Local screenwriters get their chance to make it big
By Traci Angel
Los Angeles may be some 1,600 miles from St. Louis, but Cinema St. Louis is doing its best to bring the two cities together.
Now in its fourth year, the CinemaSpoke Screenplay Competition and Workshop saw 21 local writers competing for the chance to have a script submitted to a Hollywood agent. Entries were narrowed to 10 finalists, and, every month since March, local actors have been portraying characters in the screenplays as judges and an audience offer feedback. St. Louis–based screenwriter Brian Hohlfeld is one of the judges, and the winning script will be submitted to Hohlfeld’s L.A. agent for consideration.
First-time contest participant Elizabeth Hizer is studying scriptwriting at Webster University and is a finalist with In the Shadows, set in 1920s Ireland. She researched the period extensively and worked on the script for two years. It was read in April. “The judges were iffy, but I got a lot of good feedback from the readers and the audience,” she says.
Barrett Freeman submitted A Fistful of Rain, about a loser and his buddy who think they’ve hit the jackpot after a robbery, only to have the money stolen by kids. Freeman regularly competes in national contests but tried CinemaSpoke on a lark last year to become acquainted with the local cinema community.
“It was badly misinterpreted,” he says of his screenplay’s March reading. Freeman had intended for his characters to have rural accents, but when the script was read, the accents were broadened to the point of ridicule. “It was kind of horrifying,” says Freeman, who has since rewritten the script.
Last year’s winner, Daniel McGowan, returned with a new script, Screen Names, about an aspiring actress, director and comedian about to get their big breaks in a highbrow Hollywood film. One character sums it all up: “For two days I’ve been staring at the script that’s gonna launch you like a rocket. Just staring at it, wondering when my little spy was going to come in from the cold and reestablish contact.”
The last finalist reading is at 7 p.m. July 11 at HH Studios, 2500 Sutton in Maplewood. A contest winner will be named in September, and the winning script will be read in its entirety on September 12. All readings are free and open to the public.
