May 5, 2005 -- It's nice to win the grand prize in screenplay contests, but odds are, the winning screenplay just won't get produced.
If you examine the statistics of the most prestigious screenplay contest around, the Nicolls Fellowship Screenwriting Competition, you'll see, according to their website, 68,000
screenplays were submitted over 18 years and a mere 84 fellows were selected.
Of those 84 fellows, only about 35 of those have been produced. Not good numbers.
But a new screenplay contest, MakeMyScreenplay.com will produce the winning screenplay and market it to television and theatrical distributors.
The contest director, John Hart, who is a 20-year veteran of the television and movie business, owns a production studio in Oregon and will use his company's facilities and staff to
produce, direct, edit, score, and title the movie.
"What makes this contest possible is Sony's new high-definition camera, the HVR-Z1U," Hart said. "We bought one at first sight and began testing footage right away. I think it's
impossible for the average viewer to tell the difference between the Z1U's footage shot in cinema mode, and 35mm film used to shoot major motion pictures."
The winning screenplay will be shot in and around Oregon, edited with Sony's Vegas Six software, and marketed to television and theatrical distributors. The winning author will also
receive fifty percent of all revenue generated by the sale of the movie.
"In my book, MakeMyScreenplay is what a screenwriting contest should be about.
Winning a small amount of cash doesn't advance the screenwriter's career, but having a completed movie most certainly does," Hart said.
About MakeMyScreenplay.com
2005 is the first year of this ground-breaking contest. Rules and an application can be found at http://www.makemyscreenplay.com. Early
deadline for entries is June 1, 2005.
About MyTVonline
MyTVonline is a production company, near Portland, Oregon, founded by former Hollywood executive, filmmaker, TV producer, and writer, John Hart. The company is privately owned and
financed.
For more information, contact:
Mr. John Hart
Cell phone: 503-913-9062
E-mail: e-mail protected from spam bots