies where the protagonist definitely transforms, the central question can be a little trickier… Some stories and movies like to use the inciting incident to thrust the protagonist on his or her journey and this almost always brings up the central question of:

Will the protagonist resolve whatever the inciting incident disrupted in his or her ordinary world? Of course this isn’t REALLY the central question is it?

Nope.

Because the protagonist will journey away from his or her ordinary world — pick up knowledge along the way — maybe even a friend or two that depart some of their knowledge — this begins the element of change within the protagonist.

They’re absorbing all this new knowledge and very much like a caterpiller in a cocoon undergoing physical change to emerge as a beautiful butterfly, the protagonist discovers his or her TRUE GOAL. The want or desire that evolved from the inciting incident is no longer the real central question. Now the central question is will the protagonist now become the beautiful butterfly? And in becoming so, will he or she ALSO defeat the antagonist or the antagonistic forces in play?

Maybe — maybe not.

Another way to present the central question is simply by creating the … Remember, we’re not talking about the best of the best. Not the best cop. Not the best private investigator. Not the best attorney. We’re talking . The very best representation of that KIND OF CHARACTER.

If it’s a cop on the take, make the cop the quintessential cop on the take.

If it’s an attorney who only defends scumbags, make the attorney the quintessential attorney who only defends scumbags.

By creating a quintessential character — we — meaning we who will read your screenplay and or hopefully watch your movie, will automatically ask ourselves if this quintessential character is going to REMAIN the same. If you go with your character, thereby making him or her quintessential, we will almost always subconsciously ask ourselves these two questions:

1) How did this character come to be this way?
2) Will this character stay this way?

Whereas the first question is simply a question that we will wonder about but the second question can easily become the new central question of this story i.e., now assists in creating the central question of your story.

A lot of stories and movies try to make THEME the central question of the story. Nothing wrong with that at all especially if your theme explores one or more of life’s many unanswered questions.

The problem?

Making the central question important enough, dramatic enough, compelling enough to hold our interest through to the end and to ME, that’s the hardest part of getting the central question RIGHT.

Now let’s DISCUSS…

Unk

July 20, 2008 | Filed Under Questions

60 Comments 

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