Grow as a Writer in One Week During the Coming 168’s “Write of Passage” Contest

You're familiar with NaNoWriMo and its benefits. Writers spend a month writing a 50,000 word project. Have you ever taken the challenge? For me it has been a wonderful exercise that accelerated my learning curve — because of the relatively short deadline. The challenge packs a lot of learning into a short amount of time.

One week 

Well are you ready for another similar challenge? How about writing a short screenplay in a week? (Tweet that!)

Mentored writing exercise

Not up for a one week challenge? Well what if I sweetened the pot by adding a mentor to journey through that week with you? That's right, for the price of entry you'd get a writing mentor who would look at your story and script several times throughout the week. (Tweet that!) You'd get feedback from your mentor, someone with experience. They would make suggestions and give advice. Wouldn't that be worth the price of admission?

But wait. You're thinking you have no interest in screenwriting? Ok. Think of it like this: It's all about the story. You could have a one week, mentored challenge all about story. (Tweet that!)  And if you don't know it already, STORY is KING.

Challenge - a theme and a Bible verse

I'm talking about the 168 Film Project's "Write of Passage."  This is a short screenplay writing contest. You get to write a short screenplay — 12 pages max — in one week.

You can't start early. You can't enter a script you've already written. That's not fair.

You have to write your story on two things the 168 Film Project assigns you: a Theme. And a Bible verse. (Tweet that!)

That's right. You're assigned your writing topic.

Does that sound intimidating?

What if I gave you one of those two pieces of information right now? Would that help take the edge off? Every year the Theme of the 168 Film Project's "Write of Passage" is announced in advance. The Theme for the 2017 "Write of Passage" contest is … <drum roll, please>: "POWER."

So now you have half of the information on which you would base your story. Is your imagination running wild? Got an idea? That's great. But hold on. You still need the other half of the information you'll be basing your story on. That's how they keep you from starting early (which is cheating). You'll be assigned the other piece of information at the start of the timed contest. It will come in the form of an assigned Bible verse.

Once you receive your assigned Bible verse, you'll think about that and the theme "Power" and you'll come up with an idea. Then you'll brainstorm a story idea. You might run your idea past your assigned mentor, called a "Development Executive."

Then you'll start to write.

The Rules.

From the start of the timed contest when you receive your assigned Bible verse, you'll have 168 hours to write your script and turn it in. 168 hours? That's 7 days times 24 hours. 7 x 24 = 168.

One warning: If you like to write stories that would be "R" rated if a movie, due to their graphic nature, this contest might not be for you. This contest is looking for redemptive stories. That doesn't mean you can't write hard stories about tough issues. You can. It just means this contest is not going to like graphic images, gratuitous sex or violence, foul language, especially using the name of the Lord as foul language, that kind of thing. It's a bigger challenge to write an in depth story without that kind of thing anyway, so that's good for us. (Tweet that!)

There are some other Rules. You can read them here: Write of Passage FAQs

It's a challenge. It's not easy. It can even induce fear and trembling in writers. (Tweet that!) But do you think you're alone? Of course not. Other writers experience the same anxiety. Similar panic. The same pressure to come up with a story. The same delete key. Just like the poor writer struggling to come up with a story in this short video:

An entertaining "Write of Passage" promo video!

But if you'll give it a try, you'll grow as a writer. That's pretty much guaranteed.

What you'll need:

You may need to learn a little about screenplay format. And you'd need to grab a free screenwriting program. If you already have Scrivener, that will do the job. Scroll down on this page to find a selection of Screenwriting Software you can get and use for free: Write of Passage FAQs

You'll need a basic understanding of screenplay format. Need an example to follow? Read previous "Write of Passage" scripts here, and pay attention to the formatting: Write of Passage Top Scripts

Your screenwriting software will put things where they're supposed to be, you just need to know what goes where and how to tell your program to put it there.

The Perks. 

You mean there are perks besides the practice in creating a story? And the feedback and critiquing and suggestions and mentoring by an experienced Development Executive (DE)?

Well there's a cash prize. And your script may get produced. You writing would get exposure. You'd get some experience. You'd get some focused practice in. You'd get feedback from your mentor, that is your DE. Plus, you'll get all that in one week and then you can get on with your life and your other writing projects. (Tweet that!)

Cheap.

For all this focused, personal mentoring, the price of admission is pretty inexpensive when you think about it. The sooner you sign up, the lower the price. Sign up here: Write of Passage Contest Entry. Enter now for the best price.

When? 

The writing week for 2017 is October 9 - 16, 2017. That's a Monday to a Monday. 168 hours. One week. It's coming soon. You'd better sign up now!


Again, even if your interest is not in writing screenplays, this is a great opportunity to grow in your ability to develop your stories into stories that will capture the hearts of your audience, whether that is for readers of novels, stories in your nonfiction writing, your story-telling in your speaking engagements, or other opportunities. And if you are interested in screenwriting, this is an excellent opportunity to get your feet wet, get started, or advance in that desire. (Tweet that!)

Learn more about the 168 Film Project's "Write of Passage" contest here. I hope to see you competing this year.

Related Article:

• November 1, 2012: Are You NaNoWriMo-ing? Benefits of and Tips for Surviving National Novel Writing Month.

Don't miss out on any of the great information shared in this blog. To get each monthly article by email, use the Feedblitz sign-up in the upper right of this page. Or use this link to subscribe to "Butts About Writing." Or text BAW to 1-781-262-3877.

Three New Free Sites You Can Use to Create Marketing Materials (PLUS Update on My Film)

I discovered some new sites which
helped me make this movie poster. They
might help you market your book
or other project.

I want to write a follow up article about what's happening with my short documentary, "The Door," but I know some of you are looking for ideas and helps for your own writing, so I'm also excited to share some new-to-me free web sites I discovered while making my movie poster (seen on the right). I used five different sites, all free, to accomplish these techniques. Two sites you probably already use, but three are new to me. With some imagination I'm sure you can use theses sites, techniques, and ideas to come up with great posters or images to market your books, e-books, your own short films, or whatever you're creating.

First, the update on my documentary film "The Door"

In my May post I wrote about my adventures and lessons learned while filming my short documentary, "The Door." Towards the end of the article I wrote this:

As I write this, the Camera/Editor, Mike, and I spent the past two days editing the film. I couldn't be more pleased. I can't tell you a lot more about it until it competes in the 168 Film Festival in August, but I'm thinking I'll write the August post about what happens between now and then. 

Since then a lot has happened! The film will premier at the 168 Film Festival at the Regal Cinemas Premiere House at LA Live in Los Angeles on August 26 - 17, 2017.

My film is scheduled to screen Saturday afternoon. You can see it on the 168 Film Festival Screening Schedule in Block 5.

I'm very pleased our 168 film, The Door, has now been nominated for two awards! Wow!

• Best Documentary
• Evangelista Award 

The Evangelista Award "honors the writer for creating the tool that best facilitates the telling of the Gospel of Jesus and the Method of Salvation. Directness, Simplicity and a minimum of distraction are core values. Evangelista has raised the bar for Gospel Films. All films except Write of Passage Spotlight are eligible."

Of course if you're in the area (or not!) and want to come the film festival you may. See 168 Film Festival ticket information here.

If you haven't seen it yet, you can watch the movie trailer for my film here: The Door Movie Trailer.

You can also catch a few seconds of my film in the 168 Film Festival Clip Reel 2017 here. We're at 1:03 - 1:06 seconds in.

I'm so pleased to also have had a part in developing the screenplay for another film in the festival. You may know that for many years I've been a "Development Executive" for the 168 Film Project's "Write of Passage" short film writing contest in October. Last year one of the writers I mentored, with the help of my Assistant Development Executive Sherry M. Cook, was Laura Woodworth. She wrote the script "In Tune" and this year she produced it for the 168 Film Festival! You can see "In Tune" on the schedule in Bock 7 Sunday afternoon. "In Tune" has also been nominated for five, count 'em, FIVE awards! I can't wait to see the film at the festival! Learn more about "In Tune" here.

Three Free Sites You Can Use to Create Marketing Materials

So are you wondering where I got my movie poster? I made it. It took some doing. And some learning. I'm thinking what I learned you might be able to use to create posters, postcards, images for Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, business cards, Facebook and Twitter headers, banners… or whatever else your imagination can come up with to market your own stuff — books, e-books, whatever you're doing. So here's the free sites I used to create my poster. (Tweet that!)

I took me several steps to get there. And each step took a different site. A few of these you've probably heard of or use yourself, but I'm pretty sure some will be new.

I have to confess that I did not keep notes (wish I had) and I was bouncing around so many sites trying to fix problems that were cropping up that now I can't remember everything I did. But I will do my best to reconstruct what I did here.

CREATING THE MOVIE POSTER

First, I needed to create an actual movie poster. (Tweet that!) I know we've all seen a million of them. I was thinking of all that information on them that tells who stars in it, who directed it, who produced it, etc. Actually, I was thinking of all the formatting that would go into that and it just seemed daunting. I didn't have the time for it. But didn't I remember seeing some free movie poster templates somewhere?

I was sure I'd seen one on Canva.com. But when I went to look I couldn't find it.

So I went searching for a free movie poster template. Some of the sites I searched out required a payment to remove watermarks or to get a higher resolution poster so it wouldn't be blurry, which was disappointing to discover after I created one poster.

Then I found a site called Poster My Wall.

If you go there, look at at the white poster with the woman's face. It says Recina Phalange (the woman actor's name, I assume?) at the top and the title of the movie below her chin is "Headline." That's the poster template I used for mine at the top of this page.

Obviously I switched out the photo with a slide my editor captured for me from our film. We chose a scene that captured an emotional image at a crucial point in our film and saved a frame for the poster. You could use your book cover or an image (if the rights allow) for your poster.

After I switched the image on my movie poster using the editing tools on Poster My Wall, I edited the text to insert the information for my own film, deleting what didn't apply, copying and pasting to duplicate where I needed more.

I had a little trouble editing it to look the way I wanted. I ended up taking the project to Canva.com (which you probably already use) to do some more editing. I couldn't get the production team information on top of the photo (onto the pavement under the actor's feet) so I had to figure out something different. I ended up removing the image and replacing it with a plain background. I first put a white background behind the text, which didn't work because the text was in white so it disappeared. I then tried a black background and the text popped.

I then saved that image as a jpeg and took it over to PicMonkey.com (which you probably also already use) where I cropped the rest of the picture out so I had just the image of the text on black at the bottom of the poster.

I had wanted that info at the end of my movie trailer like the "real" movie trailers, but I didn't know how to make it happen. Now that I had it as an image, I could go over to YouTube.com, make a new copy of my trailer, and add that slide at the end. Bonus!

Again, I had a little trouble making everything happen that I wanted so I ended up doing more editing with Canva.com. There I was able to get the picture as I wanted it, the movie crew info at the bottom, and the "168 Film Project" text at the top. Turns out it was very handy later to have the poster on Canva.com. I keep going back there for more editing.

ADDING LAURELS TO THE MOVIE POSTER

So that's how I created my movie poster. But then something interesting happened. The 168 Film Festival announced the list of award nominations and my film was nominated for two awards! Before I knew it, I saw other films' posters popping up on Facebook with that little thingy we've all seen (I didn't even know what to call it!) with the leaves and the award nominations or winner inside. I learned those are laurel leaves and so these are called "laurels."

I asked the 168 Film Festival where to get them and they made them available on FilmFreeway.com. But… but but but … Next dilemma: How do I get them from there onto my movie poster? Or web site? Or wherever I want them?!

Yes, download them, save them. But… but but but … they were black laurel leaves and text on a white background. I already knew black text wasn't going to show up on my dark poster. So where do you get the ones with white laurel leaves and text?

And furthermore, when I did try to add my new laurels to my poster, it made a big white square covering too much of my poster and being too loud or bold. How do people put JUST the image on top of another one without blocking out a whole square? (Tweet that!)

I've always noticed the Lord gives me the hints I'm going to need when I don't even know I need them. (Tweet that!) In the email from Mark at the 168 Film Festival letting me know where the laurels were available, he "just happened" to mention that I could "invert" the colors if I needed to on a "transparent background." Had he not said that, I wouldn't have even known what terms to google.

INVERT COLORS

So I knew I wanted to "invert" the colors. (Tweet that!) That's what it would be called to change the white background to black and the black text and leaves to white. (If you already know this stuff, please don't laugh.) So I googled for how to do that. I found ways to do it using MS Paint, which I knew was on my computer but that looked complicated. As usual, I was in a hurry and didn't have a lot of time for this!

Then I found the site Pine Tools and its "Invert Colors Online" function. It was so easy to figure out: click "Choose file." I chose the file of the laurel I had saved to my computer. Click "Invert!" Done. Save the new white text and laurels on black background to my computer.

I went back to my movie poster on Canva.com where I wanted to add the laurels. But I discovered a problem. The laurels now had solid black background, which meant they blacked out whatever was behind them. The transparent background was gone. Now what?

Back to google.

TRANSPARENT BACKGROUNDS

I tried a couple different sites before I found Lunapic and its "transparent background" at the bottom of the Edit menu.

Again, it was very easy to use and did a great job. Click "Choose file." Choose the white on black images of the laurels I'd saved to my computer. It asked me to click on the color I wanted to become transparent. I clicked on the black background. (Tweet that!) The background became gray and white checkerboard. Done. Save the new black on transparent laurels to my computer.

By the way: I was careful how I named each image when I saved them. "Nom Best Doc on trans bkgrnd" for example, so I could be sure of which saved image I wanted at each step. Plus each version of each laurel would be together and easy to find.

I took my new white text and laurels on transparent background images back to my movie poster on Canva.com and put them on top of my poster. Fantastic! The inverted color to white and the transparent background worked perfectly! HowEVer I had a very hard time getting the three of them the same size, lined up right, centered, etc. What to do now?

Then I had an idea…

PICMONKEY COLLAGE

I went to Picmonkey.com and used their "Collage" feature. I used the three images lined up like ducks in a row and inserted each of my three white laurels with transparent backgrounds. (Tweet that!)

Oops. Problem. The laurels had a lot of space around them, especially at the top so I needed to crop each one first. I was careful to crop them to exactly the same size (in pixels). Then re-saved them.

When I put the cropped version into Picmonkey's collage, they were perfectly sized and lined up. Then I saved THAT image and took it back to Canva.

(It seems now that somehow I had to make sure the background stayed transparent, but I can't remember now. If you can't figure that out, you can always take it back to Lunapic and redo the collage with a transparent background.)

CANVA

When I put my Picmonkey collage with my three white on transparent laurels on top of my poster, I was able to line it up and position it to look great. Then saved it to my computer.

"The Door" movie poster before the
laurels were added.

Whew. Yes, all this was a lot of back and forth and experimenting to figure out what worked, but I'm so pleased with my movie poster.

I can imagine ways to use these techniques to market my books. For example, when I revised one of my e-books that had become outdated, I wanted to put a "Newly Revised" image on the cover but I didn't know how. Now we can create it, invert colors if needed, make a transparent background, or keep a colored background if we need it to show up on our cover.

"The Door" movie poster after the
laurels were added.

And why not make a movie poster-style poster for your book? It could be fun! I hope you enjoy these three new free sites — Poster My Wall, Pine Tools, and Lunapic — you can use along with Canva.com and Picmonkey.com to create great marketing materials for your books, e-books, films, blogs, Facebook ads, and more.


In September I plan to post about the coming 168 Film Project's Write of Passage writing contest. If you're interested, sign up now for the best price.

RELATED ARTICLE:

• May 2017 article about filming my documetary "The Door"

Don't miss out on any of the great information shared in this blog. Use this link to subscribe to receive each post of "Butts About Writing" in your email box. Or text BAW to 1-781-262-3877

Dreaming of Seeing Your Writing Project in Film? Maybe You Should!

Morguefile.com

How are you doing in your writing? Are you on fire, it's flowing like crazy and you can't wait to get to the keyboard? Or are you feeling overwhelmed and aren't sure how to progress on your project? Or are you feeling tired and burned out, trying to decide if you should push on or quit? This month, just for the fun of it, let's talk about seeing your writing project in film.

Whether you're dreaming of becoming a screenwriter or not, if the idea of someday seeing your novel, short story, memoir, true story, nonfiction book, article, or other writing project reach a whole new audience by being produced into a movie, short film, video, documentary, web series, or other film project intrigues you (or even if you think that's impossible), let's talk about how can you better your odds or even make it happen yourself.  (Tweet that!)

Let's dream big...even if it seems like a crazy, impossible dream. I love that old image of a donkey pulling a cart with a stick extending over his head dangling a carrot in front of him urging him onward. Let's let the dream of seeing our projects on the screen dangle in front of us like a carrot, tempting us, moving us onward. (Even if you're not interested in seeing your writing project on the screen, or even if you're not dreaming of screenwriting at all, I'm betting there's something here that will help you in your writing journey anyway.)

In my journey in film so far, I've learned a ton. I'll share bits of that here. I've discovered many resources that have really helped me and I'll share those too.

In recent years and months I've seen a growing trend. More and more writers are interested in seeing their projects possibly make it to the screen. For some writers it's a big dream that once seemed nearly impossible, but as they see more projects become films, the impossibility is shrinking. I'd put myself in this category. For other writers, they've never even considered their projects could be produced on film. (Okay, well I was there too.)

Technology in Producing Films

Besides selling your project to a big production company, there are other ways to get your project to film. As with many other areas in recent decades, technology has made what was once nearly impossible possible. Where once only the big production companies or people with a lot of money had or could obtain the equipment to produce a film of the quality to be shown on the big screen to a large audience, today high definition (HD) cameras are available to all of us. Now HD cameras are available for under $1,000 (or even less). A few years ago I purchased a Canon EOS Rebel T3i camera in a package which came with two lenses, a bag, and more. This is the camera we used to film my short film, The Choice. (You can find it at http://bit.ly/TheChoiceFilm. Watch the 2-minute trailer for The Choice.) This camera does both still photography and video, so I can pursue my passion for photography (and finally move to a digital camera) as well as produce films (a bonus I didn't expect!) with the same camera.

Even your cell phone probably has an HD camera! And I've even seen short film contests for films created exclusively with cell phone cameras.

There are so many outlets for film these days, I don't even know them all. Besides YouTube.com and Vimeo.com, there are now over a thousand cable TV channels (according to The TV Showrunner's Roadmap by Neil Landau). Or you might create a web series or even see your series produced for NetFlix or Hulu.

So you see? Anything is possible.

It all starts with the Writer

But, as Robert McKee affirms in his Story Seminar, it all starts with the writer. Without the writer, there is no script to produce. There are no characters for the actors to portray. There are no lines of dialog for the actors to speak. There is nothing for the director to direct, nothing for producers to produce. There's nothing...until the writer writes. (Tweet that!)

It starts with you. So dream big. And write big!

And use your imagination. You don't have to be writing a novel or dreaming of it becoming a movie with a theatrical release to be thinking of film. Do you write short fictional stories? They can also become feature-length movies or short films.

Not a fiction writer? Then for nonfiction think not only of true-story films, but also of documentaries.

Am I still not hitting your writing-fancy? Then what about reality TV? (Yes, there are writers for reality TV. So I've heard. Don't ask me -- I don't know but you can research it.) How about a cooking show? What about a talk show discussing the topics that are your passions?

Have you considered a continuing series for TV or a web series based on the characters you've created? Or the story world you created? Isn't that what has happened with TV series like When Calls the Heart, Cedar Cove, Bones , Rizzoli & Isles, and A&E's (sadly, just canceled) Longmire?

If you're having trouble getting publishers interested in your books, don't you think they might suddenly be interested if your material is going to film? Absolutely. At least I should think so.

No matter what you're writing, the possibilities truly are endless.

Writing for Film Resources

Now that I've gotten you all excited, let me share some resources that I've found helpful. (Tweet that!)

Learning Screenwriting

If you're interesting in learning screenwriting, you'll need to learn about screenplay format and story structure. I'll include resources for both of these below.

If you want to jump in fast and learn quickly, consider taking part in the 168 Film Project's "Write of Passage" writing contest coming in October. Sign up now! This is a Christian-based speed screenwriting contest. (You don't have to be a Christian to take part.) 

In this contest you will have 168 hours (that's one week) to write a short film (10-page max, if I remember right). Plus, for your entry fee of about $40 (less if you register early), you'll get a mentor, called a Development Executive, to look over your screenplay up to three times during the writing week and give you feedback. That's a bargain! 

You can't start writing before the event begins or you're disqualified. How do they know? You will be assigned a Bible verse to base your story on. Obviously you can't start writing until you get your Bible verse. If you're interesting in taking part, use the link above to go register now.

If you'd like to take an online class on various aspects of screenwriting, I've taken some great classes, both free and paid, from ScreenwritingU.com. Sign up for their e-mail list to hear about their free teleconferences.

If you're really serious and wish to write stories that express your Christian faith, check into the Act One Program, which holds classes in Hollywood. They offer both a training track for writers and for producers.

Story Structure

My favorite book that not only made learning story structure easy but showed me how to use a cork board and index cards to structure my stories is Save the Cat by Blake Snyder.

By "story structure" we're talking about the Three Act Structure. Learn it. Love it. You'll need it.

Even if you're not dreaming of writing for the screen, this resource helped me get my stories organized for maximum punch before I ever start writing them as a short story or novel. So if you're not into screenwriting but are still reading this far, here's a promised resource for you too.

Screenwriting Format

Screenplay format means how you put your screenplay on paper: what is in all caps and what is not, where to put dialog on the page (hint: it is NOT centered), how to write a scene heading, what to put in direction paragraphs, etc. To do this I highly recommend getting some software to do this for you. (See Screenwriting Software below.)

But even with the software to put dialog in the proper place and put your scene headings in all caps, you're going to need to know what to type in. What goes in a scene heading? What is the proper order for each element in a scene heading? When do you use a transition? How do you tell the camera person to do a close up? For all this information you need the book The Hollywood Standard by Chris Riley. The Hollywood standard means the standard screenwriting format. This is your handbook for that.

Screenwriting Software

I use Final Draft, but there are others.

                        

If you're just playing with the idea or have a limited budget, there's a free screenwriting program called Celtx. (I haven't used it, so check it out yourself.)

Get "Coverage" (Feedback)

In the film business, movie companies have readers to review screenplays and write a short "review" of your script to let the production companies know if your script is worth their time to look at. The report these readers write is called "coverage." But you can also pay a company to read your script and give you coverage, which includes what we call "Notes," which is feedback on your script. When you're ready for that, I've heard these companies recommended:

• ScriptShark.com
• ScriptPipeline.com
• ScriptCoverage.com at Scriptapalooza

Writing for TV

As I mentioned in the opening, the opportunities for writing for TV are expanding like crazy. The source I read that says there are now over 1,000 TV changes is the book The TV Showrunner's Roadmap by Neil Landau. If you're interested in writing for TV I highly recommend this book. I haven't finished it yet, but I've learned a ton already.

I also read an interesting article, especially encouraging for those of us wanting to write faith-based material, in this article from Variety.com the entertainment-trade magazine:

• "Doctors, Procedurals and Spirituality Are Hot New Genres for Networks"

Film Related E-Newsletters

I enjoy reading Script magazine. They have blogs to read and will send you their e-newsletter for free. Sign up here: Script Magazine. I just discovered their blog posts for "Writers on the Web" which I can't wait to catch up on. This seems to be a series of articles about writing and producing a web TV series.

You might also be interested in subscribing to the free newsletter InkTip, which sends a weekly e-mail with up to three production companies that are looking for scripts to produce. You can get more with a paid subscription, but it's kind of expensive ($60 per quarter, I think), so just wait until you have finished scripts to offer before subscribing to that. Still, you can learn a ton from the free newsletter. 

Organizations

There are so many online organizations for screenwriters it's kind of crazy. A couple I've found are:

• International Screenwriter's Association (ISA) 
• Visual Story Network

Even if you're not interested in writing for the screen but are a Christian and want to make an impact on what comes out of "Hollywood" (meaning that as a synonym for the entertainment industry), you might be interested in

• the Hollywood Prayer Network

I'm writing next comment FOR CHRISTIANS ONLY. (If you're not one, move to the next section now.): Christians, have you seen something objectionable come out of Hollywood recently? Then let me ask you this: Have you prayed for Hollywood recently? If you want to make a difference in Hollywood and what comes out in our entertainment industry and influences the world, then sign up for the Hollywood Prayer Network's free monthly prayer newsletter.

Facebook Groups

I've found several screenwriting groups active as Facebook groups. Here are the names a few Facebook groups for Christians interested in film. The Facebook groups I know about happen to be for Christians but I imagine you could find similar secular groups. Use Facebook's search bar to search for the group, then ask to join. 

• 168 Film Project
• Christian Film
• Christian Movie Making Network
• Believers in Film & Video...DO SOMETHING!
• Churches Making Movies

Screenwriting Contests (Christian)

There are so many screenwriting contests it would be difficult to list them here, so I'm listing only a few that are specifically looking for faith-based, Christian entries. 

If you're writing something else, you should have no trouble finding screenplay contests by linking in to other resources listed in this post. For example, see Scriptapalooza.

The 168 Film Project has two different speed contests.

• 168 Film Project production contest is a speed film-producing contest which takes place in May. Here, you produce a film based on an assigned Bible verse in 168 hours (one week). There is a 10-day pre-production period to get your script written, find locations and actors, etc. Filming begins at a time and day and you must turn in your completed film the following day, same time. The contest takes place in May. All films are screened at the 168 Film Festival in September. 

• 168 Film Project's "Write of Passage" is the speed short film writing contest mentioned above.

If you have a feature-length film completed, here are two Christian faith-based contests:

• Kairos Prize for Spiritually Uplifting Screenplays  
• Gideon Screenplay Contest

Protect Your Scripts

Before you send your script(s) out to a contest or allow anyone to read them (producers, agents, your critique group, etc.), you should protect your script by copyrighting it or registering it with a registry or both, if you wish. This officially puts your script in the hands of an official third party so that if there is ever a question about whether someone stole your work, you have documented what your work is and the date you documented it.

You can copyright your written script(s) with the U.S. Copyright Office.

You can also protect your written script(s) by registering it with the Writers Guild of America (WGA). You don't have to be a member to register your script. Cost is $20 for five years. There is a WGA-East and a WGA-West (dividing the United States).   

What is IMDb? 

Finally, if you haven't heard of IMDb.com, it's helpful and fun to know about. IMDb stands for Internet Movie Database. If you have ever googled something like, "Who was the actor who starred in The Terminator movie?" you probably ended up on an IMDb.com page.

IMDb is owned by Amazon. It came installed on my Amazon Kindle device. You can look up actors or movies or TV shows and find out who starred in them, when they ran, actors by episode, trivia about a show...all kinds of information.

If you're moving into writing for film, it can be an invaluable source for finding out who the production companies and producers are who do particular projects. Publishing and film have so many similarities it's incredible. Just like in publishing where you want to research which publishers are publishing the type of material you're writing, you want to do the same in film. This is one place where you can find that information. You can use IMDb.com for free, but there is also a paid subscription site which gives you information a serious screenwriter might want, such as the budget numbers for a movie and contact information for a production company.

In one class I took we were told that whenever you are talking to anyone official about your screen project, they are online looking you up on IMDb to see what you've done. Not everyone can have a page on IMDb. You have to have a credit in a film that IMDb recognizes as created for public viewing. In other words, you can't make a "home movie" and then go get an IMDb page. The folks at IMDb weed out those types of films. If your film is shown at a film festivals, that might get your film qualified for be on IMDb.

I qualified for an IMDb page by taking part in my first 168 Film Project and working on a film titled Steel City. The other producer, Nancy Bevins and I were in the same Act One class and teamed up to do the 168 Film Project. Nancy already had IMDb credits so when she added our film, Steel City, to her credits, I could then apply for a page since I was credited in that film as a co-producer, writer, line producer, and production designer. Once I was approved for a page, then I could add the 168 Film Project I produced the next year, The Choice.

I also wrote a script for a 168 Film Project this year. It's called Swapped and is scheduled to premier at the 168 Film Project's Film Festival September 12 - 13, 2014, in Los Angeles. You can see it on the schedule for 4:00 Friday at that link. After the film premiers at the 168 Film Project's Film Festival, it should be qualified as an IMDb film and then I should be able to add that project to my IMDb credits.

So that's how IMDb works. If you're interested, you can see my page here: Dianne's IMDb page. Aspiring to having your own IMDb entry is a fun challenge to work toward.

Surely there's something here to help you in your screenwriting, film, or other-writer journey. I hope it also spurs you on toward a new carrot-like treat in your writing. For those of you with the big dream, I hope to be sitting next to you soon watching your dream of seeing your writing projects in film on the big screen or on TV come true. I'll buy the popcorn! (Tweet that!)