Moondance is Always the “Girl on the Right”!

by Elizabeth English on September 24, 2015

At Moondance, we don’t just accept differences, innovations, creativity, independence, and uniqueness – we celebrate them, we support them, encourage & inspire them, and we thrive on them for the ultimate benefit of the international film industry, as well as for writers, filmmakers, composers, festival film audiences, and our world community.

READ ON:

2015 Festival Photo album request
2015 Awards requests
Moondance news
Tom Shadyac at Moondance
Moondancers write us
Screenwriting: ALL-CAPS on sounds?
Radio plays
Moondance recommends
Some things to think about
Rules for the blues

The 2015 Moondance PHOTO ALBUM will be online soon!

ONLY IF YOU send us up to 5 of your best Moondance 2015 photos in .jpg, to: [email protected] with MIFF PIX in the subject line.

ATTENTION MOONDANCE 2015 WINNERS NOT AT THE AWARDS CEREMONY:

If you won an award, but could not attend the event, and want to receive your Moondance Award, Award certificate, & a 2015 Moondance festival program, please use this option to pay only for postage to send it to you:

AWARDS POSTAGE: USA ADDRESS POSTAGE: $10 • FOREIGN ADDRESS POSTAGE: $25

The Moondance winners’ star award

Send your request now; this offer expires October 1.

MOONDANCE NEWS:

FILMMAKERS: Moondance International Film Festival is now an IMDb Qualifying Festival, granting all eligible film submissions (via Withoutabox), a fast-tracked title page on IMDb.com!

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Moondance 2016 wishes to celebrate the art of DRONE CINEMATOGRAPHY with our newest competition category, and offers an international venue for talented & innovative drone filmmakers from around the world to exhibit their winning work to film industry professionals and to the drone cinema fan audiences, at this world-class film festival.

Film director Tom Shadyac gave a fascinating Q&A at Moondance 2015 to an enthusiastic audience, participated in the productive networking & photo ops, and was presented with the Moondance 2015 Calypso Award!

Watch this video:

CELEBS FAVORITE PLACES ON EARTH: DOUBLE-WIDE: TOM SHADYAC’S LIFE NOW

Read this article on Oprah.com:

FROM MULTIMILLIONAIRE TO MOBILE HOME!

MOONDANCERS WRITE US

“Let me know when the 2016 early, early, early-bird submissions can be sent. I’m itching to send you the “Sock Opera” feature screenplay. I love to write, but this is the first time I actually felt real joy when working on a project. Although animation is probably the most difficult category to break into, I think, after all these years, I may have found my bliss.” ~ Janice MacDonald, 2015 Moondance winner for “The Sock Opera” short musical screenplay

“I am sorry to have missed the 2015 festival, but I see that it was a great success! It is a wonderful service you offer to new writers and filmmakers who are trying to find a way into their chosen profession. I – for one – feel that your input and help has given me the confidence to keep writing, so thank you once again!” ~ Liz Falconer, 2015 winner, short screenplay, “One Door Closes”

NOTE TO SCREENWRITERS: Please, please do NOT put noises & sounds in all-CAPS in your spec screenplay! That formatting is only for final production scripts, when the funding is in place & the Foley editor needs to know what sound effects to include. Your script should be, at this early stage, a reader’s script. All-caps on sounds are very distracting from a smooth read. We certainly already know that a door SLAMS, a gun goes BANG, a dog BARKS, a lion ROARS, cars HONK or CRASH, FOOTSTEPS make a sound & so on! If you are seeing all-caps on sounds in scripts that you may be reading online, you are looking at director’s scripts, or production scripts! To sell this sucker to an agent, actor, producer, director, funder, or distributor, it needs to read almost like a scripted novel. To send out a production script is egotistical, arrogant & un-professional, as if the film is already in production. I have passed on way too many otherwise pretty good spec scripts that are filled with all-caps sounds, in the festival competition.

RADIO PLAYS ARE MIND-MOVIES!

Radio is sometimes known as the writer’s favorite medium; as Malcolm Bradbury once said, it is “a world made with words shaped into being, without a physical presence.” With radio, you have to use your imagination – something you don’t need when watching TV or movies. We can be whom-ever we want to be, travel wherever we want to go; all in “our mind’s eye”, thanks to radio programs. The stories and scenarios are often planted forever in our memories and in our own personal “theatre of the mind”.

Radio drama has long been a fertile training ground for writers and is a genre in which screenwriters, playwrights and television writers feel at home. It has given voice to generations of writers. From Welsh poet Dylan Thomas and Irish writer Samuel Beckett to Orson Welles and American playwright Harold Pinter; all have been involved with radio drama.

Moondance includes audio drama in our competition categories not merely in order to get the attention of the film industry. We want to promote audio drama for it’s own cultural value, and to encourage writers, storytellers, musicians/composers, audio producers, voice actors & others to create new works for radio & digital listening…whether it’s drama, comedy, kids’ stories, news & info, or documentary, and getting people to use their imaginations, to see the story in their minds, & to visualize, rather than have it shown to them in film, on their digital devices, online, or on TV, while they just sit there, being only consumers, rather than being creators or using their imagination to visualize the story! Consider learning how to write for radio, and revising your screenplay into an audio play! Moondance is dedicated to ensuring that audio drama remains an integral and dynamic part of our international broadcasting and cultural heritage. 

MORE INFO: theaudiodramadirectory.com/ • www.audio-drama.com/ • www.artc.org/‎ • audiodramaproduction.com/ • jimfrenchproductions.com/

MOONDANCE RECOMMENDS

Friends of the Earth understands that the challenges facing our planet call for more than half-measures, so we push for radical change, not tweaks to the status quo. This means speaking uncomfortable truths to power and demanding more than people think is possible. It’s hard work. That’s why we’re dedicated to building and organizing a workforce for Earth. Earth H.Q. is an action center where you can tackle some of the biggest challenges facing our planet and discover practical, meaningful ways that all of us can work together to fix them. Let’s get to work! https://earthhq.foe.org

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WHY TALENT WILL NEVER BE ENOUGH IN HOLLYWOOD

From the desk of: Nat Mundel, Founder/CEO of Voyage Media, Los Angeles, CA

Let’s assume for a moment that you’re a great writer, which you likely are… How far has your talent alone gotten you? There are thousands of talented writers creating excellent stories right now in Hollywood…So what is it that separates the great writer who gets projects made from the also-great writer who has a bunch of unsold scripts sitting on the shelf? A professional writer becomes so when he or she learns how to be part of the business of entertainment and drive his or her own projects forward (not waiting around to be ‘discovered’). Talent is the minimum barrier to entry in entertainment… the real measure of your success is how effective you (the creator) are at building a marketable package for your project. Countless brilliant screenwriters and filmmakers never get their projects made because they don’t understand the importance of packaging their project in a way that speaks to the people who write the checks…

All successful writers and filmmakers in Hollywood know this, but most learned it the hard (and long) way. It doesn’t have to be that way. So to help you get your projects moving, I’m offering you a free copy of my report, “Building A Marketable Package: How To Get The Team You Need In Order To Market To The Audience You Want”.

Click here for your FREE GIFT:

I hope this free report helps you to drive your project forward and attract the attention it needs in order to get made — and maybe you and I can work on a project together in the future!   Do great things!   When you download the report above, I’m also going to give you free access to our popular video training course, “Making the Power Move from Amateur to Pro”, featuring over 4 hours of training from high-powered executives from HBO, CAA, Alcon Entertainment, Wes Craven, the Weinsteins, Dimension Films and others, who are finally spilling their most honest insights on what it takes to get their attention, build a reputation and get your material noticed and bought again and again.  In the past, I’ve sold this course for $297, but today I am giving it to you for free!

SOME THINGS TO THINK ABOUT

“I CHOOSE…To live by choice, not by chance. To make changes, not excuses. To be motivated, not manipulated. To be useful, not used. To excel, not compete. I choose self-esteem, not self-pity. I choose to listen to my inner voice, not the opinions of others. I choose to be myself, not someone else’s idea of me.” ~ Author Unknown

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“Here are two options: Make progress or make excuses.” ~ Anonymous

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Vincent Van Gogh, “Wheat-field with Crows”

“The true artist reveals the unseen, and creates that which is new and uniquely his or her own,” ~ Ralph Ellison (excerpted & edited)

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“It does not generally take much strength to do something, but it often requires great strength to decide what to do.” ~ Elbert Hubbard

~~~ RULES FOR THE BLUES ~~~

Howlin’ Wolf

Most Blues begin, “Woke up this mornin’…”
“I got a good woman,” is a bad way to begin the Blues, ‘less you  stick something nasty in the next line, like “I got a good woman with  the meanest face in town.”
The Blues is simple. After you get the first line right, repeat it.  Then find something that rhymes … sort of: “Got a good woman – with  the meanest face in town. Got teeth like Margaret Thatcher – and she  weigh 500 pound.”
The Blues are not about choice. You stuck in a ditch: You stuck in  a ditch, ain’t no way out.
Blues cars: Chevys and Cadillacs and broken down trucks. Blues  don’t travel in Volvos, BMWs, or Sport Utility Vehicles. Most Blues  transportation is a Greyhound bus or a southbound train. Jet aircraft and  state-sponsored motor pools ain’t even in the running. Walkin’ plays a major  part in the blues lifestyle. So does fixin’ to die.
Teenagers can’t sing the Blues. They ain’t fixin’ to die yet. Adults sing the  Blues. In Blues, adulthood means being old enough to get the electric chair  if you shoot a man in Memphis.
Blues can take place in New York City, but not in Hawaii or any  place in Canada. Hard times in St. Paul or Tucson is just depression.  Chicago, St.Louis, and Kansas City still the best places to have the Blues.  You cannot have the blues in any place that don’t get rain.
A man with male pattern baldness ain’t the blues. A woman with male  pattern baldness is. Breaking your leg cuz you skiing is not the blues.
Breaking your leg cuz a’ alligator be chomping on it is.
You can’t have no Blues in an office or a shopping mall. The lighting is  wrong. Go outside to the parking lot or sit by the dumpster.
Good places for the Blues:  lonesome dirt road or highway,  jailhouse,  empty bed
 Bad places:  Ashrams,  gallery openings,  Ivy League institutions,  golf courses
 No one will believe it’s the Blues if you wear a suit, ‘less you  happen to be a’ old black man, and you slept in it.
 Do you have the right to sing the Blues? Yes, if: you’re older than dirt,  you’re blind,  you shot a man in Memphis,  you can’t be satisfied.
No, if:  you have all your teeth,  you were once blind but now can see,  the man in Memphis lived,  you have a retirement plan or trust fund.
Blues is not a matter of color. It’s a matter of bad luck. Tiger  Woods cannot sing the blues. Gary Coleman could. Ugly white people  also got a leg up on the blues.
If you ask for water and Baby give you gasoline, it’s the Blues.  Other acceptable Blues beverages are: bad wine,  bad whiskey or bad bourbon,  muddy water,  black coffee.  The following are NOT Blues beverages:  mixed drinks,  kosher wine,  Snapple,  sparkling water.
 If it occurs in a cheap motel or a shotgun shack, it’s a Blues death.  Stabbed in the back by a jealous lover is another Blues way to die. So  is the electric chair, substance abuse, and dying lonely on a broken down  cot. You can’t have a Blues death if you die during a tennis match, in a spa or hot-tub, or while getting  liposuction.
 Some Blues names for women: Sadie,  Big Mama,  Bessie,  Fat River, Dumpling.  Some Blues names for men:  Joe  Willie,  Little Willie,  Big Willie.  Persons with names like Sierra, Sequoia, and Rainbow can’t sing the  Blues no matter how many men they shoot in Memphis.
 Make yer own Blues name (starter kit): name of physical infirmity (Blind, Cripple, Lame, etc.)  first name (see above) plus name of fruit (Lemon, Lime, Kiwi, etc.)  last name of President (Jefferson, Johnson, Fillmore, etc.)  For example, Blind Lime Jefferson, or Cripple Kiwi Fillmore, etc.
I don’t care how tragic your life is: if you own a computer or cell-phone, you cannot sing  the blues. You best destroy it – with fire, a spilled bottle of Mad Dog, or get  out a shotgun. Maybe your big woman just done sat on it.