Update: The Quest Initiative
Okay, so I guess you can all take a nice cleansing breath. Lots of creative energy and hard work expended on those loglines. And now that the submission period is officially closed, here are some totals:
Number of entrants: 981
Number of loglines: 2,000 (?)
Those numbers aren’t locked. There may be some duplicate emails. The actual total of loglines could be lower or higher depending upon how many of you submitted 2 or 3.
So the first order of business is to congratulate those of you who entered. It takes not only time and focus to pull together a logline [or loglines], it also takes courage to submit them. But courage is something you have to develop to succeed in the film and TV business, a fundamental belief in yourself and a willingness to put your creativity out there.
Okay, where do we go from here? Well, I’m going to review each and every single one of your loglines, just like I did last year. That will take some time. Here is my tentative schedule:
June 19: I will email those of you who make the first cut. That will be determined strictly on the merits of your story concept and execution of your logline. Those writers will need to provide information including a writing resume [basically your background and history as a writer], story synopsis [if you have fleshed out anything more of your logline], writing sample [screenplay or screenplay excerpt, short story, novel excerpt], bio, plus a brief questionnaire.
June 22: Information due from first round writers.
June 24: Emails to writers who make the second round to set up phone call interviews with me.
June 25-June 28: Interviews.
July 3: Contact the Questers.
July 8: Announce the Questers.
July 15: The Quest begins! Core [Theory]: 8 weeks.
September 9: Prep: 6 weeks.
October 21: Pages: 10 weeks.
December 29: The Quest ends!
While we are waiting for the announcement next week, here is something you can do: Note those dates in your calendar. If you get selected as a Quester, that’s going to be your writing life for the next half-year. And if you don’t make the final four, you can Go On Your Own Quest, using the same time-frame to inspire you to develop and pound through a first draft of your own script.
Finally I’d like to send out a blast of creative juju to everyone who submitted a logline for The Quest Initiative!
Whooooooosh! Consider yourselves sanctified in the waters of creative juju!
Now go write and see what magic happens!
UPDATE: Yes, an update on an update! Received a note from The Black Board Super Moderator Shaula Evans with this link featuring some strong favorable feedback about The Quest Initiative process, how it helped many writers think more seriously about story concept, work on their loglines and just generally kick-start their creative process.
Which is precisely some of the things I hoped would happen! So that makes me very happy!
And remember: We will be running Go On Your Own Quest as a partnership between GITS and The Black Board, so you can literally read daily posts here tied to theory and practice, then head over to The Black Board to workshop your own stories and scripts.
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