Screengrab of quote on The Blacklist Film & TV Writer’s Calendar
Not all screenwriters are brainstorming in the writer’s room of a hit TV show or arguing dialogue lines on the set of a summer blockbuster with a director or cast member.
Many, let’s face it, most, are toiling away either waiting for their first break into the industry or doing smaller budget project with paychecks nowhere close to WGA scale.
So anything FREE is worth looking into as a screenwriter.
Two recent offerings that could assist many screenwriters hoping to make their name in a festival or spruce up their pitch or even brainstorm an idea visually are The Blacklist’s 2014 Film and Television Writing Calendar and Amazon Studio’s Storyteller.
The Blacklist Calendar is free online and filled with tons of deadlines for screenwriting contests and festivals of all kind, as well as mentorship programs such as the Women In Film Mentoring Program deadline on June 13, 2014.
Amazon Storyteller is a free storyboard program currently in beta. Now what’s in your head doesn’t have to only be on paper. It allows those of us who can barely draw a stick figure to “picture” a scene.
Both the Calendar and Storyteller have limitations.* When I visit the Calendar online, I’d love to see a way to download it or integrate with my own calendar. If that is possible, I can’t figure out how. Storyteller is only available if you are part of Amazon Studio. That might not be your cup of tea, but you can learn more about the storyboard software on tested.com, where Jeanne Bowerman, Editor of Scriptmag, took it for a drive.
Now get writing!
— AMANDA LIN COSTA
* UPDATE 1/31/13 – Turns out The Blacklist Calendar is perfect! They kindly reached out to me on Twitter and I realized my browser screen was slightly zoomed in. Links to Google/iCal version are in the lower left hand corner. I love Twitter.
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