PIGPEN...

PIGPEN...

October 3rd: Semi finalist in the 2013 Screenwriting Goldmine Awards

This is what Philip Gladwin said about the process of whittling more than 100 scripts into just 30.

"I was forced into some very tricky decisions. I'm sorry to say that some excellent writing didn't make the cut in the end. Not only did you have to write very well on a scene-by-scene basis, you also had to do that most difficult thing of telling a story invisibly well, so that the reader is transported without realising the mechanics, or having any confusion over who is who, and what is going on.

"I was also far less forgiving of slow patches, or dead ends in the story, or patches of bad dialogue, over familiar concepts, worn out theme, and cliche in general. These semi-finalist scripts don't have have to be near perfect, like the final five, but they have to be well on the way.

"So if your script IS up on the list, take heart, you have done very well indeed."

Originally billed as Con Air meets Silence of the Lambs, PIGPEN was selected by the Irish Film and Television Academy for a personal script consultation with the Galway Film Fleadh 2011 Screenwriter-in-Residence, Gill Dennis (Walk the Line).

He shook my hand when we met, shaking his head and told me that the night before he had turned to his wife the night before and said there was "no way a girl could have written this". And I had pigtails... It was fun. Some great insights but not a lot of rewriting...

The script improved as a result. And that's the script that is in these semi's.