The VOICE OF THE PEOPLE...

[Generic Skinhead]

There's a huge argument going on at college at the moment. Guess who's right in the middle.

Basically everyone in the class wrote a script for a 5 min 16mm short. Now, 6 get to go into pre-production and then we end up with a final four that get made. Fair enough?

Now how do the six get chosen? We pitch to the class and to the film dept. panel. Each get apparently 50 percent of the vote. Yesterday my script topped the poll among the class. The panel hated it. I now fully expect the panel to overule the class.

In my mind I'm trying to understand how one set of people (my contemporaries) can love something and how the old pros can hate it. Of course it's wonderful to have your work appreciated by the class, and virtually everyone around my age has shared their enthusiasm.

My pondering comes back to a generation gap. The panel are stuck in their ways, seemingly only interested in gritty dramas about abusive marriage. They said my script's audience is too narrow, but ironically no one wants to see the shit they produce leading to the current anemic Irish film industry.

I'm sorry about the lenght of the post, and I realise some of you won't be interested (Miker), but it really is frustrating sometimes. Any thoughts?

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I can't believe I sold my image rights for a pint of Guinness!

[Generic Skinhead]

www.geocities.com/genskin

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I can't believe I sold my image rights for a pint of Guinness!

[Thousanth]

Thats kinda like sweeping the critics awards and getting snubbed at the Oscars.


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"Welcome to the Black Lagoon - Please wipe your feet."

[Davis]

That girl in WGO is a cutie.

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"He who breaks a thing to discover what it is has left the path of wisdom."
-Gandalf

www.pmind.com

[Generic Skinhead]

Ooops...now I feel like a total idiot. I learned today...that they will fund it.

They were pulling some physcology shit on me in the pitch. Acting like they hated it, to see how I dealt with the pressure. When I found out I was truly stunned. This is real exciting!

Best birthday present ever!

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I can't believe I sold my image rights for a pint of Guinness!

[shirt]

Hey Gen,

We have the same selection format, minus the film panel. They use to have that, but it was decided that since the students are the ones paying the money, they should get to select the films they make.

Yes, this system does backfire... mainly because a lot of students have SHIAT taste in scripts... ie. a script which ends with the main character killing themselves always gets picked... yet has to be the WORST possible way to end a film.

Another problem is popularity. Some students will become known as the 'writers' of the program and will be good at pitching scripts... so they could in fact be pitching 'shiat' and most would be oblivious to it. Ah well. That's life, I guess.

Good luck though, wait till your pitching 20 minute scripts... thousands and thousands of dollars at stake... then you'll be happy there's a panel. (We just picked 4, 20 minutes to shoot last week. I am so pissed at the 3rd and 4th place films... they are awful.) But... the class liked them.

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[shirt]

Hey Gen,

We have the same selection format, minus the film panel. They use to have that, but it was decided that since the students are the ones paying the money, they should get to select the films they make.

Yes, this system does backfire... mainly because a lot of students have SHIAT taste in scripts... ie. a script which ends with the main character killing themselves always gets picked... yet has to be the WORST possible way to end a film.

Another problem is popularity. Some students will become known as the 'writers' of the program and will be good at pitching scripts... so they could in fact be pitching 'shiat' and most would be oblivious to it. Ah well. That's life, I guess.

Good luck though, wait till your pitching 20 minute scripts... thousands and thousands of dollars at stake... then you'll be happy there's a panel. (We just picked 4, 20 minutes to shoot last week. I am so pissed at the 3rd and 4th place films... they are awful.) But... the class liked them.

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[steven_craig]

happy birthday mr. skinhead sir - btw you lucky bastard, and you shirt

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My preciousssssss!

[Generic Skinhead]

Thank you one, thank you all. Reckon I've got a few years left in me yet Thousanth.

Shirt, your post was really interesting. Though our class picked 6 films the panel picked 4. And fortunatly mine was the only picked by both.

I think this further illustrates your point about the internal class politics behind the decisions. Although in truth, the panel made some odd choices. One of the films they picked got a solitary vote from the class.

Anyway, I guess now the real work starts. The script needs some re-writing, it's all gotta fit into 5 mins...Hacksaw time.

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I can't believe I sold my image rights for a pint of Guinness!

[BuBu]

I was going to say make it yourself and then show them how determind you really are but hey if they want to fund it i am sure it is fine by you!

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