Tag: screenwriting

2023 LCPA Pilot SCREENPLAY ACCOLADE

So pleased to get a Coverfly accolade – Top 37% for LCPA the Pilot! It received very nice coverage from the TSL Free Screenplay competition this month which gave its own accolade! This is significant because this competition gets close to twelve thousand entries!

January 2023

Thinking about annual goals is difficult for me. I hate setting wildly optimistic ones but later having to admit, that life and the day job got in the way of the creative writing.

Maybe the best thing for me in 2023 is to have a few key phrases to stand in for formal goals:

  • Create inventory
  • Do the writing
  • Get to a conference or a film market

I think many writers put undue pressure on ourselves I regards to performance goals.. Every screenwriter thinks they should output more. Every novelist is in awe of someone who writes more novels per year than they do. I believe the key is still balance. Those who sacrifice quality of writing for quantity of words don’t keep their audiences. Balance is key, write as much as you can write well.

Christmas Movie Vibes

Decorated doors downtown

I spent this weekend downtown in Vancouver, did the holiday gathering from my day job, met friends for the Christmas Market and bought gifts, and went down to shop today. There’s a great holiday feel downtown at this time of year. The Bay had a Santa! There’s a huge Christmas tree in front of the Art Gallery. Lots of trees and lights. I decided to take some photos for a vision board for my Xmas movie idea. I’m combining my knitting idea called “Pull the Wool” with the format and settings of a holiday movie.

Coverfly Pitch Week 2021

Excellent news! LCPA and my profile have combined to get me noticed! I’m part of Coverfly’s excellent Pitch Week program. We had an information call this week and then the invitations were sent out. I’m really excited to have a meeting as only about half of those chosen get actual meetings. They do a lot of work to interest industry professionals and get our materials in front of them.

For more information on Coverfly click here.

Auroras Coverfly
Aurora Awards – always hoping for a third!

DEAL at Banff

We signed up today for the lottery to get some great Buyers and Production Partners Meetings at the Banff World Media Festival via their #BANFFXchange platform. Put up the new graphic that Jessica did for DEAL our 2nd #project at #Banff2021. She is working as my PA on the Banff project this year. We’ll pitch my scripts: “Lights, Camera, Paranormal Action!” and “Deal”. #BanffMedia

Banff is also about learning and there are many interesting webinars available that we have signed up for.

DEAL at Banff

Screenwriting August 2020

Lights, Camera, Paranormal Action! prep for Frontières

The script for “Lights, Camera, Paranormal Action” is available to interested producers now.

My first list consists of the producers I met in late July at Frontieres Film market.

I also added the list of local producers I met in March at the WIFT-V festival during their pitch sessions.

It was wonderful to realize that there are people actively looking for new scripts.

I’ve now sent it to producers who agreed to read it during our meeting.

I loved the experience of meeting the producers and was pleased with the level of interest the script garnered.

More Writer News

  • Two of my poems have been chosen to be in “Stellar Evolution” a ‘best of’ anthology coming out this Autumn/Winter in Canada. Really pleased about that!
  • Also, I won an Honorable Mention in the WOTF Quarter 2 results for my story “Tail Creek”. I’m still hoping to sell that one, now with the ‘win’, maybe I can.
Lights, Camera, paranormal Action image of Cat girczyc screenwriter card
My new card

Frontières Market Pitch

Lights, Camera, Paranormal Action! prep for Frontières

The week before Frontières and couple of great things happened to Lights, Camera, Paranormal Action!

  1. I got this wonderful banner via the tremendous and generous talents of Kelman Design and Glen Schroeder working on the “Movie Poster” for me. At Frontières, I’ll show a full page movie poster with cool backgrounds and more visual representation of the story in it. It’s thanks to the wonderful WIFT program that this is happening and I’m very pleased.
  2. The Dark Side winners, myself included, had a 2 hour pitch consultation from Jan Miller. It was a great experience and I heard wise advice, not just for my pitch and project but for all four of us. I must now complete my one-pager for the festival and submit that by Wednesday next week. There are so many ways to pitch and it just isn’t something I’ve done a lot. All of my sales were done to people I already knew, who asked for written story ideas. But that was in television, and I was working on shows that were looking for stories. This is my movie and it is looking for a producer.
  3. At Frontières my pitch is in the Created by Women Pitch Session, presented by Telefilm Canada with Women in Film + Television Vancouver. I’m so pleased to be able to showcase my first feature project along with the other 3 up-and-coming female screenwriters from across Canada. This year we are doing it via Zoom. Previously, the festival was in person and it would have been daunting to go up on a big stage to present my story. However, I also have some trepidation about delivering on Zoom. We have many questions yet and next week will be important for our preparations. The pitch itself can only be five minutes, then they give us a Question & Answer period with the panel of experts. Plus, while the Market is going on, we can have meetings with producers, distributors, sales agents, and other interesting people, with a view to pursuing the project.
  4. I feel very lucky this week! I also won an Honorable Mention in a short story contest. See my Bibliography for more info.

June 2020

I’ve been working on my script “Lights, Camera, Paranormal Action!” since the #DarkSide week in early March. It’s done to first draft now at 105 pages. First drafts in film and TV are really ‘starting points’. You need to get through a few drafts before sending it anywhere serious. So, it’s not yet at the point where I’m sending it out to producers. I’m looking at a rewrite or two before July’s pitching at the digital edition of the Frontières International Co-Production Market – July 23-26, 2020.

Next step is the story editing which is provided by Women in Film. I’m really pleased to have another set of eyes on it. So far, only one writer friend has read LCPA and she likes it, so that’s good! However, I’ll need some critiquing to get it into super shape for pitching and for selling ultimately.

Graphics design – I’m so pleased to be working with Kelman Design – Keli Manson and Glen Schroeder on the design of my pitch poster! I can’t reveal any of the design yet, but it’s truly wonderful. I want to put it on all of my things! It’s not done yet, there are phases to developing a great graphic for something like this and I’m learning about what my Designers need to know in order to proceed.

The image must be something useful for the Market but also something that is a true sales tool. It needs to tell them what they are (potentially) buying, using images, colours, fonts, tone, and texture.

from our Dark Side Win!

I’m so very pleased to be a winner in the Women in Film & Television, from our Dark Side contest. This win allows me to develop my winning pitch into a pilot and a great series plan, complete with graphic designer and story editor mentors! So we’re going to Montreal in July with this project! Thanks Women In Film & Television Vancouver!

Image may contain: 6 people, possible text that says 'rom our Dark side SELECTED WINNERS #FODS2020'

Women in Film & Television Vancouver

In keeping with this week of announcements, we’re excited to present the selected winners of our From Our Dark Side Genre Contest! Congratulations to:

Selaine Henriksen (ON) – “Cold Snap”
Julia Rowland & Kristy La Pointe (ON) – “A Better Brain”
Cat Girczyc (BC) – “Lights, Camera, Paranormal Action!”
Lauren Marsden (BC) – “Mama D’Lo”
Marie Clements (BC) – “Sparrow”/ “Nel Dzay Ya”

Read all about it: http://bit.ly/FODS6Win