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What's New, BlueCat?                                          
The Official Newsletter of the

Bluecat Screenplay Competition   


December 6th, 2011

'Tis The Season

Well, it's December now - pretty soon the holiday stress will kick into high gear. Shopping for gifts, organizing family gatherings, enduring family gatherings, fretting about weight gain from holiday feasts and assorted sweets, trying to cram in as many holiday-appropriate movies before the end of the month... It's a pretty exhausting few weeks, and that's before you think about trying to do any writing in your time off from work.

As the holidays grow nearer, we're still at work reading and reviewing your screenplays here at The BlueCat Screenplay Competition - just know that we've got some stress of our own going on. Also, to keep your mind off the imminent mob scenes at local shopping malls and department stores, we've put together another Gordy video for you, as well as a new newsletter feature. Put down that gingerbread cookie and start reading!   

-The Bluecat Team 

Gordy Video: Arcs
Readers Of The Strong Arc
This week, BlueCat founder Gordy Hoffman talks to us about arcs in movies - and no, we don't mean the ones full of ghosts that make Nazis explode (although those are great too.) An Arc is the journey a character takes through a script, and it's one of the most important elements to making sure your characters - and, by extension, your screenplay - keep the reader's attention. Take a look and educate yourself!  
Submit Your Questions For Ask A Reader!

Got questions for our readers? Don't be shy; ask! Submit your questions for our Ask A Reader feature - we'll pick one and send it out to our readers, and then post their responses here so you can get a glimpse into the heads of the people reading your work.
Selected Script: Raiders Of The Lost Ark
A Pun Like This Is Too Good To Pass Up
 
Okay, okay - we already made a Raiders of the Lost Ark joke earlier, but when you spend so much time trying to make movie related puns, the contested existence of a character arc in a movie about an ark is just too good to pass up. There's fervent debate on some screenwriting blogs as to whether Indiana Jones has a character arc in this film or not - does he remain a rough and ready, snake fearing adventurer from start to finish, or does he substitute his love of artifacts for the love of a woman? Have a read and see for yourself!  
Ask A Writer: Inception



We're debuting a new feature here in the Bluecat Newsletter - Ask A Writer, in which we poll YOU, the BlueCat writing community, for your thoughts, feelings, and opinions about screenwriting and film. Each week, we'll pose a question, you can submit your answers, and the following week we'll reprint some of your comments. Think of it as an ongoing, free-form debate about your favorite movies with a few thousand strangers.

We're kicking off our inaugural Ask A Writer with a discussion about Christopher Nolan's Best Picture nominated mega-blockbuster Inception.

While the Chicago Sun-Times' Richard Roeper called Inception "One of the best films of the 21st century," and Rolling Stone's Peter Travers said the film was 'ingenious' and a 'knockout,' other critics felt differently when it came to the film's script.

The New York Times' A.O. Scott noted that Inception mostly consisted of well dressed men with guns chasing each other in different settings with the fact that they're dreaming "[taking] some of the edge off the movie's violence," while the Observer's Rex Reed called the script "gibberish... You never know who anyone is, what their goals are, who they work for or what they're doing."

One camp views Inception as a white knight in shining armor, rescuing the film industry from derivative, cookie cutter sequels and remakes, while the other sees it as a film that substituted ambiguity and complexity for an involving script and characters.

What say you - hype and effects aside, was Inception well scripted? Could you empathize with the characters, or did you find yourself nodding off and having dreams of your own? Let us know your thoughts!
Quotes

"I never had any doubts about my abilities. I knew I could write. I just had to figure out how to eat while doing this." Cormac McCarthy (Author, 'No Country For Old Men', 'Blood Meridian', recipient of the MacArthur Genius Grant)

"Writing should be an adventure, shrouded in mystery and uncertainty, blessed with amazing grace. In theory, of course."
Syd Field (Author of Screenplay)

"If you try to please audiences, uncritically accepting their tastes, it can only mean that you have no respect for them: that you simply want to collect their money.
"
Andrei Tarkovsky (Russian screenwriter/director)  
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FEBRUARY 1ST, 2012:
QUARTERFINALISTS ANNOUNCED

MARCH 1ST, 2012:
SEMIFINALISTS ANNOUNCED

MARCH 15TH 2012:
FIVE FINALISTS ANNOUNCED

MARCH 22ND 2012:
WINNER ANNOUNCED! 
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