The Quest Initiative: 7 days and counting
You can go here to see the original announcement I made about The Quest last year.
You can go here for a post about this year’s Initiative.
Now this important note: I am pushing back the start date for the logline submission period to Wednesday, May 22.
I WILL NOT BE ACCEPTING ANY LOGLINE SUBMISSIONS BEFORE WEDNESDAY, MAY 22, 2013. PLEASE RESPECT THIS SCHEDULE! IF YOU SEND ME A LOGLINE BEFORE MAY 22, IT WILL GO INTO MY TRASH!
For background on The Quest Initiative and Max Millimeter’s thoughts on why you have six words to get his attention, I’ll see you below the fold.
I am reprising a post from last year in which Max Millimeter — “Hollywood Movie Producer Extraordinaire” — talks about story concept in a unique way:
Okay, here’s the deal with loglines. There is nothing more important than getting my fucking attention. And by ‘my,’ I mean everybody who’s anybody in Hollywood. We’re all of us so damn busy. Think L.A. is laid back? Wrong! It’s breakfasts, calls, meetings, lunch, meetings, more calls, drinks, screenings, even more goddammed calls. Like when you look at me, and you think you see me, you don’t see squat. ‘Coz while on the outside, it may look like I’m looking at you, inside my mind’s a blur, okay? I mean I can sit there with my eyes wide open locked on you, nodding my head, smiling every so often like I’m hanging on your every word, and the whole time, my mind is off in West Covina somewhere, thinking about that crap draft a writer just turned in or how my Amgen stock is doing.
So get my attention. That’s the name of the game. And when it comes to loglines, that should be the name of your game.
It’s like baseball. You’re the pitcher, right? Get it, you’re pitching me, right? And I’m the batter. So I go through all that crap a batter does, you know, rubbing my hands together, messing with the bat, tugging at my crotch, the whole nine yards. Finally I step into the box. I’m looking at you, okay. You see me looking at you, but for all you know, I may be in Amgen city.
Whaddya do? I’ll tell ya’ what you do. You give me the high heat, right at my goddammed chin. Up and in, one hundred miles an hour, go head hunting with a bullet. Boom! I hit the dirt, okay. Now you got my fucking attention! Amgen? I don’t give a rat’s ass about my stocks or that shitty script. All I care about at that precise moment is you just knocked me on my fat ass with a freaking dot.
That’s what a killer logline does. You gotta bring the high heat. You gotta make every word count. You gotta have a story concept that’s gonna go like a pill right at my chrome dome, you hear me?
That’s why I have the six-word rule. You got six words… count ‘em… one, two, three, four, five, six… six words in your logline to get my attention. If six words in your logline don’t come right at me, high and hard, and knock me on my keister, then you ain’t getting my attention. And your story? That’s a big fat Pasadena.
The thing is, we’re talking movies. Over a hundred years, Hollywood’s been making movies, stories that make you go, wow. That get in your heart, get in your soul. How you can be just walking down the street one day, and bam! Suddenly outta nowhere, you’re seeing that scene from a movie you saw twenty years ago. You see the faces, you hear the dialogue, you remember it like yesterday. I mean, you can’t even remember what you had for breakfast this morning, and here you are reliving this scene from something you saw in a two-bit theater when you were a snot-nosed kid. Movies can do that, it’s like magic. There’s nothing… nothing like movies. A good movie, when you see it, you forget about anything else, it grabs your attention and won’t let you go.You see where I’m going with this? The story idea is the key to the whole thing. It’s the guts of the movie, it’s a fastball that comes in high and hard, and knocks a person on their ass. And you know where this is most important? Marketing. Computers and online and social damn media, that idea just whips out of all that noise and goes right at your head. Bang! You’re laid out. Wow, I gotta go see that movie!
That’s your story idea, that’s your logline, it’s the high hard one, it’s the dot coming right at my head, up and in.
You got six words. Six. To knock me off my feet. You do that? You got my fucking attention.
Now you may think this is hyperbole. Six words? Really? But I just interviewed screenwriter Dan Kunka who has sold two big ticket spec scripts — Agent Ox, Bermuda Triangle — and he said the exact same thing. Asked to describe Agent Ox, he said this:
“Human spy on an alien planet.”
Dan said one sign of a strong high concept is if you can reduce it to a six word tease:
* It’s simple: It conveys the story conceit in a clean, clear way.
* It’s open-ended: Something about it elicits curiosity in the reader, getting them to ask, “How is that going to work?”
* It’s a twist on familiar genre: Agent Ox takes a Cold War spy thriller and puts it on a different planet.
So here’s a test you can do with any of your loglines: Can you reduce it to a six word tease? If not, can you identify six key words in your logline? Like this:
“Cop gets new partner: Police dog.’
It worked for me. It worked for Dan Kunka.
Now it’s your turn!
What you need to know about “The Quest Initiative”
Cost: Free.
How many participants: Up to 4.
Who may apply: Any aspiring screenwriter who is not a member of the WGA or equivalent professional writing organization. Writers do not have to live in Los Angeles, and may be located in the United States or internationally based. Writers may be any age, gender, race, etc.
When will the workshop run: July 14-December 28, 2012.
How will I determine who gets accepted: There are three key standards. (1) Story concept: I am looking for strong story concepts that I believe when executed as a script can get set up as projects in Hollywood. In other words, I am almost exclusively interested in commercial high concepts. I will make exceptions if the story elements make me think the project is a marketable one, but the concept has to be extremely strong if it is not high concept. (2) Writing ability: I will ask applicants who make it past the first cut to send me a sample of their writing, as well as a detailed description of their background as a writer and a statement about why they want to be a screenwriter. (3) Personal interview: I will have a one-on-one conversation with applicants who make it past the next cut in order to assemble a group I feel will be compatible with each other.
How do you apply: A simple email with the word “Quest Logline” in the subject line, then a logline of your story in the text. If you have a title, please post that. If the genre of the story is not clear from the logline, you may include the genre.
When may you apply: I will be accepting loglines from May 22 through June 8, 2013. You may send them to me at: thequestinitiative at gmail dot com.
NOTE: THIS IS THE ONLY EMAIL ADDRESS YOU SHOULD USE!!!
If you are selected as one of The Quest participants, you must be willing to do the following three things:
1. You have to commit yourself fully to the workshop. That means active participation in constructive criticism and feedback, all writing exercises and assignments, and most importantly pledge you will finish the first draft of your original screenplay.
2. You have to write a weekly journal entry about your experiences in the workshop. As part of The Quest Initiative, I will be doing something akin to reality programming in that each week, I will post something on GITS about the group’s progress including excerpts from your journals. This is a great way for the GITS community to track how you are doing, something of what you are learning, see the ups and downs of the writing process, and so on.
3. If you write a script I believe has strong marketable potential, I have the right to attach myself as an executive producer. At that point, I will take you on into rewrites and we will officially be in producer-to-writer mode. Once your script is finished, I will take the lead in getting it to managers and agents, and try to get the project set up and you established in Hollywood.
You may only submit a total of three [3] loglines!
Last year some folks sent me dozens of loglines. As a result, I ended up reviewing over 3500 loglines. An overwhelming majority of them were not — in my opinion — commercially viable.
So if you are serious about wanting to have a chance to participate in The Quest, I encourage you — with extreme prejudice! — to raise your game. Give me your best shot. That means you have to set the bar high for what you submit to me. You need to ask: Is this really a movie? Can this story concept compete with what is currently out in theaters? Is this something I think Scott will respond to?
Here are genres I am most interested in reading: Action, Comedy, Thriller. Second tier: Drama, Family, Horror.
Cross genres like Action-Thriller, Drama-Comedy, Action-Comedy, those are fine, too.
Here are genres that will be tough sells: Fantasy, Science Fiction.
I love Fantasy and Science Fiction, but if you submit an idea that requires massive and complex world-building along with huge CGI requirements, I’m not in a position to do anything with that.
That said, if you have a truly great story idea that is either Fantasy or Science Fiction and it is low-to-mid-budget, that might work. A big idea with a contained environment like Moon, something along those lines.
Will I offer a free class for every entrant like I did last year? No!
I may be crazy, but I am not insane. There were 1500 entrants last year and a majority of them have received a free Core or Craft class through Screenwriting Master Class. It was a nice gesture on my part, but I simply don’t have the resources to make that offer again.
How should I submit my logline(s)?
I would prefer this: Title, Genre, Logline. If you don’t have a title, that’s okay.
If you are not sure of the genre, take your best guess from the following: Action, Comedy, Drama, Family, Fantasy, Horror, Science Fiction, Thriller.
If you have a cross-genre movie like an Action-Comedy or sub-genre movie like a Romantic Comedy, that’s fine. But if you put down: Action Comedy Mystery Adventure Contained Thriller? That suggests this story has not found itself yet.
If you have multiple loglines (remember: no more than three entries), please put them into one email.
In the subject heading of your email, just put QUEST LOGLINE or QUEST LOGLINES depending on if you are submitting one or more (NO MORE THAN 3!!!)
Email your submission to: thequestinitiative at gmail dot com.
I WILL ONLY ACCEPT SUBMISSIONS AT THIS NEW EMAIL ADDRESS. PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE NOTE THE ADDRESS AND USE IT TO MAKE MY LIFE EASIER!
Up to 4 writers will have what I believe to be an incredible opportunity, not only to write an original screenplay aided by other writers and myself, but also a chance to learn how to think and write like a professional. Because my goal with writers who go through The Quest is to educate and train them so they have the best shot possible not only at breaking into the business, but succeeding month after month, year after year. That’s one of my guiding principles with The Quest: solid screenwriting theory matched with solid screenwriting practice.
7 days and counting. What are you doing to prepare for The Quest Initiative?
If you have any questions, please post them in comments.
Onward and upward!
NOTE: I WILL NOT BE ACCEPTING ANY LOGLINE SUBMISSIONS BEFORE WEDNESDAY, MAY 22, 2013. PLEASE RESPECT THIS SCHEDULE!
NOTE: EMAIL ADDRESS: thequestinitiative at gmail dot com. USE THIS ADDRESS ONLY TO SUBMIT YOUR LOGLINES FOR THE QUEST INITIATIVE!!!
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