July 2011 Contest

$150,000 in Awards

One Best Test Movie Award: $100,000

Winner

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(Action and Adventure) PLEASE DO NOT VIEW THIS MOVIE! There is an animated version available: http://studios.amazon.com/movies/12914
Winner: Best Test Movie, Best Drawn Storyboard, Best Dialogue Track, Best Script
Finalist: Best Test Movie, Best Drawn Storyboard, Best Dialogue Track, Best Script
Semifinalist: Best Test Movie, Best Drawn Storyboard, Best Dialogue Track, Best Script
 
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Two Best Dialogue Track Awards: $5,000 Each

Winners

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(Action and Adventure, Kids and Family) a weakling honeybee discovers that he's actually a long range scout as he must find a way to save his bee world from an invasion of evil killer bees who fight by absorbing honeybees into their swarm.

Featuring

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Also Starring

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(Comedy) A pair of womanizers finally meet their match.

Two Best Script Awards: $20,000 Each

Winners

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(Horror, Action and Adventure) A disgraced social worker with a heroin problem stumbles upon a group of homeless teenage boys on the fringes of Los Angeles. When she tries to rescue one of them, she finds out they are actually a pack of murderous wolves who will gladly kill her to keep their pack intact.
Winner: Best Script
Finalist: Best Script
Semifinalist: Best Script
 
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(Horror, Action and Adventure) A team of mercenaries in hostile territory face an incomprehensible horror when track their quarry to an ancient temple that hides the wellspring of human violence. 28 DAYS LATER meets THE THING.
Winner: Best Script
Finalist: Best Script, Best Horror Script
Semifinalist: Best Script, Best Sci-Fi/Action Script, Best Horror Script
 
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Winner: Best Script
Finalist: Best Script
Semifinalist: Best Script
 
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One Best Test Movie Award: $100,000

Finalists

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(Thriller and Suspense) A former homicide investigator with photographic memory so intense that past and present are virtually indistinguishable must c...

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(Action and Adventure) In the old west, a school teacher turned bounty hunter confronts a criminal gang when he is hired to bring home a farm family's...

 
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(Action and Adventure) PLEASE DO NOT VIEW THIS MOVIE! There is an animated version available: http://studios.amazon.com/movies/12914

 

Two Best Dialogue Track Awards: $5,000 Each

Finalists

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(Action and Adventure, Kids and Family) a weakling honeybee discovers that he's actually a long range scout as he must find a way to save his bee world from an invasio...

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(Comedy) A pair of womanizers finally meet their match.

 
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(Thriller and Suspense, Comedy) Someone's killing the Hollywood Monsters (The Mummy, The Hunchback and others) and it's up to a down-and-out Dracula and a mons...

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(Horror, Action and Adventure) In ancient Rome, a team of gladiators must fight its most vicious opponent ever... Zombies. As the outbreak spreads and the cre...

 

Two Best Script Awards: $20,000 Each

Finalists

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(Comedy) Young Patrick E. Briggs must master the blues to get back to the life he was meant to live. Copy, Paste, Play, Rock Out. http:/...

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(Science Fiction and Fantasy, Action and Adventure) A young woman who has been purposely sheltered from life finds her world opening up when she meets a man who can freeze time, b...

 
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(Horror, Action and Adventure) A disgraced social worker with a heroin problem stumbles upon a group of homeless teenage boys on the fringes of Los Angeles. ...

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(Horror, Action and Adventure) A team of mercenaries in hostile territory face an incomprehensible horror when track their quarry to an ancient temple that hi...

 

Two Best Script Awards: $20,000 Each

Semifinalists

One Best Test Movie Award: $100,000

Creating a Test Movie

A test movie is a visual rough draft of a script. A table read is a test movie. So is a storyboard. No matter what form they take, test movies should be full-length and should have good acting and sound. Polished visuals are not required.

  • Actor? Animator? There’s a role for you.
    Test movies are a way for all kinds of creative types to help bring a story to life – and potentially win money in the process. If you’re an actor, you can grab a camera and some friends and cast yourself in whatever role you like. We also encourage animators, storyboard artists and photographers to take elements of existing test movies and add their own visuals. (Be sure to designate them as revisions when you upload). There are some great table reads, for example, that could be used as soundtracks.
  • Whenever possible, cut words that aren’t dialogue.
    Title cards and onscreen text work better than reading jargon-y slug lines, such as “INT. OFFICE – DAY” or “SMASH CUT TO …” . If you need to read descriptions, please keep them as brief and engaging as possible. You don’t need to tell us what the actors are doing – especially if we can see them doing it. It’s OK to alter the script as you go. When you bring a director, actors and other creative people into a process, creative stuff can happen, and the result might not exactly match the words on the page. And that’s OK.
  • Make sure you have the rights to everything in your test movie.
    You can use music and other images that you create yourself or that you ask someone to create for you. However, if someone creates something for you or appears in your test movie, you should have them sign a release. (See sample release forms in Help.) You also can license music and stock footage from companies, but you will need to get a written license agreement and ensure that you obtain rights broad enough to permit use in revisions of your test movie and distribution of your test movie (and any revisions of it) by any form of distribution.

Summary of Key Contest Rules

  • You must be at least 18 (or the age of majority where you reside).
  • Your test movie must complete its upload and processing by 11:59 PM Pacific Time on the last day of the contest entry period. This could take hours, and possibly more than a day, so make sure you give yourself plenty of time.
  • Only movies between 70 and 180 minutes long are eligible for contest awards.
  • A total of 20% of the Best Movie award is offered to eligible scripts that meaningfully contribute to the winning movie.
  • A test movie in this month's contest will also be considered for subsequent contests for which it is eligible.

Two Best Dialogue Track Awards: $5,000 Each

Creating a Dialogue Track

A dialogue track is a recording of the dialogue of a script. It should not contain any descriptions or slug lines (like INT. OFFICE, DAY). And it should not include music or sound effects, even if they are part of a character’s action, like applauding. Do not overlap any of the characters’ lines or voices. Each line should be an independent cue separated by silence.

There is no minimum length for a dialogue track, as long as substantially all of the dialogue for each character is voiced. And remember: Quality is important – in terms of sound and performance. The actors don’t need to be pros, but they should be able to convey the emotions of the story in an engaging way. The idea is that these tracks can go on to become key components in fully realized test movies, which are visual rough drafts of a script.

Summary of Key Contest Rules

  • You must be at least 18 (or the age of majority where you reside).
  • Your dialogue track must include a reading of the dialogue of the script. It must not include non-dialogue elements such as descriptions of action, music or sound effects.
  • Your dialogue track movie must complete its upload and processing by 11:59 PM Pacific Time on the last day of the contest entry period. This could take hours, and possibly more than a day, so make sure you give yourself plenty of time.
  • A total of $500 of the Best Dialogue Track award is offered to eligible scripts that meaningfully contribute to the winning dialogue track.

Two Best Script Awards: $20,000 Each

Summary of Key Contest Rules

  • You must be at least 18 (or the age of majority where you reside).
  • Your script must complete its upload and processing by 11:59 PM Pacific Time on the last day of the contest entry period. This could take hours, so make sure you give yourself plenty of time.
  • Only scripts between 85 and 160 pages long (in standard script format) are eligible for contest awards.
  • An eligible original script for a project will receive at least 50% of the Best Script award if the winning script is selected from that project.
  • A script in this month's contest will also be considered for subsequent contests for which it is eligible.
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Guest Judges

$20,000 Best Script Award

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Bill Gerber


Bill Gerber’s credits as a producer include Gran Torino, directed by Clint Eastwood – which won the National Board of Review’s prizes for best actor (Eastwood) and original screenplay (Nick Schenk) – and The Dukes of Hazzard. Gerber also produced American Outlaws, starring Colin Farrell; What A Girl Wants, starring Amanda Bynes and Colin Firth; The In-Laws, starring Michael Douglas and Albert Brooks; Grind; Juwanna Mann; and Beerfest.

Gerber served as executive producer on The King of Luck – a documentary on Willie Nelson, directed by Billy Bob Thornton – Get Carter, Queen of the Damned, and A Very Long Engagement. He earned an Emmy nomination for his work as an executive producer on the biopic James Dean. The telefilm earned 11 Emmy nominations, including one for James Franco, who won a Golden Globe for his performance.

Gerber began his entertainment career in the music business. In 1979, he joined Elliot Roberts’ Lookout Management, where he oversaw the careers of Devo, The Cars, Heaven 17, and ABC. In 1984, Gerber began his producing career with projects at Warner Bros. and Paramount and, in 1985, formed Gerber/Rodkin, a management/production company representing Judd Nelson, Robert Downey, Jr., Billy Zane, Sarah Jessica Parker and Dan Hartman.

In 1986, Gerber joined Warner Bros. as Vice President of Theatrical Production, and was promoted to President of Worldwide Theatrical Production in 1996. Gerber oversaw such films as L.A. Confidential, Unforgiven, Twister, Selena, Reversal of Fortune, A Little Princess, Goodfellas, Heat, JFK, Disclosure, Grumpy Old Men, You’ve Got Mail, Analyze This, Space Cowboys, The Perfect Storm and Three Kings.
In 1998, Gerber formed Gerber Pictures, which has a first-look deal at Warner Bros.

 

$20,000 Best Script Award

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Miles Millar


Miles Millar is a British screenwriter and producer. He paired up with his writing partner Al Gough while they were both attending the Peter Stark Producing Program at USC and enjoyed early success with a script they wrote while still in school. Mango, a buddy-cop story featuring an orangutan and his allergic partner, sold to New Line Cinema for $400,000. The sale brought the duo valuable publicity and they have since become prolific writers and producers.

Their feature credits include The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor for director Rob Cohen, the hit action-comedy Shanghai Noon staring Jackie Chan, Owen Wilson and Lucy Liu, as well as its sequel Shanghai Knights directed by David Dobkin, Spider-Man 2 starring Toby Maguire, Herbie: Fully Loaded starring Lindsay Lohan, Lethal Weapon 4 starring Mel Gibson and Danny Glover, and the recent I Am Number Four produced by Michael Bay.

Millar and Gough’s work also spans the world of television. The duo created and served as executive producers of the critically acclaimed series Smallville. Smallville is the longest-running comic book-based television series of all time and was the No. 1 show in the history of the WB Television Network.

In 2009 they produced Hannah Montana: The Movie, based on the smash hit Disney Channel Series, starring teen phenom Miley Cyrus. The feature marked a first for the duo’s Walt Disney-based production company, Millar Gough Ink.

Millar and Gough are currently writing and executive producing Existence 2.0 for Paramount, as well the screenplay for Monster High, produced by Hairspray team Craig Zadan and Neil Meron.

On the TV side they are developing a reboot of the classic TV series Charlie's Angels for ABC, which is set to premiere Fall 2011.