The reading of Earthfall

I very much enjoyed the WILDsound staged reading at the National Film Board theatre of my TV pilot script for a proposed series called Earthfall tonight.

The cast and the narrator (who read the stage directions) did a great job, but the script had been redacted (to my surprise) with the vast majority of the stage directions omitted -- which might have been fine if the actors had actually been fully acting out the scenes, rather than just by and large reading into microphones on stands. Maybe as author, I'm too sensitive, but I think a lot of what was going on emotionally in the scenes that was there on the page was lost in this process. For instance, here's the beginning of Act III as written, but only the parts in boldface were actually read to the audience:

---

EXT. OPEN FIELD - NIGHT

There's a mostly full moon, providing light. Hannah and Bryce walk through the forested margin at the edge of the road and emerge in an open field; a stand of additional trees is twenty metres ahead of them.

Things are still tense between them. They're not holding hands; there's physical distance between them; they're looking in opposite directions.

Bryce looks up at the sky and traces an imaginary line with his index finger.

THE NIGHT SKY - CONTINUOUS

The Big Dipper is clearly visible, as is the North Star.

BRYCE (V.O.)
There. Polaris.
Hannah turns around, getting her bearings. She nods.

HANNAH
So I was right.
They're in the middle of nowhere, but at least they now can head in the correct direction. They're relieved, and the mood starts to turn. Hannah moves over to Bryce, and slips her arms around his neck.

BRYCE
(smiling)
Right as rain.

HANNAH
(smiling playfully back)
Just so we're agreed...

---

Visit The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site
and WakeWatchWonder.com

No more rehearsing and nursing our parts

Come see my pilot script Earthfall live on stage tonight in Toronto. Details.

Earthfall stars Pauline Wong, above, as Hannah, and Ian Matthews, below, as the alien Jurteg.

Visit The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site
and WakeWatchWonder.com

Come see my pilot script reading next Friday

Next Friday, November 27, 2009, my prize-winning hour-long science-fiction TV pilot script Earthfall will be read at the WILDsound TV and Short Screenplay Festival at the National Film Board of Canada Theatre in Toronto (150 John Street). Tickets are $6 in advance; $8 at the door.

Pauline Wong, pictured above, will be reading the main character, Toronto cop Hannah Wong (yes, they have the same last name!).

More info is here and here.

Visit The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site
and WakeWatchWonder.com

Come see prize-winning Sawyer script performed

On Friday, November 27, 2009, Robert J. Sawyer's television pilot script for Earthfall will have a staged reading by professional actors at the National Film Board of Canada's Theatre at 150 John Street, in the Entertainment District in downtown Toronto.

I wrote Earthfall as a pilot for an hour-long episodic science-fiction TV series; it's not currently sold to anyone, but I'm proud of it. The pilot episode is called "Vanguard," and here's a little synopsis:

Toronto cop Hannah Wong arrives on the scene of a hit-and-run, unaware that the victim’s body houses an alien being that has been on Earth for 3,000 years. As the victim dies, the alien transfers into Hannah’s body, beginning a battle for whether Hannah or the alien will control her destiny.

(Actually, there's a lot more to it than that!)

The script will be read using some of the top actors working in Toronto, and after the performance a moderated discussion about the script will be held, with audience participation welcomed.

The Earthfall pilot script beat over 150 TV pilot-script submissions in the WILDsound Screenplay Festival.

I'm delighted to have won this competion, but I'd also like to tip my hat to the other finalists. The six pilot-script finalists were:

COMPUTER GUY
by Rich Hynes
Ronkonkoma, NY

EARTHFALL
by Robert J. Sawyer
Mississauga, ON

EXPRESSIONS
by Shawand McKenzie and Steven Van Patten
Hackensack, NJ

THE FILTHY STINKIN TRUTH
by Will Phillips
San Francisco, CA

HUMOR ME
by John Betz, Jr. and Randy Reese
Rochester, NY

TRAFFICKING
by Clark McMillian
Bowie, MD

Tickets for the evening -- which will also include readings of two other short scripts -- are just $6 in advance, or $8 at the door. More info is here.

This is a good month for me for scriptwriting (thirty years after I started my degree in Radio and Television Arts at Ryerson!). On Sunday, I head down to L.A. to spend a week at the FlashForward offices, gearing up to write my own episode of the TV series based on my novel of the same name

Visit The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site
and WakeWatchWonder.com