An interview with Matt Dy: Director of Script Competitions at the 2018 Austin Film Festival

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Executive Director and Co-Founder of the Austin Film Festival Barbara Morgan talks with the 2017 AFF Awardees: Walter Hill, Keenen Ivory Wayans, and Kenneth Lonergan.

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If you have ambitions of pursuing a career as a screenwriter or television showrunner then I’d highly recommend you attend the Austin Film Festival. I attended the 2018 Austin Film Festival Writer’s Conference and found it to be a very rewarding and exciting opportunity to connect with industry professionals as well as up and coming writers. This interview with Matt Dy, the Director of Competitions about the 2018 Austin Film Festival will give you a comprehensive overview of what the festival is about and why you should enter the competition. The 2019 Austin Film Festival runs from October 24th to the 31st.

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We all have favourite stories – favourite films – favourite television shows and books and plays – because these stories somehow reach us. They make us laugh, or cry, or reflect more deeply about life, or simply give us a momentary escape from our troubles.

That’s why I’m really excited to announce that my play Masquerade is a finalist in the stage play competition at this years Austin Film Festival – which is a festival that’s dedicated to story. Masquerade is about an empty nest couple, Sarah and Glenn, that have drifted apart. They were talking divorce and selling the house until they discovered a book called: A Good Marriage is Just a Fantasy by Dr. Ravi Shasta. Basically, it’s a book about exploring your sexual fantasies with your partner. Unfortunately, sometimes what is real and what is fantasy can become blurred and what was intended to bring a couple closer together can sometimes drive them apart. 

My play gets a workshop reading on Saturday, October, 27th from 2:45 pm to 4:15 pm in the InterContinental Stephen F. Austin, State Boardroom. There are a total of nine scripts that have been selected for readings at this year’s festival and you can check out the complete schedule of readings at the Austin Film Festival website.

The Austin Film Festival runs from October 25th to November 1st and is a celebration of film and television that focuses on story and the people who write the screenplays and teleplays. The festival features industry professionals as well as up and coming writers. I’ll be flying down to Austin to participate in the festival as well the staged reading of my play. I gave Matt Dy, the Director of Competitions for The Austin Film Festival, a call to talk to him about how the festival began and what participants can expect.

Gabbi Lindgren, Script Competitions Coordinator & Matt Dy, Director of Script Competitions – Austin Film Festival

JAMES HUTCHISON

The Austin Film Festival was founded in 1993 by Barbara Morgan, who still serves as Festival Director, for the purpose of furthering the art and craft and business of screenwriting and filmmaking. So, I’m curious over the last twenty-five-year history of the festival how have those founding goals been developed?

MATT DY

The Festival was also co-founded by Marsha Milam who is still involved in a limited capacity, but Barbara Morgan is sole Executive Director for the Festival now. The two of them started the festival because they felt there was a need for a community like this. There really wasn’t a writer’s festival let alone very many screenplay competitions at the time. There were maybe a handful and now there are hundreds of them in existence, but we’re one of the original ones which is a really nice thing to be able to say.

The thing that still remains intact over the twenty-five-year history of the festival is our goal and mission to champion the screenwriter. We’re now open to playwrights and eventually we may become more of a hub for all forms of story because we’re also expanding into fiction podcasting and we have a digital series component as well – content for the web – so there’s a lot of different formats that we’ve embraced over the years but the mission to champion the writer is still the same.

First Day of the Austin Film Festival in 2017 – a room full of storytellers.

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13 Links to 13 Things on Friday the 13th

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Here it is Friday the 13th. Are you superstitious? Well, whether you’re superstitious or not here are 13 Links to 13 Things on Friday the 13th.

13 Things Bad Screenwriters Commonly Do by Brad Schreiber

“Applicable to drama or comedy, these obvious faults aren’t any laughing matter. As a young screenwriter hoping to open doors with a script or your first film based on that script, you can metaphorically shoot yourself in the foot. There are simple mistakes that will say to potential investors, agents, producers, distributors, directors and others that you are not quite ready to enter the world of feature filmmaking.”

13 Things You Think Are True, But Aren’t by Adam Conover

There are a lot of “facts” out there that we think are true that aren’t, but as Adam Conover from CollegeHumor points out they all tell a good story and people like a good story. 

13 Funniest tweets about New Year resolutions by Helena Horton

My favourite Tweet from the list, “My New Year’s resolution is simply to remember to write 2017 instead of 2016.” [Read more…]

Calgary International Film Festival 2017

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Courtesy Magnolia Pictures

The Calgary International Film Festival just announced that Harry Dean Stanton’s last film, Lucky, has been added to the schedule.

That’s exciting news!

I’ve been looking forward to catching this film ever since I came across the trailer about a month ago. Hooray for last minute additions! But Lucky is only one of over 200 films you can see at this year’s festival which runs from Wednesday September 20th to Sunday October 1st. You can check out my picks for the festival below or head over to the Calgary International Film Festival web site and check out the entire festival line up of films, galas and behind the screen events.

Lucky

“Harry Dean Stanton is Lucky, an offbeat 90-year-old atheist in a small desert town, in John Carroll Lynch’s directorial debut that focuses on mortality and loneliness.”

Reasons for wanting to see: Harry Dean Stanton – David Lynch – and a tortoise named President Roosevelt. Need I say more, ladies and gentlemen?

Joe Leydon from Variety says, “Everything Harry Dean Stanton has done in his career, has brought him to his moment of triumph in “Lucky,” an unassumingly wonderful little film about nothing in particular and everything that’s important.”

  • Wednesday September 27, 9:45 PM at Cineplex Eau Claire 5
  • Sunday October 1, 4:45 PM at Cineplex Eau Claire 1

AWARDS: Prize of the Ecumenical Jury – Locarno Film Festival

John Carroll Lynch recalls directing Harry Dean Stanton in his last film, “Lucky.”

A Day

“Two men must relive the most terrible day of their lives in this expertly written thriller from Korean director Cho Sun-ho.”

Reason for wanting to see: I like time loop movies like Groundhog Day, Edge of Tomorrow or Source Code. Need I say more? Need I say more? Need I say more?

John DeFore from the Hollywood reporter says, “…the story pushes into themes of guilt, revenge and forgiveness, finding a resolution that is both unexpected and poignant.” 

  • Saturday September 23, 7:15 PM at Cineplex Eau Claire 6
  • Wednesday September 27, 10:00 pm at Cineplex Eau Claire 6

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Five Festive Holiday Films Ho! Ho! Ho!

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It’s the holiday season and that means it’s time to cuddle up by the fire, grab a mug of mulled wine or your significant other, or both, and watch your favourite Holiday flicks. And with the temperatures dipping to -26 Celsius here in Calgary a warm holiday drink is a welcome respite from the cold. And maybe that’s why we like holiday films. Mulled wine can warm our physical body but a good holiday film can warm our soul. And that’s probably because most of the time holiday films are life affirming. They’re feel good movies and God knows we could certainly use some feel good movies this holiday season. So here are five holiday recommendations. 

Planes, Trains and Automobiles

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Do you have a tagline?

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Do you have a tag line for your story? If not, why not? A tag line is a great way to hook your reader, and a great way to get them interested in reading your story or play. You’ve got a title, now add a tag line.

You do have a title, don’t you?

The title and the tag line work together to intrigue your audience. Together they define some aspect of your story in order to create interest and desire.

The movie industry understands the importance of the tag line. A good tag line catches us – it makes us think – it reveals something about the story in a clever or interesting manner. It gives context – tone – the promise of adventure, drama, or laughter.  Here are ten of my favourite motion picture tag lines in no particular order:

  1. Fargo – A lot can happen in the middle of nowhere.
  2. Alien – In space no one can hear you scream.
  3. The Matrix – Reality is a thing of the past.
  4. Deliverance – This is the weekend they didn’t play golf.
  5. The Social Network – You don’t get to 500 million friends without making a few enemies.
  6. Jaws2 – Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water.
  7. The 40-Year-Old Virgin – The Longer You Wait, The Harder It Gets.
  8. Being There – A story of chance.
  9. Jurassic Park – An Adventure 65 million years in the making.
  10. Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolfe – You are cordially invited to George and Martha’s for an evening of fun and games.

Your job isn’t just to write your book or your play or your poem. That’s half the job. The other half is marketing. If you want people to read what you’ve written then you have to market what you’ve written. And one way of doing that is by picking a good title and tag line combination.

I do that for my plays and you should do it for yours. It helps you sell. It’s the shortest and easiest way to create interest in your story. What are you waiting for? Get tagging.

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Here are the titles and tag lines from four of my plays which can be downloaded for free here on my website.

  1. What the Dickens! – Even Scrooge got a second chance.
  2. 500 bucks and a pack of smokes – How much is your life worth?
  3. Death and the Psychiatrist – Even Death could use a friend.
  4. A Christmas Carol – Every man has the power to do good.

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Christmas is a bumhug!

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Christmas is a bumhug! Well, at least according to Scrooge in my play – What the Dickens! – the story of the Pine Tree Players disaster prone production of A Christmas Carol.

I love A Christmas Carol. The Alister Sim version is one of my favourites and I’ve always wanted to tell the story in my own adaptation. So, when I began my life as a playwright I decided A Christmas Carol would be one of the plays I’d write. But I wanted to do something new. Or at least something a little different.  So, I ended up using the play within a play concept to create a romantic comedy that brings something fresh to the story while still giving audiences a chance to see the original story – even if it’s filled with falling sets, missed cues, and pie fights.

The funny thing is once I’d spent four years working on What the Dickens! I finally knew the story well enough that I had a clear vision about how I would do a straight adaptation of the story. I added a couple of characters and I made Bob Cratchit a more fun and lively dad instead of the downtrodden person he’s always portrayed as. And I wanted to spend some time showing how Scrooge could have chosen a different path. And that if he’d chosen love instead of security maybe his life would have been different. After all in my play What the Dickens! one of the characters says that every story is a love story – even A Christmas Carol.

You can download both What the Dickens! and my adaptation of A Christmas Carol for free. Just follow the links.

It’s always fascinating to look at adaptations. The biggest challenge for film, television, and stage when adapting a novel is figuring out how to handle the inner voice of the character. In a novel you can go deep into the subconscious mind of the character but in movies and television you generally have to reveal inner thoughts through narration and dialogue.

Why do you think Tom Hanks had Wilson in Cast Away? It was a device in order for us to understand what his character was thinking.

Did you see the more recent Robert Redford film All is Lost? All is Lost is about a man on a boat in the middle of the ocean trying to survive. It’s a good movie. I enjoyed it. I watched it twice. But it is missing the inner dialogue of the character. We never know his thoughts. It’s mostly us watching him trying to survive and that struggle is well worth watching. But we never learn how he feels about his family or how he feels about life or how he feels about death.

As I was watching the film I thought – hey, he’s in the ocean – why not have Wilson float by. After all, if he did, the two of them could strike up a conversation. Wilson could tell Redford’s character all about the years he spent on a desert Island with Tom Hanks and Redford’s character could reveal something about his inner world. And my guess is, his character would probably say how much he enjoyed seeing A Christmas Carol by the Pine Tree Players that Christmas he took the whole family on a skiing holiday to Pine Lake. The Dickens you say!

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Who needs the Waltons? Thoughts about August: Osage County

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So, last year around the holidays I decided to watch the movie August: Osage County. Maybe I’d had enough of It’s a Wonderful Life and Miracle on 34th Street and was in need of something a little darker. After all you need to balance the sweet with the sour – don’t you?

August: Osage County is a gathering of the clan to say farewell to the family patriarch, poet, and drunk Beverly Weston. It’s a gathering of the clan that brings up old wounds and explosive confrontations. You know – your typical holiday family gathering.

Anyway, not everyone liked the movie – it has a 64% positive rating from the critics and a 65% positive rating from the public at Rotten Tomatoes. I’m one of those 65%. I liked it. Loved it in fact. I read the play and I watched the movie and I think Tracy Letts did a fantastic job of adapting his play for the big screen. Although I saw it at home on the small screen. Which isn’t that small anymore. Do you remember when a 26 inch television was considered big? Do you remember how happy we were to get a remote control…which meant we didn’t have to get off the couch to change the channel? But you know what, now that I think about it, maybe the invention of the remote control coincides with the obesity problem I’ve heard so much about over the last decade. Maybe getting up and changing the channel was a good thing. Yes, clearly we must outlaw remote controls for televisions. There’s a logic to that. A dumb logic, but a logic never-the-less.

Anyway, I loved August: Osage County and what a cast. A cast that includes Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts, Chris Cooper, Margo Martindale, Ewan McGregor, Benedict Cumberbatch, and Sam Shepard. It was a terrific ensemble. And I think they’d be my dream cast for a big screen version of Gilligan’s Island. Can you imagine Meryl Streep as Mrs. Howel? Benedict Cumberbatch as Gilligan?

So, a few weeks after I saw the movie I went out with some other playwriting friends who didn’t share my opinion. They didn’t like the movie. They felt something was lost on the big screen. They felt the stage play was more powerful because the action takes place in one location. I didn’t agree. I’ve never been to Nebraska but it was an environment I knew. I understood it. It reminded me of my own boyhood when we’d visit my Uncle and Aunt in Salmon Arm during the hot Okanagan summers. But I think the main reason I connected with the film on an emotional level was because of how the characters were all coping with lives that were unhappy. How many people stay together as a couple when a relationship is dead or work at a job they hate or search for meaningful relationships and can’t find them or simply have to deal with the daily pain of being out of sync with life?

And that’s what all the characters in August: Osage County are doing – they’re coping. Some of the characters are taking action to change things – some of those actions are drastic – and in the end – well if you haven’t seen it I don’t want to give away the end – but I liked the ending. And I found it satisfying – I found there was an emotional journey for each of the characters and for me that’s one of the things that makes the play and the movie work so well. And in particular I liked Julia Roberts’ performance because it was through her character that I most identified with the story.

So, like all films that touch us on some personal level they do so because we can identify with them and they reflect some aspect of our own world view and or experience. Which surprised me – because I didn’t think August: Osage County was about how I felt about the world. But it is. Because it made me reflect on my life and and the choices I’ve made.

I just have one wish though…and that’s for the Lifetime channel to commission an August: Osage County Christmas Special – who the hell needs the Waltons – I’d rather spend Christmas with the Weston family – can’t wait to see them fight over the wishbone.

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August Osage County Movie Poster

August: Osage County (2013)

  • Directed by John Wells
  • Screenplay by Traci Letts
  • Original Play by Traci Letts
  • Meryl Streep – Violet Weston
  • Julia Roberts – Barbara Weston
  • Chris Cooper – Charlie Aiken
  • Ewan McGregor – Bill Fordham
  • Margo Martindate – Mattie Fae Aiken
  • Sam Shepard – Beverly Weston
  • Dermot Mulroney – Steve Huberbrecht
  • Julianne Nicholson – Ivy Weston
  • Abigail Breslin – Jean Fordham
  • Benedict Cumberbatch – Little Charles Aiken
  • Misty Upton – Johnna Monevata
  • Music by Gustavo Santaolalla
  • Cinematography by Adriano Goldman
  • Edited by Stephen Mirrione

Joe Morgenstern – The Wall Street Journal

 “Family dysfunction has seldom been as flamboyant—or notable for its performances and flow of language—as it is in this screen version of the Tracy Letts play, directed by John Wells from a screenplay by the playwright. The cast alone is worth the price of admission: Meryl Streep as the cancer-riddled, drug-addled matriarch, Violet Weston; Sam Shepard as her alcoholic husband; Julia Roberts, Julianne Nicholson and Juliette Lewis as the couple’s daughters; and Chris Cooper, Ewan McGregor, Margo Martindale, Benedict Cumberbatch and Abigail Breslin as members of their extended family. The language, rich in invective, flows from kindred spirits who are rich in aggressiveness, both the active and passive flavors.”

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