Script Frenzy - The Beat

Golden Tickets 2008

jenniferarzt — Fri, 30 May 2008 09:52:29 -0700

I'm looking at my calendar and can't believe that June 1 is Sunday!

On June 1 we switch over from wrap-up of the 2008 Frenzy to prep for the 2009 Frenzy, and donations made from Sunday onward will count towards the 2009 Frenzy's totals. Donate now and you'll receive your golden ticket for this year’s event and your super-cool 2008 donor goodies.

Also coming to a close June 1: The $10 sale on Script Frenzy World Premiere 2007 tees. Get yours now, and while you're there also pick up a Script Frenzy plot machine tee, stainless steel mug, or hat.

Survey results coming soon.

Stay frenzied,
Jennifer

A Frenzied Survey

jenniferarzt — Fri, 09 May 2008 13:33:53 -0700

There is no way to get over the post-Frenzy blues than by reminiscing about the scripty times. Please swing by our lovely, orange-sherbet survey! We are excited to hear your thoughts and ideas.

Have any suggestions, memories, or musings you want to share with me directly? Frenzymail me, baby!

Is it really May?

Missing April,
Jennifer

PS: Keep an eye out for our revising recipe coming out next week!

Chronicles of an Apocalyptic-Indie-Romance Part Three

jenniferarzt — Mon, 05 May 2008 17:20:35 -0700

So we did it. Sarah and I wrote and finished a script in April, and we learned a lot in the 101 pages of sometimes not-so-bad, sometimes ridiculously bad, many times funny-to-probably-only-us scenes.

I learned:

That it’s really easy to forget all your character’s distinguishing features, such as accents, quirky wardrobes, or entire personalities by page twenty, never to introduce them back into your script again.
That it’s really hard to write a script about the apocalypse and keep your characters from totally freaking out. Would you develop as a character, or fall in love, if the world were really coming to an end? I mean, really.

That if and when we submit our script to contests, agents, and Michel Gondry, we should rethink the formatting on this page.

Sarah also learned some things:

You really can write a screenplay on your lunch break. I am beginning to suspect you can accomplish anything with enough sandwiches.
Structure is magic. Believe it or not, all those beats on the beat sheet really do add up to a real-live story. And having a daily goal, no matter how tiny or trite, makes writing anything possible. Just add sandwiches.
There is nothing better than making your best friend (and yourself) laugh.

As you can tell, Sarah and I learned a lot about what to do (eat more sandwiches), and what not to do (this), as we move on to revise our Script Frenzy script this May.

I am sure all of you who participated in the Frenzy learned plenty of “to dos” and “not to dos” that you can take into the revision process. And we want to know about them! Post the lessons you learned, so we can all learn from each other’s mistakes and triumphs!

Hope your enjoying your post-Frenzy bliss!
Tavia

That’s a Wrap!

jenniferarzt — Thu, 01 May 2008 01:09:37 -0700

I can’t believe it’s happened. Script Frenzy 2008 has officially come to a close and I miss it already!

The initial numbers are in! 7,898 writers took place in the Frenzy, writing an astounding 129,743 pages, which resulted in a grand total of 889 winners! As Hawaii rounds to May 1, we’ll report back with the final stats.

Congratulations Frenzies! You rocked the pages!

We’ve rolled out our I wrote a Script, Now What page. Keep an eye out over the next week for some great cameos on editing and revising.

But for now, take a deep breath, enjoy some long overdue sleep, and reintroduce yourself to your loved ones.

Big thanks go out to our staff, volunteers, Municipal Liaisons, and our superstar donors!

Thank you Script Frenzy class of 2008! It has been a wonderful, wild, writing adventure!

Jennifer

PS: Thank God It’s Over parties happening this week all over the world. Check your regional forum for more information and get out there to celebrate!

The Martini, Baby!

jenniferarzt — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 17:50:10 -0700

On film sets, the last shot of the day–that is to say the shot that stands between you and your bed–is called the martini shot. And that, my scriptwriting colleague, is where we are right now.

There are precious few moments left in Script Frenzy 2008. (I am already starting to miss it.)

We have winners popping up all over the site! As I write this there are 459 victorious scribes enjoying the limelight.

To get your share of the celebration, get your scrambled, PDF verified by our robots before 11:59:59 on April 30. If it is before midnight local time and you can’t see the validate button, check your time zone! You’ll want to make sure it is set properly.

Today our extraordinary Executive Director, Chris Baty, mentioned the current state of our Cash-o-Meter. If you have loved this crazy adventure even an iota as much as I did, please make a tax-deductible donation! You keep us up and running! And up and running is where we like to be!

We’re almost there!

Good luck!

Jennifer

A word from your script

jenniferarzt — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 14:55:06 -0700

Dearest Script Frenzy participant,

Hi. It's Chris Baty again—Script Frenzy's Executive Director and head cheerleader.

I've spent the past weekend fasting and meditating to achieve a state of Universal Writing Consciousness. I do this at the end of every April to commune directly with Script Frenzy scripts worldwide, and get a solid read on how things are going out there.

During my vision quest, I chatted briefly with your script, and it asked me to pass along the following two messages:

1) Your script loves you very much, even if things between you have been a little difficult lately. It promises that if you give it just two hours per night until the end of the Frenzy, it will behave. No more nagging. Just the two of you, in love again, building a beautiful page-count together.

2) Your script really wants you to donate to Script Frenzy today.

We're in complete agreement with your script on this one.

As you can see from the Cash-o-Meter on the front page of ScriptFrenzy.org, only 4.2% of Script Frenzy participants have chipped in so far to help pay for the event. This has left us $85,000 below our break-even point for the year.

As a nonprofit, numbers like $85,000 put a little fear in the hearts of our board of directors. So here's my challenge: Think about what Script Frenzy has been worth to you this month. The motivation. The fun. The new ideas. The terrifying, empowering deadline, and the push to finally do something you've been wanting to do for a long time.

Then head to our Donation Station and make a tax-deductible contribution in that amount. Donating ensures that the Frenzy will be back next April to inspire and encourage you—along with 8,000 other adults, teens, and kids—all over again.

More frenzied love,

Chris Baty
The Office of Letters and Light

PS: Look for a final, wrap-up email from Jennifer Arzt immediately after the event ends, along with the appearance of the celebrated "I Wrote a Script, Now What?" page, and the first-ever Script Frenzy participant survey! Many big things ahead!

The Final Weekend

jenniferarzt — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 09:49:44 -0700

I can’t believe what I am about to write. No matter where you are in your page count, please sit down before reading on. What I have to say is a bit shocking…

This is the last weekend in Script Frenzy 2008!

I’m not sure how in the world the time flew by so fast, but it did. Almost a month ago you said goodbye to your friends and family, and hello to your story. Now your fans are gathering, chilling champagne, and unrolling the red carpet. When the warm applause welcomes you back in just a few days there will be one question on everyone asks: What was your page count? There is no getting around it. So, my advice is to have a page count that will knock ‘em dead. Simple, right?

There is only one way to get to such a powerful page count… write like crazy. I’ll be right there with you.

Good luck, fellow scriptwriters!

Happy weekend writing,
Jennifer

A Winning Time

jenniferarzt — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 18:30:41 -0700

At midnight local time on April 25th–if you’ve completed your master piece–you can start winning! To make sure our robots know that it is April 25th in your part of the world–set your time zone.

Here’s how you set your time zone:

1. Login.
2. Click the Edit tab.
3. Scroll down to Locale settings and use the drop down box to set your current local time.
4. Hit Submit at the bottom.

I can hardly believe we are close enough to the end that I am writing to tell you how to make sure you're all set to win!

Writing like mad,
Jennifer

Frenzy beans!

jenniferarzt — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 18:31:49 -0700

Dear Script Frenzy Writer,

Hey there! My name is Chris, and I'm the Executive Director of the Office of Letters and Light, tiny-but-mighty nonprofit that runs Script Frenzy. The Frenzy rocked my writing world last year, and it's been difficult for me to sit out this year's Frenzy to focus on administrative projects.

The upside to missing out on this year's fun is that I've been able to put a lot of creative energy into serving as a cheerleader for Tavia and Jennifer as they work on their screenplays. I'm proud to say that my friendly support—along with intimations that staff coffee rations will be cut for underperforming scriptwriters—has everyone on track for complete victory.

But I'm not here today to talk to you about our staff's scripts. I'm here to talk to you about beans.

As the Executive Director, I'm the head bean-counter for Script Frenzy and Script Frenzy's Young Writers Program, responsible for making sure we raise the funds we need to pull off an inspiring and fun Frenzy for 8,000 adults and 700 kids and teens.

We fund our programs in a grassroots way. No advertisers. No entry fees. Instead, a couple times a year, we reach out to our kind-hearted participants with a request to chip in something to help us cover costs. Even a small amount has a huge impact. If every participant makes a tax-deductible donation of just US$10—the cost of a single movie ticket—we'll be in great shape.

Please take a moment to donate today. You can give online via PayPal or credit card, and find instructions for donating by check, in our secure Donation Station and Store.

You can also have someone donate on your behalf—just have them enter your Script Frenzy details in the online form when they make their donation. While you're in the Donation Stat ion, be sure to click on the Store tab to behold our fine array of Script Frenzy merchandise. Proceeds from store sales go directly to our adult and youth programs.

Thanks so much for keeping the Script Frenzy writing revolution alive, and best of luck to you in the second half of the Frenzy. Remember: You're a hero for making it this far. Write on!

Lots of Frenzied love,

Chris Baty
The Office of Letters and Light

PS: Want to see exactly where your donation goes? Stop by our Script Frenzy finances page.

Chronicles of an Apocalyptic-Indie-Romance Part Two

Tavia Stewart — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 10:24:35 -0700

Quantum Tornados of Hypothetical Moments

This is the second installment in the saga of my Script Frenzy 2008 script. You can read the first installment here.

This week my writing partner Sarah and I discovered why Week One was so full of wonderment and high fives! Just like a three-year-old giddily banging a Lego space ship against the floor until it becomes a mine field of sharp-edged Lego bits, we found writing about emotional and universal destruction to be not only easy, but fun in a morbid-toddler kind of way.

Unfortunately, all that fun had a price. We began Week Two with a script full of problems with absolutely no idea how to solve them. This became very clear to me on Thursday when our characters were sitting in a café sipping coffee and discussing the infinite possibilities of the universe instead of falling in love and saving the world from its imminent collapse.

Though we needed to cover some of the science behind our apocalypse, I was beginning to feel like our script was becoming a NOVA special. At one point during our Thursday writing session, I realized that I didn’t even understand the science of my own script (most of which we made up), and that I was getting more and more anxious to get to the make-out scenes. Instead of communicating my frustrations like the grown adult that I am, I decided to go the passive-aggressive route and communicate my frustration through one of our main characters:

Me: I don’t think Isobel likes Benjamin right now.

Sarah: Is it Isobel or is it you that doesn’t like Benjamin right now.

The good news is that Friday's writing session went much better! Though we didn’t get to solving any problems, things actually happened. By tweaking the Being John Malkovich portal idea into something we call a Quantum Tornado of Hypothetical Moments, we were able to show multiple paths that our characters’ lives could take simultaneously. They got absolutely nowhere, but we sure had fun writing them into circles. And having fun, my friends, is what Script Frenzy is all about!

If you would like to learn a little bit more about fictionalized, amateur quantum physics, you can read our script here! We found out early this week that is was public!

Getting somewhere is for Week Three.

We hope.

Signing off for now,
Tavia