Speaking of Sly Sylvester, I’m happy to share that our website is now up! You can keep up with ups and downs, as well as begin to get to know the cast and crew (the cast will be announced shortly). Find the website, here.

- til next time – Kim

Here are this week’s collection of links that will hopefully inspire you, make you think, improve your writing skills, or make you pee your panties.

Hope you enjoy.

* Jeff Sheldon, the owner of of the top t-shirt line Ugmonk, wrote about the importance of having passion for what you do.  Or rather, doing what you have passion for.  Keep money aspirations aside.

* Interested in improving as a screenwriter?  Read this post by Scott Myers at Go Into The Story.

* Don’t you dare enter because I want less competition, but Kid In The Front Row is running a short script contest.  The winner will have their short made by the winner of his upcoming directing competition.

* I was thinking of changing my email address and this post by John August may have made me pull the trigger.

* Erin Hanson’s “Reminders” photo collection is clever and well done.

But there’s no way I’m complaining.

The good:  We signed on the house yesterday evening.  It’s ours.  Keys will be in our hands on Friday (along with some margaritas).

The bad:  The quarterfinalists for the 2010 Final Draft, Inc. Big Break Contest were announced yesterday and Super Ted was NOT on the list.

First of all, my sincere congrats to those who made the cut.

Secondly, yesterday was an absolute cluster, but I had about five minutes before stepping in to sign house documents to be hurt regarding Super Ted’s early exits from this season’s contests.  That’s all four of the contests I entered now… Super Ted has been knocked out of all of them.

I don’t know if this house stuff is keeping me focused on something else and helps keep everything in perspective, or if I’m going to collapse once the rush slows down.

Either way, I’ll K.I.M. the Tribe Called Quest way and keep it moving… continue with rewriting Super Ted, querying it, and outlining my new one.

Script Doctor Eric announced the semifinalists in his 2010 Screenwriting Contest, knocking down the number of remaining entries to fifteen.

My thriller, entitled My Brother Mick, was one of them, which is super cool.  You can find the complete list of finalists, here.  Congratulations to all of the finalists.

You can find the complete list of finalists for Round One, here.

I was fortunate enough to make it with a score of 96 on my short baseball scene.  If you’re interested in reading it, you can find it here.

My feedback and score specifics are below.  Yeah, you could say that I’m in a damn good mood this morning.  Congrats to all of the finalists.

Kimberly Nunley

Structure: 24

Dialogue: 23

Style: 25

Originality: 24

Total: 96

Comments:  Very fun, fresh, original scene.  Great job of taking a rather pedestrian moment and elevating it to great importance, as well as putting a clock on the stakes.  Loved this from the beginning to the end.  Nice work!

For the first time, Julie Gray at Just Effing is asking for a $1.25 entry free to compensate for the large number of entries and the time it takes out of her day.

You’ve got to have your entry in by Wednesday, May 5th at 12am PST.  Winner gets $25 to Amazon and a fifteen minute phone convo with Julie.

Read more about the contest, here.

Photo by Balakov

The weekend away completely recharged my battery.  Relaxing at baseball games with my wife and the nice weather was just what I needed.

Plus, I came back to find a job offer for another freelance writing gig and information about a new short scene competition in my inbox:

Last October, I participated in the Cyberspace Open online short scene competition.  Last year’s event was the first time the annual contest was done online instead of at the Screenwriting Expo, giving writers who couldn’t make the event an opportunity to participate.

Well, it looks like they’re going to have a Spring 2010 Edition.  I already threw in my entry.  Go here to enter or get more information.

What This Unique Contest Is And How It Works

The Cyberspace Open is an on-line elimination contest in which writers compete for three prizes of $3,000, $500, and $300.  In addition, we will give winners great industry exposure:

•  We will send 300+ producers the names and describe the achievements of the winners.
• The written scenes and videos of the three winning scenes will be posted on the Web, with an explanation of the tough conditions under which they were made.
• Also, we send feedback by email to all entrants. 

Like no other contest in the world, this contest tests your ability to write creatively for a movie or TV production on a tight deadline.  The skills it takes are very much like some of the key skills of a script doctor called in to fix a script quickly, or a TV writer working on a weekly show.

The Steps In The Elimination Contest
The Cyberspace Open is a four-stage elimination contest:

Round 1: A Weekend To Write A Scene: 100 Survivors
In Round 1, we post a scene premise at the web site on Friday, April 16, 2010 at or just before 5:00 p.m.   You will have until 9:00 a.m. Monday, April 19 to email your finished scene to the entry email address. That gives you an entire weekend to conceive, write, rewrite, and polish your first-round entry. 

What Round 1 Simulates:
We think of Round 1 as being much like this situation: A movie or show is being shot.  It becomes clear on Friday afternoon that a key scene is just not working.  You are called in to save the budget and schedule by writing a new scene over the weekend and delivering it to the producer (us) by 9:00 a.m. sharp on Monday.  The entire film/TV crew will be sitting around on the set Monday waiting for your words.  There is no margin for late delivery. 

Round 2: Absolutely, Positively, Must Be There The Next Morning
In Round 2, the 100 finalists who survive Round 1 will receive a new scene premise by having it posted on this page at 10 A.M. on Saturday, May 22, 2010.  These 100 finalists will have until 10:00 A.M. Sunday, May 23 to email it to the entry email address.

That timetable gives finalists 24 hours to conceive, write, rewrite, and polish second-round entries.

What Round  2 Simulates:
Round 2 is much like this situation: a movie or show is being shot.  It becomes clear on the morning that a key scene is just not working.  You are called in to save the budget and schedule by writing a new scene by the next morning and delivering it to the producer (us) by 10:00 a.m. sharp.  The entire film/TV crew will be sitting around on the set Sunday waiting for your words.  So there is no margin for late delivery.

The Three Winners Advance To The Live Round:
The three highest scorers among Round 2 finalists are  all prize winners.  They will advance to Audience Voting to determine first, second, and third place. 

Brand New And Very Cool: Winning Scenes Videotaped:
In this contest, each of the three winners will have his/her second scene videotaped:

• Actors will perform a reading of each of the three scenes before a camera/cameras provided by the Contest, which will be video recorded.
• The three videos of scenes and the scene texts will be placed on the Internet for viewing.
• Recipients of our CS Weekly E-Zine (approx. 80,000) will be invited to vote for a winner.  
• Voting will take place through an online survey system.  The three winning positions (first, second third) will be on the basis of highest score.  One vote will be allowed per IP address. 

Bonus For All Entrants: Brief Feedback On Your Scene. 
Judges will provide your score and feedback to you if you provide an email address.  Be sure your mail server does not block emails from the servers @creativescreenwriting.com and @screenwritingexpo.com in order to receive your score and feedback.