What We're Looking For!
For those few of you who haven't yet seen "The Social Network," it is the story about how Mark Zuckerberg and a supporting cast of characters conceived of, build out, and expanded what is now Facebook. No doubt "The Facebook Effect" is big, but we also think Twitter is just as relevant. Morever, we wanted to see a short documentary about how Twitter is being used around the world, and we want your input.
In this official Scripped contest, we want to find eight (8) eight to ten-page non-fiction scripts about specific topics that Twitter has had a large impact on. You only have three requirements: (1) Stay within the 10-page limit; (2) Your script has to be within one of the broad topics listed below; and (3) Your script should be based on verifiable facts (or tweets) - we don't want pure fiction here, but we don't necessarily want a documentary either.
- Politics & Elections (2009 Iranian elections)
- Sports & Celebrity (LeBron & The Decision; or Conan O'Brien)
- Corporate PR (BP Oil Spill and @BPGlobalPR, WikiLeaks)
- News & Media (The Future of News & Twitter)
- Philanthropy & Causes (The Case of @CharityWater)
- Cultural Resistance (Nobel Laureate Lui Xiaobo & Twitter in China)
- Disaster Notification (The 2008 Mumbai Attacks & Haiti Earthquake)
- Twitter Sensations (How @shitmydadsays became a TV show)
Scripped Judges will pick one winner in each of the eight categories. The winning writer in each category will receive $200, and potentially more. There is no entry fee for this competition!
Remember to pick a topic you are comfortable with! The winning script will incorporate real facts about the topic. Use the examples in parentheses above for inspiration!
Judges!
Our judges will be accompanied by an editorial team led by Semil Shah.
Paul Bragiel, i/o ventures, @bragiel
Philanthropy Category
Paul Bragiel is the co-founder of i/o ventures, a startup accelerator with a funky workspace+cafe in San Francisco. Previously he co-founded Lefora, a product bringing forums into the 21st century, Meetro, the first location based social network and was the founder of Paragon Five, a game development studio specializing in console and mobile with offices in Chicago and Krakow, Poland.
Angela Sun, Tennis Channel & Yahoo, @sunnyangela
Sports & Celebrity Category
Angela Sun was ESPN's first Asian American female correspondent as well as The Tennis Channel's first Asian American anchor. She is currently executive-producing an environmental documentary series on our oceans. Additionally, Sun is the host of the Yahoo Sports Minute, Court Reports on Tennis Channel, and NBC's lifestyle newsmagazine LXTV 1st Look. She is also a face of MTV's most recent global venture, "MTV Iggy" and has investigated/produced international issues and stories for emmy-award winning Current TV.
Brian Norgard, Namesake @BrianNorgard
News Category
Brian Norgard is a passionate entrepreneur, angel investor and waterman. Brian co-founded Newroo (acquired in 2006 by Fox Interactive Media/NewsCorp). He is currently the co-founder of Namesake. Brian also co-founded Beverly Hills based Ad.ly. Brian created Newroo as a senior at Brown University where he graduated with honors. Brian has a deep interest in product development, futurism, longevity, deep tech and design.
Sean Percival, Lalawag @Percival
Twitter Sensations Category
Sean Percival is an American blogger and author from Los Angeles, California. For work, Percival is the Vice President, Online Marketing at MySpace; for play, he is the founder of the Los Angeles-based technology blog lalawag which was recently acquired by ValleyGirl Inc. Formerly with Tsavo, Mahalo and Docstoc, Percival taps the real-time web to identify and develop content around today's biggest Internet trends.
Legal Stuff!
All writers retain the rights to their scripts, and yes, you may submit more than one.
Scripped.com is automatically attached as the Executive Producer.
If the film gets produced, and is profitable, each winning writer will share in the profits of the film!
Some Inspiration!
This video was produced by Twitter to announce their new platform. It's worth viewing if you haven't seen it: