EVIL is in the air, friends. Horrible predators on the prowl… soothing us with comforting lies… before they STRIKE and suck away our souls!
That’s right, it is… election time!
Er, oh. It’s also Halloween. And in celebration of this most wonderful time of year for many of us, we’ve got a little treat in store.
THE CI HALLOWEEN PANDEMALOGUES MINI WRITING TOURNAMENT
ENTRY IS FREE!
Win a CI Standard Story Analysis or Consultations!
Deadline: Nov. 1, 2020
WHAT IT IS?
A tournament! For writers! You write your best interpretation of the scene prompt (or prompts) below and submit it back to us. You MUST use the props we specify and stick to the scenario we provide. But you have to be clever and resourceful, and you don’t have a lot of time. All scenes must be received no later than 11:59 PM Sunday, Nov. 1st. Entry is freeeee!
PRIZES
The winning entry will receive a gift certificate for a CI Standard Screenplay or Teleplay Analysis ($139 value.)
Second and Third Place will both receive a 1-hour phone, Skype or Zoom conference with one of CI’s senior team: Jim Cirile, Anna Siri or Tanya Klein.
Everyone who enters receives feedback on your scene!
Plus you will feel the glow of satisfaction from having written something weird and cool and new, which you can do with as you will. Shoot it as a short film. Develop it into a pilot or feature. Whatever you like.
RULES
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- You may submit one, two, or up to three scenes. Each will be evaluated and judged separately.
- Each scene submitted must be NO LONGER than four standard screenplay pages and be in standard screenplay format.
- Every scene submitted will receive a feedback form showing how we scored your scene(s.)
- You MUST stick to the scene prompt and use the props specified. Scenes which do not will be eliminated.
- You may write in any genre, location or era you like, as long as you stick to the prompt. Your characters need not be human.
- The decision of the Coverage Ink judges is final.
- Late entries will not be evaluated.
- Each scene will be judged according to the following categories:
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STRUCTURE PACING STYLE ORIGINALITY CHARACTER DEPTH CONCEPT VOICE FORMAT SPELLING/GRAMMAR
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- Scene Units (combinations of short scenes which all add up to one longer scene) are fine, as long as the entire thing is not longer than 4 pages
- You may title your scene if you choose to, but that is not necessary.
- Please, no more than FOUR major characters. Additional minor/incidental characters are fine.
- Scenes MUST BE IN PDF format. No MS Word, FinalDraft, CeltX, etc., docs, please!
- Available to anyone over the age of 18 around the world, where permitted by law.
- Please do not write anything about the pandemic. Yes, we know it’s in the name of the event. It’s tired and obvious.
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LET’S DO THIS THING
STEP ONE: Select ONE, TWO, or all THREE of the scene prompts below.
Scene Prompts
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- They’ve been dating for a long time. Things are great. He’s thinking about proposing. Except: she hates Halloween; he loves it. He wants to convince her how great Halloween is. He plans a lovely Halloween night out – a “romantic” haunted hay ride, etc. Of course, everything goes wrong. Or: startlingly, horribly… not.
- A night shift worker, alone on his or her shift, gets an unexpected visitor in the form of a malevolent entity, who is there to collect a debt. Night Shift Worker’s unusual background and training may be their ace in the hole. But when Malevolent Entity reveals its own problems, Night Shift Worker is faced with an ethical dilemma…
- The asshole up the block will get his or her comeuppance this Halloween night. He or she always yells at kids. He or she parks in front of other people’s driveways. They drive over family pets on purpose. This Halloween, our protagonist has had it and seeks to end the reign of terror once and for all… even if it means costing the thing they value most.
STEP TWO: Whichever one of the above scene prompts you select, you MUST use one of these groups of props in your scene. Yes, you must somehow organically use ALL of the props in the group you select, and not just as things seen in the background.
If you elect to write more than one scene, please use a different prop group in each one. (Yes, you can also use additional props of your own choosing.) Then write your best interpretation of the scene prompt(s) you selected using the Prop Group you selected, in whatever genre, style, setting, etc., you choose.
Prop Groups
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- Neoprene wetsuit, scythe, pumpkin
- Chainsaw, box of instant mashed potatoes, eyeball crystal ball
- Swinging clown doll, inflatable grim reaper, a broken-down old Harley Fat Boy
- String of sausages, can of 9-Lives cat food, fireplace poker
- Stack of old Playboys, a fire extinguisher, a decommissioned nuclear missile
- Jar of pasta sauce, weed whacker, a dumpster full of rotting fish
- A bug fogger, a prosthetic leg, a bottle of chocolate syrup
- Tarot cards, an old, non-working rifle, a can of Cheez-Whiz
- A sack of worms, a musical instrument, a sex toy
GAH! ARE YOU SERIOUS?
Yeppers! Now get crackin’. Click the button below whenever you’re ready to submit, anytime between now and midnight Nov. 1. Or just email your scene(s) to us at [email protected].
Bwa ha ha ha ha….
HAPPY HALLOWEEN from your fiends at Coverage, Ink.
