Honorable Mentions from Killer Films

By Christine Vachon

Once again, thank you for taking the time to submit your screenplays and pitches to the ViviGeek website. I, along with the rest of the Killer Films staff, thoroughly enjoyed reading all of the submissions that flooded in. There are a few excellent, thought-provoking entries in particular that we feel deserve acknowledgment. Killer Films would like to award Honorable Mention to the following scripts: Half a Stop, Backflip, Tuesday, Looking Glass, and Song of a Fifth Grade Samurai. Please take the time to read these memorable projects written by your peers. Commentary after the jump.

Half a Stop – Half a Stop is totally charming, utilizes a subtle yet effective sense of humor and still manages to deal with some serious subject matter in a lighthearted manner. The script possesses such a consistently enjoyable tone and a fully realized world, with deftly imagined oddball characters fitting in so naturally. The pitch possessed a unique and creative intelligence that stayed with us throughout the submission process.

Backflip – Backflip is a coming of age story about an overweight twelve-year-old girl with a passion for gymnastics. The story follows Amy, her adulterous father Greg, and her self-absorbed mom Sylvia throughout each of their uniquely miserable days. The climax, which takes place at Amy’s gymnastic competition, is a refreshingly bitter take on modern high school life. After Amy misses the all-important backflip her mom races off without acknowledging her, leaving her to walk home with her father in silence. While the characters come off as somewhat one dimensional, this is nevertheless an engaging and well-written piece with great potential.

Tuesday – Brimming with dark humor and narcotic malaise, Tuesday tells the story of Tuesday Cornish, an introspective young pharmacist. Tuesday drifts through work in a daze, daydreaming of a world without prescriptions where everyone could just be happy. This screenplay exhibits a lot of visual inventiveness and a good ear for dialogue. A fantastically delirious dream sequence that wouldn’t feel out of place in a film by Tim Burton or Terry Gilliam. While it would do well to feature more of a dramatic story arc, Tuesday is a sharp and imaginative screenplay that speaks well to our increasingly over-medicated times.

Looking Glass – Looking Glass deserves mention not only for being a well written, original script but for its eerily beautiful pitch video and thoughtful exposition relating to the writer’s intentions as a director. We were able to get a complete picture of the project; its tone, style, and charisma. The effect of the looking glass would be beautiful if done right, and the humorous touches are memorable.

Song of a Fith Grade Samurai – With a great sense of visual humor and a freewheeling sensibility, Song of a Fifth Grade Samurai is an immensely likable screenplay. In a school in which each kid is represented by whichever fantastic character his or her imaginations dictate, Samurai stands alone in his quest for justice and the fight against boredom. Between battling bullies on the playground and teachers in the classroom, Samurai tries to keep afloat and find first love. Song of a Fifth Grade Samurai features a crisp writing style that pops off the page like the best comic book you’ve never read. It’s a perfect encapsulation of that time in all of our lives in which we were only limited by the boundaries of our wildest fantasies. The only thing wrong with this screenplay is that it’s so short!