2014 Black List Word Cloud Logline Challenge: Winners!
It started here:
We did this last year and had a helluva lot of fun, so following in footsteps of Hollywood’s studios, it’s sequel time! Yes, it’s the 2014 Black List Word Cloud Logline Challenge!
Here is a word cloud based on the loglines for the 2014 Black List scripts, all 70 of them:
For a larger PDF version of the World Cloud, go here.
[You can see the entire 2014 Black List including loglines for the 70 scripts here].
Two days of entries: Here. Here.
The judge? Hollywood movie producer extraordinaire Max Millimeter.
The prizes?
* 5 Semifinal Winners: 1 free Craft class I will be teaching next year through Screenwriting Master Class. There are 8 of them: Pixar and the Craft of Storytelling, Story Summaries: From Loglines to Beat Sheets, Handling Exposition, Character Introductions, Character Development Keys, Create a Compelling Protagonist, Write a Worthy Nemesis, and The Coen Brothers and the Craft of Storytelling. Each winner gets their choice of one class.
* 3 Finalist Winners: Free 1 script read + 1 month script hosting via the Black List website.
* 1 Grand Prize winner: Free 2 script reads + 2 months script hosting via the Black List website.
And it ends up here with the announcement of this year’s winners. Here is a transcript of a voice mail Max Millimeter left me:
[sound of bubbling water]
So, kid, I’m all hot and bothered here in Palm Springs with two gorgeous gals I met a couple nights ago, Heather and Heidi. Say hey, gals.
Hey! Hi! [giggles]
The three of us have plowed our way through the loglines and two bottles of Dom Perignon, and we got your winners… right here.
[paper rattling]
A little smudged up due to the backwash from the hot tub, but anyways, here we go. Numero uno…
When a MURDER INVESTIGATION leads a jaded DETECTIVE to DISCOVER his ESTRANGED SON is a SERIAL KILLER, he STRUGGLES to FIND him and mend their RELATIONSHIP before he GOES to PRISON for LIFE.
Kind of a Silence of the Lambs meets Shawshank deal. The next one we liked…
JOHN RAY is a SCIENTIST in LOVE with the MOTHER of a GIRL he MUST INVESTIGATE for her MYSTERIOUS abilities.
We’re talking Lolita meets The Exorcist. Awright, let’s see up next…
An amateur DETECTIVE BECOMES a TARGET when she INVESTIGATES the COLD CASE MURDER of a YOUNG GIRL for her SERIAL podcast and DISCOVERS evidence that points to the TRUE KILLER.
I got no goddammed idea what a podcast is, but Heather is nutso over the whole “Serial” thing, so gotta listen to the lil’ lady.
[giggles, bubbles, lips smooching]
Awright, next up…
BASED on a TRUE STORY, a YOUNG CIA AGENT, a HALF-SOVIET ROMANCE AUTHOR and the PRESIDENT of the UNITED STATES MUST RECREATE a MYSTERIOUS SECRET JOURNEY RECORD on LIVE TV in HOPES of RAISING MONEY to save NUMEROUS HOSTAGE LIVES, INCLUDING beach BOY MIKE LOVE.
Hey, I’m calling this one ‘coz the guy worked Mike Love into the pitch. [sings] “Help me, Heidi, help, help me, Heidi. Help me, Heather, help, help me, Heather.”
[more giggles, then the pop of a champagne bottle]
Hey, watch where you aiming that Howitzer, wouldja? Okay, where were we? Oh, yeah, this one…
To cross the Berlin WALL during the COLD WAR YEARS, CIA AGENTS leading an ESCAPEd CHAIN gang from PRISON — PHOTOGRAPHER from BRITAIN, AMERICAN PILOT, SOVIET deserter, innocent TEENAGE BROTHERS, OLD banker, SERIAL KILLER, and a MYSTERIOUS MAN — BECOMES hunted by RUSSIA’S LEADING DETECTIVE, COMMUNIST supporters, and kgb AGENTS and SNIPERS.
Oh, man, this is like The Spy Who Came In From The Cold meets The Great Escape. Love both of those movies. So those are your… your… what’s that say?
[woman’s voice] Semifinalist.
Look at you, beauty and brains. [cackles] Now for the finalists. First up…
After her MOTHER (a WORLD-famous AUTHOR) DIES, a YOUNG WOMAN DISCOVERS that the hero of her COLD WAR-era spy NOVELS wasn’t a fictional CHARACTER — he was based on her MYSTERIOUS, ESTRANGED FATHER… whom she now sets out to FIND.
Nice twist there with the whole father angle. Second…
A LEADING AMERICAN AUTHOR on artificial intelligence INVESTIGATES what KILLED an AMERICAN COMPUTER SCIENTIST based in BRITAIN. FOLLOWING the MAN’S MYSTERIOUS DAUGHTER, he DISCOVERS that a joint US-SOVIET COMPUTER TECHNOLOGY, HALF-finished in the YEARS after the COLD WAR, is SLOWLY BECOMING sentient, and it needs ONE final THING: him.
I know, I know, a lot of Cold War stories, but with that asshole Putin acting like his blood type is vodka, crazy shit, we’re right back there, so I’m thinking we got our new Bad Guy for the next few years at least. Call it Cold War: The Sequel. Next…
AMERICAN PRESIDENT, JOHN RAY, TURNS on the CIA and ATTEMPTS a SECRET ONE-on-ONE with a TEENAGE SERIAL KILLER and TECHNOLOGY EXPERT who DISCOVERS US-SOVIET COLD WAR TECHNOLOGY that the CIA is TRYING to MURDER the BOY for.
He’s the President. She’s a genius serial killer… I’d make her a girl, ya’ know, gender bend it just ‘coz… well, that’s what Heidi suggested… yes, you did, you lil’ love bug.
[giggles, titters, and coos]
Okay, and the grand prize goes to this one…
FOLLOWING the COLD WAR, TWO OLD VIRGIN MEN and a MARRIED WOMAN FIND TRUE LATE-LIFE LOVE and CREATE a NUMEROUS FAMILY in a REMOTE COMMUNIST PRISON while RUSSIA’S LEADING TEENAGE SCIENTIST INVESTIGATES their ESCAPE ATTEMPTS, FINDS a MYSTERIOUS AMERICAN ROMANCE NOVEL called “PRIVATE SHOWER HOURS”, and EVENTUALLY DISCOVERS a DARK ONE-YEAR RELATIONSHIP between his ESTRANGED HALF-BROTHER and a YOUNG HEAD-TURNING BEAUTY SLOWLY KILLED by a DEATH RAY after RAISING MONEY in LOS ANGELES to CREATE a SECRET SOCCER HIGH SCHOOL.
Holy shit! This takes the Kitchen Sink Award and the What The Fuck Award. Plus this cat submitted a bunch of crazy loglines, so he deserves the whole enchilada.
Speaking of which, Heather, Heidi and lil’ ol’ moi are heading down to Cabo, so I gotta skeedaddle. Their private jet. Tough life, I know, kid. Ciao!
There you go! The semifinalists who win one free Craft class:
jace.serrano
December 17, 2014 at 11:48 PM
jollywandering
December 19, 2014 at 6:24 PM
RachelWoolley
December 18, 2014 at 6:02 PM
wlubake
December 19, 2014 at 6:02 PM
jem
December 20, 2014 at 2:31 AM
The Finalists who win 1 free script read + 1 free month script hosting via the Black List website:
Jason Young
December 18, 2014 at 2:22 PM
radiant@byss
December 19, 2014 at 3:38 PM
Evan S. says:
December 19, 2014 at 12:51 AM
And the Grand Prize winner who gets 2 free script reads + 2 freemonths script hosting via the Black List website:
Keep Movieng
December 18, 2014 at 6:37 PM
Winners, please email me for details. Thanks to all for participating! Let’s do this again next year!
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