Write a 6 or less page properly formatted script on the theme of:

Take a Christmas item, whether a tree, elf, advent calendar, tree lights, snowman, toy or whatever and write your story from that item's point of view.

Genre: Open

Submit scripts to simplyscripts.com/owc

THE USUAL:

This isn't a contest - it's a challenge. There are no official prizes.

You can revise your script as many times as you wish up until the deadline.

Do not put your real name(s) on your script; this is an anonymous challenge. However, please use your real name(s) when submitting your script.

After the challenge closes you can either have your script removed or resubmit your script with your name on it.

Participants must read and comment/review in the discussion board at least 10 other scripts submitted or your work will be removed (no harm, no foul. I understand that life gets in the way.

Please put ©2021 on your title page.

Any questions about the challenge, post them here.

There will be a review page emailed to you for you to score the scripts you read. Please only give scores to scripts that you have read.

Please do not rate scripts in your review.

And if you have trouble figuring out what you can do with this challenge, I highly recommend you watch this short film by Movie Poet's owner Chris Messineo. Not just a great film, but it might spur your imagination

Branches from NJ Film School on Vimeo.

Interesting challenge! Already got an idea! ;D

Quoted from Grandma Bear ...Movie Poet's owner Chris Messineo.

Memories...

I have an... idea...
I don't know how I'll pull it off.
But I'm in

I feel like I need to write a horror story about those damned elves on the shelf.

Talk about the bane of my existence throughout December.

Can my elf be a zombie?

Quoted from khamanna Can my elf be a zombie?

No.

Quoted from Grandma Bear No.

Come on, why can't it be a zombie on the shelf? Lol.

I think I have the perfect way to depress people for the holidays. Although, I, sometimes, wonder if you guys get sick of me depressing you all the time...

Quoted from Mr. Blonde Although, I, sometimes, wonder if you guys get sick of me depressing you all the time...

Personally, I find your stories to be quite cheerful and inspiring. ;D

Can we get a list of acceptable Christmas items?

Quoted from khamanna Can my elf be a zombie?

What if it's a family of zombies with a zombie elf?

I'm thinking that my elf actually does move on its own and wreaks havoc throughout the house while everyone is sleeping.

Maybe a Needful Things kind of vibe where everyone starts to think everyone else is against them and they end up blowing their house up... You know... in the spirit of Christmas.

Quoted from Zack Can we get a list of acceptable Christmas items?

NO LIST! Geez, everything XMas related should be acceptable. Besides, some of us may have ideas already and don't want others to be mackin' on their thoughts. Let originality flow. No more parameters!

There. I said my piece. And am now at peace.

If you got a piece of coal in your stocking once, it's acceptable.

This challenge reminds me of the classic holiday short film, Treevenge!



That should inspire some peeps. ;D

Quoted from Zack This challenge reminds me of the classic holiday short film, Treevenge! That should inspire some peeps. ;D

This is funny!

Dialogue from other characters is OK?  And you VO the item?  Unless you choose to express the item's "view" from actions only. Yes?

Quoted from JakeJon Dialogue from other characters is OK?  And you VO the item?  Unless you choose to express the item's "view" from actions only. Yes?

Dialogue is absolutely allowed from any character. Human or otherwise. Maybe you are doing your story from a Swedish Straw Goat's POV and it communicates with other items like a candle. Tells it to don't get too close. Just as long as you keep the story from your chosen item's POV. :)

Quoted from Zack Can we get a list of acceptable Christmas items?

Zack,

No.  We'll tell you if your item is acceptable after submissions close...

- Don

Quoted from Don Zack, No.  We'll tell you if your item is acceptable after submissions close... - Don

Sounds fair. Going to run with my X-mas gimp suit idea... ;D

Quoted from Zack ...Going to run with my X-mas gimp suit idea... ;D

There goes my idea.

Back to the drawing board for me.

Quoted from Nomad There goes my idea. Back to the drawing board for me.

:P

Quoted from Grandma Bear And if you have trouble figuring out what you can do with this challenge, I highly recommend you watch this short film by Movie Poet's owner Chris Messineo. Not just a great film, but it might spur your imagination Branches from NJ Film School on Vimeo.

This is Rick Hansberry's story, filmed by Chris, narrated by the dude from The Wonder Years. I watch it every Christmas 🎄

Quoted from Don Zack, No.  We'll tell you if your item is acceptable after submissions close... - Don

Shwetty balls?

Quoted from mmmarnie This is Rick Hansberry's story, filmed by Chris, narrated by the dude from The Wonder Years. I watch it every Christmas

I have two DVDs. Not sure why I have two, but...  :)

Quoted from Nomad I feel like I need to write a horror story about those damned elves on the shelf. Talk about the bane of my existence throughout December.

I covered that in one of the OWC'S, can't remember which one.

Don, love the red and green font colours used in the OWC announcement.

Loved Branches, and noticed Marnie's name on the credits for special thanks.

Treevenge is another story altogether.
Did love the line: you're going to scare the saplings.  ;D

Ive seen Branches. It's very Christmasy but we can't write something like that, right?
That one is told by one of the friends and the way I remember it - it's about one of the friends missing the time he went hunting for Christmas trees with his other frirends.

But here, the story should be told by either a Christmas maker or a Christmas related object.]

Then again, maybe I misunderstood or forgot Branches or something.

Quoted from khamanna That one is told by one of the friends and the way I remember it - it's about one of the friends missing the time he went hunting for Christmas trees with his other frirends.

Branches is told from the tree's POV or at least its story. :)

I really enjoyed Branches. Never seen it before so thanks for sharing. I'm not sure we'd get away with writing a story like that for this challenge. It seems to be a story about human friendship with the trees used as an allegory.

So, I'm struggling on this one. Sticking with trees, if I did a story about a Christmas Tree in a living room it's really going to be a story about the people it sees and what they do/say but in such a scenario, the exact same story could be told from the perspective of any inanimate object in the same room.

So are we supposed to write such a script and just put POV TREE in every slugline?
Or are we supposed to write an animation were the tree comes to life?

I have an idea but, basically the story woukd be about people this object encounters rather than the object's perspective, unless I add VO to voice the object's thoughts, and, unlike Branches, make it obvious from the start it is the object and not the human.

Any thoughts, suggestions welcome!

Quoted from Grandma Bear Branches is told from the tree's POV or at least its story. :)

Oh wow, I really did think one of the men was telling the story. That was a few years back, have to see it again.

and just when I thought I can’t get any dumber…

Quoted from khamanna Oh wow, I really did think one of the men was telling the story. That was a few years back, have to see it again. and just when I thought I can’t get any dumber…

Don't say that, maybe I'm the one that misunderstood the whole film!  :)

Regardless, the OWC remains the same. No zombie Elves though, please.  ;D

Just watched it again.

"I went to a nice family. They took a picture of me with a baby" - yes, it's from a tree's POV. And I really appreciated the writing this time, as if was seeing it for the first time. And cinematography, Chris is very good. I'm curious to see the formatting of the script.

The idea still hasn't visited...

Ok, so to Kham and Mark, and anyone else, Branches is definitely told as the Tree's story, but told with VO. So, I guess you can do it that way or in a true POV way where the camera is your POV character. Unless Don has any objections.

Quoted from Zack Sounds fair. Going to run with my X-mas gimp suit idea... ;D

Nothing sez X-mas like a gimp suit...

Quoted from mmmarnie Shwetty balls?

Of course!  It's not Christmas without Shwetty balls!

Quoted from Grandma Bear Ok, so to Kham and Mark, and anyone else, Branches is definitely told as the Tree's story, but told with VO. So, I guess you can do it that way or in a true POV way where the camera is your POV character. Unless Don has any objections.

No objections.

You could do V.O., but surely you could alternatively have the inanimate character speaking dialogue as any character does - character name, then dialogue.

If they can't be heard by others, fine, that can be made clear, or maybe they can be heard by a select character, and that character can interact with them.

I'm working on an idea. Not sure people will think it is from the item's perspective but I'm giving it a go. How is everyone else getting on?

Brainstormed a thought yesterday that I'm pretty pleased with. That's the hard part, right?

Now it's easy street, get it on paper.

I just had an idea today but not sure if I will have time to write it now. Let’s see

The original idea I had, I simply can't fit onto 6 pages so I'm having a re-think.

I've got an idea. Came to me pretty quick, actually. Just been distracted these past few days. But, hopefully, today is the day that I actually sit down and write!

I have an idea that is similar to some other stories, but not exactly like them... so I'm running with it.

I might sit down and start writing too!

Good for you guys!

I got nothing so far...  :-/

In im.

Bidda-Beep-Bidda-Bop-Bidda-Boop
Done and Submitted.

So my plan to win by default is foiled yet again!

Idea is set; writing commences in the morning.

But then again....

Quoted from MarkRenshaw So my plan to win by default is foiled yet again!

I got ya back, I'll run the next one with the stipulation that only Marks from England who have earned a Shriekfest trophy may enter.

I didn’t write a word not sure why

Quoted from Matthew Taylor I got ya back, I'll run the next one with the stipulation that only Marks from England who have earned a Shriekfest trophy may enter.

All competitions should have this rule!

Submitted mine. It's not what I had in mind but it is what it is. With work and my daughter's birthday tomorrow I had to get it in now or not bother.

Quoted from khamanna I didn’t write a word not sure why

Still plenty of time, Kham.  :D

In the hopper.
Might retitle it when all is said and done.
Be great to see ad read other entries.

The link at simplyscripts.com/owc  does not work for December OWC. It is an application to submit OWC scripts for November OWC.  Is there another link?

Quoted from RolandJ The link at simplyscripts.com/owc  does not work for December OWC. It is an application to submit OWC scripts for November OWC.  Is there another link?

Roland, are you submitting here:

https://www.simplyscripts.com/unpro_short_exercise1221-form.html

Try that link...

Okay, just to clarify for other people entering, go to the link via the heading:
December OWC.Theme: Copying and pasting : simplyscripts.com/owc takes you to December OWC.

The bottom link at the top of the home page does in fact direct you to the November OWC.
Make sense? Hope so.

Or, just use the link I posted above until Don fixes.  :D

Folks,

Apologies for the confusion.  I've fixed the link.  

Don

Quoted from RolandJ The link at simplyscripts.com/owc  does not work for December OWC. It is an application to submit OWC scripts for November OWC.  Is there another link?

So that's why I didn't get a confirm e mail :(
Let's try it again...

It's the Final Countdown! Do-doo-dooo-doo!

"Keep your friends close, your enemies closer"

Uploaded. My apologies in advance.

Looks like I'm going to miss the deadline.

I'll still read and review.

Good luck to all!

I also will not be entering this challenge. Will try to read and review as many as I can.