Day 8 Assignment

[Frank Livorsi]

Hi, I’m Frank and I’ve had one movie produced and two others optioned.

I have a film noir type script, Pelican Brief meets Raymond Chandler.

It’s called Rhapsody In Blue.

A police detective answers his door and is handed a letter from his sister, whom he never knew existed. The letter writer claims to be his birth mother, apologizes for abandoning him and offers clues to his real fathers identity. But cautions that it might be dangerous to look him up.

I would say that you could make this movie in the $5 million range, but I think it would play out better in the $15 million to $30 million range. Chris Pine and Emma Stone would be great in the two biggest roles.

Act one shows us the relationship between Detective Richie Holliday and his married partner, “Jinx” Jensen. The letter from his mother kicks off the movie.

During act two Richie and Jinx grow closer. As they look to identify his father, they uncover a political scandal from 35 years ago. This causes a reaction where several people involve back then, are being killed off today.

The evidence points to the main political heavy and the leader of this Cabal. That man is his father. His father needs to come to justice in the third act.

The finale shows that his father is powerful, conceited and condescending. He thinks he’s covered all his tracks. He has. The only way to bring his father to justice is by “Lead Poisoning!” “You think you could kill your own father? Flesh and blood?” “I don’t remember seeing you at any of my little league games.”

Can I send you the script?

[Larry Ridlen]

Larry Ridlen’s Pitch Fest Pitch

What I learned is…

To try to think in terms of hooks rather than details.

Hi, I’m Larry and I’m an optioned screenwriter. I’ve got a Sci-Fi/Fantasy called BEFFUDLED PATH. (Light pause) It’s about Jim, a man trying to save his girlfriend from his employers… the mob. In doing so he discovers he has the ability to reshape reality.

What is the budget range?

Middle budget: $15 million to $30 million

What actors do you like for the lead roles?

Jim – Tom Holland (or a type like him)

Kim – Peyton List (Corba Kai)

Herbie – Richard Chevolleau (Narc, Earth Final Conflict)

Give me the acts of the story.

ACT 1. Jim works as a drug mule to pay his brother’s debt. On a drug run he meets the woman of his dreams, and his destiny to merge alternate realities.

ACT 2. Jim learns to wield his power. The mob sinks its hooks in deeper and Kim gets kidnapped.

ACT 3. Using his power Jim kills the bad guys and saves a bunch of innocents, including Kim. He forges his nearly perfect reality, and begins building a new life for his loved-ones.

How does it end? (setup / payoff).

It starts with Jim getting deeper into the mob with no way out. It ends with him destroying the mob, getting the girl, and it turns out… Jim was an FBI agent the whole time!

Credibility questions What have you done?

I have an IMDB credit for a short film and several of
my feature length scripts have placed in numerous contests including PAGE and StoryPros.

[Joan Dougherty]

Joan’s Pitch Fest Pitch

What I learned by doing this lesson is how to compress the details.

Hi, my name is Joan Dougherty, and I’m a relatively new screenwriter.

Last year my script, Over the Edge, made it to the quarterfinals of the WeScreenplay Shorts Contest and received a “Consider” by a judge at a competition run by The Script Lab.

Over the Edge is 40-minute short that combines realism and fantasy. It’s about what happens when a repressed story is finally told and the teller freed of the agony of keeping it secret. The answer is that he goes over the edge to become part of the human story.

In the first act, this jailer in a small remote village arrests a visiting storyteller to keep her from telling their shared secret.

In the second act, she transforms the jail to force his return to the past.

In the third act, he returns to the woods where the secret began, tells his story and goes over the edge. At daybreak, he goes back over the edge to be welcomed back into the fold by members of the community.

I suspect this film could be made with a budget of $5 about million with character actors between the ages fo 35 and 40.

I’d be happy to send you my script.