After a huge number of submissions for Tokyo Lift-Off Film Festival, here are the 5 screenplays officially selected to go forward onto the Community platform. Congratulations all!
In order to read the screenplays, sign up to the Lift-Off Community here:
The Angel Rainbow Car Wash – Tom Rossi
SYNOPSIS: Former blues musician, James Carver, is alone, hiding inside a liquor bottle and running out his life in a run-down car wash on the West side of Chicago. After receiving a phone call from his estranged daughter’s deathbed, he reluctantly visits her after more than a decade… only to watch her die. James is forced to accept her dying wish and become the caretaker for Gregory, the 5-year old grandson he’s never met.
What was the inspiration behind this screenplay?
The inspiration for the screenplay came as I sat in my car in a thunderstorm. As the rain splattered the city lights into a faceted spectrum on my windshield, I thought this must be what it’s like to be inside a rainbow. My second thought was, if you have nothing but storms in your life, the promise of a rainbow just may give you hope. And from there, the premise of a rainbow as a symbol of redemption came about.
What are you looking for to take this project to the next stage?
My hope is that I might secure a manager or agent who wants to bring my screenplay to producers willing to finance development, or actors who want to sign on to a character-driven story…or directors who have the vision to bring this story into a finished film.
The best advice I ever had was that the best stories do not come from experience or imagination but from one’s heart.
READ THE SCREENPLAY HERE
Children of the Dust – John McCarney
SYNOPSIS: In an intertwining story based on true events, three very different men desperately save as many babies from war-torn Vietnam as they can.
What was the inspiration behind this screenplay?
A sense that I was in a safe place while others died. This was a very cathartic writing experience that helped me deal with some terrible guilt.
What are you looking for to take this project to the next stage?
As it will probably be a large budget project, to expose it to A-list directors and actors to champion the script into production.
What advice has helped you get where you are now?
To be passionate and persistent. Also to be receptive to coverage and notes.
READ THE SCREENPLAY HERE
Godkin – Serge Magnavox
SYNOPSIS: Frightened parents send their 12-year-old daughter to a mental institution out of ignorance, though their child has communicative abilities beyond human capacity.
What was the inspiration behind this screenplay?
During my undergrad at GMU’s Film and Video Studies program, a classmate specializing in VFX asked me to write about space. Immediately my mind ran wild with the thought that space is not a vast expanse which we don’t understand, but an organ in an organ system; a part of a network which can communicate with similar and nearby parts. Of course, to understand this network, one would need a translator, and this is where Anna and the concept of all Godkin come from: they are the translators and essentially the new generation equipped with an evolved sense of communication. I also wonder how Aliens think 99% of the time I’m writing or drawing. Aliens will always be my inspiration.
What are you looking for to take this project to the next stage?
Other than funding? I am looking for a team of artists with a similar vision, and/or belief, which will bring this world to life. Because Godkin are extrasensory, they do not see as humans do, and such effects need to be expressed both artistically yet concisely. Godkin needs visual effects specialists, animators and most importantly a director, to transform words on a page into a world an audience can invest in.
What advice has helped you get where you are now?
Since I was writing this script as a student I was shaky in my ability to create as I naturally would. My professors often made remarks like “you should copyright that before someone steals it!” or “if you don’t see it, why not make it yourself?” I got to where I am now not only by receiving validation from seasoned producers and mentors but being told to express myself as honestly and as loudly as I possibly can. What else do filmmakers do other than that?
READ THE SCREENPLAY HERE
Hollow Earth Quest – Kathy Krantz Stewart & Danny Weiss
SYNOPSIS: In 1985 Dan interviews Ritter Von X, German scientist living at secret Arctic Nazi military base disguised as a weather station. X tells Dan about Hollow Earth, and alien being, Thal. Coded Biblical stories conceal the truth of Jesus’ magnetic powers common to citizens of Earth’s interior. Assisted in his resurrection by UFO commander, Thal, Jesus lives inside the Earth to this day.
What was the inspiration behind the screenplay?
I would like to contact those who would be willing to help qualify the screenplay and a financial analysis, a business summary for investors, secure talent, sales agents and distributors, ultimately ready to be presented to executive producers for production.
Please note that a sequel to the Hollow Earth Quest has been completed called, Escape to the Hollow Earth (120 pages) and look forward submitting this screenplay to the Lift-Off festivals.
What advice has helped to get where you are now.
ODDBALL WONDERFUL – John-Mark Davidson
SYNOPSIS: A Brazilian woman visits small-town America to meet her husband-to-be’s family and decide on her future.
What was the inspiration behind this screenplay?
I’m an American who moved with my wife to Brazil, and so I’m familiar with the unique joys and strains that come with transitioning into a new culture. This story was particularly inspired by two friends of mine who are in the process of moving to the US together. I wrote it more or less as a gift to them.
What are you looking for to take this project to the next stage?
I’m looking for anyone who believes in this project and can see rainbows for it on down the highway.
What advice has helped you get where you are now?
I heard Charlie Kaufman relay the Thomas Mann quote: “A writer is someone for whom writing is more difficult.” That one has reassured me when I’ve needed it most.
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