Tuesday, February 2, 2010 By Barb Vancheri, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Screenplays about a time-traveling robot, women reaching beyond their "yinzer" roots and Pittsburghers who don't let a little thing like death stop them from cheering for the Steelers were brought to life Saturday in a competition years in the making.
Steeltown Entertainment Project hosted a sold-out crowd of 150 at its "Scripted Readings: Does the Story Work?" event. It was another step on a road that will end with one to three winning projects being produced here and screened at the Three Rivers Film Festival.
Ten semi-finalists, chosen from a field of 108, were the focus:
"Anywhere But Here" by Ross Thomas.
• "Custom Costume Couriers," Lawrence Phillis, Dave Fedor, Joe Wichryk II and John Feightner.
• "Jed the Humanoid," Nate Minier.
• "Lightweight," Randy Kovitz and Debra Hosking.
• "Making Arrangements," Alyssa Herron.
• "N'At," Adriana Ramirez.
• "Roll the Dice," Lawrence Phillis, Dave Fedor, Joe Wichryk II and John Feightner.
• "See 'Em Forever," Beth Steidle.
• "Steel City Blues," Per Argentine.
• "The Losing End," Ryan Krumm.
A dozen Carnegie Mellon University students read passages from the submissions, and experts complimented, critiqued and shared their perspectives on turning a good script into a great movie.
Carl Kurlander moderated the panel that included "300" producer Bernie Goldmann; actor-producer Joe Coyle; writer-producer Laura Harkcom; WQED Multimedia senior producer Minette Seate; and Asher Garfinkel, president of Readers Unlimited.
The writers now are charged with rewriting their submissions, which will be reviewed and narrowed to five by judges.
That group will move to "The Director's Pitch," a Feb. 20 session at the University of Pittsburgh Frick Fine Arts Building. Competitors will pitch their projects to judges and talk about such details as their vision, locations and what actors they would envision in key roles.
Among the Feb. 20 industry participants: Producer John Dellaverson, a no-show Saturday due to a work conflict, and TV director-producer Jamie Widdoes. They will help narrow the field to three.
"Those three will come to the event on March 27 at Point Park. By the end of the day, we will announce if all three or two or one will win and then they will go into production over the summer," says Jodi S. Klebick, Steeltown's executive director.
She had praise for all of the participants, including the CMU students. Some segued from playing an ailing grandfather to a robot or from a sexual predator to a homespun waitress. "Everyone was impressed."
For more information, see www.SteeltownFilmFactory.org.
Barb Vancheri can be reached at bvancheri@post-gazette.com
First published on February 2, 2010 at 12:00 am
