Great News for Screenwriters

Hey folks, long time no blog right. Truth be told, that might not be a bad thing. Shane and I have been beating up on a new screenplay and it has been keeping us very busy. I noticed that I hadn’t blogged in a while and decided to make myself sort of a schedule that will split up my creative time a bit. I’ll be able to continue writing and to continue blogging as well. One really should write at least something every day after all.

“That’s great Mook, but what is the great news?”

I was blown away by a couple of new things that Ashley Scott Myers is doing over at his Selling your Screenplay blog, and felt the need to help promote one of our mentors.

Ashley is starting Screenwriting Forum. It is going to be a member’s only forum that will allow you to break down into small groups of writers and help each other out.

Inside the forum we will be creating writer’s groups where you can share your work and critique other people’s work within a small group of other writers. Reading other writer’s material and getting feedback on your own is a key ingredient to growing and improving as a writer.

Space for that is limited though, so get on over and sign up for Ashley’s mailing list. Ashley is a great guy and is always ready to answer questions. While you’re there, make sure to check out his Query Letter Submission Service. Also, make sure to just read through Ashley's blog, there is so much amazing and helpful information there for new writers.

Indy Feature Friday: Joe Burke

Yeah, I'm a day late, but never a dollar short! This week I want to spotlight a very talented and creative person. I found Joe Burke a couple of years ago whilst I was surfing through youtube. I watched all of the short films he had posted there in a single night. He literally made me laugh one minute and cry the next. The range of work he has posted is just amazing. You can find his youtube channel right here! Make sure to watch "Clifford's Sovereignty", "Disturbance 2013", and "Kev's Date". Those are my three favorites.


Joe graduated from Columbia College Chicago with a B.A. in Film & a Minor in Theater/Acting in 2006. In 2009 he graduated from the American Film Institute Conservatory with a MFA in directing. He lives in Los Angeles and is currently writing a new feature length screenplay. You can check out his official website at www.joeburke.net.

Joe recently completed NO DEAL, which is an 8 minute comedy starring three terrific actors - Michael Stahl-David (Cloverfield), Ari Graynor (Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, Youth In Revolt, etc.) and Keir O'donnell (Wedding Crashers, Paul Blart Mall Cop). We just finished the film and are now entering the film festival circuit. I wrote and produced the film with Michael Stahl-David.

The official No Deal website is www.nodealthemovie.com, drop by and check it out folks!

Welcome to our new Mooks!

Hi there folks!
Guess what?! We have added two new members to our writing team! Matt Broughton and Josh Chitty joined us after much begging and pestering! These are two very talented writers that are also great friends of Shane and mine. They will be helping us with a few projects that are already in the works. We'll be working with them on their projects as well. This is very exciting news for us, as it means that instead of just one finished screenplay and two or three projects, we have one finished screenplay and now around seven or eight projects!

Good news on the Plateye end too! We started shopping our screenplay out big time yesterday. We've got twelve query letters floating around out there now. This is the hard part. Everybody in the blogosphere will tell you that this stage is where you get discouraged, where your sanity starts slipping away, and where you won't have much luck. I disagree completely. Both Shane and I felt rejuvenated and refreshed when we sent those query letters out. I have nothing but positive feelings about this. I am ready to see our movie made, and to watch it on the big screen (or direct to DVD... hint hint 8 Films to die for!)

I'm going to turn things over to the two new additions for a couple of posts and let them introduce themselves to you fine folks!

New Feature and News!

After watching and speaking with another aspiring filmmaker this week, I have decided that we will be doing a new weekly feature here on the blog. So, to help spread the positive energy of success around, we'll have a spotlight on independent films every Friday. This feature will focus on films (short and feature length) and the artists behind those films. Look forward to seeing our first one this Friday!

In other news, the Mooks have added a new writer to our team. This week, we signed on Joshua Chitty as sort of a staff writer/idea guy. Josh will have his own feature this coming week, so that you can all get to know him. He has already started working with us on a fresh romantic comedy idea of his. That makes four new projects that we are currently working on now. I think we'll finish those out first, then move on to some more. We are also working on signing on a fourth member to our team as well. There will be more on that as it happens.

~Curt

And the Winner is...

A while back, B. Miller had a contest on her blog. I promised that I would name a character in one of our screenplays after the winner. Well, it is now time (actually past time) for me to name the winner!

Karen Gowen, author of Farm Girl and Uncut Diamonds won the contest, and has thereby won our contest as well! Not only is Karen a published author, but she is also an avid blogger. She currently maintains two blogs. Coming Down the Mountain: From Reclusive Writer to Published Author is her writing, editing, and publishing blog and From the Shadows to the Page is a blog that focuses on writing from life. Karen is also an editor for WiDo Publishing.

This awesomely positive and busy lady had a brilliant idea as far as her prize from us. Instead of naming a character after her or one of her characters, she asked that we do a bit of product placement! So, since we are going back over "Plateye" this week and making a few changes, we'll be writing a scene with Gina (our female lead) reading a copy of Uncut Diamonds, Karen's very own book!

We already have some nifty little elements in "Plateye", like a character wearing a "Notafinga" T-Shirt. "Notafinga" is the name of the band that Shane and I have been playing around as. Not that we actually play shows or anything, we just tool around with various instruments and write sometimes goofy songs.

Thanks Karen for being such an awesome person and for having such a great idea!

Issues and Subsriptions

Hiya folks!

I wanted to start off by saying thanks for all the new followers and support. Congrats also to the winner of B. Miller's blog contest! I'll be adding a post very soon with more details on that.

The Mooks also wanted you to know what has been going on with us. Yes, I know, there haven't been any new updates in a while. Shane and I are in a new place. Yup, we moved in together in order to relieve some of the stress of our lives and to make writing together a LOT easier.

So, for the first week or so, our internet has been down. We are now up and operational on that front. We are still getting things together at the house, but that wont stop us from updating and writing. This has also been a long couple of weeks as far as other issues.

We have a friend getting married tomorrow, and both the Mooks are part of the wedding party. The bachelor party was a couple of weekends ago, and we have other fun preparations to get handled as well.

You folks can expect us to get right back on track this coming week though, so continue to bear with us until then.

Thanks,
Curtis Hart & Shane McElveen
"The Mooks"

Paying it Forward

Hi there folks!

I wanted to take a bit of time to tell you about some serious coolness. Our wonderfully awesome and amazing friend B. Miller is running a contest on her blog, B. Miller Fiction, to celebrate having 100 followers! Make sure to click that link and take a look. In fact, and to be much more precise, CLICK THIS LINK That will take you straight to the contest post and rules.

To sweeten the pot, I am offering this. In addition to the sweetness of her prizes, we Mooks will name a character in one of our screenplays after the winner! You heard it right folks! Now, with respect to people's privacy, we will handle that this way:

We can name the character using your first name, screen name, or just a name you really like. We will also post a link to the winner's preferred media here on our blog as well. So, if you are the winner, you get your name used in one of our screenplays, and we will announce you as the winner, with a link to your blog, website, whatever!

And, as Becky is one heck of an inspiration to both Shane and me, we will be running contests as well. More than likely, when we have 50 followers, then 100, then we'll start making stuff up :)