Film and Writing Festival for Comedy. Showcasing best of comedy short films at the FEEDBACK Film Festival. Plus, showcasing best of comedy novels, short stories, poems, screenplays (TV, short, feature) at the festival performed by professional actors.
– Synopsis – “Elizabeth Bennet is Dead” is written along the lines of films such as “Bridget Jones’s Diary” with its modern take of Mark Darcy, from Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice”. Also, it is similar to “The Wedding Planner” with its comedy and charm.
The story is about Paulette “Polly” Hapsburg, an African American woman who moves to London after hearing the news about the death of Elizabeth Bennet, Mark Darcy’s wife. She succeeds in winning his heart after being mistaken as a member of the Austrian royal house of the Habsburg. Now their relationship has to stand the test of their pride and prejudice as well the fact Polly might face jail by impersonating royalty.
– Summary of where we are when the best scene occurs.- The scene can happen anywhere in the US. Small town or city would work. The scene is an a typical open plan office like on the TV Series “The Office”. The scene is at the beginning of the film setting up the story and the Protagonists on her comedic adventure.
CAST LIST:
Narrator: Esther Thibault
Polly: Val Cole
Mark Darcy: Geoff Mays
Disc Jockey: Matt Barnes
Peter: Steve Rizzo
In 2009 London, Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love and beauty, finally finds a person that could spell the end of her being trapped in the body of a dirty, ugly beggar, and get reunited with her long-lost love Ares, the god of war, who is now instigating violence and anarchy through social media. That person is Dr. Drake, a university teacher who lives with his mother, is disliked by his students and shies away from any form of physical contact with women. Can a person who has never experienced love actually bring this emotion of true love back to a world that has reached its apogee of cynicism?
CAST LIST:
Narartor: Matt Barnes
HELEN: Val Cole
SUE: Esther Teeboo
Mr. KAEMON: Manny Pacheco
HUGH JORGAN: Geoff Mays
An untraditional family where the kids are adults and the parents are kids, navigate through their work, school and home lives while never losing their sense of humor.
CAST LIST:
Narration: Danielle Nicole
Howard Downing – Sean Tabaras
Carol Downing – Val Cole
Billy Downing – Geoff Mays
Kate Downing – Esther Teeboo
The story follows a scientist named Dr Blank who is terrible at inventing things but wants as he attempts to gain fame and fortune in his numerous attempts at inventing things that sound cool but don’t work the way you expect them to.
When the scene occurs, Dr Blank *decides* he should become an evil scientist instead and instead of inventing he resorts to stealing inventions as it would be more evil. The scene is of Dr Blank stealing a death ray created by another more successful evil scientist, Dr Painkiller and the scene occurs from the point of view of two inept security guards who are supposed to be keeping an eye on it.
CAST LIST:
Narrator: Val Cole
Officer #2 – Manny Pacheco
Officer #1 – Geoff Mays
Old Lady #2 – Danielle Niole
Old Lady #1 – Esther Thibault
An intensive workaholic, in order to save his marriage, goes on a Valentine’s Day journey for the perfect gift. It becomes a journey not only for gifts bur for self-discovery.
In this scene Hank is frantically trying to find an alternate gift for his wife since his procrastination has made his originally planned gift unattainable.
Visual Design & Editor: Kimberly Villarruel
Producer: Matthew Toffolo
Voice Over Performers: Narrator: Matt Barnes
Hank: Geoff Mays
Apple Genius: Manny Pacheco
Sales Clerk: Esther Thibault
Clerk: Steve Rizzo
When a family man gains instant celebrity status as TV spokesman, his newfound celebrity threatens to tear his family apart and challenge his notion of a happy life.
Editor & Visual Design by Kimberly Villarruel
Voice Actors:
Sean Ballantyne
Matt Barnes
Christopher Bautista
Cassandra Guthrie
Allison Kampf
Erica Levine
Luke Robinson
An ordinary man one day realizes that he has the power to make people explode when he gives them the middle finger. With great power comes great responsibility, until he meets a man with an equally powerful middle finger.
What genres does your screenplay under?
comedy/sci-fi
Why should this screenplay be made into a movie?
It plays on the superhero film craze, then turns it on its head.
How would you describe this script in two words?
Mmmm. Bop.
What movie have you seen the most times in your life?
Dumb and dumber, Jurassic Park, and Star Wars.
How long have you been working on this screenplay?
This screenplay was written during my time working as a sound mixer on the latest Children of the Corn film. In between setups I would come to other crew members and as suggestions similar to an improv show setup. It took me the duration of filming to finish the screenplay.
How many stories have you written?
I have been writing short films for over 15 years. In that time I have reached final draft over 30 times.
What motivated you to write this screenplay?
The shoot for children of the corn was very heavy, and this script was an attempt to boost morale. It worked.
What obstacles did you face to finish this screenplay?
Honestly, the only obstacle was convincing the children of the corn producer to read the script. He eventually did. And apparently he laughed his ass off.
Apart from writing, what else are you passionate about?
I love doing standup comedy in my free time.
Any advice or tips you’d like to pass on to other writers?
Don’t overanalyze your work. Finish a script and submit it. Then keep writing.
Bubu and Toufik think they are the next Steve Jobs and Martin Zuckerberg… They have implanted a chip in their brain, which gives them access to the web… giving them instant access to universal knowledge. For their first experiment, they test it on picking up girls…
Read the audience transcript of CHICKLAND:
Moderator, Matthew Toffolo: Chickland, the film from France. Some of the greatest inventions of all time have been created to help guys pick up girls or girls pick up guys. This is one of those things and I have a feeling that within our lifetime we are going to have something very similar to this; a device where we can pick up information like this.
Audience Member 1: I thought the premise of the film was absolutely hilarious and very timely, like with Google Glass. Apparently the motivation for the invention of Facebook was to get the geek squad out of their dorm rooms and into the coolest parties. I actually found the film quite convincing and even the reaction of the women to their pick-up lines and being able to create that connection. I thought it was very believable.
Audience Member 2: Yeah I also thought it was interesting that you said it was a devise to pick up girls and it should give them all this confidence and every advantage but in the end you see both of them, their personalities and their humanity show through in very different ways, but it doesn’t work out for either one of them.
Moderator: Obviously it could work out but I guess they get a soul in the end, right? I guess with one of the guys it could have worked out.
Audience Member 3: Part of it is, they get in over their heads. He’s trying to talk about opera and stuff and he’s mispronouncing words, and he doesn’t really know what he’s saying even though he’s got the information in front of him. That reminded me of a bit I saw from when they rigged game shows in the 1950s. There was a woman who was asked “who wrote The Three Musketeers?” and she says “Alexander Dumb-ass” because she’d been given the answer but she didn’t know [how to pronounce] the answer. And here he was having the same kind of reaction.
Moderator: It’s Dumas, right?
Audience Member 3: Yes, yes. But the woman didn’t know. So it was the same thing here. He was deeply over his head but he was trying to have this conversation with her. I’m interested, how did the women in the room react to this film as opposed to the guys. I mean on some level I’m cheering for these guys – even though its… You know what I mean?
Moderator: Yeah, I get it… We’re kind of douchebags. We are cheering for them! We’re rooting for them all the way.
Audience Member 4: I really did appreciate the premise, I thought it was fascinating and also very current and timely, especially with the new app “Happen” that came out recently. But I actually found the premise a little unnerving and kind of creepy. I was like, oh my God this could be happening to me and I wouldn’t even know! So I did find it a little creepy but only because it’s right on the edge of what could potentially happen.
Moderator: Yeah but we also already do it, like say you go on a blind date. You can look up that person and know all this information about them. It was kind of a clever movie where you see the guy trying to pick up the girl and she was trying to be clever with him and joke around but he was too focused on getting her attention that it all went over his head. We still need that human contact. That’s why it didn’t work out for that one guy.
Audience Member 5: What I liked about this whole film was actually the title, “Chickland”, because you have these two guys trying to pick up these “chicks” and in the end they both “chicken” out.
Moderator: Oh the double meaning, gotcha. Okay so we’ve got the guys rooting for the pick-up and a couple comments from girls saying their disturbed by it. Are there any other female comments about this film? It is happening. Eventually, right?
Audience Member 6: I think it’s hilarious that the women were so intuitive and on the ball. I think that was a fabulous portrayal.
Audience Member 7: I think I’ve read or seen some similar types of premises in “Black Mirror” which is a fantastic TV series that talks about stuff like this as well as science fiction. This is less scary because this is just them getting information, and I don’t know about everyone else but spewing information doesn’t really create a connection. But in future, being able to detect emotion – that’s scarier because that’s harder to detect than just spewing information. If you can get into a deeper level, that’s way scarier.
Moderator: Yeah that is very scary. I can’t even imagine how they would even be able to invent that. But I guess they could eventually, right?
Audience Member 7: Well they know how to do data analysis and facial recognition. There’s all this technology around.
Moderator: Yeah, so funny but creepy at the same time.
PROVERBIAL LUCK, 5min, Austria, Romance/Comedy
DEADLY VIEW, 3min., Ireland, Thriller/Mystery
1st Scene Screenplay – MAN SEEKING MONKEY
Feature Screenplay – MISPRINTS
Short Story Reading – RANDY & PATRICIA JOIN A MILITIA
FANTASY FOOTBALL: A NERD’S TALE
Feature Screenplay – DEAD NORTH
Best Scene Screenplay – LE CHAT NOIR
TV PILOT Screenplay – MAILROOMIES
Short Screenplay – GARY’S GIRLS
TV PILOT Screenplay – MARRIAGE EQUALITY
Short Story Reading – COUNT WILLIAM
Short Story Reading – MASSIVE MASTIFF
1st Scene Screenplay – THE WEDDING THIEF
