The Girls On Film Initiative was launched in February this year and ran for approximately six weeks, closing on March 30th.
GoF was launched to find great genre pieces with female protagonists, antagonists and/or secondary characters. Team GoF did NOT want drama pieces, but rather the types of story we frequently see with male characters: Action/Adventures, Comedies, Science Fiction, Thrillers and so on.
Endorsed by Women In Film & TV, Women In Hollywood and The Underwire Festival, those scripts Team GoF felt were strongest would be passed on to our partners which included Big Talk Pictures, Ealing Studios, Slingshot Studios, Linda Seifert Management, The Dench Arnold Agency, MBA Literary Agents and many more.
Those eagle-eyed peeps amongst you may have noticed the initial plan was to run the initiative all year or at least up until LSF 2012, but unfortunately circumstances changed abruptly for Head Reader Lucy V, meaning she had to suspend submissions for a little while. GoF however WILL be back with a shiny new website and a new submissions period, probably after LSF 2012. So make sure you check this website for updates!
In the meantime, here is a short rundown of the entries we received for Girls On Film this year:
• Not many female genre features out there? Team GoF received approximately 60 – 70 screenplays in approximately six weeks. Though a substantial amount, this was a lot less than we thought we would get and may be in some part down to the fact we initially thought we would be running the initiative for longer (ie. writers thought they had more time). That said, we only got submissions in dribs and drabs from the offset, with several writers making multiple submissions, lending the belief that perhaps there *aren’t* that many spec feature scripts out there with female protagonists and antagonists? Hopefully you will prove us wrong in the next script call for Girls On Film!
• Drama versus Genre # 1. There was the inevitable confusion over what a “genre” piece means and whether drama *is* a genre, despite Team GoF giving various links and examples in the FAQs and website of what they DID and DIDN’T want. This lead to even more overt links and examples given, along with the “industry definition”: ie. genre means all those categories and subcategories that cover (more often than not) high stakes of literal life-and-death or at least high concept, “larger than life” stories, whereas drama (more often than not) covers those “smaller” stories of things that “could happen to you” in “ordinary life”.
• Drama versus Genre # 2. Despite many writers saying their submissions were Horror, Comedy, Thriller, etc, their ten page submissions frequently read more like Drama to Team GoF. This often seemed to be because writers were introducing characters and the machinations of their lives BEFORE launching into the actual meat of the story. Good genre pieces are high-paced and have a hook VERY early on in the story, often as early as page 1.
• Read instructions. Some scribes inevitably didn’t read our instructions, sending whole screenplays (Team GoF only wanted the first ten pages in the first instance) and a few even sent TV scripts, when we asked for feature screenplays. Some scripts were not formatted correctly (despite there being examples on the website), there were some scripts that featured ALL MALE characters in prominent roles and there were many Dramas submitted multiple times, even when we wrote back and said we could not include them in the initiative. It’s really important to follow instructions!
• Girl Stereotypes Aloud. Unfortunately we received a fair few scripts with “expected” female characters. We wanted more “surprising” characterisation than those we’ve already seen on the silver screen: we didn’t want Damsels in Distress, Depressed Mothers, Vain Office-Workers or Kick-Ass Hotties and nor did we want female characters who are “just” men with their gender changed, like Female Casanovas.
• Story Cliches. We saw quite a few clichéd storytelling techniques: a real favourite in the first ten pages this time was people waking up from nightmares. In close second was people going to a funeral and being told something spooky or intriguing next to the gravesite. A couple of scripts even had both in close succession! Of course, *anything* can work, but differentiation is key here.
• Genre faves. Thriller proved a big favourite in the GoF pile this time, with Science Fiction a close second. Interestingly, there were very few Comedies or Horrors.
With all the above in mind then, here is the Girls On Film 2012 shortlist of seven writers (in alphabetical order), whose loglines and coverage will be forwarded to our partners of production companies and agents:
BACKFLIP by Alistair Rutherford (Action/Science Fiction – Big Budget)
In a future when Global Warming has crippled the Earth, two ferry operators must convey a precious cargo of anti-venom for a fatal disease across miles of desert and terrible jeopardy.
BIG BONES by Soulla Tantouri (Comedy/Feel-Good – Very Low Budget)
An overweight woman is cheated on/left by her husband – and finds a new life and friends by forming her own slimming group.
BREAKTHROUGH by Shane McCabe (Crime/Supernatural Thriller, Medium Budget)
A female cop investigates a case where the suspect appears to be non-human.
EVER AFTER by Claire Duffy (Thriller, Low Budget)
A woman is caught between two men and who to trust in this MEMENTO-style Thriller.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY by Phil Charles (Supernatural, Low Budget)
A woman witnesses a murder via a webcam and fears for her own life.
HEAD OVER HEELS by Elena Fuller (Romantic Comedy, Med-High Budget)
Three women rekindle their friendship at a reunion and hatch a scheme to propose to the men in their lives on February 29th.
YESTERNIGHT by Claire Yeowart (Action, Med-High Budget)
Two young women are pulled into a murder plot: one a witness, the other determined to save her from gangsters.
Congratulations to the lucky seven, here’s hoping your scripts will be requested by our partners and well done for being in the top 10% of this script call!
Team LSF and GoF
PS – Remember we are still running our 2 page script competition 50 Kisses. CLICK HERE for more details.
