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.