Creative Writing Samples
Need a SCREENPLAY, NOVEL, CORPORATE VIDEO or TVC written? Well you've come to the right place!
SCREENWRITING SAMPLES
Whether your company needs COPYWRITING (SEO / on-line and traditional - including
long copy, above and below the line) or SCREENWRITING (Film / TV / TVC / Corporate
Videos / Training Films), SEO North Sydney can handle it all.
So why not spend a few moments reviewing the many samples provided and then put us on speed-dial as your go-to-guys for when you need some creative writing done - but don't want to go to the expense of hiring someone full time. We offer very reasonable rates and specialize in marrying our innate creativity with the needs of the client. And we always deliver the work on time.
So why not spend a few moments reviewing the many samples provided and then put us on speed-dial as your go-to-guys for when you need some creative writing done - but don't want to go to the expense of hiring someone full time. We offer very reasonable rates and specialize in marrying our innate creativity with the needs of the client. And we always deliver the work on time.
Screenplay Sample - The Collective Desperation of Myth
Title: The Collective Desperation of Myth.
Genre: Drama / Action.
Influences: Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels.
Estimated budget: $7,000,000
Log-line: Log-line: a Nihilistic hitman double crosses The Firm, gets double crossed by MI6, and ends up taking a philosophical group of strangers hostage in a funky inner city London launderette.
Writer's notes on the script:
This script - described by my agent as, 'A cross between Tarantino and Mamet' - is a Nicholl Fellowship Finalist* (top 10 out of 6,048) - and has garnered a great deal of attention. So much so that Warner Brothers Independent agreed to finance it to the tune of US$7,000,000 in 2006 (with Director, David Slade attached) and was officially making 'pay or play' offers to the stars. Actors as diverse as Kevin Spacey, John Cusack, Alan Rickman and Vinnie Jones all wanted to do Myth based on this script.
Unfortunately with the full budget signed off by Warner Brothers Independent and the film only awaiting a start date from the director to be green-lit, everything went pear shaped at the 11th hour when the director was poached to direct '30 Days of Night' by Sam Raimi. Yup, even though the director and I were both with the same agency (different agents) and both had EXACTLY THE SAME MANAGER, the director still pulled the plug for a bigger pay cheque and all the hard work setting up the project, attaching stars, getting Warner Brothers to agree to the $7,000,000 budget, etc, fell apart quicker than you can say, 'This verbal contract isn't worth the paper it's written on...'.
Since that time the Indie film market has collapsed (as demonstrated by Warner Brothers Independent closing its doors - even after winning Oscars for producing 'March of the Penguins' and 'Thank You and Goodnight') and Myth has remained unproduced.
*Note: The Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting is the world's largest screenplay contest and is run by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences (the folks who hand out the Oscars). With Myth I was the first ever finalist to come from outside of America or Canada in the 21 year history of the competition. On the back of this win, the Academy flew me from Sydney to Hollywood and put me up at the Beverly Hilton Hotel for a week for the award and presentation ceremony.
Genre: Drama / Action.
Influences: Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels.
Estimated budget: $7,000,000
Log-line: Log-line: a Nihilistic hitman double crosses The Firm, gets double crossed by MI6, and ends up taking a philosophical group of strangers hostage in a funky inner city London launderette.
Writer's notes on the script:
This script - described by my agent as, 'A cross between Tarantino and Mamet' - is a Nicholl Fellowship Finalist* (top 10 out of 6,048) - and has garnered a great deal of attention. So much so that Warner Brothers Independent agreed to finance it to the tune of US$7,000,000 in 2006 (with Director, David Slade attached) and was officially making 'pay or play' offers to the stars. Actors as diverse as Kevin Spacey, John Cusack, Alan Rickman and Vinnie Jones all wanted to do Myth based on this script.
Unfortunately with the full budget signed off by Warner Brothers Independent and the film only awaiting a start date from the director to be green-lit, everything went pear shaped at the 11th hour when the director was poached to direct '30 Days of Night' by Sam Raimi. Yup, even though the director and I were both with the same agency (different agents) and both had EXACTLY THE SAME MANAGER, the director still pulled the plug for a bigger pay cheque and all the hard work setting up the project, attaching stars, getting Warner Brothers to agree to the $7,000,000 budget, etc, fell apart quicker than you can say, 'This verbal contract isn't worth the paper it's written on...'.
Since that time the Indie film market has collapsed (as demonstrated by Warner Brothers Independent closing its doors - even after winning Oscars for producing 'March of the Penguins' and 'Thank You and Goodnight') and Myth has remained unproduced.
*Note: The Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting is the world's largest screenplay contest and is run by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences (the folks who hand out the Oscars). With Myth I was the first ever finalist to come from outside of America or Canada in the 21 year history of the competition. On the back of this win, the Academy flew me from Sydney to Hollywood and put me up at the Beverly Hilton Hotel for a week for the award and presentation ceremony.
Screenplay Sample - The Well
Title: The Well.
Genre: Action / Horror Comedy.
Influences: Tremors, From Dusk Till Dawn, The Descent.
Estimated budget: $20,000,000 - $30,000,000 (dependent on above the line factors).
Log-line: A rich, gated community in the middle of the New Mexico desert is attacked by a nest of hellish creatures on Christmas Eve, after a newly dug well drills into their netherworldy lair. And two washed up security guards are the only things that stand in their way.
Writer's notes on the script:
If you grew up loving those wonderfully over the top 'Creature Features' of the 1980s and early 90s, then you’re going to love ‘The Well’, a modern day homage to the genre that hearkens back to a time when blood and gore and laughs galore were the order of the day!
Synopsis:
For Afghan war veteran Jake Mitchell (37), a security guard position at the über rich gated community of Desert Springs, New Mexico, may not be his dream job. But considering the post traumatic baggage he’s carrying, and his inability to fire his gun any more, being second in charge of a small force of wannabe rent-a-cops is more than he had a right to expect.
Truth is, Jake wouldn’t have got the job in the first place if not for retired Colonel Danny Patterson (60), Jake’s former commanding officer. A raging alcoholic, Danny has long since let himself go to seed, and only hired Jake out of pity, and because he needed someone to do the bulk of the work for him, so he could kick back and concentrate on his drinking and watching Monday night football.
It’s Christmas Eve and the Desert Springs security force is running on a skeleton staff, so the last thing Jake needs right now is to have to babysit Emma Flynn (30), a fiery hotshot TV reporter looking to make a name for herself with a story on land developers in the desert fleecing rich suburbanites with promises of ‘Natural Hopi Indian well water with regenerative healing properties’. But when Monty Blake (65), the Mayor of Desert Springs, orders Jake to provide Emma with a tour of the community, he has no alternative but to give the outspoken reporter a ride-along when he’s on patrol. But, while playing tour-guide, Jake receives an urgent call and has to rush to ‘Well 5,’ the community’s newest well that’s only just been sunk. There he discovers Charlie Blake (12), the mayor's grandson, has fallen into the well and is close to drowning. With Emma's help, Jake manages to rescue the terrified child. But what they don't see is that Charlie didn't come up from the well alone. A strange LEAF rose with him, affixed to his ankle. A leaf – we discover later - that has not existed since before the age of the dinosaurs.
As Jake is carrying the terrified child back to his car, the leaf falls off Charlie’s leg, leaving a strange rash of translucent blisters on his skin.
Despite a mutual attraction, Jake hopes the ride-along is the end of his involvement with Emma; but instead of leaving, she chooses to stay the night, believing there's something else here, something Jake's hiding about his past. It may not be the story she came to report on, but it might just be something better.
Later that night, the rash on Charlie’s leg spreads all over his body and he begins to mutate. To change into something no longer human. His skin loses all its hair and he develops completely translucent, scale like body armour. He sprouts pre-wing-like nubs from under his shoulder blades. And he grows teeth. Oh God the teeth. Layers and layers of razor sharp piranha like incisors.
No longer human, but not quite one of them, Charlie climbs onto his grandfather's roof and lets out a baleful screech into the night. A cry for his brethren. And, deep below the earth, in the giant underground lake at the bottom of Well 5, THE NEST hear the summons and awaken. And THE NEST is hungry...
And so, as carollers entertain excited children, and people frantically finish off their last minute Christmas shopping, desert demons erupt from Well 5 and rain down carnage upon Desert Springs, New Mexico. And only Jake, Danny and a handful of security guards stand in the way of total annihilation.
Genre: Action / Horror Comedy.
Influences: Tremors, From Dusk Till Dawn, The Descent.
Estimated budget: $20,000,000 - $30,000,000 (dependent on above the line factors).
Log-line: A rich, gated community in the middle of the New Mexico desert is attacked by a nest of hellish creatures on Christmas Eve, after a newly dug well drills into their netherworldy lair. And two washed up security guards are the only things that stand in their way.
Writer's notes on the script:
If you grew up loving those wonderfully over the top 'Creature Features' of the 1980s and early 90s, then you’re going to love ‘The Well’, a modern day homage to the genre that hearkens back to a time when blood and gore and laughs galore were the order of the day!
Synopsis:
For Afghan war veteran Jake Mitchell (37), a security guard position at the über rich gated community of Desert Springs, New Mexico, may not be his dream job. But considering the post traumatic baggage he’s carrying, and his inability to fire his gun any more, being second in charge of a small force of wannabe rent-a-cops is more than he had a right to expect.
Truth is, Jake wouldn’t have got the job in the first place if not for retired Colonel Danny Patterson (60), Jake’s former commanding officer. A raging alcoholic, Danny has long since let himself go to seed, and only hired Jake out of pity, and because he needed someone to do the bulk of the work for him, so he could kick back and concentrate on his drinking and watching Monday night football.
It’s Christmas Eve and the Desert Springs security force is running on a skeleton staff, so the last thing Jake needs right now is to have to babysit Emma Flynn (30), a fiery hotshot TV reporter looking to make a name for herself with a story on land developers in the desert fleecing rich suburbanites with promises of ‘Natural Hopi Indian well water with regenerative healing properties’. But when Monty Blake (65), the Mayor of Desert Springs, orders Jake to provide Emma with a tour of the community, he has no alternative but to give the outspoken reporter a ride-along when he’s on patrol. But, while playing tour-guide, Jake receives an urgent call and has to rush to ‘Well 5,’ the community’s newest well that’s only just been sunk. There he discovers Charlie Blake (12), the mayor's grandson, has fallen into the well and is close to drowning. With Emma's help, Jake manages to rescue the terrified child. But what they don't see is that Charlie didn't come up from the well alone. A strange LEAF rose with him, affixed to his ankle. A leaf – we discover later - that has not existed since before the age of the dinosaurs.
As Jake is carrying the terrified child back to his car, the leaf falls off Charlie’s leg, leaving a strange rash of translucent blisters on his skin.
Despite a mutual attraction, Jake hopes the ride-along is the end of his involvement with Emma; but instead of leaving, she chooses to stay the night, believing there's something else here, something Jake's hiding about his past. It may not be the story she came to report on, but it might just be something better.
Later that night, the rash on Charlie’s leg spreads all over his body and he begins to mutate. To change into something no longer human. His skin loses all its hair and he develops completely translucent, scale like body armour. He sprouts pre-wing-like nubs from under his shoulder blades. And he grows teeth. Oh God the teeth. Layers and layers of razor sharp piranha like incisors.
No longer human, but not quite one of them, Charlie climbs onto his grandfather's roof and lets out a baleful screech into the night. A cry for his brethren. And, deep below the earth, in the giant underground lake at the bottom of Well 5, THE NEST hear the summons and awaken. And THE NEST is hungry...
And so, as carollers entertain excited children, and people frantically finish off their last minute Christmas shopping, desert demons erupt from Well 5 and rain down carnage upon Desert Springs, New Mexico. And only Jake, Danny and a handful of security guards stand in the way of total annihilation.
Screenplay Sample - Feedin' The Freezer
Title: Feedin' the Freezer.
Genre: Horror.
Influences: Wolf Creek, The Hills Have Eyes.
Estimated budget: $250,000 - $1,000,000 (dependent on above the line factors - bigger names of course equates to bigger budget).
Log-line: A group of acting graduates reunite for a 15 year anniversary weekend deep in the Australian outback with disastrous consequences.
Writer's notes on the script:
If you're looking for the next 'Wolf Creek' or 'Saw' (excellent / profitable Australian low budget horror films), this is it. Feedin' the Freezer is a slow burn - and dare I say - 'Grown Up' horror, deliberately structured to let us get to know the characters before the blood starts flowing. Thus giving the viewer a chance to actually care about who lives and who dies. Rather than just slicing and dicing 18 year old cheerleaders who have only been on screen for the last 30 seconds, and whose resumes no doubt sport the hyphenate, 'model slash actress'. Feedin' the Freezer is a script with pathos and blood in equal measure, and is a uniquely Australian horror franchise waiting to happen.
Synopsis:
Back in the day, they were graduates of the National Academy of Dramatic Arts, Australia's preeminent acting college. And as such they knew they were destined to be huge stars of the silver screen and best friends forever.
Fifteen years later, the much vaunted 'NADA Class of '98' have all lost touch with each other, and not a one of them has gone on to became a star. Rather, with Hollywood a barely remembered dream from their youth, all but a handful have bowed to the Sisyphean struggle of their quotidian existence and given up acting completely.
Then, out of nowhere, the Class of '98 receive an invitation to an unofficial class reunion at the Mellville Farm. The very place they used to spend their summers together, back in their halcyon college days. Closer to the outback than to civilization, the Melville Farm is a quaint, run down property in the middle of nowhere that is owned by Lizzie Melville, the 'Class of '98's resident pocket-rocket tomboy.
Not all the Class of '98 decide to attend the reunion of course. Some are overseas, some are otherwise engaged, and some cannot face the inevitable raft of class reunion questions that all begin with, 'So...what have you been doing for the last 15 years?'. But seven graduates do decide to attend: Lizzie (their host), Claire, Maggie, Conrad and Neil all come to the reunion alone, but two others decide to bring a +1. Rob, the group’s alpha male, brings Katy, a drop dead gorgeous 19 year old beach babe with a sex drive like an energizer bunny. And Ephraim brings Clip, his devilishly handsome 29 year old black American boyfriend.
It's late Friday night by the time everyone arrives, and as the beer and champagne flows, friendships are renewed and memories are stoked once more into life.
The next morning, Conrad, Neil and Katy drive the two and a half hours to the nearest town to buy cigarettes and supplies, while the others head up to the nearby lake, to swim and bask in the heat of the day.
En route to the one horse town dubbed 'Comaville' by the group, Conrad, Neil and Katy play a prank on a tall Twitching Man who they see walking along the side of the highway. Dressed in a suit 50 years out of date, the Twitching Man wears round wire rimmed glasses cracked on one side, a faded Sutton hat, and carries a battered pre-war leather doctor's case and a bulging Collingwood sports bag stained red with blood.
The prank completed, Conrad, Neil and Katy speed off and watch the humiliated Twitching Man vanish into the forced perspective of the rear view mirror, barely giving him a second thought.
Unfortunately for them, all is not as it seems with the Twitching Man. And that night, when a violent storm descends on the Melville farm and all communication with the outside world is lost, the Twitching Man comes a'calling. And he doesn't come alone...
Genre: Horror.
Influences: Wolf Creek, The Hills Have Eyes.
Estimated budget: $250,000 - $1,000,000 (dependent on above the line factors - bigger names of course equates to bigger budget).
Log-line: A group of acting graduates reunite for a 15 year anniversary weekend deep in the Australian outback with disastrous consequences.
Writer's notes on the script:
If you're looking for the next 'Wolf Creek' or 'Saw' (excellent / profitable Australian low budget horror films), this is it. Feedin' the Freezer is a slow burn - and dare I say - 'Grown Up' horror, deliberately structured to let us get to know the characters before the blood starts flowing. Thus giving the viewer a chance to actually care about who lives and who dies. Rather than just slicing and dicing 18 year old cheerleaders who have only been on screen for the last 30 seconds, and whose resumes no doubt sport the hyphenate, 'model slash actress'. Feedin' the Freezer is a script with pathos and blood in equal measure, and is a uniquely Australian horror franchise waiting to happen.
Synopsis:
Back in the day, they were graduates of the National Academy of Dramatic Arts, Australia's preeminent acting college. And as such they knew they were destined to be huge stars of the silver screen and best friends forever.
Fifteen years later, the much vaunted 'NADA Class of '98' have all lost touch with each other, and not a one of them has gone on to became a star. Rather, with Hollywood a barely remembered dream from their youth, all but a handful have bowed to the Sisyphean struggle of their quotidian existence and given up acting completely.
Then, out of nowhere, the Class of '98 receive an invitation to an unofficial class reunion at the Mellville Farm. The very place they used to spend their summers together, back in their halcyon college days. Closer to the outback than to civilization, the Melville Farm is a quaint, run down property in the middle of nowhere that is owned by Lizzie Melville, the 'Class of '98's resident pocket-rocket tomboy.
Not all the Class of '98 decide to attend the reunion of course. Some are overseas, some are otherwise engaged, and some cannot face the inevitable raft of class reunion questions that all begin with, 'So...what have you been doing for the last 15 years?'. But seven graduates do decide to attend: Lizzie (their host), Claire, Maggie, Conrad and Neil all come to the reunion alone, but two others decide to bring a +1. Rob, the group’s alpha male, brings Katy, a drop dead gorgeous 19 year old beach babe with a sex drive like an energizer bunny. And Ephraim brings Clip, his devilishly handsome 29 year old black American boyfriend.
It's late Friday night by the time everyone arrives, and as the beer and champagne flows, friendships are renewed and memories are stoked once more into life.
The next morning, Conrad, Neil and Katy drive the two and a half hours to the nearest town to buy cigarettes and supplies, while the others head up to the nearby lake, to swim and bask in the heat of the day.
En route to the one horse town dubbed 'Comaville' by the group, Conrad, Neil and Katy play a prank on a tall Twitching Man who they see walking along the side of the highway. Dressed in a suit 50 years out of date, the Twitching Man wears round wire rimmed glasses cracked on one side, a faded Sutton hat, and carries a battered pre-war leather doctor's case and a bulging Collingwood sports bag stained red with blood.
The prank completed, Conrad, Neil and Katy speed off and watch the humiliated Twitching Man vanish into the forced perspective of the rear view mirror, barely giving him a second thought.
Unfortunately for them, all is not as it seems with the Twitching Man. And that night, when a violent storm descends on the Melville farm and all communication with the outside world is lost, the Twitching Man comes a'calling. And he doesn't come alone...
