CinemaSpoke
Cinema St. Louis, the presenter of the St. Louis International Film Festival, has announced the five finalists in its annual CinemaSpoke screenplay competition and workshop. The five screenplays will receive partial readings, one a month from April through August, with the winning script receiving a full reading on Tuesday, Sept. 15.
The finalists and the titles of their scripts, with the reading date:
April 7: Aaron Coffman's "The Translation"
May 5: Denise Ward-Brown's "400 Seasons"
June 2: Dan Kelley's "The Dogs at the Acropolis"
July 7: Jordan Oakes' "Mom and Paparazzi"
Aug. 4: Elizabeth Ashby's "Broken Sinclair"
All readings will be held on a Tuesday at 7 p.m. in the Dana Brown Rehearsal Hall/Rialto Ballroom on the fourth floor of the Centene Center for Arts & Education, 3547 Olive St. in Grand Center. The readings are free and open to the public.
On each evening, the first 30 pages of a script will be read by actors, with judges offering critiques and the author responding to questions from both the judges and audience members.
CinemaSpoke judges are TV writer/producer Paul Guyot ("Judging Amy," "Felicity"), TV writer Rift Fournier ("NYPD Blue," "Kojak"), screenwriter Richard Chapman ("Live From Baghdad"), producer Buzz Hirsch ("Silkwood"), St. Louis Post-Dispatch film critic Joe Williams and St. Louis writer/producer Bobbie Lautenschlager.
Selection and Reading Process
A committee of three selection judges (composed of local filmmakers and teachers) will read the first 30 pages of each submitted screenplay. Based on these 30 pages, the judges will then select up to, but no more than, five scripts. The first 30 pages of each selected script will be given a public reading, one evening a month, from April through August. The 2009 readings will be held on the forst Tuesday of every month in the 4th floor ballroom at the Centene Center for Arts and Education, located at 3547 Olive Street, 1/2 bloack east of Grand. Dates of the readings are April 7, May 5, June 2, July 7, and August 4. Writers will be allowed to play a role in casting the actors who will do the live readings of the competition scripts.
A panel of five film professionals will offer criticism and feedback based on these readings. The writer then has the option to rewrite the script based on feedback from the panel or to allow the panel to read the script, as it exists in its entirety. If the writer chooses to revise the script, the writer has two weeks following the CinemaSpoke reading to complete and submit this rewrite. Once the panel has read all five scripts in their entirety, a winning script will be selected from the five.
Please include a self-addressed, stamped postcard if you want acknowledgement of screenplay receipt. CinemaSpoke reserves the right to refuse or disqualify any screenplay. Screenplays not selected for competition will be returned if writer picks them up in person at Cinema St. Louis offices.
Prizes
The winning script will be given a full public reading on Tuesday, September 15, 2009. The writer will be given the option to direct this reading with guidance from the CinemaSpoke committee. In addition, the winning script will be submitted for consideration to an accredited literary agent and/or production company.
Please click (here) for submission application and required script format rules.
Cinema St. Louis
3547 Olive Street
St. Louis, MO 63103-1014
mailroom @cinemastlouis.org