By: Sarah Chaisson-Warner
Our Feature Contest is geared towards screenwriters looking to gain representation with a manager or agent, sell their screenplay, and get hired on writing assignments. With cash prizes, industry meetings, script circulation, mentoring from our judges and industry leaders and more, our Feature Contest sets writers up for success.
This year, in addition to our exciting prize packages, we are offering a new opportunity – a Guaranteed Option Prize! Showdown Productions will select and sign a Paid Option Agreement with one of Shore’s 2024 feature writers, working with the writer to develop their project before taking it out to market. To be eligible for consideration for the Guaranteed Option Prize you must select the Add-On feature when submitting your Feature screenplay.
Showdown Productions, a Los Angeles-based production company, was founded by Bo Youngblood and John Ierardi. Both Bo and John have independently produced multiple feature films – including Blumhouse’s Torn Hearts, Follow Me, and Safer At Home – as well as branded content, music videos, documentaries and commercials. About 90 percent of the content they move forward is female-led, with a focus on ensuring films are representative of different cultures, sexualities, and the world we live in.
Working with Showdown Productions will be a career-changing experience for an up-and-coming writer! The chosen writer will gain experience developing their work with a top production company and the opportunity to build and strengthen their network, while giving their script the best opportunity of being taken through into production.
Meet Bo and John
Bo and John met while working on set, and joined creative forces to start Showdown Productions, which produces material that not only has a strong artistic vision but also makes strong commentary on social and diverse issues.
Bo, who enjoys focusing on female-driven and diverse stories, fell in love with film and storytelling as a teenager when she first saw Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo and Juliet. “I was in 7th or 8th grade, and we were studying Shakespeare in our English class, and our teacher had taken us to see it after we read the play. It was such a transformative moment in my life, because I’d never seen visual storytelling like that before,” she says. “It was such a modern take, with modern images and music, and something that you could relate to. I think cinema speaks through all of us, and it did. It changed me in that moment.”
Since becoming a producer and director, Bo’s feature films have all had full theatrical releases as well as worldwide distribution. She recently wrapped production on Complicated Order, a queer coming of age drama starring Midori Francis, Alok Vaid-Menon, and Heather Matarazzo. She is currently in post-production on her feature film directorial debut In Flight starring Cristo Fernandez, Maria Russell, and Tiffany Smith.
John’s first taste of the arts also came at a young age, watching his sister dance and perform in theaters. His father was also a film buff, and the first film he brought John to was Beetlejuice. Later, films like Saving Private Ryan and Sleepers also had a profound effect on him, and strengthened his love for cinema.
“A writer and producer, John served as an Executive Producer and creative producer on Torn Hearts for Blumhouse which was part of the Epic slate. John and Showdown recently put out the film”
The Pay Day , starring Simon Callow which was acquired by Vertical Entertainment. Upcoming features include Break and The Cure starring Ashley Greene and David Dastmalchian.
Working with Showdown Productions
Showdown will be presented with a short list of top screenplays submitted in the Feature Contest. From there, John and Bo will choose the winner and work with the writer to prepare to take the script out to the industry.
Why join forces with Shore Scripts? Bo and John are both excited by the possibility of working with and engaging new writers and discovering emerging talent.
“What is so exciting to me personally about Shore’s Feature Contest is the ability to reach untapped talent. So much of this bill business is built on connections and who you know. It can be very hard to break into that and I think it’s really intimidating for a lot of people starting out,” says John.
Bo and John are especially interested in the originality behind a script. “We’re constantly reading scripts and looking for projects that we haven’t done before. Sometimes we can tell just from a logline whether it’s something we’ve done before or if it brings a certain originality,” says Bo.
For them, it’s not about who you know, but about the story you want to tell. “We don’t care what they’ve written before or if they have 50 scripts that have been produced,” they say. “It’s not about what they’ve done before. It’s about sort of the stories that they want to tell, and how they want to tell them, which is really exciting, because it opens the door for so many people. If they have a great script, we want to read it.”
Once a writer is chosen by Showdown Productions, they will have the opportunity to work with Bo and John to strengthen their script and prepare it for market. “We love the collaboration aspect of a project. I think that’s what drives us is having that idea and seeing it come to fruition.” Bo and John will also share their insights about what the market is looking for, and how to best pitch the script for success.
Advice for Writers
What advice do they have for emerging writers and filmmakers? First, John reminds us that “there’s no right or wrong way to succeed in this industry.” Projects have been found and developed at Showdown Productions through a variety of methods and from writers from different backgrounds and levels of experience.
But there are a few things they suggest writers keep in mind as they embark upon their journey in the industry :
- Understand how to pitch
As a writer, your pitch is just as important as the script you’ve written. John urges writers, when pitching, to focus on the one script in your repertoire that you think the producer or agent might be the most interested in. “It’s hard when a writer sends you pitches for five or six scripts in the same email,” he says. “You’re contacting us for a reason to get one of your films done – so focus on the one that you think is the best fit for us.” Be sure to include relevant comps in your pitch as well. - Be visual
Having visuals to accompany your pitch can also help the producer or agent better connect with your story from the start. Recently, John received a pitch that included a small storyboard, which was impactful. “If there’s a lookbook, or even a few images that the writer put together, that can help make the difference,” he says. - Embrace the value of notes
“Every producer wants to give you notes,” says John. Some of the notes will be valuable, others you may not entirely agree with. Being flexible and open to notes will take your story to the next level. Bo agrees – “Even if you don’t like a note, you need to understand why the person made that suggestion. And if you don’t agree with it, be prepared to come back to the team with an option that might fix the problem instead, rather than simply digging your feet in and saying no.” - Learn different aspects of the business
The more you understand the roles, responsibilities, and needs of others involved in making your film come to life, the more effective and successful you’ll be. “The more you understand about everyone else’s job, the better writer you will be,” says Bo. “That’s the one piece of advice I got when I was first starting out. I think with every aspect of this business, the more you can understand about other people’s jobs the better you become at your own, because you understand what they’re going through on a day to day basis.”
Learn More
Interested in learning more about Bo and John? Visit the Showdown Productions website here and their IMDb profiles here and here.
Want to learn more about our Feature Contest and the Guaranteed Option Prize? Visit our website our contact our contest director, Sarah Eagen.
Don’t forget – to be eligible for consideration for the Guaranteed Option Prize you must select Add-On +Showdown when submitting your Feature screenplay to the Shore Scripts Feature Contest!
