Hey folks, the Top 5 are announced tomorrow. Wish us luck!
Actually, "announced" is a bit of a misnomer, as the Top 5 are informed by a phone call. I'm assuming they won't post the names on the site until everyone's been informed, so the other 95 probably won't know who made it until Wednesday at the earliest.
I'd really like to make the Top 5, if only to jump through their next hoop: each contestant gets notes from bigwig mucky-mucks at Miramax, and the contestants have to rewrite their script using those notes. Wouldn't that be awesome to see bona-fide studio notes? Even if the notes did suck, it would be an awesome experience to get feedback from real filmmakers and an invigorating challenge to incorporate the notes into the script.
Honestly, though, Martin and I don't think we're moving on. For a two-week draft, it's good and has potential, but I think it needs major work to get it where it needs to be. The Top 5 will likely only have about two weeks to turn in their rewrite; I think we could do it (of course), but do they? Wouldn't they rather have five scripts that need less work?
But I didn't think we'd even make it this far, so who the hell knows?
Oh, and good luck to Jack (whom we affectionately refer to as That Chicago Kid), as well as Nick Carr, Gregory Burkhart, and Jody from Naked Writing, Top 100 contestants all. I'd be happy if at least one name I recognized made the next cut.
Where we saw it: project greenlight | We deign to rate it: outta 100Thanks very much, and good luck to yourself and Martin! Im not sure where you live, but keep in mind they're working on west coast clocks - meaning you could get a phone call right up until 11pm if you're on the other side of the US, and definitely not before 4pm. Also, of all parts of the contests, it's most disheartening to have to keep checking the website, because (at least, for the director's top 10) they don't even send an email when they've decided. so if you're not prepared, it can feel like - oh, i made it this far, and then i get forgotten! sniff!
in any event, i think everyone should be proud that they've made it this far. it's at this point in the contest that a lot of new and unusual rules get introduced. Im not sure if you read in a recent interview with a PG exec (I want to say Chris Moore, but I'm not positive), in which he revealed that Erica won last year in part because there was pressure to have a female contest winner. You know? So you never know what they're looking for beyond a good screenplay.
In other words, its a compliment to make it to the top 100! But if none of us make it to the Top 5, nothing to worry about at all.
Stick by your phone!
Nick
Oh yes, and the new untitled screenplay is actually my latest effort. the one for PGL, Nightlife, ive worked on for a long time now, so it's finished for good!
Posted by: nick at May 31, 2004 01:19 PMI think that the luck has been with you so far, and I hope it continues. Atleast I can say "hey I know him!"
Posted by: MCN at May 31, 2004 08:50 PMYeah I wouldn't doubt that this year they pick a minority to win, or at least advance to the finals.
I'm part of a writing team, as are martin and kent, which they haven't done yet. But we're all white *argghhhh* lol well i am italian but hey thats another story.
yeah im a super fuckin pessimist so even though ive been climing up a wall for a month and freaking out I wouldn't at all be surprised if we don't make it. (tho of course i'd love to haha)
oh and by the way The top 100 represent the top 2.3% of scripts entered into the contest. So hey, we beat out 97.7% of screenplays so far.
good luck all.
Hey Nick, that director video was fuckin great. but didn't they say something like no sound effects? that was fuckin great tho! :)
Posted by: Jack at May 31, 2004 10:53 PMhey, i posted this on the blog, too, but just so it gets to you -
Thank you very much for watching! After reading over the rules a zillion times and passing a few emails back and forth with PGL, i came to final conclusion that 1) music is not allowed, and 2) copyrighted sounds are not allowed, but everything else is fair game. Those sounds (crappy as they are) were totally made by myself, basically going "kchhhhh" into the microphone of my camera, and the hum is from my guitar amp.
Regardless, if you watch at least 3 (THREE!) of the winning videos, they CLEARLY show other actors or people in them, most notably, the one woman who got in. And THAT'S DEFINITELY breaking the rules. But what are you gonna do...
nick
hey nick.
gotcha man gotcha. me and my writng partner thought about shooting our scene in a completely white room, with white shirts, white pants etc... and make a joke about how we didnt wanna violate the rules. but we scrapped that and shot against a brick building.
by the way 'the pitch' was great, I really liked that video. really creative.
I just started reading your 'nightlife' script, consdiering i can't fuckin sleep. imagine that, I wonder if all the other 99 people in the top 100 can't sleep tonite either.
quick question, since I just started reading. Did you base your Vince character off Vince Vaughn's character in swingers? cuz for some reason when I read his dialogue, I just totally pictured vince vaughn saying those lines.
peace man
Posted by: Jack at June 1, 2004 01:47 AMYo -
thanks for reading it! i forgot it was even online at the moment. Yeah, Vince Vaugn - I get that a lot, but in all honesty, I've seen Swingers only once and wasn't all that taken by it. If there's any character that he's similar to, it's most likely the toilet-mouthed Banky in Chasing Amy. In all honesty though, he's best described as my evil twin, wheras Jack is my more positive half. I'm pretty much a combination of both. is your script online?
later,
nick
hey nick,
yeah the draft i submitted to greenlight is on kent and martin's message boards.
http://www.hellbox.org/boards/viewtopic.php?t=4
it's an older draft (long story short, my computer died, thus i was only allowed to upload an older draft and not the one i wanted to submit)
so you can check it out there.
peace
Posted by: Jack at June 1, 2004 04:51 PMwell they announced the top 6, oh well, didnt see anybody's script on there that i know of.
oh well
Posted by: john marchetti at June 1, 2004 04:59 PMHey...I never thanked you for the kind words for luck in the contest. Didn't make it to the next round, but that part was all politics anyway!
Thanks.
Posted by: Jody at July 30, 2004 01:13 AM