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Day 7 Assignments
Reply to post your assignments.
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9 Replies
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Rob’s Query Letter
Gangsters, bankers, even approaching dust storms can’t compete against the real force of nature: Molly Fisher, a gutsy widowed farmer’s wife forced to protect her family and farm in a man’s world.
It’s the 1930s in the Great Plains and Molly, uneducated and ill-equipped, must deal with the corrupt banker who raped her when she was younger and left her with her oldest son. The banker now wants control over her farm through foreclosure. The Chicago Mob wants their money.
Molly also has three teenagers she must deal with: one son delves in recent Nazi propaganda, another explores his sexuality while creating conflicts with church doctrine, and a daughter who seeks out her missing father’s love in the wrong places.
Molly and the Sheriff believe her husband’s death was no accident – despite many suspects, who’s guilty?
HORIZONS is similar to PLACES IN THE HEART with a strong female heroine – feisty, gutsy. The entire cast are distinctive and complicated and can attract talent.
If you like the concept, I’d be happy to send you the script.
Rob Ingalls
[my email]
[my cell phone]
Rob is a multi-optioned screenwriter with a degree from the College of Agriculture, Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, CA.
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This reply was modified 2 years, 11 months ago by ROBERT Ingalls.
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This reply was modified 2 years, 11 months ago by
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Mary Emmick’s Query Letter
What I learned from doing this assignment is that query letters should be short and well written. Pitch like a producer – marketing first, story second.
What happens when a teenage girl from a small farm town during the time of COVID-19 discovers her fiancé and childhood sweetheart is a louse?
When Isabel sees her fiancé Tyler throwing up in the bushes at her sister’s wedding reception, she begins to have second thoughts. When she goes to his work and sees him kissing the receptionist IT’S OVER FOR HER!
There’s danger and high stakes when Isabel disobeys her father to save the family farm from a raging fire.
When a friend is pulled over by the police one night just for being black Isabel is angered by the racism in her town.
I wrote a song called Look Away because I saw people looking away from injustice. Then I turned it into a story.
Isabel is outraged when she learns that her ex-fiancé’s father, State Senator Ted Cramer, in revenge, turns her friend Victor Sanchez into the sheriff for being undocumented. He was arrested on his family’s prosperous vineyard even though the family had been in the country for several generations.
How will Isabel respond to the challenges and injustices she faces and find true love when her world is swirling in a vortex of uncertainty and upheaval?
If you like the concept, I’d be happy to send you the script.
Mary Emmick
(425) 891-0166
3523 241<sup>st</sup> Pl SE
Sammamish, WA 98029
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Lenore Bechtel’s query letter
Dear Producer,
Title: SWEETIE HEAVEN
Genre: Family Musical Comedy
How can Meredith sing her own style and not alienate her Sweet Adeline family and remain a virgin and not lose her horny boyfriend?
Especially when the Dapper Dolls lose their tenor because Meredith goes rogue on stage, singing her better-than-barbershop style and baffling the quartet’s other three. Can they find a good tenor in time to win Gulf-Atlantic Regional and give Gran her first chance at nationals?
And especially when Quincy proposes marriage to Meredith one moment and takes a Sexy Squaw to a drum circle the next. Was Meredith loony for refusing to be engaged if the diamond came with sexual expectations?
These questions get answered at Regional competition when squealing young females swarm the stage to hug Meredith’s new quartet, The Rhythmettes, after they sing “Biblical Brushoff” about dumping guys who pressure gals for pre-marital sex.
This playwright turned screenwriter, with thirteen plays produced by community theaters and one college, is a former Sweet Adeline who knows this could be cast with any winning SA chorus (500 worldwide), making it low budget, but box office appealing.
If you’d like me to send a script that merges MUSIC MAN with STRICTLY BALLROOM and supports chastity until marriage while spoofing barbershop zealots, I’ll be in sweetie heaven the moment I get it out to you.
Harmoniously,
Lenore Vinyard Bechtel
306 S. 1st. Street, Eufaula, OK 74432 lbechtel@consolidated.net 936-499-7694
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John Stimson’s Query Letter
Title: THE TERRORIST
Written by: John Stimson
Genre: Suspense / Thriller
My research into bomb technology and federal courthouse construction when writing “The Terrorist” was so in-depth that I discovered that I was being surveilled.
I told the two cops that I played golf with that if I didn’t show up one Monday for our tee time to come and look for me in the system, because I had probably been arrested, which is why I dedicated the novel to them. “The Terrorist” won Best Screenplay at the 2021 Paris Film Festival. I earned my bachelor’s degree at the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts.
Harold Case is “The Terrorist” and is the last man anyone would ever suspect of being a sociopath and a cold-hearted killer. He is movie-star handsome and charismatic. He is one of the most popular professors at the University of Washington. He is respected and he is a member of a domestic policy think tank that devises scenarios to protect American citizens, from terrorists like him. Case leads law enforcement into a deadly game of cat and mouse—and they are the mouse.
If you like the concept, I would be happy to send you the script.
[contact info]
What I learned doing this assignment is that the query letter needs to be creative, you hook your audience. Yet it you’re brief and to the point. And come across as a professional.
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Melanie’s Query Letter
Dear XYZ,
“Nothing sells better than a dead author.” Don’t worry, I’m not dead, but my protagonist may be a different story.
Title: Murder, Ink
Genre: Suspense/Thriller
A best-selling author is found washed up underneath Savannah’s Talmadge Bridge just like the protagonist in his latest novel. The next day his book sells out. Was it suicide or murder? Blake, an aspiring writer herself, is about to find out.
Stripped of courage, pride, and her savings after an identity theft, Blake enrolls in a writing class, determined to prove herself and take charge of her writing career. The problem is – a team of grifters has the same idea. It’s not until her newly wed husband goes missing that she realizes that was the same plot point in her thriller’s last chapter. Just like the dead author – her words start to come true. Writing has become dangerous – so she stops. However, her world gets even worse – a drained bank account, intimidated by thugs, an eviction notice, and her literary agent threatens to drop her publishing deal if she doesn’t finish the book.
With only a few clues to go on and no help from the cops, Blake’s search for her husband leads to finding the killer on top of a high rise. As she dangles off the roof, she must find a way to write herself out of death.
I’m a produced screenwriter (‘Til Proven Innocent/A&E) with another script in development at an LA production company. I currently live in Savannah.
If Murder, Ink sounds like a project you’d like to consider, I’d love to send you the full script. I look forward to hearing from you.
— my contact info —
What I learned doing this assignment is that by coming up with short/concise marketing materials, you are respecting the producer/manager’s time and hopefully giving them confidence in your ability to sell the project.
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Bob Bland’s Query Letter…
Learned? Get to the point, be professional, and get out.
I met you on Clubhouse where you said you were looking for drama/romance scripts. I thought you might enjoy Doc Band-Aid.
Can two emotionally wounded people confront their past, heal, and love again?
Devastated by his final days in the war, after witnessing both the bombing of the local village where the love of his life lived and the battlefield death of his fellow medic and best friend, Frank was changed forever.
He gave up on his dream of being an artist and now, ten years later, he is the glue that holds together a ragtag group of homeless vets, all haunted by memories they harbor from the war.
When Frank did not return from a mission, Tam believed he had abandoned her and their dreams for a future together, leaving her heartbroken. She eventually escaped to the United States. Tam went to college but gave up on her plans for medical school to help run her family’s struggling market. When a man who offers safety and stability proposes, Tam accepts. <s></s>
I met with and interviewed veterans to bring dimension and authenticity to this story. I refined the script with notes and feedback from industry experts. A table read with professional actors was held to ensure the dialogue was fluent.
If you like the concept, I’d be honored to send you the script.
Respectfully,
Bob Bland, 29177 Flowerpark Dr., Canyon Country, CA 91387; bobeblue@sbcglobal.net; 323.775.7617
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What I learned doing this assignment is that even when I think I am keeping it concise,
it still looks like a lot of words.
What could be worse than stubbing your toe on the way to answer the front door? Maybe it’s
opening the door, only to find your ex-boyfriend from last week on your doorstep because he got a flat down the street, and when you go to help him, you discover that a new woman has all ready taken the passenger seat.
Or, maybe it’s all the things Naomi Steele didn’t anticipate when meeting “Mr. Right,” (an African with a professional career), a few months later-things like friends and family’s behavior, even her employer, and his family, friends and employer too!
Things are dicey when no one addresses the elephant in the room, like the issues that interracial couples encounter, especially when the couple avoids the topic even with each other!
Can Naomi and the love of her life, Kofi, overcome the prejudices and biases of those they know, or learn ways of dealing with it, and save their relationship?
If you like this concept, I’d be happy to send the script to you.
Best regards,
Laura Hyler
Bio- Having been a single mother of four children and faced with the dating world after the end of a 14 year marriage, I dated almost exclusively outside my race, and learned very quickly that we were not living in a “post racial” America.
My partner of ten years is African, and I can honestly say, there are far too many events to fit into one screen play, so I have picked some of the more significant experiences that I have had and used fictitious scenarios to show real events.
Laura Hyler, phone: gmail.com, or address
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Nancy Lucas Query Letter
What I learned from today’s lesson is to keep the Query Letter short and concise highlighting key /interesting parts of the story in order to provoke them to request your script.
Good day, Mr. Sullivan
I met you at the conference where you stated you were looking for Christmas themed Made-for-TV Scripts. I thought you might enjoy ‘A Tropical Christmas.’
A small-town 2nd generation motel owner is pressured by a developer to sell, and they are stopping at nothing to take the beach property. Nicole struggles to keep her sunny disposition after finding late tax payments her father was hiding, the motel’s wedding planner getting sick and a demanding -but cute-city lawyer who comes to town 5 days before Christmas and needs a wedding and it isn’t even his!
How does a big city lawyer overcome his need for logic when given with the sudden task of arranging his best friend’s Christmas day wedding…which is in 5 days?
Peter realizes all the planning in the world couldn’t have prepared him for a cocktail at sunset on the Gulf of Mexico at the Flip-Flop Motel where “couples who drink the house limoncello martinis are making plans”
If you like the concept, I’d be honored to send you the script.
Nancy Lucas
[current address]
[email]
[cell phone]
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Gordon’s Query Letter
What I learned: Slap them awake to take notice. “You need to read this one.”
Dear
A friend suggested you may be interested in this one.
Two questions:
No. 1 How does an outdoor entry mat become a “test kitchen” grille?
Ans. With electricity. Lots of it.
No. 2 But why?
Ans. To fry the SOB assassin coming to her doorstep.
Gwen relies on a stranger’s instructions left on the recorder found on her steps. Its message from the first killer who came for her, says, “If you wish to survive you must trust me. Because more are coming.” With time nearing zero she has no choice but to follow the assassin’s course and trust no one else, especially the police and FBI.
On edge while waiting in darkness, Gwen glances at the timer counting downward to its final minute on her computer, marking the next killer’s arrival. With her tranquil existence utterly shattered and her psyche frayed, her head spins over why the first assassin didn’t kill her. Or if it’s a surreal ploy to make her an easy kill for the next one who would come.
But Mara knows it’s no ploy. As a black woman Mara is perhaps the world’s most formidable assassin. She too is now marked for death when foregoing the hit on Gwen. Mara’s reversal of deadly intent occurs with her first glimpse of Gwen’s face just as she’s about to pull the trigger. It shocks her conscience.
The moment also brings Mara back to haunting memories of the day when she was but ten years of age, when standing before her mother’s newly placed headstone. That frightening memory from thirty years past recounts when Mara’s identical twin sister, Gwen, was cruelly torn from her side to never be seen nor heard from again.
BIO: As a 30+ year litigator Gordon faces harm from a number of NDAs on many a confidential matter, should he reveal the truth. For that reason this one is inspired entirely by purely fictional accounts and characters. Except for….
Hardwired is the title. If you like the concept, I’d be happy to send the script.
With best regards,
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