| 7th
Annual
ASA International Screenplay Competition Interview of John Dart by Moviebytes Taken with permission from MovieBytes.com
MovieBytes
Interview:
An interview with screenwriter John Dart regarding the ASA/Gotham Writing Competition. Q: What's
the title of the script you entered in this contest, and what's it about?
A: The title
of the script is THE SNOWMEN. The story takes place during World War II
but with the unusual setting of a weather station in Greenland above the
Arctic Circle. The story is about a new commander who is haunted by his
past who is left in charge of a handful of weathermen and scientists who
are the furthest thing from soldiers. The environment is harsh and they
are completely cutoff for the next three months but the only thing to fight
is boredom. All that changes when a crippled German Submarine breaks through
the ice in the sound and the Americans are forced to take the survivors
in as POW's. The commander struggles to keep things orderly and ultimately
has to face his past and turn his men into soldiers when the German's manage
to take over the base.
Q: What
made you enter this particular contest? Have you entered any other contests
with this script? If so, how did you do?
A: My writing
partner and I chose this contest partly due to the connection with Writer's
Digest (who was the co-sponsor of the contest) and due to the prize package
offered. The script was recently a quarterfinalist in the Screenwriting
Expo 3 contest and in the top 10% of scripts in the Nichols Fellowship
contest.
Q: Were
you satisfied with the adminstration of the contest? Did they meet their
deadlines? Did you receive all the awards that were promised?
A: Yes, we
received all of the prizes promised in a timely manner. The only difficulty
we had was dealing with both the ASA and Writer's Digest as the two parties
had to be in sync rather than just one organization, but the issues were
very minor and resolved quickly. Those types of issues would seem to be
inherent when two organizations are involved. We also particularly enjoyed
the connection the contest had with the Austin Film Festival as one of
the prizes offered.
Q: Were
you given any feedback on your script? If so, did you find the feedback
helpful?
A: We received
coverage-type feedback from one of the contest judges who had some good
comments. We also got an email directly from one of the earlier round judges
congratulating us after we had won who felt that he was pulling for our
script after he read it. We were hoping to receive more feedback but, se
la vie.
Q: Has your
success in this contest helped you market your script? Were you contacted
by any agents, managers or producers?
A: The contest
win has helped in many ways. Besides producers and managers who've contacted
us directly based on the press release announcement, the other benefits
were being offered free promotion on inktip.com which yielded more interest
from industry people and the grand prize also garnered a two page interview
with us which was published in Writer's Digest magazine. Having copies
of the article and the contest win cred has also been invaluable when we
have gone to pitchfest events. I believe that it has increased our percentage
of read requests from those we have pitched to. The win acts as a prevalidation
that the script is worth taking a look at. We are now close to gaining
a manager as a result of this activity.
Q: What's
your background? Have you written any other screenplays or television scripts?
A: I have a
degree in film production and screenwriting from Cal State Northridge and
have held various production jobs after graduating. My writing partner
Jeff Swanson has been a reader for several production companies and talent
agencies. We've been writing mostly separately for most of our lives (we've
been best friends for about 30 years) but finally got serious about working
together to advance our film aspirations. The Snowmen is the first script
we completed together.
Q: Do you
live in Los Angeles? If not, do you have any plans to move there?
A: Yes, Jeff
and I have both lived in L.A. for nearly our entire lives. There is an
advantage in living here if you are trying to break in. Of course, it seems
like everyone here is writing or has written a script so until you finally
sell a script, you might find it hard to tell people here that you are
a screenwriter without people thinking "God, not another one."
Q: What's
next? Are you working on a new script?
A: We are currently
working on our next script which is a science fiction thriller called LUNA
which has about 8-10 read requests from industry people already- now we
just have to finish it.
* * * CONTEST WINNER?
Let's talk. If you've finished first, second, or
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