Creating momentum for your indie movie
 
How do you get good people onboard your production? Sure you need a compelling script, but what you need most after that is momentum. We got this by entering the BlueCat Screenplay Competition in Los Angeles. Back in February 2014 while we were going into pre-production, we got some great news. We heard that MILE END (then under it’s working title ‘Something Changed’) had been shortlisted in the top 10% of more than 4,000 entries.
 

“an extremely unique drama” “we’re intrigued…we just know it’s going to come to a head, and we’re kept in suspense waiting for it” (reader’s reports, BlueCat Screenplay Competition)
 
It’s a great competition because you’re guaranteed two reader’s reports on your script. The report focuses on two questions:

• What did you like about the script?
  
• What do you think needs work?

For me as a writer-director the feedback was invaluable. It was constructive, it helped me iron out a number of inconsistencies and opened my eyes to some blind spots where the script needed to be dramatically stronger.

 
And it was positive. The feedback from the two readers really drew out the strengths of the script. And I can’t tell you how good that feels when you’ve been labouring away on a screenplay and you begin to wonder if you have any objectivity anymore about what you’ve written.
 
Ultimately, it didn’t matter that our script didn’t win – only one script can. It was enough for us to get a real endorsement of the strength of the screenplay and a great boost as we went into pre-production. And it definitely helped in attracting great talent like Director of Photography Anna Valdez Hanks to join the production. It gave us momentum.
 
So thank you BlueCat – you really helped.
 
Posted by Graham Higgins, writer-director MILE END