Genre: Drama

Logline: A family quarrel from Thanksgiving leads to a difficult Christmas dinner.

I wrote this in one weekend for challenge #2 of the NYC Midnight Short Screenplay Challenge (2011).  The writers in my heat had to write a dramatic short featuring a cooked turkey. The location for the short: a brewery.

Drama. Blargh. Might as well have “open” as my genre. I’m one of those people who believes EVERY script should be dramatic, so tapping into that creative vein for drama feels like driving in a car with no map and no destination.

To make matters worse, a cooked turkey? Now a brewery, THAT I can get behind, but a cooked turkey? Let’s just say I was less than excited with my parameters this time around.

At least, that’s what I’d tell anyone who asked. ;]

Truth is, I LOVE getting parameters that push me into uncomfortable territory. You can’t grow inside your comfort zone, and I plan on growing as a writer until the day I die. (Even then, I might come back and haunt other writers, so there’s potential for growth in the afterlife.)

Still, I had to come up with a starting point, and where better to start than IMDB? I’ve seen hundreds of dramatic movies, and the IMDB list of best (and worst) dramas is chock full of titles that I’ve either seen or lined up in my Netflix queue. One glance at the list was enough to get the wheels spinning.

When I write fiction, I don’t see it as “making up” a story. I see it as remembering something that never happened. Once I remembered all the key points of this particular story, I sat down at my laptop and banged out the first draft.

I had to travel on Sunday, though, so my 48 hour window was more like 36 hours. I slept on the first draft, tweaked it Sunday morning, then showed it to my wife. I was heads down at my laptop, but I still saw her head snap up when she hit the last page. After she handed my script back to me, she subtly wiped away the tear that threatened to spill down her cheek.

Win.

I uploaded the script to NYC Midnight before I hit the road, although I did submit a last minute title change from my hotel room Sunday night. Other than that, the script you see here is my latest stab at drama.

Let me know what you think!

Download screenplay: Alone

Logline: A pedophile targets a lemonade stand run by a very resourceful little girl.

I wrote this in one weekend for challenge #1 of the NYC Midnight Short Screenplay Challenge (2011).  The writers in my heat had to write a horror short featuring a razor blade. The location for the short: a lemonade stand.

I was thrilled to have horror as my genre! I recently had a conversation with a friend about why people enjoy watching horror, let alone why anyone would WRITE it. I think people enjoy horror because it’s a safe way to explore (and overcome) their fears. However, horror stories don’t write themselves. Someone has to accept that responsibility, to let his or mind go places where timid souls fear to tread.

That’s where I come in.

I’m a family man, and I make it no secret that my biggest fears revolve around those I care for being put in danger. With lemonade stand as my location, bringing children into the story was a no-brainer. The question of whether or not the horror should be based in reality or in the supernatural was still up in the air, but I was able to answer that question without much hesitation: let’s do both.

The story has a horror comedy feel to it, and as a diehard fan of flicks like Evil Dead 2, Dead Alive, and Shaun of the Dead, that made me smile a little on the inside.

Heck, with enough open-minded parents and kiddos who don’t mind dressing up in “scary” costumes, this script may just end up making it to the small screen. (I’m looking at you, Martin Troy!)

Apologies in advance for any childhood memories this script might ruin for you. Hope you enjoy Bad for Business!

Download screenplay:  Bad for Business

Genre: Horror / Dark Comedy / Film de Femme

Logline: When he asked her if she wanted to carpool, this isn’t exactly what she had in mind.

Another year, another 48 Hour Film Project here in Columbus, Ohio.  I teamed up with Backward Slate Productions again to write, run sound, and volunteer my oldest child to be stuffed in the trunk of a car.  Anything to get the shot, right?

This year’s elements were:

Character: Mr. or Mrs. Danoff, a substitute teacher
Prop: A deck of cards
Line of dialogue: “Do what you want to do.”

We drew Film de Femme as our genre, which the isn’t really a genre at all and was fabricated specifically to generate more strong female roles in the contest submissions.  I personally think that strong female roles should be written when either the story merits such or a role, or when you have an actress capable of delivering a strong performance.

(For more on strong female roles as they pertain to BSP shorts, check out Dead Man’s Hand.)

The writing process for this short was… challenging.  My mind wasn’t in the right place when we got our elements, and the story ideas I brought to the table were WAY off.  Fortunately, two things happened to bring it all together.

Tiff said something to the effect of, “A Backward Slate Production needs to be funny, a little touching, and definitely inappropriate.”

Later on (about 4 hours into the writing process, to be precise), Max says, “I feel like we need to step back and come at this from an entirely different angle.  What if Tiff starts out in an office.”

Fifteen minutes later, we had our script.

An hour later, Max was on his way to Kinko’s to print out copies for a very early call time.

And with time to spare, we turned in the finished short.

I absolutely LOVE this short.  It’s funny, fast paced, and right in line with Tiff’s expectations: definitely inappropriate.  Oh, and stuffing the kid in the trunk of a car?  Hilarious!

Don’t take my word for it, though.  Judge for yourself.

Download screenplay:  Carpool

Logline: A TSA Agent is forced to relive a tragedy over and over, as he desperately searches for a way to end the cycle.

I wrote this script in three days for round 2 of the NYC Midnight Screenwriters Challenge (2011).  The writers in my heat had to write a fantasy short featuring an airport security guard and the a natural disaster.

I don’t know what process the NYC Midnight organizers use to come up with their parameters for each heat, but I have a hunch it involves skimming newspaper headlines.  Given the recent string of storms and tornadoes, combined with the footage from airports hit by these storms, I’ve got a pretty strong hunch as to where the parameters for this round came from.

The day round 2 started, I had to drive to Michigan for work (4 hours there, 4 hours back).  During that time, I mapped out three entirely different stories in my head.  When writing fantasy, your stories can range from entirely new worlds to the magic and mystery of the world we live in.  In the end, I opted against the “dragon airport” idea (which would have been TONS of fun, mind you) to go with something a little darker.

Yeah. Jerod writing a dark story. Go figure…

My list of movies that inspired Turn includes Groundhog Day, Twelve Monkeys, and The Butterfly Effect.  If you enjoyed any of those movies, then I think you’ll enjoying reading Turn.

Download screenplay:  Turn

Logline: A Paparazzi reporter posts a “sensitive” video of her ex-boyfriend, a professional mixed martial artist, days before the biggest fight of his life.

I wrote this script in one week for round 1 of the NYC Midnight Screenwriters Challenge (2011).  The writers in my heat had to write a romantic comedy short featuring a professional athlete and the Internet.

I’m more of a genre guy.  Give me sci-fi.  Give me horror.  I’m starting to suspect that NYC Midnight keeps throwing RomCom at me to give me a first person perspective of what it’s like to be in a horror film, to be unable to escape the one thing that scares you the most.

On the other hand, I did well with one of my previous RomCom subs (Nobody’s Perfect), so I put my fear aside and started writing.  It turns out that the genre wasn’t my true enemy.  Time itself had taken up arms against me.

I’m married.  I have three beautiful, brilliant, ACTIVE children.  I also recently changed jobs, taking a leadership position with an information security consulting company.  Finding (making) the time to write this time around was much, MUCH harder.

But I’ve always had a hard time giving up.

I busted ass to get the script done, fifteen pages of RomCom sweetness, and I applied the finishing touches with two hours to spare.  After I uploaded my script, I noticed that NYC Midnight had changed the rules.  No fifteen page scripts this time around.  Twelve pages, max.  Anything over twelve pages was essentially dead in the water.

DAMMIT!

Two hours to cut three pages from a fifteen page script.  For the other math geeks in the audience, that’s meant cutting 20% of a script that I struggled to get down to fifteen pages.

My initial reaction was to call it a night.  The cards were stacked against me this time, and maybe it was best to just cut my losses and get a decent night’s sleep.

But I was lying to myself.  I couldn’t just walk away, not with two hours left to play with.

So I cut, and I cut, and I cut.  I got it down to twelve pages (on the button) and uploaded my revised script with a few minutes left.

It moves a little too quickly for me, but I have a hard time thinking of RomCom scripts as anything less than condensed features.  No matter.  It’s in the judges’ hands now, and I’ve got another script under my belt.

If you’d like to give Head Games a read, you can check it out below.

Download screenplay:  Head Games

Logline: A 7-year old girl turns to her pet goldfish, Gerdie, to help her cope with her mother’s cancer.

So I made it to the finals…

I wrote this in one weekend for challenge #4 of the NYC Midnight Short Screenplay Challenge (2010).  The 25 writers in final round had to write a fantasy short featuring a goldfish. The location for the short: a hospice.

So here I am in the final round, pitted against the 24 writers who consistently placed at the top of their heats in the first 3 rounds.  When the parameters for the final round were announced, I was both elated and somber.

I’m a genre guy, plain and simple.  Horror, sci-fi, fantasy… I love to read ‘em, love to watch ‘em, love to write ‘em.  Regardless of how the final scores shake out, I got to write a genre script.  Win.

Having a goldfish as the prop was another win.  Anthropomorphism, anyone?  If it worked for Disney for over 80 years, chances are it would work for me for one weekend.

Which brings us to hospice…

When I was in high school, my father died from cancer.  A few years later, my aunt (Dad’s younger sister) also died from cancer.  Almost a decade after that, when my other aunt (Dad’s older sister) was diagnosed with cancer, my grandmother chose to voluntarily end her dialysis instead of watching cancer take another one of her children.  Grandma died in October.  My aunt died the following April.

My mother, who remained the rock through all of this, starting working in hospice when I was in high school.  Decades later, she’s still there.

Let’s just say that writing about hospice, with all the associated emotions… well, write what you know, right?

Fast forward 20 years (give or take).  I’m married to the love of my life, raising three beautiful, brilliant kids.  If I told you I didn’t wonder about whether or not cancer is going to invade our lives sooner or later, I’d be lying.  Morbid?  Maybe.  Realistic?  Definitely.

And who’s going to be the main character of my script?  I quickly decided on a 7 year-old girl.  Writing from the viewpoint of a 7 year-old girl is easy when your own little girl is about to turn 7 herself.

All of these thoughts run through my mind in the 5 seconds after I read the email from NYC Midnight with the parameters for the final round.  After 5 revisions, I felt that script was finally ready.  I showed it to my wife, and her reaction clinched it.  I submitted the script a few minutes later.

Once again, I’m grateful to the folks at NYC Midnight for prompting me to write a script that I ended up loving through and through.

Download screenplay:  Gerdie

Logline: An escape artist in a post-apocalyptic circus must conceive of an act that includes his child, or risk them both being exiled to certain death.

I wrote this in one weekend for challenge #3 of the NYC Midnight Short Screenplay Challenge (2010).  The writers in my heat had to write a sci-fi short featuring a nuclear warhead . The location for the short: a circus.

The beauty of NYC Midnight is that you can get a genre you dislike one round, and then get a genre that you love the next.  The danger is that you can get lulled into a false sense of comfort when you finally get your genre.  As a result, you might (subconsciously) not put forth the same effort you would for a more challenging set of parameters.

Adversity breeds creativity.  Comfort breeds complacency.

The parameters of this challenge took me straight to a sci-fi subgenre that I absolutely love: post-apocalyptic.  Once I was there, the script wrote itself.

The Greatest Show (Left) on Earth is rife with imagery.  I’ve seen enough dystopian films over the years that, with a little help from the Nick Cave / Warren Ellis score for The Road, I was able to create a world that goes far beyond these five pages.

For as large as the world is, though, the story’s really about what lengths a father will go to in order to protect his son.  The Greatest Show (Left) on Earth is another one of my favorites.

Download screenplay:  The_Greatest_Show_(Left)_On_Earth

Logline: A shy young woman piles lies upon lies in order to impress her crush, a handsome young motorcycle repairman.

I wrote this in one weekend for the challenge #2 of the NYC Midnight Short Screenplay Challenge (2010).  The writers in my heat had to write a romantic comedy short featuring fake eyelashes. The location for the short: a motorcycle repair shop.

Can I tell you how much I dread rom coms?  I can write horror all day.  Fantasy, sci-fi, thriller… THESE are my genres.  Romantic comedy remains a mystery to me.

Imagine my surprise when I churned out this script.

Nobody’s Perfect holds true to the genre, while still managing to bring a fresh feel to the story.  It’s got twists, slapstick, tenderness, a montage… all in the course of 5 pages.

I’m not the biggest fan of rom coms, but I dig Nobody’s Perfect.

Download screenplay: Nobodys_Perfect