When a jaded housewife realizes that her house is keeping her and her husband stuck in a repeating scene from the 1950s, she fights to awaken her husband from a mysterious trance so they can outsmart the house and escape before they forget who they really are and get stuck in the obsolete scene forever.

CAST LIST:

Narrator: Steve Rizzo
EM: Elizabeth Rose Morriss
Rorri: Geoff Mays

Get to know the writer:

1. What is your screenplay about?
In my screenplay, End of Scene, a jaded housewife must decipher clues left by her past self to escape her mysterious house that resets itself every time she tries to leave or change her tired routine.

2. What genres does your screenplay fall under?
Psychological sci-fi
Fantasy
Drama

3. Why should this screenplay be made into a movie?
Relevance: This story touches on some big-name topics such as rewriting learned gender roles, inner child healing, embracing and overcoming differences in relationships, escaping beauty ideals, aging gracefully, navigating a spiritual awakening, tuning into intuition, and more.
Opportunity: 41.7 million adults in the United States received treatment or counseling for their mental health within the past year. According to Market Research, the self-improvement market's worth was estimated at $13.2 billion in 2022 with 5.6% average yearly gains. People want help. People want to grow in self-awareness. People want to wake up.
Necessity: A large theme within End of Scene is how to evolve a long term complacent marriage into a conscious relationship where each party loves one another for who they are. More than 50% of all divorce cases claim irreconcilable differences. What would happen if each individual took responsibility rather than projecting their unresolved issues onto their partner?

4. How would you describe this script in two words?
Subliminal rewrite.

5. What movie have you seen the most times in your life?
The Matrix.

6. How long have you been working on this screenplay?
It took me 2 years in total. 18 months to write it, 6 months to edit and refine, edit and refine. My second script only took me a year, third script 6 months, etc. I'm getting faster and more efficient!

7. How many stories have you written?
I am currently working on my 4th feature-length script.

8. What is your favorite song? (Or, what song have you listened to the
most times in your life?)
Incubus "Dig"

9. What obstacles did you face to finish this screenplay?
To start the damn thing. I was way more comfortable lying around complaining about all the movies I watched than actually writing my own and putting myself out there. Once I finished the script, the next obstacle was facing head-on my past fear of rejection and getting negative feedback. I actually did a Rejection Journey where I sought out 22 rejections in 2022, and it really helped me grow as a writer, an artist, and a person.

10. Apart from writing, what else are you passionate about?
Storytelling overall, comedy, recovery (9+ years sober), doodling, martial arts (I'm a black belt in Choi Kwang Do), ballroom dance (I'm not good at it but I'm invested), and my dog Floyd. I'm also passionate about content creation and helping others with my experience, strength, and hope. I have 115,000 followers on TikTok (@jenbutlersays) where I share my behind-the-scenes journey of recovery and writing and just how damn weird it is to be human.

11. You entered your screenplay via FilmFreeway. What have been your experiences working with the submission platform site?
Pros: FilmFreeway makes it super easy to submit to festivals and contests. There are also smaller contests, which are great as writers first starting out if you need a confidence boost. (Smaller contests usually mean less submissions and a higher chance of placement.) - You can also promote your script and then competitions reach out with discount codes, inviting you to their festivals. Further, there's an easy way to create laurels after winning contests, which is great. So, in short, FilmFreeway is user-friendly, intuitive, and great for gaining traction on a screenplay. Also! for the bigger contests where my screenplay won or was a finalist? The prizes have been AMAZING. I've gotten the opportunity to pitch live to industry professionals, network with other writers, and more.
Cons: It's tough to know which screenplays are legitimate and which are some mulletted guy named Buck posting a "contest" out of his momma's basement in Detroit. That's just a silly way of saying: Some contests are worth the money, and some aren't. What I'm learning as I talk to more production companies, agencies, and management companies, is that festival wins for screenplays mainly gain traction for writers when the festivals are well-known or bigger. Or, for something like WILDsound, winners get a readthrough of the first scene of their script. THAT is amazing because there's an actual takeaway that can be used as a POC (proof of concept) when marketing a script.

12. What influenced you to enter the festival? What were your feelings on the initial feedback you received?
I'd been looking into having my play professionally "performed" at a table read. But, it was looking like it'd be costly and a huge time commitment. Seeing that winners of WILDsound would get a snippet of their script performed by professional voice actors was what prompted me to enter!
As for my feelings on feedback: I submitted 2 scripts to WILDsound. One didn't make it into the festival, and the other one was a winner. I was happy about this because it shows me that not everyone is a winner, y'know. It's not some participation award when you win. The feedback I received on both scripts was fair, kind, and genuinely helpful. I felt like the readers took the time to enter the world of my story and understand what I was trying to achieve. Their feedback was based on that, which I think is amazing. I've received $100-150 feedback from huge contests and The Black List where the feedback was a JOKE and a total waste of money. So, to receive genuine feedback from a passionate reader who cares about helping the writer? That's priceless.