BEST SCENE SCREENPLAY READINGS
The "best scene" take from features and TV pilots of winning screenplays.
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Best Scene Showcase: DETERIMINED, by Brian McCarthy
After her music lesson, A YOUNG GIRL is molested by her music INSTRUCTOR. A young man witnesses the assault through a window.
The sleezy music instructor returns home. As he sits in his basement, dappling in porn, he is over powered and strangled from behind with a wire.CAST LIST:
Narrator: ...
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FEMALE Festival Best Scene: Liminal, by Sarah Jones
Summary: After her mother kills herself, we go forward in time to see Adalia now with her own family struggles with the affects of PTSD and seeks help to understand her past with Dr Hugh.
CAST LIST:
Narrator: Geoff Mays
Adalia: Val Cole
Robert: Steve Rizzo -
HORROR Festival Best Scene: The Horrors of Hell House, by Tim Connery
Horror/Comedy. In 1970, four actors come to an English manor house to rehearse a Hammer Horror-esque movie about devil worship, only to get caught up in the dark rituals of some genuine Satanists.
CAST LIST:
Narrator: Geoff Mays
Petra: Val Cole
Stella: Hannah Ehman -
FAN FICTION Festival: Bob's Burgers Spec, by Bethany Yoder, Kate Yoder
Title: Word to the Pennywise
After Louise trades 1000 Pennies for a $10 bill, she discovers that rare pennies can be very valuable. She enlists Gene and Tina to hunt down her traded pennies, but finds something more valuable than money. Meanwhile Bob and Teddy challenge the notion "you are what...
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BLACK Screenplay Festival Best Scene: BLIND JUSTICE, by Ramona L. Taylor
In 1912, successful Black Virginia lawyer George Washington Fields takes the case of Virgie Christian, a Black girl accused of murdering her white boss.
CAST LIST:
Narrator: Steve Rizzo
Sallie: Val Cole
George: Sean Ballantyne
Junnie: Geoff Mays -
CRIME/MYSTERY Festival Best Scene: The Fourth Night, by Mike Briock
Genuine film noir crime thriller set in 1940. Los Angeles poses grave danger for New York Private Detective Steven Hawk who arrives in Los Angeles to find his client murdered. Steven is quickly pulled into a deadly and tangled web of blistering sexual tension, deceit, double-crosses, embezzlement...
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LGBTQ+ LA Festival: WHAT ARE BEST FRIENDS FOR?, by Kristine Spindler Denton
A woman who thinks she's left her past behind discovers her ex-best friend has left her a child she never knew about from a man who once was her whole world. No one can change your life quite like a best friend.
CAST LIST:
Narrator: Geoff Mays
Emma: Val Cole
Terra: Hannah Ehman -
ENVIRONMENTAL Festival Best Scene: GEMINI WORLD, by Matthew W. Kelcourse
The climate apocalypse and extinction of mankind is about to erupt when a NASA pilot, recalled to lead her crew and precious cargo to an exoplanet 4,000 light years away, must defeat a vengeful enemy that hijacks her ship to be the first colonists on the new world.
CAST LIST:
Narrator: Steve ...
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Fantasy/Sci-Fi Festival Best Scene Read: THE DRAGON KEY, by Lyn Pinezich
Three mismatched strangers - a shy teenage girl, a wary huntress, and a vain royal accused of treason - must learn to trust each other in order to rescue an exiled dragon king and stop a war that threatens their world.
CAST LIST:
Narrator: Geoff Mays
Nestor: Sean Ballantyne
Darius: Steve Ri... -
Fantasy/Sci-Fi Festival 1st Scene Read: THE WARMTH OF THE SUN, by Philip Fenlon
When an alien being arrives on Earth, a scientist must discover its true intensions.
CAST LIST:
Narrator: Hannah Ehman
George: Sean Ballantyne
Woman: Val Cole -
Fan Fiction: DOCTOR WHO "The Prodigal Heist", by Jessie S. Hymowitz (interview)
In this episode of Doctor Who, The Doctor and her friends are caught in the middle of a museum heist, but the perpetrator is a familiar face to the Thirteenth Doctor. But who is she?
CAST LIST:
Narrator: Shawn Devlin
Jen: Val Cole
Ryan Sinclair: Geoff Mays
Yasmin Khan/: Allison KampfGet t...
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ASIAN Festival Best Scene: TARAKI, by Robert Salter
An Air Force Pararescue commando battles an organized crime syndicate who killed his sister and is hunting his niece. Taraki Gil, a deadly hand-to-hand fighter trained at a very young age by a Filipino martial artist, is recalled from combat duty in Syria to return to Las Vegas by a Red Cross mes...
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Action Best Scene: PATHFINDER DOWN, by Thomas Anthony Brannagan (interview)
She’s an emotionally damaged agent with a dilemma. Find a downed airman behind enemy lines, then decide whether to become his saviour or his assassin.
CAST LIST:
Narrator: Val Cole
Paisley: Geoff Mays
Madelaine: Hannah EhmanGet to know the writer:
1. What is your screenplay about?
P... -
LGBTQ+ Festival Best Scene: BARNABY AND BELLA, by Georgina Boeheim
Lonely curmudgeon Gerald has his life turned upside down with the unexpected arrival of his five-year-old orphaned grandson Barnaby following the death of his estranged daughter. But Barnaby, who likes to wear dresses and be called Bella, challenges all of Gerald's bigoted limitations to an extre...
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Winning TV Spec Screenplay: NIGHT COURT "Abby vs The Lawbot" , by Corey Taft
CAST LIST:
Narrator: Val Cole
Abby: Hannah Ehman
Dan: Steve Rizzo
Proseuction-Bot: Sean Ballantyne
Defense Bot: Andy CampGet to know the writer:
1. What is your screenplay about?
It's a spec script of Night Court on NBC. The episode that I wrote is about Judge Abby Stone, a sympatheti...
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SCI-FI/FANTASY Best Scene: SAND - Part I "Burial", by Rhyess Nash (interview)
Summary: After Nefret goes missing, it puts Mazim's place in the war in doubt, but despite his family's safety, he won't leave without Nefret, which leads him to face horrifying consequences.
CAST LIST:
Narrator: Val Cole
Mezut: Steve Rizzo
Layla: Hannah EhmanGet to know the writer:
1. Wh...
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GREEN RUSH, by Matt Gallagher script reading - Crime/Mystery Festival winner
Out of work actors in LA plan a robbery of a marijuana dispensary in the middle of Covid lockdown.
CAST LIST:
Narrator: Val Cole
Corey: Steve Rizzo
Blake: Shawn Devlin
Patty: Julie SheppardGet to know the writer:
1. What is your screenplay about?
The plot is a heist of a dispensary dur... -
BEST Scene Reading: The Walking Wounded, by Andrew Cahill-Lloyd
CAST LIST:
Narrator: Sean Ballantyne
Donna: Hannah Ehman
Dawn: Julie Sheppard
Noah/Monty: Geoff Mays
Levi/Ian: Steve Rizzo
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BEST Scene Reading: The Hollow Earth, by Kenneth James
In the late 19th century, a young scientist embarks on an epic journey to a hidden, fabled land -- and to the darkest recesses of his own psyche.
CAST LIST:
Narrator: Hannah Ehman
Palmer: Geoff Mays
Sheppard: Steve Rizzo
Reed/Taylor: Sean Ballantyne
Bradshaw: Andy Camp -
LGBTQ+ Festival Scene: THE PLANT THIEF, by Norm Fassbender, Katherine Holowach
Summary: Bellus and Invictus are royal siblings, Bellus the more inquisitive and caring and Invictus the rebellious and conniving sibling. Their mother has been missing, which their father forbids questions about, and she begins to explore whether her mother’s theft of a flower–a Draco Lily–could...
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LA LGBTQ+ Festival Best Scene: BEGIN THE BEGUINE, by R.A. Modro (interview)
Two families from different eras, one White and one Black, are inextricably linked by a violent family legacy and a historic home that holds a haunting secret. The story unfolds across two timelines, intricately weaving their lives together through violence, love, acceptance, and the discovery of...
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HORROR Festival Best Scene: STAG NIGHT, by Wenzler Powers (interview)
When Ian reluctantly plans a bachelor party for his awful college friends, confronting his past demons transforms into a desperate bid for survival when a group on their party bus has a very different definition of raising hell.
CAST LIST:
Narrator: Sean Ballantyne
Alex: Hannah Ehman
Ian: Geof... -
COMEDY Festival Best Scene: Moonwalking, by Jillian Smart
When her parents demand rent money, Annie gives her dream of becoming a Michael Jackson Impersonator one last go, putting the threads of her personal relationships at risks as she hip-thrusts all the way to the top.
CAST LIST:
Narrator: Sean Ballantyne
Frank: Steve Rizzo
Annie: Hannah Ehman
Ma... -
COMEDY Festival Best Scene: IT'S A MAD MAD MAD MAD SCRIPT, by Dale A Brandenburg
It's a story about a guy trying to write a movie script.
CAST LIST:
Narrator: Julie Sheppard
Pepe: Sean Ballantyne
Margarita: Hannah Ehman