Blank Staged Reading Event - Screenwriter, Actors, and Filmmakers United

Before a film goes through the process of production there is the screenplay - a "blueprint" of what the final film will eventually become. Blank Stage Productions (Marietta, Georgia), who last year produced a record eight short films and one feature with Georgia-based talent, has decided to expand their horizons for the new year by becoming an active developer of screenplays. Anyone familiar with the Blank Stage will know that in 2010 they added the Blank Page, a screenwriter's group, to their roster of events to help foster local talent. Now since they are in full swing with production (many of last year's films will be screened this year at the Blank Stage Shorts Film festival, among other festivals), 2011 will be a banner year for films as they have now created Blank Staged as a means to bring screenwriters together with actors and filmmakers.

The goal of Blank Staged is to take a screenwriter's short or feature screenplay (which has already gone through the Blank Page screenwriting process of being rewritten and critiqued by other screenwriters) and put it in the hands of a director and a group of actors for a staged reading of the material. This would allow the screenwriter to hear his material be performed by actual actors and have other filmmakers and potential businessmen and producers be present to be the first to hear it. The Owner of Blank Stage Productions Brent Brooks experimented with this process last year with the latest screenplay by Byron C. Erwin, "The Dreamed," whose last feature "Lynch Mob" was released at theaters last year and is now on DVD. Having been a huge success, Brooks decided to bring the event back on a monthly basis and decided that screenwriter Troy Moore's "Happy Vs. Sad" would be a great launching off point.

At the Blank Staged Reading event were filmmakers Brooks and Erwin, director Sam ("Zombeak!") Drog, as well as numerous other filmmakers brought together by Brooks and Blank Stage Productions. The room was packed with filmmakers as well as many actors who have heard about the screenplay through the Blank Page. Since this is the screenplay that Moore is trying to put together as his directorial feature debut, there is a lot riding on the success of the reading as there are a lot of potential actors in the audience (as well as reading the actual screenplay) who may be cast in the eventual film.

Moore sits in the back of the room with a notebook in hand for taking notes as Brooks directs the huge cast of actors at the front of the room. The event takes place at Blank Stage Productions where there is a stage at the front of the room and all the audience sits in the back. The actors sit semi-circle on stage and Erwin, who plays the part of Narrator, is at the head. When they have lines the actors take to the center of the stage and read their lines while also acting out many of the scenes best they can. Since Moore's script is a comedy the actors have a lot more fun with the material. The audience laughs out loud numerous times giving me the impression that it is material perfect for an actor of Jim Carrey or Eddie Murphy style. The 100 pages of the script go by fairly quickly because everyone gets so enraptured in the material. By the time the actual reading is done no one can stop laughing, not even me.

The reading is a success, but now comes the feedback part.

Feedback on the reading is one of the most crucial aspects of the Blank Staged reading event as it allows both the actors that read the screenplay and the filmmakers in the audience to give the writer comments and suggestions on how the screenplay might be improved or how some things work while others didn't. For me, this is the most exciting part as I get to see how a group of people hearing the material for the very first time react to it and what their opinions on the material, in regards to the writer, might be. This portion of the night almost takes an hour itself as many people give Moore lots of helpful insight on his material. When asked about the benefits of this section of the night Moore had this to say, "I got to see my jokes that did work and the whole audience laugh. I got to see jokes that I didn't really intend as jokes and people laughed at them anyways, so I guess that's funny and I'll have to accentuate that moment more and then I got to see the jokes that were an epic failure that read like dialogue and no one got."

In Moore's eyes the evening was a success and now he can take what the actors and other filmmakers have given him and do one more final polish on the screenplay. When asked what he thought about the Blank Staged event for other writers to come to he said this, "It's inspiring. I know when I saw Byron's (Erwin) 'The Dreamed' I was on fire. I want to do that. I want to go through that. I want that to happen to my script because he got so much feedback from so many talented people that I wanted to be in that seat. I wanted people to give me every possible thought that they could give, so for a writer it's inspiring."

Brooks is already full speed ahead with the next Blank Staged events which are the readings of "Goodbye Angel" by Beverly Glover and "Still" by Jennifer Mercurio. Writing is an ongoing process and filmmaking is a collaborative art form and the more people you get involved at the earliest of stages the better your film will be. I look forward to the next event as should any screenwriter, filmmaker, or producer interested in the filmmaking process.

To view photos from the event go here: http://www.associatedcontent.com/slideshow/76676/the_blank_staged_reading_event_troy.html?cat=2