Thanks!
Red Planet Page 18
Had a look at Danny's top 10 cliche list and guess what? I have never been guilty of having used any of them!!
Yahooo! Yippeee! Yahay!
I always knew I was a top writer. All I need is fame and fortune and that will prove it 
Pleased to find I don't use the cliches either, and never even thought of them as storytelling devices. Funerals, lotteries, waking routines? Never struck me as areas to explore.
Oddly though, The Slagg Brothers have written one screenplay that uses flashback and voiceover in the opening chase scene but it was strangely our most 'successful' (with a small s) script, despite using three cliches.
So what lessons do I draw from that?
Yes know what you mean SlagA. I see all kinds of contradictions in this writing lark.
For example I have heard people saying that it's wrong to write "we see the .... etc etc" in a script.
I then look at the John malkovich competition that someone posted a link about here and in the great man's own hand (allegedly) we see this very faux pas in style and format.
I always knew he'd get nowhere 
I think writing is an instinct and a craft. Practice and feedback sharpens those two sides to our writing.
Playing with cliche and run-of-the-mill plots can be used to a writer's advantage to catch out the reader as long as the cliche isn't developed for so long that the reader gives up before the knife is turned. Woody Allen's opening voiceover in Manhattan is a good example of subverting viewer expectations. "Here we go, mundane voiceover," thinks the viewer. Then Bang! The voiceover leaves the well-beaten tracks far behind and you know something different is happening.
Yep, the Malkovic screenplay is radically different to how we're told to write but I think that the general rule is that a Hollywood screenplay is completely different in style to any other screenplay style. Every HW screenplay I've seen is more a mental picture novelisation than a screenplay. They often tell you what the character is feeling, the mood, camera angles, everything we're told not to do.
"The dawn is grey, dour. Clouds are driven by an ice-cold wind. JANE scans the horizon. She frowns as if she's expecting someone who's late. We see here from above, she looks small and vulnerable, alone on the heath."
That's Hollywood for you. No wonder there's sod-all dialogue in their films (excepting David Mamet)
Hey don't leave us hanging there! What happens to Jane next? 
I think we can get hung up on format etc but I believe that, within reason, as long as a piece is presented in a reader-friendly way and that the reader knows what they are reading for, then if it's a good piece, it will be considered and appraised accordingly.
That's not to say that we shouldn't try our best to present our work proper an' all that - cos if we do then it shows that we is at least trying to do it right an' that innit?
Hi everyone! It says on Danny Stack's blog that the 'next announcement', I suppose that must mean the final shortlist, will be announced after Christmas, so quite a while to wait for those who got through! I wonder if that means they have a lot of full length scripts to read?
I lost interest after I didn't get selected because they obviously don't recognise talent.
I thought it had already been whittled down to about 6.
Anyone know what's happening about Red Planet this year?
The site still says details will be on the site shortly but it's getting late this year.
What ever happened to the poster who did well in this who wrote the screenplay with the pigmy hippo?
Quote: Dolly Dagger @ August 5 2009, 8:45 PM BSTWhat ever happened to the poster who did well in this who wrote the screenplay with the pigmy hippo?
I guess the pigmy hippo had difficulty with the keyboard.
Quote: Chappers @ August 5 2009, 8:49 PM BSTI guess the pigmy hippo had difficulty with the keyboard.
It was only a pigmy one, it should have been fine.
Quote: Griff @ August 5 2009, 9:15 PM BSTI trust everyone is aware that Mr.Bandage, late of this parish, was one of their finalists last year?
I didn't know that.
Is that why he won't associate himself with us?
What did he write?
I spoke with a very nice lady at Red Planet about a month back and at the time she said to check the website in a couple of months for an update on the PRIZE. So I'd check the website about the end of August/start of September.