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Lesson 7
Reply to post your assignment.
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8 Replies
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ROBERT R. SMITH’s QUERY LETTER.
WHAT I LEARNED DOING THIS ASSIGNMENT IS…?
The fine art of writing a Query Letter and the importance of brevity and making it look easy to read.
The Query Letter:
Dear Mr/Mrs/Ms/Miss:
GENRE: Erotic Thriller.
TITLE: “The Plaintiff.”
PICTURE: “The Accused” meets “The People vs. Larry Flynt.”
Her death is unsolved. Was it suicide or murder by her abusive Russian Mobster boyfriend?
Her life was a quest for an acting career as a new “It girl,” which took her from stripper to centerfold to porn actress in which she was coerced into explicit sex scenes by her mob-connected skin magazine-mogul boss in his porn epic “The Harem.”
She then abandons her boss’s skin magazine empire and files a landmark sexual harassment lawsuit against him which she wins.
Her success wins her acclaim and a new role as advocate for women’s rights and workplace justice, including the rights and dignity of sex workers – all of which ends with her sudden, untimely, and mysterious death.
BIO: I am a playwright whose gangster-comedy “Angels in Gangland” (performed as a recorded Zoom Production) won the award of “Best Full Length Feature Film” in the Cecil County Independent Film Festival.
If you like my concept, I’d be happy to send you a script of “The Plaintiff.”
Best Always,
Robert Russell Smith “Bob”
35 Spruance Court
Elkton, MD 21921
Phone: ***-***-****
Email: RobertRSmith4646@comcast.net
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Christi Falk’s Query Letter
What I learned doing this assignment is to emphasize my uniqueness in selling a Public Domain draft.
Query Letter:
Imagine you’re the great grandson of Agatha Christie, Grand Dame of the British Empire and you have one job: Maintain the Copyrights.
The one that got away? The Man in the Brown Suit.
What is it, you ask?
Orphaned and homeless but with a sudden stroke of luck, Anne Beddingfeld tries to endear herself to her late father’s friends while joining the hunt for stolen diamonds.
On her way, she meets an overbearing southern belle, a handsome but brooding stranger, a transgender agent of fortune and a morally ambiguous millionaire who wants to adopt her.
Pretty impressive for 1921, huh?
Now imagine you’re the great granddaughter of a British orphan that emigrated to Canada at 13 years old and have developed a talent that rivals the Grand Dame herself.
From the mind of Agatha Christie and updated by Christi Falk, a tale of love, loss and belonging in Public Domain that is powerfully relevant today.
If you’re interested, I’d be happy to send you the script.
If not, I have other features I would love to present in it’s place.
Contact Info XXXXX.
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Jane Alcala: Query Letter
What I learned doing this assignment is to keep the query as short and snappy as possible; and that you can either skip the bio or mention something that gives you insight into material you’re writing about.
Write your query letter:
Let’s hear it for a parolee who plots to break the internet instead of the law!
Aiming for viral fame, an ex-parolee turned comedian challenges her parole agent to a TV roast battle.
If you like the concept, I’d be happy to send you the script.
Bio: I’m a former Los Angeles probation officer who consulted with my friend, a comedian who performs stand-up about her criminal past, in the writing of this script.
If you like the concept, I’d be happy to send you the script.
Contact info (to be included here)
Thanks,
Jane Alcala
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Break the internet instead of the law! LOVE that!
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Isti Madarasz’s Query Letter
What I learned doing this assignment is less is more.
He has divine power, but all his daughter needs is a father
Title: KONTRAKT
Written by: Isti Madarász
Genre: dystopian sci-fi drama
Imagine a world where everything is controlled by treaties, literally everything – even the very laws of nature can be rewritten, you just need the right contractor.
In this story, based on an award-winning Hungarian novel, Simon, one of the most powerful contractors, arrives in a country under military occupation, where he is about to make the most influential contract ever made, one that will literally cripple the people who live there.
When the deal is leaked, tensions between the oppressive powers and the exploited people erupt into a nationwide uproar. Simon, in the midst of the growing chaos tries to keep his daughter safe, who has also travelled with him, while trying to track down his family, who sold him to the army when he was a child and have not been heard from since.
After his daughter is seriously injured in a spectacular but brutal anti-gravity attack, Simon is confronted with the fact that the mastermind of the terrorist attack, a mysterious and powerful contractor, is the only one who can help his daughter. But to do so, he must put aside his desire for revenge, break every contract he has ever signed and for the first time in his life follow his heart, which leads him into more dangerous territory than ever before.
BIO: For both of his feature films (Loop, 2016 and Halfway Home, 2022) Isti has won the Silver Mélies-award for Best European Sci-Fi Film and directed one of Hungary’s biggest-budget TV series.
Contact info: xxx
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R Whitney Query Letter
What I learned: This has given me the format to which I can present effective Query Letters
Genre: Dark Comedy
Title: Apricot Cyanide
What would happen if you discovered your parents were poisoning homeless people and burying them on the family farm?
While on her trip to break the good new she was getting married, Jenny Wolfe discovers her parents have poisoned over 50 homeless people believing it’s their civic duty and buried them on the family orchard.
As she struggles to figure out what is the best course, she tells her fiancé, Jim of what has happen and they hatch a plan to keep her nutty parents from going to jail.
The plan becomes complicated when the local police get involved and her parents don’t seem to feel poisoning homeless people is wrong.
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Title: JESTER
Written by John Chabot
Genre: Dark Comedy
Great news! You’ve been invited to the castle. Bad news? It’s not for the court jester job like you thought. Instead, you are injected with a wizard’s sperm and told to go impregnate an enemy princess.
Why did the wizard choose you? The enemy princess saw your stand up comedy routine and casually remarked, “Every woman wants a man who can make her laugh.”
What’s at stake? Your life. Your parents’ lives.
What stands in your way? A heartthrob rock musician. And two wizards in cahoots.
How do things go? After getting this close (i i), you’re sentenced to hang in the morning.
In prison, you meet your kingdom’s princess, who everyone thought was dead. Besides giving you a handjob to relieve the wizard’s burden, she knights you before you go to the gallows.
Fortunately, you’re saved from the noose. Unfortunately, it’s by the other wizard. He hypnotizes you and sends you to kill your king. Fortunately, the plot is foiled. Unfortunately, the enemy princess wants you back, which means another injection!
After “discharging” the wizard’s spell you scream, “Screw the man! I’m gonna save my princess!” Then you kick ass, and then you kick more ass with your princess kicking ass by your side.
And you live happily ever after as king, with a beautiful queen and your own comedy club!
Though set in Medieval times, the humor in Jester plays on modern concerns. Jester received a Recommend from extremescreenwriting.com and a Consider from Coverage Ink.
If you would like to read Jester, I would be happy to send you a copy. Thank you.
BIO: Besides thinking I am funny (I get in a lot of debates!), I like to write screenplays with a comedian as the protagonist. Jester is the third.
John Chabot
(905) 937-5479
70 Allan Dr.
St. Catharines, ON, L2N 1E9
Canada
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Gregory’s Query Letter
What I learned from doing this assignment is that I should submit more of my screenplays into more contests to develop my bio/credibility more.
Query Letter:
What happens when a criminal and a senior citizen conspire to commit the perfect crime?
Sinclair is a house burglar who is assigned community service at an old folks home where he meets a promiscuous elderly woman named Gertrude who I might stand to inherit a fortune from her late husband. Sinclair wants money to start a new life, but since Gertrude has been committed to the facility she doesn’t have any access to any of her funds.
So Sinclair busts her out of the maximum security old folks home!
Looks like both of their problems are about to be solved when Gertrude’s spoiled rotten son Issac puts a bounty on them both! Sinclair’s solution? Train Gertrude to help him break into the Issac’s mansion and steal her late husband’s will which proclaims her as the rightful heir to their family fortune.
But during their caper Gertrude falls and breaks her hip right as they’re about to make a getaway. What’s Sinclair to do?
If you like the concept I’d be happy to send you the script.
BIO: Gregory is a graduate of the Master Screenwriter Class 15 at ScreenwritingU
Contact info:
Gregory Kiernan
(847)899-6825
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