2017 Atlanta Comedy Film Festival Official Selection

My screenplay Loonatoona is an Official Selection in the 2017 Atlanta Comedy Film Festival.

Loonatoona 1.5 Respectable Mel & Kim

To celebrate the addition of Reel Authors Screenplay Contest (Semi-Finalist) and LS&B Comedy Writing Contest (Official Selection), here's a new promo video for Loonatoona, featuring Respectable by Mel & Kim.

This song should be recorded by Spiderbait for the film's closing credits!

Reel Authors Screenplay Contest: Semi-Finalist (Comedy/RomCom)

My screenplay Loonatoona is a Semi-Finalist (Comedy/RomCom) in the 2016 Reel Authors Screenplay Contest.

2016 LS&B Comedy Writing Contest Official Selection

My screenplay Loonatoona is an Official Selection in the 2016 LS&B Comedy Writing Contest.

Loonatoona 1.3, Michael Zager Band

Loonatoona walks among us.

Loonatoona. Free Cozy Powell inside!

Loonatoona: Lord of Lunacy.

Award-winning comedy screenplay winner

Loonatoona is an award-winning surreal comedy screenplay by Australian writer Shockadelic.

Winner:

StoneFair International Film Festival

Semi-Finalist:

Comedy Film & Screenplay Festival

Los Angeles CineFest

Official Selection:
Auckland International Film Festival

Chandler International Film Festival

Headline International Film Festival

Hollywood Boulevard Film Festival

Lake Charles Film & Music Festival

Neu World International Film Festival

Oaxaca FilmFest

Wayfarer Film Festival

September 2016 Winner: Best Scene Script Reading from LOONATOONA by Shockadelic

My first script reading for Loonatoona!

https://festivalforcomedy.com/2016/09/21/sept-2016-winner-best-scene-script-reading-from-loonatoona-by-shockadelic/

Best scene script reading comedy winner

My first script reading for Loonatoona!

Of course, they used American accents.

Official Selection: 2016 Oaxaca FilmFest

My screenplay Loonatoona has been accepted as an Official Selection in the 2016 Oaxaca FilmFest (Global Script Challenge - Comedy).
https://www.oaxacafilmfest.com/p/loonatoona

26 to 1 against and falling!

Crazy! Witty! Frantic! Comedy screenplay semi-finalist

"a fast paced, witty comedy"
"an infectious sense of energy and fun"
"an energetic pace"
"an enjoyable, frantic ride, with a good deal of wit and charm"

Loonatoona is a semi-finalist in the 2016 Comedy Film & Screenplay Festival

Here are their feedback notes:

"Thank you for your submission to the Comedy Writing Festival. Here is the feedback on your submission.

SPECIAL NOTE: This script is very close. It just needs a bit of a cleanup and one more solid draft. If the writer would like to resubmit the entire script for more feedback, we will give you 30% off the regular submission,

Currently, we like to perform a best scene of your script for a performance reading at our festival. Please reply and attach a file of the best scene of your script to be performed (up to 7 pages). Then we'll set up a reading in early Fall and email you as soon as it's posted online.

LOONATOONA by Shockadelic

In the small Australian town of Loonatoona, a family readies themselves for a crazy, but not entirely atypical, day. Father Bazza experiences the daily office grind, whilst his wife Susan has a charged encounter with a Cowboy, free spirit Miranda heads out on a day with her liberal friends and young sexually curious Bobby gets into trouble at school. While Bazza avoids the temptations of office squeeze, Shazza, his suspicions rise regarding Susan's behaviour. Susan brings the kids home, along with Bobby's friend, Oscar, and then out to the local pool, whilst Miranda's friends all end up hopelessly lost. Bazza finally confronts Susan about her assumed transgressions, and the pair manage to reconcile. The day comes to a close, with the whole family reflecting and eagerly awaiting tomorrow's adventures, even if the whole situation has been utterly confusing to alien observers.

Loonatoona is a fast paced, witty comedy, juggling numerous character strands to create an infectious sense of energy and fun throughout the script. Whilst it's enjoyable seeing what each family member gets up to on their own, it's equally gratifying watching the moments where the strands intertwine and the familial relationships come to the forefront. The script is populated with a largely memorable supporting cast too, with characters like the unquestionably frustrated Principal Walker leaving a strong impression in their brief roles within the overall screenplay. There's a good deal of wit to the dialogue exchanges, although the most enjoyable humor predominantly comes from gags subverting narrative structures and conventions, such as the numerous brief cutaways and the recurring joke of the alarm masking characters swearing.

There are, however, some areas for improvement within the overall script, unfortunately. The biggest issue is that the sporadic nature of the story is lacking a clear end goal or drive to make the narrative compelling if we're just watching another day in these character's lives, then why this one? Ultimately, you need to take more time to establish early on what this day is building towards, otherwise the scenes feel too much like disconnected skits without any real bearing upon one another. The clearest narrative point in your current version is the marriage drama between Susan and Bazza, when this would arguably be better suited to an emotional subplot working alongside a clearer external conflict or event transpiring throughout the day. Some scenes are simply too short to make an impact of their own, let alone act as a dynamic cutaway gag, and don't further the story enough to warrant inclusion. Each time these short moments stunt the pace of your script, we're often left without a clear indication of their relevance, so really take time to consider which story strands are working well (Susan and Bobby's are the strongest), and which aren't pulling their weight (Miranda's feels a little too directionless). Dialogue is generally strong throughout the script but would stand to benefit from further attention in some areas. It currently feels like the supporting characters, e.g. Principal Walker and Cowboy, have clearer dialogue "voices" than that of our family leads. Their behaviours and storylines may set them apart from one another, but it's through their dialogue voice that we're going to get the best sense of who these people are, and what makes each one of them truly unique. Really consider each character's choice of words, tone of delivery, how long their thought processes are, etc. Aside from this, there are occasions where you can afford to cut down on filler lines or pieces of dialogue that essentially repeat variations of points we've already seen or heard before. There's an energetic pace to the execution of the story, so it really can stick out whenever dialogue conversations either outstay their welcome or fail to bring much to the overall story. The repeating "blah blah blah" / "yabba yabba yabba", etc. dialogue gag feels a little tired after each iteration too, as it feels like a missed opportunity for having these specific characters saying something inherently unique and witty.

In between the longer stretches of dialogue, it's important not to neglect visuals in scene directions too. Having your characters doing more, either a tangential action or body language reactions, not only gives us more to watch, but opens up the potential for subtextual gags. In several instances, the quick cutaway scenes suffer from not received the appropriate amount of visual scene set up, making the dialogue too intangible to visualize on screen. Avoid including camera direction as this only serves to pull us out of your story (and ultimately would be down to a director or cinematographer anyway), although feel free to imply how it's shot based on how you frame the action (the same goes for "we see..." and it's variations it's ultimately redundant). Some scenes seem too preoccupied with establishing locations through vague characters and stock footage, rather than actually show us where our characters are within the scene, let alone their actions and reactions. Your regular omissions of definite and indefinite articles (i.e. "the" and "a") often stunts the flow of the description too (lines like "They turn corner" are just a little too jarring). Keep your directions unfolding in real time (how do they get from walking down the stairs to immediately frolicking in the pool?) and ensure they correlate to explicit visuals that are apparent on screen (e.g. "Bobby has been sent to COUNSELLOR (woman 40) for advice" is not only past tense description, but simply tells the reader the information without making it clear how an audience watching will know this in this moment).

Loonatoona is an enjoyable, frantic ride, with a good deal of wit and charm to the characters. The overall script, however, is lacking the necessary narrative drive to make it feel like any more than a series of vignettes, tied together loosely as a plot. With a little more polish though, this script could certainly do very well."

Update: There is now a script reading video of my "best scene".

Loonatoona: Australian Surreal Absurd Fantasy Comedy Screenplay by Shockadelic

Loonatoona: Surreal, Schizo, Strayan (and a little Sex)

What if Monty Python had made Muriel's Wedding?

Hello. My name is Shockadelic (Yes, it is).

I am the author of a surreal/absurd fantasy comedy hyperlink screenplay named "Loonatoona", about a family's twisted day (and flashbacks) in a country town.

It is set in an Australian trans-chronological retro alternate reality that somewhat resembles the late 1970s.

The film is deliberately chock-a-block with Australian slang and pop culture references.

There are prominent teen characters and queer themes.

If you're an actor, director, producer or agent looking for a risky atypical project, with inevitable cult movie status (at least in Australia), you can view my project on FilmFreeway.

I have entered Loonatoona in these 2016/2017 script/screenplay competitions: 4-Chances International Film Festival, Atlanta Comedy Film Festival, American Filmatic Arts Awards, Amsterdam International Film Festival, Auckland International Film Festival, AURORA International Film Festival, Baku International Cinema Festival, Best Film Awards, Boomtown Film and Music Festival, Broadway International Film Festival Encenada, Bucharest Film Awards, Bucharest ShortCut CineFest, California Film Awards, California Indie Film Festival, California Underground Film Festival, Canada International Film Festival, Catharsis International Film Festival, Chandler International Film Festival, Chatham-Kent Film Festival, Chicago Independent Film Festival, Cineline International Film Festival, Cinema Los Angeles, Cinemagic London, Comedy Film & Screenplay Festival, Costa Blanca Film Festival, FanFilm Awards, Film Daily Screenwriting Contest, Filmmatic Screenplay Awards Competition, Final Draft Big Break Contest, Firenze FilmCorti Festival, Fordrojo Screenplay Contest, Frame by Sound Festival, Genre Celebration Festival, George Lindsey UNA Film Festival, German United Film Festival, Global Independent Film Awards, Headline International Film Festival, Hollywood Boulevard Film Festival, Hollywood Screenplay Contest, IndustryBOOST Competition**, Jive Azz Film Fest, Just Film International Festival, Lake Charles Film & Music Festival, Las Vegas Lift-Off Film Festival, London Golden Scout IFF, Los Angeles CineFest, LS&B Comedy Writing Contest, Madhouse Movies Film Festival, Malta Film Festival, Meters International Film Festival, Milledgeville Film Festival, Monmouth Film Festival, Moscowcity International Film Festival, Mountain Film Festival, Nashville Film Festival, Neu World International Film Festival, New Renaissance Film Festival (Amsterdam), New York Screenplay Contest, Oaxaca FilmFest, Ocean City Film Festival, OIFF TURIN CINEFEST, Oil Valley Film Festival, Paris International Cinefest, Philadelphia Independent Film Awards, Phoenix Film Festival Melbourne, Reel Authors Screenplay Contest, RIPP ENT FILM FEST, Rome International Cinefest, Sacramento International Film Festival, ScreenCraft Comedy Screenplay Contest, ScreenplayFest, Script Pipeline Screenwriting and TV Writing Competition, Scriptapalooza, Scriptwood Screenplay Competition, Seal Beach Film Festival, Singapore World International Film Festival, Short Stop International Film Festival, Slamdance Screenplay Competition, Sochi Film Festival, Southeastern International Film Festival, The Southern California Screenplay Competition, The Southern City Film Festival, StoneFair International Film Festival, Sunlight International Film Festival, Sunset Film Festival Los Angeles, Sydney Lift-Off Film Festival, Temecula International Film Festival, Texas Cinemania International Film Festival, Texas International Film Festival, TMFF - The Monthly Film Festival, Top Indie Film Awards, Transylvania Cinema Awards, Trasharama, Underground Indie Film Festival - Horror Cult Sci-Fi Fantasy, US Hollywood International Film Festival, Utah Film Awards, Warsaw Independent Film Festival, Wayfarer Film Festival, West Texas Film Festival and WILDsound FEEDBACK Film and Screenplay Festival.

Whether the judges can understand a word of it remains to be seen.

Results (How embarrassment!... But for whom?):

4-Chances International Film Festival: not accepted

American Filmatic Arts Awards: not accepted
Amsterdam Film Festival: Winner (Second Place), First Time Screenwriter Competition
Atlanta Comedy Film Festival: Official Selection
Auckland International Film Festival: Official Selection
AURORA International Film Festival: not accepted
Baku International Cinema Festival: not accepted
Best Film Awards: Quarter-Finalist
Boomtown Film and Music Festival*: not accepted
Broadway International Film Festival Encenada: not accepted
Bucharest Film Awards: Finalist
Bucharest ShortCut CineFest: not accepted
California Film Awards: not accepted
California Indie Film Festival: not accepted
Canada International Film Festival: not accepted
Catharsis International Film Festival: not accepted
Chandler International Film Festival: Official Selection
Chatham-Kent Film Festival: Official Selection
Chicago Independent Film Festival: not accepted
Cineline International Film Festival: not accepted
Cinema Los Angeles: not accepted
Cinemagic London: not accepted

Comedy Film & Screenplay Festival: Semi-Finalist
Costa Blanca Film Festival: not accepted
FanFilm Awards: not accepted
Film Daily Screenwriting Contest: not accepted
Filmmatic Screenplay Awards Competition: not accepted

Final Draft Big Break Contest: not accepted
Firenze FilmCorti Festival: not accepted
Fordrojo Screenplay Contest: not accepted

Frame by Sound Festival: not accepted
Genre Celebration Festival: Best Feature Screenplay
George Lindsey UNA Film Festival: not accepted
German United Film Festival: not accepted
Global Independent Film Awards: not accepted

Headline International Film Festival: Winner (Award of Merit)
Hollywood Boulevard Film Festival: Official Selection
Hollywood Screenplay Contest: not accepted
IndustryBOOST Competition*: Finalist
Jive Azz Film Fest: not accepted
Just Film International Festival: not accepted
LS&B Comedy Writing Contest: Official Selection
Lake Charles Film & Music Festival: Official Selection

Las Vegas Lift-Off Film Festival: not accepted
London Golden Scout IFF: not accepted
Los Angeles CineFest: Semi-Finalist
Madhouse Movies Film Festival: Official Selection
Malta Film Festival: not accepted
Meters International Film Festival: not accepted
Milledgeville Film Festival: Semi-Finalist
Monmouth Film Festival: not accepted
Moscowcity International Film Festival: not accepted
Mountain Film Festival: Winner (Sir Edmund Hillary Award, Screenplay)
Nashville Film Festival: not accepted

Neu World International Film Festival: Official Selection
New Renaissance Film Festival (Amsterdam): not accepted
New York Screenplay Contest: not accepted
Oaxaca FilmFest: Official Selection
Ocean City Film Festival: not accepted
OIFF TURIN CINEFEST: not accepted

Oil Valley Film Festival: not accepted
Paris International Cinefest: not accepted
Philadelphia Independent Film Awards: not accepted
Phoenix Film Festival Melbourne: Official Selection
Reel Authors Screenplay Contest: Semi-Finalist (Comedy/RomCom)
Rome International Cinefest: not accepted
Sacramento International Film Festival: Semi-Finalist
ScreenCraft Comedy Screenplay Contest: not accepted
ScreenplayFest: not accepted

Script Pipeline Screenwriting and TV Writing Competition: not accepted

Scriptapalooza Screenplay Competition: not accepted
Scriptwood Screenplay Competition: not accepted
Seal Beach Film Festival: Semi-Finalist
Short Stop International Film Festival: Best Script (3rd Place)
Singapore World International Film Festival: not accepted
Slamdance Screenplay Competition: not accepted
Sochi Film Festival: not accepted
Southeastern Film Festival: not accepted
The Southern California Screenplay Competition: not accepted
The Southern City Film Festival: not accepted
StoneFair International Film Festival: Winner (Best Written Screenplay)
Sunlight International Film Festival: not accepted
Sunset Film Festival Los Angeles: Official Selection
Sydney Lift-Off Film Festival: not accepted

Temecula International Film Festival: not accepted

Texas Cinemania International Film Festival: Official Selection
Texas International Film Festival: Finalist
TMFF - The Monthly Film Festival: Finalist
Top Indie Film Awards: Nominee (Best Feature Script)
Transylvania Cinema Awards: Winner
Trasharama: not accepted
Underground Indie Film Festival: Official Selection
US Hollywood International Film Festival: Finalist
Utah Film Awards: not accepted
Warsaw Independent Film Festival: not accepted
Wayfarer Film Festival: Official Selection
West Texas Film Festival: not accepted

WILDsound FEEDBACK Film and Screenplay Festival: not accepted

Loonatoona was a Finalist in the IndustryBOOST Competition**, but this has no value to me, as I believe it was a scam to sign people up to a website I shall not name. Probably every entry was a "Finalist".

*Boomtown Film and Music Festival officially notified me on 16 January through Filmfreeway that I was a Semi-Finalist, and in a private email claimed I was in the "top 1-3 places".
Over a month later, on 23 February, they changed the status to "Not selected" and claimed that they made a mistake.
I presume they really omitted Loonatoona because the winner would need a live stage reading by actors, and they just found that impossible.

I have also written a short script called Mate For Life, about two boys, born in the same hospital at the same time, who become lifelong friends.

It is more serious/realistic than Loonatoona, but has some comedic elements.

Mate For Life has been submitted to the Boulder Creek Film Festival, Milledgeville Film Festival, Monmouth Film Festival, Palermo International Short Film Festival, Princeton Film Festival, Sacramento International Film Festival, Temecula International Film Festival, Toronto World International Film Festival and TTG Produce My Screenplay Competition.

Boulder Creek Film Festival: not accepted
Milledgeville Film Festival: Semi-Finalist
Monmouth Film Festival: not accepted
Palermo International Short Film Festival: not accepted
Princeton Film Festival: not accepted
Sacramento International Film Festival: Semi-Finalist
Temecula International Film Festival: not accepted
Toronto World International Film Festival: not accepted
TTG Produce My Screenplay Competition: not accepted

My short screenplay Superpsycho (a homoerotic mashup of Superman and Psycho) has entered Adi Shankar’s Bootleg Universe Short Script and Story Contest, Fan Fiction Festival, Monmouth Film Festival, Oaxaca FilmFest, Sacramento International Film Festival and Temecula International Film Festival.

Monmouth Film Festival: not accepted
Fan Fiction Festival: not accepted
Oaxaca FilmFest: not accepted
Sacramento International Film Festival: Semi-Finalist
Temecula International Film Festival: not accepted

I have also written Another Day at the Circus, a comedy-fantasy short script about a circus dwarf.

It has been submitted to Barni International Film Festival, Milledgeville Film Festival, Palermo International Short Film Festival, Red Flight Pictures Short Screenplays, Sacramento International Film Festival, Temecula International Film Festival and TTG Produce My Screenplay Competition.

Barni International Film Festival: not accepted
Milledgeville Film Festival: not accepted
Palermo International Short Film Festival: not accepted
Red Flight Pictures Short Screenplays: not accepted
Sacramento International Film Festival: Semi-Finalist

Temecula International Film Festival: not accepted

TTG Produce My Screenplay Competition: not accepted

The Writers Guild of America, East Inc. Certificates of Registration #I289174 (Loonatoona) and #I289487 (Mate For Life)

Contact:

PO Box 804, Broadway NSW 2007, Australia

shockadelic@hotmail.com

Mobile 0424 308 531 (International 61 424 308 531)