WINNER OF THE FIRST FIFTEEN MINUTES SCREENPLAY COMPETITION FOR JUNE

Colin Preston's screenplay Mallory's Compass has been selected as the winner of The First Fifteen Minutes Screenplay Competition for June. Tanglewood Films would like to congratulate Colin and recognize the superior craftsmanship in his work. He will be showcased here, receive free coverage on his script and have his work forwarded to production companies actively seeking new scripts.

Mallory's Compass
A man follows his delusional best friend on a misguided search for the keys to Heaven on Earth.

 

Colin is a prolific feature length writer, producing at least four new spec scripts each year. Only recently, however, has he begun to circulate his work due to much urging by other writers and industry professionals.

Richard Walter, UCLA's Chairman of Screenwriting, called Colin "an unbelievably talented new writer, just fantastic" after reading an adventure script entitled "Precipice Bird" which he dubbed, "The perfect
summer blockbuster, outstanding and impressive!" It was enough to coerce Colin into opening the vault of stored scripts.

Once the gates were opened, comedies such as "Peashooter" (the world's first non-identical conjoined twins who hate each other) and "Grover's Hairy & Blue" (a famous stand-up comedian struggles to save his marriage) won critical acclaim and took on a life of their own in the underground world of coverage readers.

Colin's scripts have been considered for production by Sony's Red Wagon Pictures and Ovation Entertainment, as well as numerous other production companies.

He is currently in rewrite on a comedy entitled "Wiener & Bunn" about a marriage therapist and a divorce attorney who join forces for evil ends.

Colin lives with his wife and two sons near Seattle where he works as a licensed psychotherapist.

Screenwriting for me has been such a private endeavor that I really set myself up for culture shock by releasing a great deal of my work at once. I'm not used to winning contests, having agents and managers wanting to "do lunch", etc. I love it, but I honestly wasn't prepared for the level of response I'm getting. I was so expecting the cold shoulder and critical slams that accepting positive feedback has left me shell shocked.

I think the weirdest part has been getting emails from other writers telling me how much they loved a script that was sent to them by friends who are coverage readers for production agencies or contests. Nobody's harder to please than other writers and that another writer would like something I wrote enough to pay four bucks to mail it to a friend freaks me out, but it also makes me smile. It's just bizarre to realize that my work has taken on a life of its own.

I navigate screenwriting with only three rules for myself: (1) allow room for collaboration (don't direct!), (2) make them _have_ to turn the page, and (3) never be obvious, the best payoff is the one that blindsides us.