I'm on fire!

This was in my inbox today.

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Julia, your screenplay "The Tempter" has been selected as a semi-finalist in the 2007 Shriekfest Screenplay competition. The quality of scripts submitted this year was superb. Congratulations on making it this far. The judges are currently in the process of selecting the finalists for the festival. We will be contacting everyone within the next week.

Denise Gossett
Festival Director/Founder

Todd Beeson
Festival Director

From the Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting

This was in my email inbox today. Just as I was giving kudos to myself someone else decides to do it too!

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As you may know, each year I give recognition to writers whose scripts were just outside the small group that advanced to the Nicholl Quarterfinals. This year, due to time constraints, I was unable to place that note on scripts beyond the next 100 after the quarterfinalists. I apologize for that.

This e-mail is to let you know that your script Plastic placed in the Top 15% of all scripts entered in the 2007 Nicholl Fellowships competition.

What does this mean? Here are the breakdowns:

253 scripts advanced to the Nicholl Quarterfinal Round.
108 scripts including ties were among the next 100 scripts. From script #254-361.
147 scripts including ties were among the top 10%. From script #362-508.
254 scripts including ties were among the top 15%. From script #509-762.
271 scripts including ties were among the top 20%. From script #763-1033.

Best of luck with all of your screenwriting endeavors. May you soon no longer be eligible to enter the Nicholl competition.

Yours,

Greg Beal
Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting

Giving Kudos

It’s so easy to concentrate on the things we want. The things we didn’t get. The things we don’t have. Yesterday I had a moment of giving kudos to myself. I’ve wanted to make movies since I was a child. I moved to LA almost a decade ago with the intention to make that dream a reality. It’s been a rocky road that has taken me to some unexpected places. But, overall it has been an incredible journey and I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world.

Yesterday it occurred to me how far I’ve come. How much I’ve done to make my dreams come true. As I made calls to entertainment attorneys to get some advice, it occurred to me that ever needing one was an accomplishment. I guess I have to remind myself that filmmakers are not just the ones whose names we know. There are all levels of filmmakers out there and just because my name is not well known, doesn’t mean a failure. I’m still here. I have fallen and gotten up more times than a lot of people out there. But, most important of all, I have persevered. So, kudos to me!

I’m on YouTube!

For those of you who don’t know yet, I posted my shorts on YouTube. There you will find every short I ever completed. They were all made in different stages of my life so it should give you a broad view of who I really am (hopefully). Thank you for visiting this blog and supporting my art and my craft. Feel free to leave comments here and on YouTube. I need all the feedback I can get.


YouTube.Com/Juliamca

Are my ears bleeding yet?

I’m supposed to be rewriting. Labor day is quickly approaching and all I do is look at the notes I received and try to put scenes together in my head to address them. Even my dry-erase board where I write all my ideas and work out plot problems I blank at the moment. I guess this is what they call writer’s block. I’m even contemplating working out (which I hate and never do) just so I can get myself away from writing. I’ve made tons of jewelry this week. I keep telling myself it will get the writing juices flowing. Who am I kidding? This is the part of the process I hate, the fear, the self-deprecating. Why didn’t I become and accountant? Oh, yeah, I’m very bad with numbers.

Exciting News!

Unfortunately this is going to sound way too vague, but I’m knee deep in a rewrite until Labor Day. There’s some very exciting stuff going on. An actress we all know and love will soon read my screenplay “Plastic”, so for the time being that particular one is off the market. With all the rewriting I’ve been doing lately, it’s fantastic to be doing it for a big actress. Stay tuned for more details when I can actually give some.