The October, 2011 One Week Challenge genre was Gothic Horror.  The theme was Ghosts are not bad, just misunderstood.  

Participants had one week to write a 6 - 12 page script on the genre and theme.   There were 38 scripts which were read and discussed over on the discussion board.  One script was selected to be audio performed by the fine folks over at iScript.com.  

That selected script is Veil of Blood by Ryan Lee.

A young woman ventures to her uncle's crumbling plantation in 1874 Louisiana.

You can read along with the pdf version of the script.  You can discuss this script and all the OWC entries here.

Listen to the iScript here

{note: This audio recording is released under a Creative Commons, attribution, noncommercial, no derivatives 3.0 license. You can share the audio recording in its entirety, but you can't change it or sell it. }

Thanks to everyone who participated in the challenge. - Don


Very special thanks to iScript.com for sponsoring the challenge and selecting the final script.





Each writer  who wrote a script for the October One Week Challenged was asked to rank each script that he/she read as Pass, Consider or Recommend (or did not read).  Below are the results.  

The top three, The Open Casket, Veil of Blood and Falling Angels were sent to iScript.com.  Lori and her team at iScript read the three and selected one.  

Name	Pass	Consider	Recommend	Total Votes
The Open Casket Darren Tomalin (darrenjames)	3	4	14	21
Veil of Blood Ryan Lee (ryan 1)	4	8	10	22
Falling Angels Bill Sarre (reef dreamer)	5	8	7	20
The Last Stop Rene Claveau (renec)	4	5	7	16
Our Lady of Eternal Suffering Rick Kinsella (scartissuefilms)	7	8	6	21
Asylum Janet Clarke (wonkavite)	7	8	6	21
Forever Thine Sydney Cuthbert	9	4	5	18
The Executioner Kevin Lenihan (leitskev)	5	11	4	20
Annabel Shawn Davis (ledbetter)	7	8	4	19
Mischief At Morley House Pete B. Lane (pete)	11	7	3	21
Reaparations Will Ball (albinopenguin)	10	5	3	18
Allured T. Henrik Anttonen (henrik)	10	5	3	18
The Madness of Time Steve McDonell (stevie)	12	3	3	18
The Lonley Tenant James Williams (jwent6688)	5	8	2	15
My Love Harley Wolfe Jr. (Hugh Hoyland)	7	7	2	16
A Price To Pay John Carlon (JCShadow)	8	6	2	16
Satanas Jordan Wiebe (theboywhocouldfly)	13	4	2	19
Abracadabra Darren J Seeley (DarrenJamesSeeley)	11	3	2	16
Open House With An Empty Heart Baltis Sinclair Schuller	4	12	1	17
The Woods Matthew Layden (TheUsualSuspect)	9	7	1	17
Together Again… Someday Phil Clarke Jr. (dogglebe)	12	6	1	19
The Haunted Tale of James O'Neil Michel J. Duthin (michel)	8	6	1	15
House Proud Richard Buckley (cathead)	11	6	1	18
Payer Fedris - A Gothic Dream Tax Sandra El. Watson (sandra elstree)	12	4	1	17
All That Remains Breanne Mattson	6	9	0	15
Sweep Catherine Hall (cmhall)	5	7	0	12
Betrayal Quitterie Hervouet (Quiou)	9	7	0	16
The Truth Zane Steves (zanej)	12	6	0	18
Condemned Sanctuary Malcom Bowman (scoob)	11	6	0	17
The Stone Within Jordan Littleton (nomad)	11	5	0	16
Revenant Stand Ray (ray w)	10	5	0	15
Traceless Brynmor Leyshon (bleyshon)	14	4	0	18
Mr. Daniels Alexander Toplake (Laika)	12	4	0	16
Castle Trouble Fred Kracke	14	4	0	18
A Dance in the Dark Greg Baldwin (greg)	13	4	0	17
No Balls Mohammad Nawaz (nawazm11)	15	3	0	18
Innocence Condemned Dena Mckinnon	12	3	0	15

Congrats Ryan!!!

Don't quite get how you won, but well done!!!

Ha Ha.

Congrats Ryan, fine work and it was in my top three. I'm just happy my script didn't "blow goat balls" as bad as Phil's did. At least, according to the writer feedback... :-)

James

Quoted from Scar Tissue Films Congrats Ryan!!! Don't quite get how you won, but well done!!! Ha Ha.

He didn't win.  It isn't a contest.  

The top three writer's choice scripts were sent to iScript.com.  

Lori and her team at iScript read the three scripts and selected one.


The top three Writer's Choice script writers will receive a crappy SimplyScripts coffee mug.

Don  

Hell,

I'm blown away to have made the top ten. Considering I wrote it in less that 3 hours.

Thanks everyone.

Shawn.....><

I'll kill every single one of you!!

Sorry.  I'm just under a lot of stress.  I shouldn't be saying this... and warning you.  

Congrats Ryan (you're first)...


Phil

Congrats, Ryan.  have to say I'm quite surprised though.

James, you're right, Phil's script did blow goat balls.

Personally, I like this new ranking system.  Big improvement over anythign i've seen here before.

Congarts to all who entered and read and provided feedback.  To those who entered and didn't provide feedback...you should go out back and blow some goat balls.

Congrats Ryan!

I'm going to get a mug!!!!! Does it get better than that?

Anyway, thanks everyone for those votes - I'm really chuffed.

All the best.

I want a mug!!!

Regardless, Congrats Ryan and everyone for completing an OWC script.   I really liked the reader scale voting used - so appropriate for scripts.   Well done.

Thanks to Don, iScripts and everyone who read and reviewed the script.  To those surprised thay my script got selected, I say:  suck it.  Haha, just a little halloween fun.  

This means I get a mug?  Hell, yeah.  

Well done Ryan!

Good job to all who entered this tought challenge.

Congrats, Ryan.

I’m not at all surprised. Veil of Blood had the best description of all the scripts in my opinion. It was number three on my list for that very reason. I’m sure the iScript people recognized that it was the best of the three for a recorded reading.

Also, congrats to Darren for being the number one reader’s choice.

And finally, congrats to Bill for making it into the top three.

You guys all did a great job!


Breanne

Hey Ryan...

JHONGORE!!!  ;D ;D ;D

Congratulations to you and Bill and y'all.

Sandra

Yes, just to clarify...I wasn't surprised because of the quality of the script, just because Open Casket seemed liked a fait accompli.

Quoted from jwent6688 Congrats Ryan, fine work and it was in my top three. I'm just happy my script didn't "blow goat balls" as bad as Phil's did. At least, according to the writer feedback... :-)

Your death will be the slowest, James.  I'll probably stop for lunch in the middle of killing you... and, perhaps, a parfait.


Phil

Quoted from Scar Tissue Films Yes, just to clarify...I wasn't surprised because of the quality of the script, just because Open Casket seemed liked a fait accompli.

Rick,

It's all good.  I just took the opportunity of your post to clarify for folks how the final selection process actually goes down.

The iScript folks, in order to maintain objectivity, don't follow the OWC threads so they can make an unbiased selection.  


Don

I'm remembering now that I read a link that posted a professional reader's sheet that he/her uses in critique.

Maybe we need to post one of these in the next OWC.

Sandra

Congrats, Ryan! I really like what iScripts did with it, the tone of your descriptions was really captured. It sounded like the best kind of radio drama.  ;D

Great job, to all three who topped the list.

good job Ryan!

Harley

I just noticed I didn't congratulate Ryan... Congrats Ryan!  Well done.

Good on you, Ryan.

You better bring your SS mug the next time we hit the bars!

E.D.

I read Veil of Blood again today and also the thread and the comments because I do think Ryan is a top notch writer and absolutely deserves this.

Somebody (maybe more) mentioned that the run down images should be filmed in the light or at least lightER like dusk. This is a very solid observation. By doing so, you will really be able to see it and you can progress toward night thereafter.

Some people criticized this as being too novelistic. I didn't think think so. It held with my understanding of gothic and detail is king.

Having read this again, I think rather than have the monk making eye contact here:

>He regards the house for a moment, then turns his fierce gaze directly at Coralie. Even through a tangle of bushes and trees, his eyes lock onto hers.

I would have him scanning the area with a supernatural kind of predator like vision-- not locking onto hers. Rather, have her fearful, breathless. And, we don't quite know if she's just exhibiting emotional exaggeration due to her previous encounter with the ghost, or if she is indeed seeing him for what he is.

Sandra

Congrats Ryan.....yours was my favorite!

Just wanted to say congrats to Ryan.  I mentioned in the thread I think it was the strongest written.

But also a good job to everybody who took the time to write and submit theirs.  (Although, most said they wrote theirs in a matter of a few hours.  So maybe even though there wasn't a lot of time put into these (and I think a couple people might be exaggerating about just writing it in just an hour or two,) still a great amount of effort and talent put forth this time around.)

Like I said somewhere earlier, I think I liked everyone that I read.  There were none that I thought were even bad.

- Mark

Quoted from rc1107 But also a good job to everybody who took the time to write and submit theirs.  (Although, most said they wrote theirs in a matter of a few hours.  So maybe even though there wasn't a lot of time put into these (and I think a couple people might be exaggerating about just writing it in just an hour or two,) still a great amount of effort and talent put forth this time around.) - Mark

I don't know about the few hours thing myself. I can't imagine putting in that little time. I would have to be extremely good or extremely carefree. Or both. To me:

A One Week Challenge means:

You set aside time almost every single day to work on a short. If you only work for three hours, then that means you are very very skilled to be able to pull it off. People need congratulations just for that.  :)

Sandra

I put much more time into this short than I did in my first 2 OWC's. My first one, last Feb, I wrote in a day, but then had the rest of the week to clean up. The one last month I didn't start until Thursday night, probably took about 5 hours total to write. This one I worked on for about 5 days! The first 2 were probably better received, however, so maybe I should go back to winging it.

Quoted from leitskev I put much more time into this short than I did in my first 2 OWC's. My first one, last Feb, I wrote in a day, but then had the rest of the week to clean up. The one last month I didn't start until Thursday night, probably took about 5 hours total to write. This one I worked on for about 5 days! The first 2 were probably better received, however, so maybe I should go back to winging it.

Nah man, I think your showing nothing but improvment big time with each work. Just keep at it. I think this one was pretty well received either way.

And I would also like to thank the two writers who voted for mine,

Thank You! :]

Harley

Yeah, my slugs are getting better! Thanks, man.