Available Screenplays:
Feel free to contact me for further information
Modern Persecution
Award winning screenplay.
Logline for Modern Persecution (aka The Great Drama): Committed to an insane asylum by her reverend husband, a mother of five must dig deep within to survive -- and escape. Based on a true story.
Click HERE for more information.
Marina
My latest offering
Logline for Marina: A young schoolteacher risks losing everything to become intimately involved with an adored but unstable celebrity.
The catalyst for this story was my infatuation with actress Vera Farmiga. Think of a contemporary sequel to Carol (Cate Blanchett; Rooney Mara). What happens when they do move in together?
BLUE CAT Critique of Marina:
What did you like about this script?
One of the strongest aspects of Marina lies in the writer’s ability to create characters that feel nuanced, believable, and authentic. Marina and Charli, for example, are both incredibly interesting to follow throughout the story, and their relationship within the narrative allows for a number of really emotional scenes. They are so well-developed that I can’t help but wonder if the writer knows or has known people like them in real life. Their shared scenes together are especially revealing, and their dialogue seems to have a great sense of chemistry. These characters have different personalities and serve as foils to one another, which, in turn, allows for great conflict and chemistry to arise.
In most scenes, the writer has done a good job of making her vision clear to the reader, which is certainly a testament to the writer’s overall skill. Also, the tone is consistent, which allows for an easy and enjoyable read.
Furthermore, the writer should be commended for her ability to stick to three act structure. All of the appropriate story beats occur at just the right time, which is certainly a testament to the writer’s skill.
I found the scene in which Marina has a panic attack and clutches her chest to be really well-written, suspenseful, and harrowing. The writer has done a great job of bringing the stakes to a boiling point, and then allowing it all to simmer in the hospital scene that follows. This sequence reveals a great deal about Marina’s insecurities, character flaws, and what she values at her core. I got to know Marina so much better through this scene. Well done!
In the end, I found it truly heartening to see Marina admit to caring about Keith. This is a great moment to end on, and it serves as a culmination for Marina’s emotionally satisfying character arc. I had hoped that these characters would share the final scene with one another, and I’m happy to see the script end on the strong connection between them.
Overall, Marina is an interesting script with a lot of great attributes. I have just a few suggestions in mind to help move it in an even more positive direction.
What do you think needs work?
Though Marina, Keith, and Charli, for example, are interesting characters, their dialogue does not feel particularly unique to either one of them. Each character’s dialogue should contain speech patterns that differ from one another and it should be difficult to reassign one character’s dialogue to the next. I would suggest going through the entire script to ensure that each character has his or her own distinct voice. This will not only help the reader to easily tell the characters apart, but it will also help in sympathizing with the obstacles and challenges they face.
Also, Marina can benefit from more descriptive action and less dialogue in a number of scenes, specifically in the second and third acts. The great deal of dialogue has resulted in a script that is a bit too talky and at times feels void of the proper imagery. Each and every page in a script should contain a mix of dialogue and descriptive action. This will help to ensure that the story is told in both images and words, as opposed to just one of the two. Providing this mix of descriptive action and dialogue also helps to keep the reader’s attention, as too much descriptive action can be hard to follow.
Lastly, none of the supporting characters feel as well-developed as Marina and Charli. Though they are minor characters in comparison, it is still important that they are just as well fleshed-out as Marina and Charli. I’d like to know more about their backgrounds, so as to have their characters enhance the main storyline and Marina’s overall character arc.
Overall, Marina needs a few edits, but nothing of which the writer is not capable of fixing. In taking the suggested changes into consideration, I am sure that this script will be headed in an even more positive direction. I commend the writer on their effort so far and wish them all the best of luck in future drafts!
Click HERE for more information about Marina.
Helen Hires a Hitman
Based on a novella by my friend, Elizabeth Hawes
Helen is retired librarian whose husband commits suicide rather than face the slow deterioration of Alzheimer's Disease. Helen desires to join her husband in the afterlife. She decides to go where no one knows her to kill herself. Venice is her choice of setting but as fate would have it, a group of former colleagues are there for a librarian convention. In this dark comedy written in a similar vein as A Man Called Ove, Helen's attempts to die are thwarted time and again by strange, perhaps even mystical, circumstance.
Award winning screenplay.
Logline for Modern Persecution (aka The Great Drama): Committed to an insane asylum by her reverend husband, a mother of five must dig deep within to survive -- and escape. Based on a true story.
Click HERE for more information.
Marina
My latest offering
Logline for Marina: A young schoolteacher risks losing everything to become intimately involved with an adored but unstable celebrity.
The catalyst for this story was my infatuation with actress Vera Farmiga. Think of a contemporary sequel to Carol (Cate Blanchett; Rooney Mara). What happens when they do move in together?
BLUE CAT Critique of Marina:
What did you like about this script?
One of the strongest aspects of Marina lies in the writer’s ability to create characters that feel nuanced, believable, and authentic. Marina and Charli, for example, are both incredibly interesting to follow throughout the story, and their relationship within the narrative allows for a number of really emotional scenes. They are so well-developed that I can’t help but wonder if the writer knows or has known people like them in real life. Their shared scenes together are especially revealing, and their dialogue seems to have a great sense of chemistry. These characters have different personalities and serve as foils to one another, which, in turn, allows for great conflict and chemistry to arise.
In most scenes, the writer has done a good job of making her vision clear to the reader, which is certainly a testament to the writer’s overall skill. Also, the tone is consistent, which allows for an easy and enjoyable read.
Furthermore, the writer should be commended for her ability to stick to three act structure. All of the appropriate story beats occur at just the right time, which is certainly a testament to the writer’s skill.
I found the scene in which Marina has a panic attack and clutches her chest to be really well-written, suspenseful, and harrowing. The writer has done a great job of bringing the stakes to a boiling point, and then allowing it all to simmer in the hospital scene that follows. This sequence reveals a great deal about Marina’s insecurities, character flaws, and what she values at her core. I got to know Marina so much better through this scene. Well done!
In the end, I found it truly heartening to see Marina admit to caring about Keith. This is a great moment to end on, and it serves as a culmination for Marina’s emotionally satisfying character arc. I had hoped that these characters would share the final scene with one another, and I’m happy to see the script end on the strong connection between them.
Overall, Marina is an interesting script with a lot of great attributes. I have just a few suggestions in mind to help move it in an even more positive direction.
What do you think needs work?
Though Marina, Keith, and Charli, for example, are interesting characters, their dialogue does not feel particularly unique to either one of them. Each character’s dialogue should contain speech patterns that differ from one another and it should be difficult to reassign one character’s dialogue to the next. I would suggest going through the entire script to ensure that each character has his or her own distinct voice. This will not only help the reader to easily tell the characters apart, but it will also help in sympathizing with the obstacles and challenges they face.
Also, Marina can benefit from more descriptive action and less dialogue in a number of scenes, specifically in the second and third acts. The great deal of dialogue has resulted in a script that is a bit too talky and at times feels void of the proper imagery. Each and every page in a script should contain a mix of dialogue and descriptive action. This will help to ensure that the story is told in both images and words, as opposed to just one of the two. Providing this mix of descriptive action and dialogue also helps to keep the reader’s attention, as too much descriptive action can be hard to follow.
Lastly, none of the supporting characters feel as well-developed as Marina and Charli. Though they are minor characters in comparison, it is still important that they are just as well fleshed-out as Marina and Charli. I’d like to know more about their backgrounds, so as to have their characters enhance the main storyline and Marina’s overall character arc.
Overall, Marina needs a few edits, but nothing of which the writer is not capable of fixing. In taking the suggested changes into consideration, I am sure that this script will be headed in an even more positive direction. I commend the writer on their effort so far and wish them all the best of luck in future drafts!
Click HERE for more information about Marina.
Helen Hires a Hitman
Based on a novella by my friend, Elizabeth Hawes
Helen is retired librarian whose husband commits suicide rather than face the slow deterioration of Alzheimer's Disease. Helen desires to join her husband in the afterlife. She decides to go where no one knows her to kill herself. Venice is her choice of setting but as fate would have it, a group of former colleagues are there for a librarian convention. In this dark comedy written in a similar vein as A Man Called Ove, Helen's attempts to die are thwarted time and again by strange, perhaps even mystical, circumstance.
