This past February, I achieved a major milestone in my journey of becoming a filmmaker. I wrote, with reckless abandon, for well over a month, and finished my first feature film screenplay. I have written many different scripts over the past five years, but none of which I completely finished. All of them were major parts of my learning process as a writer, and with each one I got exponentially better, but none of which amounted to a finished piece, until
Just Kidding.
Feb 2010 - WGA registration confirmation for Just Kidding, originally named Kids.
The idea for Just Kidding came into play after spending the holidays last year with my two year old nephew and six month old niece. For me, it was a realization that the world of parenting is such a foreign idea at this stage in my life, although the majority of those I graduated high school with back in Virginia have entered into it. I found a lot of humor in the culture and mindset that goes along with being parents now a days, and found a good therapy outlet through the writing of Just Kidding.
Storyline
Just Kidding is a comedy about a couple who move to a new town, only to find their dream home in disarray, and are forced to temporarily move in with the neighbors... and their kids.
Mike and Katie Edwards, a very happy and content couple, move from LA to a small rural town in Virginia in hopes of settling down, starting a family and capturing the American dream. After a series of events forces them from their McMansion, social pressure leads them to take temporary residence with their next door neighbors, Sheila and Larry, who have three young children. Sheila and Larry's marriage is anything other than perfect and Larry quickly influences Mike into rethinking the parenting dream. Jessie, a neighborhood troublemaker, has it out for Mike from day one, and quickly becomes a thorn in his side. Culture shock to rural America, Jessie's antics, and the intimate vantage point into the realities of parenthood cause Mike to seriously question the move, and their plans to become parents. Things exponentially fall apart for them as the once quick witted and easy going Mike gradually begins losing his grasp on life and his sanity.
Review and Screenwriting Contest Info
From my years in Hollywood, I know that just about everyone has a script that they've written, and just about everyone (usually mistakenly) thinks their script is amazing. I decided to put
Just Kidding into a couple of screenwriting competitions and get honest critiques from professionals and to see how I would stack up. I entered it into the
Storypros International Screenplay Contest and the
Page International Screenwriting Awards contests this year, receiving a script analysis from Storypros. Here are portions of the critique/review:
"This is a fast-moving and effective comedy that mixes up the types of humor (situational, verbal, physical and gross-out) and doesn’t neglect a journey of emotional development for your protagonist."
– Storypros Professional Script Analysis
"Overall, this is a strong comic piece with a solid emotional core."
– Storypros Professional Script Analysis
The Page Awards had over 4000 entries this year, and I made it into the top 25%, although missed out on the Quarterfinals. Mind numbing results? No. Something to hang my hat on that encourages me to keep writing? Absolutely.
Also, I purposefully write very marketable and mainstream stories, which may or may not be the best choice in competitions against more indie and art driven work.
What's Next
I've been tweaking and revising parts of the script ever since the competitions and hope to get representation and start shopping Just Kidding around next year. I have my dream cast in mind, and look forward to seeing if I can get any of them attached.
I begin writing my second feature next week and look forward to the process of weaving character arcs and story lines together again. It is such a rush to breathe life into (hopefully) memorable characters, and above all else, try and get the audience laughing -- hard.
