Past Winners & Finalists

1st SCREENPLAY SHOOTOUT! COMPETITION WINNER

1st Place – OMELETTE O’NEIL by Brian Jude Leahy
2nd Place –ROGUE’S GALLERY by Brian K. Watanabe
3rd Place – LOS ANGELES by Andrew Gerngross

1st SCREENPLAY SHOOTOUT! - 1st PLACE
Interview with Brian Jude Leahy

Congratulations on taking First Place in the Screenplay Shootout. After all of your hard work, how does it feel? What was your reaction when you saw the news?

I was truly elated. I remember saying to myself, "My God, I just might be able to pull this off." Living in Los Angeles, you are bombarded with THE INDUSTRY stuff, whether you want to be or not, you can't really escape it. People are writing screenplays on their lap tops in every Starbucks, headshots stare back at you from printing shop windows, there are films being shot on every corner, so you can't help but to measure your own career or lack thereof, on a daily basis. Winning this contest was such a personal reward. It was validation. I realize that I have a way to go, but this is definitely the type of encouragement that I need... And $5000 never hurt a soul.

What was the inspiration for your story?

OMELETTE O'NEIL was inspired by so many different factors. After doing a movie as an actor that introduced me to a couple of guys from the stunt world, I remember thinking they'd be such great characters in a film. They were inherently more interesting than the actors on the shoot, they were wise guys, trouble makers, fathers, husbands... One guy was actually knitting. They just seemed to have a lot of passion in everything they were doing. And more importantly, they were real. So that always stuck in my head. Another inspiring moment was hearing about Gene Hackman being involved in a fender-bender on Sunset Blvd. After he got out of his car and was confronted by the younger Hollywood studs in the first car, he supposedly lit into each of them, laying them out with a couple punches. I loved that image. I love Gene Hackman. He, along with my own father became the inspiration for the character of Ackerman O'Neil. And my other inspiration is my dog, Omelette. He's the happiest being on earth. That is until we get outside the comforts of my home. Then he's anxious, crying, friends of mine always say he might be agoraphobic, hence, the anxieties that led to one of my lead characters.

How long have you been writing?

I've always loved writing. I didn't really consider it as a career until a few years ago when I moved to Los Angeles and became frustrated by the lack of control I had as a performing artist. It became a creative outlet for me. I was so used to doing theatre back in Chicago, and with a lot of regret, I found the theatre scene here, though striving to improve itself, was just not as satisfying. So the writing not only filled the void but has surpassed any of my initial thoughts of pursuing it in my career.

What are you plans and goals for the future?

I actually think I have an incredible future in this industry. I realize that sounds a bit over- confident, but there's something in my gut that has kept me wading further into this. I've got some other scripts that I want to see actually realized. I want to write. I want to direct. I want to continue to act. I want to tell stories.

What advice would you give to other aspiring screenwriters?

I'm hardly in a position to give anyone any advice on the subject, seeing that I'm just being introduced myself, but I guess I would say to write what you want to write, from your gut, the insides, not what you'd think others would respond to... And stay away from some of those crappy "screenplay writing seminars." I went to one. From what I understand, he's supposedly the best on the subject. He's got a book. He's got a crowd of followers. Let them follow and you might be the one who breaks away.

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1st SCREENPLAY SHOOTOUT! – 2nd PLACE
Interview with Brian K. Watanabe

After all your hard work, how does it feel? What was your reaction when you saw the news?

My initial reaction was, I hope this isn't a mistake. I rebooted my computer a few times to make sure I wasn't hallucinating. Then came the rush of adrenaline. Then came the lap around the apartment with my finger pointed in the air as my cats ran under the couch. I honestly just feel lucky to have placed so high amongst so many great scripts. And I'm really excited about Benderspink reading my script.

What was your inspiration for your story?

I was actually downsized from an ad agency during the San Francisco dot-com bust of 2001. My art director partner was actually layed-off first. It was a complete shock. It felt like they took him to the back alley and whacked him. As the layoffs continued, the paranoia increased. Alliances were formed. Cubes emptied. You honestly didn't know if your best friend was going to stab you in the back. When I finally got fired it was almost a relief.

So I thought, what would it be like if a government agency of assassins was being downsized and instead of firing you, they killed you? Suddenly, it didn't seem so farfetched. "The Rogues' Gallery" was born.

How long have you been writing?

I'm actually an advertising copywriter, but nobody's perfect. I got serious about screenwriting that summer of 2001 spending my unemployment check on a McKee seminar in Chicago. Since then I've joined screenwriting groups, taken seminars, attended classes and read everything I could on the craft. I even managed to squeeze in some writing in there too.

What are your plans and goals for the future?

I'm currently finishing my next script, with more ideas in the works. I would love to pull a Lawrence Kasdan and move from advertising to screenwriting, but I know I still have a lot to learn. There has already been some interest in "Rogues'" and I'd love to see where that takes me.

What advice would you give to other aspiring screenwriters?

Just write. Write an outline. Write an e-mail. Write a haiku. Write everyday. You'll find your voice in all that writing. Join a screenwriting group for the deadlines. Read, watch and absorb everything you can: movies, music, magazines, comic books, conversations. You never know where that big idea will come from. Structure is your friend. Clichés are the enemy. Write something truly original, send it to some contests and people will notice. Finally, disregard all of the above because I'm still one of you and what do I know?

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1st SCREENPLAY SHOOTOUT! – 3rd Place
Interview with Andrew Gerngross

**UPDATE** - LOS ANGELES is being produced by Pierce-Williams and Andrew is now represented by Zero Gravity Management. Congratulations Andrew!

Congratulations on taking Third Place in the Screenplay Shootout. After all of your hard work, how does it feel? What was your reaction when you saw the news?

The first hard screenwriting lesson I learned is: you will be rejected and ignored. To be certain, nothing compares to receiving a positive response. I have placed high in screenwriting contests before but this is the first cash prize -- and that feels just fine. I knew I was one five finalists but I wasn't expecting to be in the top 3. Nevertheless, I checked the website repeatedly and obsessively until the announcement came. When the news did come, I was thrilled and surprised.
First thing: I called a screenwriter friend who had read the earliest draft of the script and had been very encouraging. I then wrote a thank you email to the members of a screenwriting group who had given me very useful feedback on an earlier draft. I spent the next 48 hours mentally casting the film and preparing Oscar speeches.

What was the inspiration for your story?

Whew. Long story. When I am stuck for inspiration I turn, for some strange reason, to Philosophy and Mathematics. Honest. Several years ago I was in a fallow period and read Wittgenstein's On Certainty. The ever obsessive Austrian philosopher posed the question to himself: "How do I know I live at [such and such] an address?" (or words to that effect). I imagined a person who undergoes surgery and awakens believing his home address is not where he lives but the address of an identical house across the street. This evolved into the premise for an original TV series called Across The Way. In Across the Way, half the story takes place in an ordinary suburban home and half the story takes place across the way in an identical but apparently empty home that turns out to be a portal into the main character's dream world. Each week the main character would venture into the house across the way and slip into a mysterious noir world. The idea was to have two stories each week, one on each side of reality. Each reality would reflect and inform the other.

It's unlikely that a first time writer would get an original TV series, so I put aside Across the Way and worked on other projects. With nothing else to write, I took the basic story for Across the Way and tried to turn it into a feature. I took notes for months but a complete story never presented itself. It just didn't work as a feature. I was close to abandoning the project when I thought I'd give writing the first Act a try. I got to p. 17 -- the first moment the hero ventures into the house across the way -- and I froze. I went to dinner with a fellow writer and I tried to explain the story to him but in all my note taking and ponderance had created a story and premise too baroque to work as a feature. My friend suggested I hone things down a bit. And I did. Down to a single statement: Man who thinks he knows it all, encounters death and sees what he had refused to see because he is freed from fear.

It was September and a heatwave hung over Los Angeles. I was looking for an apartment and flirting with the idea of living in a deco relic in Hollywood. With some of the elements of the noir world from Across the Way, I reimagined my adopted city as the city you see in Los Angeles.

How long have you been writing?

I wrote for several years during and after college. I put writing on hiatus for a while to make a living as a software engineer. My latest turn with the muse started about three years ago.

What are your plans and goals for the future?

Keep writing. Currently, I am working on a revisionist historical comedy about the 1964 FBI investigation into the purportedly obscene lyrics to "Louie Louie". Also, I love episodic TV and have written specs for Without A Trace, Alias and Cold Case. I have an original animated series called Game (see http://www.gameisnotagame.com) that I continue to refine and develop.

Get representation. I am not represented and would very much like to hear from agents and managers.

My long term goal is to deliver one of those Oscar speeches that goes on and on and on... and on.

What advice would you give to other aspiring screenwriters?

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