Big Break™ Winners Visit Hollywood

The top three winners of Final Draft's annual Big Break™ contest were in Los Angeles last week taking meetings with industry decision-makers, supplied by the great folks at Script Shark.

The winners, Torye Mullins of LA (okay, she didn't have to travel far), Jennifer LaMoureaux from Phoenix and Pearl Englander of Baltimore spent a whirlwind three days where they met with Ken Park, Director of Production and Development at Miramax, Nicole Harb, a manager at Bender-Spink, David Blackman, VP of Bridget Johnson Films, Corey Ackerman, Director of Development at Southpaw Media Group and Bill Choi, a manager at Talent Entertainment Group. The winners stayed in fabulous Beverly Hills and capped off their trip with a farewell dinner at Spago, where they dined with Final Draft executives Marc Madnick, Eric Cohen and Albert Belmont and next to such luminous writers as Jackie Collins.

Torye's Grand Prize-winning script, "Breathing Underwater" has been optioned by Stephen J. Cannell and is currently in development with Torye at the helm of a new draft of her work. She told us, "Everyone was extremely informative and helpful, and they all gave me good, solid advice. I'd say, though, that Bill Choi probably gave me the coolest advice, regarding whether a writer should write artistically or commercially when he/she sits down to do a new spec. 'Focus on the art, the commerce will follow.' "

Pearl said "Every single person that I met with was friendly and encouraging and each one gave me a piece of the Hollywood puzzle. By the time I had ended the cycle of meetings, I had a much better understanding of the way the business works. Or doesn't work."

Jennifer was also duly impressed. "I honestly did not expect the caliber of people you arranged for me to meet, and I walked away from all the meetings feeling I had made real connections that will definitely serve me in this strange career. The highlight for me, however, remains hearing that Syd Field, my idol and mentor, wholiterally taught me how to write screenplays, had singled my work out for its excellence. The highest compliment and thrill."

Thank you once again to all of our judges, readers and industry friends. Special thanks go to Christine Trepczyk at The Cannell Studios and Ed Kashiba and the gang at Script Shark.

Details for Final Draft's Big Break™ III will be announced in the fall. Stay tuned.

August 2, 2001