Our five Your Big Break finalists are going to face many challenges when they touch down in New Zealand. This could well be their first experience at the helm of a film with a full crew; they’ll have logistical decisions to ponder, major creative calls to make and deadlines to meet.
But there’s one thing I [...]

Put down your pens. Close those laptops. Take off your thinking caps. Put your feet up and breathe a long sigh of relief.
Because you deserve it, each and every one of you. You’ve done yourselves – and Your Big Break – proud.
Submissions have closed, and voting for the Viewers’ Choice has ended. If your entry [...]

The five finalists have just been announced on the website …
… and you’re one of them.
Your phone’s ringing, but you can’t find it. You scramble through your stuff, searching … patting your pockets, frantic now … you answer just in time. Your hunch was right: the call is long-distance, from New Zealand. There isn’t much [...]

STAND BY!
If you’re one of the five finalists, you’re in for an wild ride – so now’s the time to think about how to fasten your seatbelt.
Preparation is the key. After all, you don’t want to see your name among the finalists – then find that a logistical hitch prevents you from travelling to New [...]

We know that a movie, be it two minutes or two hours long, tells a story.
That’s all very well – but what is story? And what is it that makes some stories more successful than others?
Okay, you’re thinking – YBBC just bit off more than he can chew. Maybe more than anyone can chew. Some [...]

In the last Kiwi Classic entry, I checked out Jason Stutter’s overlooked classic, Tongan Ninja – made for a song but big on laughs and insane martial arts action, Pasifika-style.
Wellington-based Stutter got his break making a series of short films, all showcasing his unique sense of humour and flair for visual comedy and culminating in [...]

Thought it was about time I showed a little neighbourly spirit and headed across the Tasman Sea to Australia.
Clinton J. Isle’s script Homecoming is a recent upload, and a striking example of how economical thinking can not only keep your entry within the limits of the competition guidelines – but can also focus the power [...]

CAPTURING THE THEME
One week. Two days. Twenty-One hours. I’m looking at the countdown timer and that’s what it says right this second. Keeping pace with the countdown is the rate of entries – following our technical hiccup the other day (now resolved) the floodgates have opened and Your Big Break is being inundated with cool [...]

We’re heading into the last two weeks before Your Big Break entries close. Some of you have already submitted your entry (or entries), while others will still be working hard. So, what’s the best strategy – use every second you have, or upload as soon as you can?
As you know, there are two ways to [...]

You may have heard this before: screenwriting isn’t writing; it’s rewriting.
That’s because unlike other forms of creative writing, a screenplay is never finished. You might write a draft, then stop and have people read it, get some notes, even send it out to professional readers (or studios, if you have an agent) – but regardless [...]