Meet The Winners!
of the 5th Annual StoryPros Awards Screenplay Competition
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That's PURSUIT, carried off with verve and style by Tobias Iaconnis and Mikki Daughtry. A fresh and sprightly read, its distinctive voice and breathless action combine in a stand-out screenplay worthy of our 5th Annual StoryPros Awards Grand Prize.

Iaconis, a graduate in English Literature from Haverford College, and Daughtry, who has a degree in Theatre from Brenau University, met and began helping each other hone their scripts. By 2011 they formalized their writing partnership and began producing work in earnest.

The idea for PURSUIT came, appropriately enough, while watching one of L.A.'s many televised car chases. "If one such pursuit were long enough and spectacular enough, probably 99% of the population would be watching -- plus most of local law enforcement would be involved...the perfect diversion for an extravagant heist!"

This is not Daughtry's first trip to the winner's circle -- she distinguished herself in the 4th International for her script "Wish You Were Here". Between the two of them, they write a hell of a script, and they're a duo to watch.
Pursuit, by Tobias Iaconnis
& Mikki Daughtry
Grand Prize Winner

Rally car driver Clay's navigator is killed -- so Clay leaves the sport he loves and retires to a remote cabin. But then one day, a visitor...a beautiful woman with an irresistible proposition: lead the cops on a four-hour chase through the busy streets of Los Angeles. Payday: two million dollars. But what seems like only a cynical media ploy actually conceals a daring and improbable heist.
Banking On Betty, by Geno Scala
1st Place, Action/Adventure/Thriller

Jack Reese, an ex-con Hollywood stunt driver, gets caught red-handed stealing another car -- so a less-than-friendly FBI agent gives him a choice: rot in jail, or transport a witness across the country. In six days. His charge handles a gun like a natural and cusses like a sailor. Oh, and she's the 80-year-old mother of the mob defendant.
Geno Scala has taken the long way around to writing success. A screenwriting course given to him as a gift on his 50th birthday led to a blossoming career...and this screenplay. The story was inspired by -- who else? -- Betty White. But the name Betty is also a tribute to Scala's mother, Betty Scala. "Mom never cussed like this Betty does, but that unmistakable charm is my mother to a 'T'."

Scala grew up in Staten Island, "famous for its number of mobsters per capita". He now lives in Hunstville, AL, with his wife and four children. There he runs a production company, and is the founder of "The Script Mentor", a screenwriting mentorship program. He was recently hired by COL Bill Cain to adapt his award-winning crime novel "I Know Why The Dogwoods Blush". Filming is set for the spring of 2013.
Hammerheads, by Laurence Newnam
1st Place, Comedy

It's the summer of 1987, and the New Age is in the air. But when a crew of redneck Virginia carpenters sign on to build a spiritual center for a group of Goddess Women healers...the Harmonic Convergence doesn't seem quite so imminent.
Construction site cussing and metaphysical proclamations are equally familiar to Laurence Newnam. The script's situations, and rich language are drawn from his years in central Virginia in the 1980s where he worked as a carpenter by day and read Shirley MacLaine by night. "I was fascinated by UFOs and the paranormal as a kid, so the New Age movement was right in my wheelhouse," he says. "I always respected people who followed their own spiritual and metaphysical paths. But there�s also a lot of humor in those topics -- especially when you bring in a truckload of rednecks and coon dogs."

Newnam has been writing screenplays and working on independent film and video projects for years. His 2007 screenplay send-up of the western genre, GUNFIGHTERS FROM MARS, led to meetings at two prominent studios. He has written and produced a feature-length documentary (CIRCLESPEAK) as well as several satiric political shorts that can be found on Funny or Die.
The People V. God, by Paul Undari
1st Place, Drama

A young girl's parents are dead. She's found alone with the bodies. But she didn't kill them, she claims. God did. This is the inscrutable dilemma that faces renegade attorney Frank Angelo. The only way he can prove his client's innocence is by essentially proving or disproving the very existence of God.
"I wanted to write a story that's never been attempted," says Paul Undari. "Though an atheist, I wanted to explore the complexities of God�s existence in a dramatic way that would satisfy the curious without offending theists.  I've come to accept that the issue of God will not be resolved in this life.  Thus, my ending rejects this complexity. I have no agenda other than to deliver dramatic entertainment."

Undari studied law for years, but found he hadn't the patience or inclination to become a lawyer. Not one to waste a perfectly good education, he used this knowledge to inform this screenplay. Fiction was always his favorite escape, and the perfect outlet for his talents. "I have found that the best natural coping mechanism against all things unpleasant is imagination," he says. " Let's see how far I can go with it."
The Wild Helicopters Of The Outback, by Katrina Nicholson
1st Place, Family/Teen/Animation

Returning from college to the family wind farm out in the Australian sticks, Abby becomes interested in the wild helicopters -- escaped military AI's -- who bedevil the family's floating power collectors. A quest to make contact leads to some surprising encounters, and a friendship which in the end may just save all their lives.
First published at age 8, Katrina Nicholson struggled for years to avoid the writing life, but was unsuccessful. She's studied engineering, physics, history, Russian, oceanography, and astronomy, earned two pilots' licenses, and worked as: lifeguard, first aider, camp counselor, summer camp assistant director, hotel front desk clerk, and custom framer. Eventually she settled into her current occupation(s) of blogger, freelance writer, library clerk, screenwriter, Girl Guide leader, and author, some of which she actually gets paid for.

Based on her own short story, WILD HELICOPTERS is made from what would be a list entitled "Things Kat Thinks Are Awesome": blimps, helicopters, Australia, survival camping, cute pets, wind turbines, cattle ranching, electric vehicles, and making things from other things. One of her life goals is to own a car-sized airship and fly around making fun of people who are stuck in traffic. You can see more from her at www.refrigeratorbox.org.
Crater, by Luke Pimentel
1st Place, Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Horror

Warden Essex has the loneliest job any prison warden ever had -- watching over a brood of hardened criminals on a lonely planet somewhere on the barren fringes of the galaxy. The prison comes under siege, and Essex is forced to join forces with his most famous prisoner -- brilliant, enigmatic hacker Rigg -- to save their respective families, and their lives.
A Bay Area native, Luke Pimentel is an avid film aficionado, inspired by giants and genre trailblazers alike, from Coppola to Cronenberg. He holds a B.A. in Cinema, graduating cum laude from SFSU, and works for a commercial photography firm. When not writing (or ranting) about film (his words), he can be found covering the Bay Area music scene as a writer/photographer and web editor. Pimentel's wife, not a sci-fi fan, liked Crater. Given that, "I figured it probably had a shot!"

Pimentel describes Crater thusly: "Plotwise, the script was conceived as an homage to the genre movies of the 70's, specifically John Carpenter's Assault on Precinct 13, which was itself an homage to Howard Hawks' Rio Bravo." Naturally, he found it morphed into something else during the writing process...something greater. "Hopefully, Crater offers some of the things that make those guys' movies so great: tight pacing, cool action, high stakes, and who knows, maybe even a little socio-political commentary here and there. (If you're into that sort of thing.)"
Action Figures, by John Crews
2nd Place, Action/Adventure/Thriller

American Eagle is the world's most famous superhero. And now he's dead. His son -- whose gifts in the super powers department are somewhat unrealized -- needs help to avenge his death. So he turns to a rather unlikely ally -- his father's retired arch-nemesis.
John Crews wrote this script while in the UCLA Professional Program in screenwriting. "There, they teach you the importance of coming up with a very clear, punchy logline before ever starting on your script. Since you only have ten weeks to finish it, that really helps."

Crews, who works as a draftsman, always loved comic books, especially the large, sprawling crossovers with their decades of continuity. He set out to produce an homage to that...with prizewinning results.
Jobber, by Drew Mackintosh
2nd Place, Comedy

Bill is a jobber -- the anonymous schmo who loses to the champ in the marquee professional wrestling match. Then one day, things go wrong...and he can't avoid winning. Suddenly Bill finds himself thrust into a very unfamiliar position: the spotlight!
The germ of this script slumbered in Drew Mackintosh's mind since his childhood watching pro wrestling with his brothers. "I always wondered -- who is that schmo? What's his backstory? What if, one day, the guy snapped, went off script and pinned the champ?" Like so many other great scripts, JOBBER grew out of this simple "What if?" proposition.

Self-taught, Mackintosh draws upon his work and life experiences to give his writing its authenticity. "I write comedy, usually character driven stuff about people at a crossroads in their lives. Y'know, the kind of stories Hollywood used to tell before it devolved into a factory churning out one super hero comic book re-boot after another," he adds, tongue firmly in cheek.
Diamond Express, by Kyle Curry
2nd Place, Drama

Scott is a dentist. His wife Cathy's an ophthalmologist. They live a cultured, upscale life in Beverly Hills. Also, they're international drug/weapons dealers. When things start heating up, they decide it's time to fold the tents and try and make it at the straight life. Alas, this proves to be far more difficult than they ever suspected.
Kyle Curry started writing for the Kansas City Star at age 15 before moving into TV production. He quickly gained a reputation for kinetic videography, winning a half-dozen state-level awards before graduating high school. An alumnus of Sarah Lawrence, Kyle served as videographer there on numerous student films. Reading and executing other students' material taught him what works in a script.

Curry also credits his journalistic background for teaching him vivid writing and economy of words. Exhaustive research and a cinematographer's eye came together in this, his first feature-length screenplay -- already, he tells us, the recipient of ten different commendations this year (so far).
Julie Calcankerous, by Ian McWethy
2nd Place, Family/Teen/Animation

"Julie Calcankerous once told me that she built a control tower in a medium sized crater named Aristarchus. She uses it to signal herself of the most exciting and dire of baby-sitting jobs. I told her that sounded ridiculous. She told me it only sounded ridiculous because I ate ridiculous pills for breakfast."
So begins Ian McWethy's story of a the self-proclaimed "World's Best Babysitter", and a nonplussed 12-year old named Jacob, who is having trouble figuring out Julie, life, and the mysterious species known as "girls", in that order.

McWethy's actress girlfriend (now his wife) once claimed Ian never wrote anything for her, or for women in general. She always wanted to play Mary Poppins... so he set about writing the story of a modern day Poppins: American, young, and completely unhinged.
New Avalon, by Joe Weber
2nd Place, Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Horror

Ashleigh was a brilliant young neuroscientist...until her father's reckless experiments caused a rift between them. Now, he's got a mind control device which can put him into just about anyone...anywhere. And it'll take Ashleigh and an army to stop him.
Joe Weber found the hook for this script developing during research on an early draft. He discovered a patent, filed in 1978, detailing virtually the same method he'd dramatized. "My first thought was 'That's funny; this person dreamed the same nonsense I did.' What if it wasn't nonsense? What if this person, using his working technology, transferred his aging consciousness into a newborn child?  Someone born, perhaps, in July of 1978?" Oddly enough, Joe was born in July of 1978...

Once his existential crisis had passed, he had the nucleus of an award-winning script. Weber is a recent graduate from the Colorado Film School, training in writing and directing. New Avalon is his first feature. "Common wisdom says Hollywood is becoming less inventive, turning more to remakes or rehashes of established properties, but I believe there are still stories waiting to be told."
Underway, by Michael Estes
3rd Place, Action/Adventure/Thriller

North Korea strikes a disputed island, and a young woman dies. She's actually a CIA agent -- and the love of aircraft carrier Captain Mike Blaine's life. Devastated by grief and hungry for revenge, Blaine decides to steal his carrier and use it to get revenge on Kim Jong-Il...personally.
A Navy veteran, Michael Estes spent several years deployed on carriers in Persian Gulf. But the inspiration for Underway struck during a hitch on a battleship. "It struck me just how impenetrable the ship was, Under Siege notwithstanding." He used his own experiences, "juiced up" with all the creative possibilities inherent in the situation, to create a riveting and tense screenplay.

Writing is Estes's profession, but it took him awhile to get there. Aside from his tours in the military, he's been a roustabout, train-hopper and world traveler. Now, though, he lives a settled life in New Hampshire with his wife and four children. Of the various scripts and novels he's written, he numbers this one among his favorites.
Going Postal, by Patrick Connelly
3rd Place, Comedy

Rollo Moon is a mailman. Rollo Moon loves his job. But times are changing, and the world, with its electronic devices, is turning away from snailmail. Pink-slipped, Rollo Moon and his eccentric allies embark on a quixotic quest to prove how much he and the mail still matter.
Patrick Connelly moved to LA from Washington, DC, two years ago to pursue screenwriting. He found he'd been prepared for a career in storytelling by working as a defense lobbyist. "I took my client's technology and tried to convince Pentagon and Congress that it had merit and should be funded. This required telling a story (on paper and in person) that was compelling enough for them to champion the product. Using humor sometimes helped that process. Sometimes it completely backfired and I was escorted out of the building."

The idea for this screenplay came when he noticed how much pride his mailman took in his work, all the while knowing that his specialty was slowly disappearing. Patrick wondered just how far that guy would go to save his job...
Passaic, by Michael Klausner
3rd Place, Drama

When Will Kramer's father dies, he feels a certain amount of relief. Their relationship was rocky, and Will blames his reporter father's lifestyle for a great many things. But then he comes across clippings of a 40-year-old unsolved murder. As he starts investigating the story, it starts consuming him...and he finds himself reaching across the divide to connect with a father he never really knew.
Forget the New York of The Godfather or Goodfellas -- Passaic was the true mob den of its day, filled with the corruption and criminal behavior that gave New Jersey its distinctive personality. Michael Klausner based this script on real-life events surrounding his own reporter father, who found himself harassed for daring to tell the truth about some local murders.

This is Klausner's first screenplay entered in any competition. Two more are in the works. He's spent most of his career in corporate marketing -- where "it takes a lot of creativity to make bland brands shine. Certainly, a useful training ground for the more interesting world of screenwriting."
Fish Sticks, by Stephen Buck
3rd Place, Family/Teen/Animation

A self-absorbed real estate tycoon named Jonah gets caught in a storm at sea and winds up in a very strange place: the belly of a whale. But this whale is gigantic, and its belly is home to an entire civilization. And completely free from the seven deadly sins. But, now that Jonah's there...not for long.
The Bible is many things, but fun and games? "Waking up in the mouth of a fish? Come on!" That's what Stephen Buck thought, and so the east coast native set about writing this fantastic tale of culture clash beneath the waves.

Buck has reached the late rounds in, and won, several writing competitions, in addition to the StoryPros Awards. He currently lives in Los Angeles where he is an executive in the entertainment industry.
Love The Monster, by Ross Raffin
3rd Place, Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Horror

Teen Jason gets kidnapped by a beautiful but sadistic woman. Over the course of a horrific confinement, Jason gradually loses his will to escape...and finds himself firmly imprisoned by more than just lock and key...
A recent incident of the "Stockholm Syndrome" -- when a kidnap victim comes to identify with, even love, their captor -- was the inspiration for Ross Raffin's screenplay. The abused abductee, despite his violent ordeal, not only didn't try to escape, he even denied to police that he needed help. Raffin wondered...how is this possible? What does it take for an average person to become a willing participant in his own kidnapping?

Raffin received his MFA at the American Film Institute and his Bachelor's degree at Stanford University. His screenplays focus on mixing thematic and character-driven complexity with entertainment ("preferably involving explosions"). His works have placed in many prominent contests besides the StoryPros Awards.