Comments on: Duke City Shootout Now Accepting Submissions

By: The Duke City Shootout « Tea Time with Jesse

The Duke City Shootout « Tea Time with Jesse — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 14:09:33 +0000

[...] West, in Albuquerque NM, known as the Duke City Shootout. A good friend of mine is actually a past winner of this contest. How cool is [...]

By: Jerry

Jerry — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 02:07:04 +0000

Fortunately you have connections in the area to help with scouting. I spent many, many days driving the small roads of New Mexico in search of the right location. Once you find it, there’s still the question of working with the management to allow you to shoot there. We needed a bar, and that meant the place had to close for business while we were there.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 01:43:42 +0000

Not being from the area, I see a need for much preparation. Scouting locations is the biggest.
Many questions for you, THE WINNER, but I will go back and read the rules first.

By: Jerry

Jerry — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 00:19:36 +0000

Yep, the version we submitted clocked in at almost exactly twelve pages. OUr script had a couple of places where a single paragraph described a minute of action, so the page=minute estimate was a little off. I think as we slowly dial in the ideal time for the final version it goes a couple minutes longer.

I’d attach the Pirates script from before the shoot (not the submitted one; not sure that exists anymore) if I could think of a way to do it.

By: Jesse

Jesse — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 19:21:17 +0000

I looked at your Alisson example. Was Pirates really only 12 8.5X11 pages of that?

By: Jerry

Jerry — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 17:00:23 +0000

One of the reasons the format is important is that 12 pages roughly equates to 12 minutes – the festival’s length limit. People put a lot of faith in the page=minute estimate, and it’s based on everyone using consistent formatting.

By: Jerry

Jerry — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 16:54:47 +0000

Don't know when the deadline is. It might say on the withoutabox page. (That's the online submission system they use - back in the day we had to mail ours in from Prague.)Back when we did it, the rules said they own the movie afterwards. The grand poobah of the event was pretty mellow about that; I asked what if we sold copies and he said "Don't tell us." Participants at that time were encouraged to take their work elsewhere, as long as Duke City Shootout got their credit.The thing should be in script format. That means no introspection, and action laid out separately from dialog. Compare an Allison scene in script format to an episode in print format. The story format is actually for more than one scene, but you can see the difference. You can Google "screenplay format" and get plenty of slightly-conflicting and unnecessarily-anal (for this market) info.

By: Jesse

Jesse — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 14:35:17 +0000

Some questions: The website doesn’t give a deadline for submissions. Also, who owns the movie afterwards? What does a screenplay look like? Are they okay with just 12 pages of writing – or is it supposed to be “camera pulls back. Enter from stage left three hombres. blah blah blah”?

By: Carol Anne

Carol Anne — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 07:06:18 +0000

Good to see the Shootout’s back after a year of hiatus. Maybe the economy really is recovering.

By: Jerry

Jerry — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 02:37:59 +0000

That’s about it – though putting in extra effort between the time you are selected and the actual shootout really pays off.