Golden Blasters: Deadlines Like To Loom

With the deadline for the Golden Blasters approaching fast , we asked our own personal award-winning screen writer and director John Vaughan to take time out from whatever he does in that office of his that requires so much screaming to give some advice to any budding writers who are thinking of entering this year's competition.

 

From John:

 

So with just over four weeks to go to the late deadline the question you have to ask yourself is have I entered the first ever Golden Blasters short screen play awards and if not why not? (Although if you do have to ask yourself that question I’d be getting worried! Do you often suffer from memory lapses…do you find yourself waking up after getting angry dressed only in your purple trousers surrounded by wrecked pieces of U.S military equipment? Or perhaps in the wolf enclosure of the London Zoo feeling strangely full?)

 

If you haven’t, well it’s not too late, If you have sat through the latest Roland Emmerich disaster movie or empty headed remake of a classic horror and said to yourself “ I can do better than that!” than now is your chance, The Golden Blasters are waiting for …YOU! Now I hear you say “But I’ve never done anything like this before!” Well half the fun is in the trying, so here is a quick guide with some of the answers to the questions you may have! (42 is not one of them)

 

1. What can I write about?

Anything you like…as long as it is in the genres of Science Fiction, Horror or Fantasy than the world you create is yours and yours alone. It can be a two handed Piece or it can a tale filled with exploding star ships and hardy space pirates , Elven kings or psychotic killers from beyond the grave…the only limit is your own imagination.

 

2. How long can it be?

This is a competition dedicated to the art of the short film so it can be any length up to twenty minutes ( twenty pages)….a good short can be twenty minutes in length or twenty seconds!. It simply depends on the skill of the writer in the telling of that tale.( Yes I am talking about you!)

 

3. Why the entry fee and what’s withoutabox?

Withoutabox is the international clearing house for dealing with entries for festivals across the world. You see, we want people to succeed and if you think that the screen play you have written is good enough, you may want to enter other festivals across the globe, hence why we are using withoutabox. Not only does it make it easier for us to process international entries but it allows you to enter other festivals and if selected for the Blasters, you can put that down on your withoutabox profile for other festivals to consider when reading your entry.

 

4. Format? What’s format?

 

This is the most important factor outside of quality of story…Incorrect formatting is perhaps the quickest way to sink your entry not only for the Blasters but for any other screen writing competition. Most festivals will not even look at a Screen play if it is not formatted.

 

You must type in Courier font size 12…and only on one side of the page….hence a 12 minute short (excluding Title Page) must be 12 pages long…each page representing one minute of screen time

 

I write from experience, my first short film “The Boogieman” was turned down

in a screen writing competition simply because I used the wrong font...the same

film came third for best short a year later at the 2001 Galway Film Fleadh. It may

sound daft but font and format is vital.

 

 

5. But where can I get a sample of this format?

Here you’re in luck there are hundreds of screenplays available on the Net to reference…It’s also possible to purchase programs such as Final Draft which will format the screen play for you .There are also free programs such as script gold (Which can be found at the BBC writers website) which will also format the screenplay for you.

 

Two Screenplays I recommend anyone to read are Star Wars a new Hope (George Lucas) and believe it or not Judge Dredd (Steven E. De Souza and William Wisher) both screenplays are good examples of well written cinematic genre storytelling.

 

Now some advice…

Watch your spelling…Spell checker is handy but make sure that your spelling is correct …there is nothing worse for a reader of a script to hav to wade tru a sereis of mizspellin and it will work against you.

 

No Fan Fiction

We will not even consider a writers vision of what would happen if Captain Kirk met Freddy Kruger? (Even though I say so myself the thought is intriguing!) This is a screenplay competition dedicated to the idea of the original story.

 

You’re writing a screenplay not a novel.

Screenwriting is a talent in itself, there are plenty of screenwriters who can’t

write novels and plenty of novelist’s who can’t write screenplays. The most

important factor to remember is that each page of a screenplay is a description of a

visual action in one minute ,what happens on the page must happen on the

screen….we can’t have long descriptions of characters or places..( If you start

going into a characters childhood traumas when they first appear on screen or

what they are feeling on the inside mentally than that’s not screen writing! ) It’s

part of the challenge to describe in two lines what most novelist’s would take

pages to do( If you have a problem refer to other screenplays as a guide to how to

deal with it.)

 

Most important of all however…..HAVE FUN!

Because believe me once you start writing a screenplay and you work out all the

angles , the way you can twist an audience against or for your characters…the

thrill of the chase and the big payoff that leaves your audience wanting more of a

world you have weaved…there can be nothing better.. Now start typing and who

knows? Perhaps you’ll be the one holding that golden Trophy come October and

taking out a small novel size list of “ just a few people you have to thank!”.