SlamDance gives positive feedback on Faeries horror screenplay

Posted on by Chip Street

“…the horror builds … an unusual creature … well written … above average … there is much to like here.”

faeries feature horror movie screenplay

Faeries gets some lovin’ from the SlamDance judges panel.

Faeries, possibly the best unproduced horror screenplay about pack hunting, echo locating, semi-sentient proto-humanoids currently making the rounds of Hollywood, just got some good feedback from one of the country’s most respected screenplay competitions.

“…the use of the faeries is an unusual creature, the characters are above average and the author strives to give them some depth and individuality … the story moves at a nice pace. The build is very strong. The author doesn’t try to rush things and make everything happen immediately or too fast, but lets the horror build. The early scenes especially have an unease about them (as one character points out, there’s something wrong or off about it all). All in all, there is much to like here.”

We appreciate that, SlamDance. And  you’re in good company… both Shriekfest and WildSound have had praise for Faeries as well.

“A lively, unusual slasher movie that delivers plenty of gore, and introduces a new set of monsters that could be worth a franchise”
– Shriekfest Screenplay Competition

Faeries Horror Screenplay Gets More Strong Reader Feedback

Posted on by Chip Street

“Compelling, terrifying, disturbing, beautifully written.”

We’ve recently submitted the as-yet-unproduced Faeries horror screenplay to a few competitions, and just got the first set of coverage notes back. We think we did pretty well, and it only makes us more confident about the script.

Faeries horror screenplayThis is from the WildSound Screenplay Competition. We appreciate their kind words!

**** SPOILERS **** Continue reading Faeries Horror Screenplay Gets More Strong Reader Feedback

Faeries – the horror script – full release

Posted on by Chip Street

Slowly publishing the Faeries feature horror script a section at a time online.

FAERIES – the full release

faeries feature horror moie script

FaeriesMovie.info

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Faeries was an experiment in process, a personal challenge to complete a feature script from concept to completion in 12 weeks, and prove that we deserved the opportunity to deliver on a writing assignment. Did we make it? Read the writing blog – each day of the writing process was meticulously recorded. (Remember that the blog posts sort in reverse – so start at the bottom and work your way through ’em)

We finished the play, submitted it to 2009 Shriekfest, and were chosen as Finalists.

We’ve since had a half-dozen production companies request it… but we’ve also got a number of writer friends who wanted a peek. So we decided to release it a section at a time right here. Continue reading Faeries – the horror script – full release

Positive feedback on the Faeries script feels so good

Posted on by Chip Street

Although our screenplay “Faeries” didn’t win at Shriekfest, we still got to see the judge’s notes… those kind folks who put so much time into reading all those screenplays. We’re feeling pretty good about what they had to say…

A lively, unusual slasher movie that delivers plenty of gore, and introduces a new set of monsters that could be worth a franchise.

I could see this as a movie… so many are hard to see actually made. This could be a fun little romp. 9 out of 10!

Clear and atmospheric writing that flows easily down the page. I enjoyed it. Definitely above average writers.

Thanks, amazing readers at Shriekfest! We appreciate your time, attention and obvious good taste!

Faeries at Shriekfest Film Festival

Posted on by Chip Street

chip-at-raleigh-studios

Shriekfest Screenplay Competition finalists include "Faeries" by Chip Street and Sean Meehan.

Let’s get the news out of the way right off the bat: Faeries did not bring home an award in the screenplay competition. But the good news is, the grapevine tells us that we were a very close runner up, and an unofficial judge ‘s favorite for commercial appeal and shootability. Moreover, we walked away with two producers interested in reading the script, and one well-respected studio reader itching to rep it to a few prodcos. So we’re still chuggin’ along.

shriekfest-posters

But we did make it to Hollywood for the Shriekfest Festival, and win or lose, what a gas! Founder and fest director Denise Gossett, her most excellent husband and a bevy of dedicated volunteers put on a really fun, intimate, quality fest on the grounds of Raleigh Studios. Denise is a certified Scream Queen in her own right whose next project, the horror comedy Crustacean, is already in post-production. Continue reading Faeries at Shriekfest Film Festival

Faeries makes semi-finals at Shriekfest

Posted on by Chip Street

faeries-poster

Our horror script “Faeries” has made the semi-finals in the Shriekfest Horror and Sci Fi Film Festival screenplay competition.

Chip and Sean,
Your screenplay has been selected as a semi-finalist in the 2009 Shriekfest Screenplay competition.  Congratulations on making it this far.  The judges are currently in the process of selecting the finalists for the festival.  We will be contacting everyone sometime this coming week.  Thank you for your patience.

Don’t know if we get laurels for it, but I’ll take it anyway. Not bad for a script we wrote in 6 weeks, huh?

And let’s not forget that Faeries is also under consideration by a prodco in Vancouver…

Everybody cross your fingers for the finals… it’s a solid script and deserves some more lovin’.

[CLICK FOR UPDATE…]

on strong women characters

Posted on by Chip Street

strong_womanGiven the positive response to the female characters in Faeries, I’ve been giving some thought to the issue of writing strong women characters. As a man, I’m often told that it’s not possible for me to do so.

It is true that Lacey, the young girl in Rocket Summer, is probably the least complex character in the script (and that has been pointed out by some readers). But it’s also true that she is the glue for that group of dysfunctional friends… a caretaker, a realist, and a “person of interest” for a pair of boys with very fucked up home lives, one of whom lost his mother at a young age.

Unfortunately, to some, that makes her “stereotypical”… a character whose only job it is to fulfill the traditional “female” roles of mother, lover, nurturer. Me, I take exception to the word “only”. It’s important stuff. And she’s conflicted about it in the process, and seems to be setting aside some of her own desires to take on that role. For me, that’s a strong, flawed, and thus interesting female character.

Some people are never satisfied. Continue reading on strong women characters

Faeries: prodco request

Posted on by Chip Street

faeries-posterA minor new development in the ongoing story of our feature horror script “Faeries“.

Thanks to a lead from InkTip, the logline and synopsis were submitted to a Canadian production company with some solid success in the creature feature genre. They’ve asked to read the script, which in our book is a success. Obviously no decision has been made (we’ll post when we have a reply) but here’s why it’s already a success:

Previously on InkTip, we had posted our other feature script “Grampa Was A Superhero“. The script has been available through the site for nearly a year, and the logline has been reviewed over a hundred times. More than 10 percent of those viewers have clicked on through to the synopsis (a conversion rate we sense is good, but plan on talking with InkTip to learn more). Of those, one prodco (Ice Cube’s “Cube Vision Productions” of Are We There Yet fame) has viewed the entire script but apparently chosen to pass. So it’s still available, if you’re looking for a fun family comedy road movie (Home Alone meets Wild Hogs).

Similarly, Rocket Summer has had some success, being optioned for a total of two years (it’s now available again if anybody needs a great coming-of-age story in the vein of Stand By Me, October Sky and Breaking Away). But its conversion rate on InkTip was poor.

We see the request for Faeries as a success not because we expect a sale or option to come out of it (that would be great though – written in 125 hours, optioned within a month of completion… great ROI) but because it shows that this logline and synopsis are working for us better than those for the other scripts. Sure, it could mean a lot of other things too, like Faeries is simply a more commercial, genre specific project (true) with a simpler hook and more straightforward storyline (also true). But we’re definitely motivated to refine the synopses and loglines for the other scripts in short order, as we’re learning more and more every day.

New horror project: "faeries"

Posted on by Chip Street

faeries-poster

Well, that’s it! We spent a couple more hours beefing up some scenes, fixing some final typos, and tweaking the formatting in Final Draft to bring us in at a perfect 100 pages.

As always, we’ll continually refine the text… we’d like to keep looking closely at the dialogue and left margin, to assure we’ve got just the right verb here, just the perfect turn of phrase there… but it’s braces on a pretty smile… tiny incremental adjustments.

So we can officially release the logline and synopsis… we’ve given the script its own page here, and we’ve created a Facebook page for it as well.

Thanks to our readers for all the great feedback and encouragement. Now we’re off to find some good horror screenplay competitions, get it in front of a few good people in Hollywood, and find a producer who wants a fun, classic horror story with a unique twist — The Descent meets The Birds.

Total man hours: 115 (chip) + 105 (sean) = 220

As Sean and I worked side by side most of the time, total linear clock hours: 125

Total calendar time (since we couldn’t get together as often or for as long as we’d have liked): 11 weeks

To see the blogs that chronicled “the writing of”, click here.