TV PILOT COMEDY – REMOTELY WORKING, by Bill Baber

May 22, 2018 comedyfestival comedy tv show, sitcom tv, Uncategorized, winning screenplays by Bill Baber, REMOTELY WORKING, table read, television shows, tv pilot

Genre: Comedy

This sitcom web series pilot features five quirky diverse millennials who work remotely for an international tech corporation. They struggle with online meetings, living on the road, and working from “wherever.” Each lone wolf must cooperate with the others, or everyone will be fired. Meanwhile, none of these independent co-dependents has a personal life that is even remotely working. (Single-camera TV-14)

CAST LIST:

Anna: Alicia Payne
Nav: Tim Paul McCarthy
Akihiro: Scott McCulloch
Narrator: Hugh Ritchie
Phil: Rais Moui
Kate: Jane Smythe
Chloe: Lara Amersey

Get to know the writer:

1. What is your TV Pilot screenplay about?

This is the pilot episode of the Remotely Working web series that satirizes our online world.

In the Pilot: Phil thinks the team’s conference call is audio only…. but it isn’t!

In the Series: Five quirky diverse millennials work remotely for an international tech corporation. They struggle with online meetings, living on the road, and working from “wherever.” Each lone wolf must cooperate with the others, or everyone will be fired. Meanwhile, none of these independent co-dependents has a personal life that is even remotely working.

2. Why should this screenplay be made into a TV show?

43% of global workers try, at least once, to work remotely. We hope there is an audience who will laugh at the inherent tensions in being a “professional” while fumbling with your laptop or phone in a bedroom, car, coffee-house, hotel bar, or many other inconvenient places. Plus, everyone knows, but won’t admit, that a virtual relationship lacks something essential. Can you truly love someone you can’t smell?

3. How would you describe this script in two words?

Millenial satire.

4. What TV show do you keep watching over and over again?

Silicon Valley, Brockmire, Entourage, Veep, Twilight Zone.

5. How long have you been working on this screenplay?

My creative partners (Scott Crosby and Dan Douglass) and I have worked on this particular script for seven months.

Thank you for the honor of a performance reading of our script.

6. How many stories have you written?

I’ve written the first season of Remotely Working (eight episodes) and six feature screenplays.

7. What is your favorite song? (Or, what song have you listened to the most times in your life?)

Hotel California.

8. What obstacles did you face to finish this screenplay?

It could not exceed 15 pages, so that meant: chop, chop, rewrite, and chop.

9. Apart from writing, what else are you passionate about?

My wife and kids. Serving on the City Council in my town of La Mesa, California.

10. What influenced you to enter the festival? What were your feelings on the initial feedback you received?

The opportunity for a performance reading is priceless. The initial feedback was helpful and we made many of the suggested changes.

11. You entered your screenplay via FilmFreeway. What has been your experiences working with the submission platform site?

I have tried all the major platforms and Film Freeway is the best.

12. Any advice or tips you’d like to pass on to other writers?

If you can complete a screenplay, you have done something others only dream about. If your art is never read, or never produced, you still have made art.

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Producer: Matthew Toffolo http://www.matthewtoffolo.com

Director: Kierston Drier

Casting Director: Sean Ballantyne

Editor: Kimberly Villarruel

Camera Op: Mary Cox

COMEDY BEST SCENE Reading: THE SKY BELOW, by Stacey D’Erasmo

May 14, 2018May 14, 2018 comedyfestival comedy festival, comedy stories, table read, tableread, Uncategorized, winning screenplays, writing festival by Stacey D’Erasmo, COMEDY BEST SCENE Reading, The Sky Below

Genre: Drama, Comedy

The story of Gabriel Callahan’s life, beginning with his father’s abandonment when Gabriel was a child and tracing his ambivalent search for wholeness through adolescence and into adulthood.

CAST LIST:

Keir
Robin: Salma Dharsee
Taxi Driver: Zazu Oke
Narrator: Elizabeth Rose Morriss
Lim: Allan Michael Brunet
Aunty Chin: Courtney Keir

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Producer: Matthew Toffolo http://www.matthewtoffolo.com

Director: Matthew Toffolo

Casting Director: Sean Ballantyne

Editor: Kimberly Villarruel

Camera Op: Mary Cox

April 2018 COMEDY Stories, Screenplays, Short Films

May 2, 2018 comedyfestival comedy feature screenplay, comedy festival, comedy short film, comedy short script, comedy stories, comedy tv show, short screenplay, table read, tableread, wildsound festival review, winning screenplays, writing festival April 2018 COMEDY Stories, Screenplays, Short FIlms

Submit your Comedy Screenplay or Film to the Festival Today: http://festivalforcomedy.com

Festival for Comedy-A FilmFreeway preferred festival:
‘

A GOOD BLINDER, 26min., USA, Documentary

YOURS FAITHFULLY EDNA WELTHORPE (MRS), UK, Animation/Comedy

GLOBAL FUN – TV Best Scene Screenplay
April 2018 Reading
by Josep Colomer

INFINITE NOT BEYOND – 1pg. Short Screenplay
April 2018 Reading
by T.J. Peters

****

Producer/Director: Matthew Toffolo http://www.matthewtoffolo.com

Festival Moderators: Kierston Drier, Shepsut Wilson
Casting Director: Sean Ballantyne
Editor: Kimberly Villarruel

Festival Directors: Mary Cox, Rachel Elder, Natasha Levy

Camera Operators: John Johnson, Isabal Cupryn, Aser Santos Jr., Zack Arch

COMEDY BEST SCENE Reading: UNFINISHED BUSINESS by Deborah Klika

April 24, 2018 comedyfestival comedy festival, tableread, Uncategorized, wildsound festival review, winning screenplays best scene reading, best scene screenplay table readings, UNFINISHED BUSINESS by Deborah Klika

Genre: Comedy, Political

Unfinished Business is about a political chief of staff who decides to stand for her dead lover’s seat. When he returns his unfinished business becomes her problem. Veep meets The Ghost & Mrs Muir.

CAST LIST:

Martin: Isaiah Kolundzic
Narrator: Elizabeth Rose Morriss
Amanda: Courtney Keir
Lana: Marissa Otto

Get to know the writer:

1. What is your screenplay about?

A comedy about gendered politics – in this world and the next.

2. What genres does your screenplay fall under?

Half hour studio based TV comedy

3. Why should this screenplay be made into a movie?

It’s funny. It explores how our actions in this world might affect our status in the next.

4. How would you describe this script in two words?

Ghostly Politics.

5. What movie have you seen the most times in your life?

The Apartment by Billy Wilder

6. How long have you been working on this screenplay?

5 years

7. How many stories have you written?

Four TV scripts, another three proposals and working on a feature.

8. What is your favorite song? (Or, what song have you listened to the most times in your life?)

MacArthur Park

9. What obstacles did you face to finish this screenplay?

People telling me to give it up – no one cares about the ghost. But I do.

10. Apart from writing, what else are you passionate about?

Good television; new ways of telling stories, new ideas and perspectives.

11. You entered your screenplay via FilmFreeway. What has been your experiences working with the submission platform site?

Very good

12. What influenced you to enter the festival? What were your feelings on the initial feedback you received?

I have entered before and the staff were great. Feedback is on point and assisted in improving the script. I would recommend this festival – people care about the work and the writing.

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Producer: Matthew Toffolo http://www.matthewtoffolo.com

Director: Matthew Toffolo

Casting Director: Sean Ballantyne

Editor: Kimberly Villarruel

Camera Op: Mary Cox

TV COMEDY BEST SCENE Reading: THE GLOBAL FUND, by Josep Colomer

April 24, 2018 comedyfestival comedy festival, comedy tv show, table read, tableread, television shows, TV show review, Uncategorized, wildsound festival review, winning screenplays, writing festival by Josep Colomer, comedy television, comedy tv shows, THE GLOBAL FUND

Genre: Comedy

The Global Fund is a parodical global economic institution, headquartered in Washington, whose Director and Staff attempt –and often fail– to rule over the various countries of the world. They clash and try to make an arrangement with the Presidenta of a country in debt.

CAST LIST:

Neck: Hugh Ritchie
Narrator: Elizabeth Rose Morriss
Bicker: Allan Michael Brunet
Rodriguez: Isaiah Kolundzic

Get to know the writer:

1. What is your TV PILOT screenplay about?

Paul Bicker is the Director of the Global Fund, an international public institution that tries to prescribe what to do to the various countries of the world. In the pilot, Bicker pretends to address the huge debt of a South American country with an incompetent government. He reaches a deal with the ignorant and arrogant Presidenta of Platonia to trade off the economic policy dictated by the Global Fund with permission for the country to keep its domestic politics and elections, which generates a catastrophe.

2. What genres does your screenplay fall under?

Political satire. Comedy.

3. Why should this screenplay be made into a TV show?

The Trump’s presidency, Brexit, the rising of populist and nationalist movements, have opened a new golden era for political satire. But no sitcom has dealt yet with the global institutions, such as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and alike, which have recently become more and more powerful over the entire world economy and are now the main target of politicians’ and voters’ backlash in many countries.

4. How would you describe this script in two words?

Globalization fun.

5. What movie have you seen the most times in your life?

Casablanca.

6. How long have you been working on this screenplay?

Several years doing academic research on the global institutions in Washington, and about a year to write the satirical version.

7. How many stories have you written?

I have published a dozen academic monographs, textbooks and non-fictions essays; I have also a satirical campus novel written; this is my first TV screenplay.

8. What is your favorite song? (Or, what song have you listened to the most times in your life?)

As time goes by.

9. What obstacles did you face to finish this screenplay?

I know the technocratic jargon and the political speech well, but I needed to give a different voice to every character, which I was not used to do.

10. Apart from writing, what else are you passionate about?

Movies.

11. You entered your screenplay via FilmFreeway. What has been your experiences working with the submission platform site?

So far it has offered me this nice opportunity to have a video for promotion, which I didn’t find elsewhere.

12. What influenced you to enter the festival? What were your feelings on the initial feedback you received?

The initial feedback was very helpful, although the reviewers didn’t know much about the global institutions that I am satirizing and I had to clarify. This confirms that this TV show is necessary for the education of the public about the importance of the current governance of the world; I think a satirical comedy may be an effective way to explain how they work and to call the attention to the opportunities and perils they bring about.

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Producer: Matthew Toffolo http://www.matthewtoffolo.com

Director: Matthew Toffolo

Casting Director: Sean Ballantyne

Editor: Kimberly Villarruel

Camera Op: Mary Cox