Write a Winning Script, Get a Free Location

By Christopher P. Jacobs
Staff Writer

Independent moviemakers, especially students, don’t have the budgets to construct elaborate sets from scratch, so they are always searching for accessible (and free) locations that will lend a sense of authenticity to their stories. Actual locations also tend to come with their own props and appropriate set decoration, all of which add enormous production values to a movie.

It always helps to have inside connections, although one can often find supportive owner/managers at local restaurants, bars, stores, office buildings, hotels, etc., all of which can allow a filmmaker to write a script tailored to specific locations in advance. The key to effective low-budget movie production is to write a script inspired by locations that the writer/producer/director already knows are available to use.

But what about a script idea set in a past time period, say the late cold war era of the mid-1960s to mid-1990s, which might deal with, say, a fictional or even an actual incident at or involving an Air Force nuclear missile launch control site? If you’ve got a story like that or similar ideas brewing in the back of your mind, and can write a script by this August, you may be in luck.

The first “Cold War Film Contest” will grant the producers of selected screenplays access to shoot for up to three seven-hour days at the “Oscar-Zero” Minuteman Missile site, just north of Cooperstown, ND. Then all the finished movies will be judged for another round of awards and a public premiere of all finalists in the historic Cooper Theatre in downtown Cooperstown.

Movie ideas may be for documentary, docudrama, or fiction films, either short or feature-length. There is no restriction on genres, which may be straight dramas, biographical, fantasy/sci-fi, comedy, music video or any other type of story that can include one or more scenes set inside the missile launch facility.

The “Oscar-Zero” missile site was active from the years 1966-1997. Last summer it opened to the public as a museum designated as an official North Dakota State Historic Site, owned by the State Historical Society. The Friends of Oscar-Zero and the Griggs County Historical Society are sponsoring the contest to raise awareness of the historic site. After the local premiere, the winning productions will be regularly screened at the museum for tourists and will be made available for sale (although filmmakers will retain rights to their work).

When it was deactivated, the missile-launching capability was removed but everything else, including all equipment consoles and living quarters, was left intact. The site consists of a gated compound with a garage and a support building containing offices, as well as sleeping, eating and recreation rooms. A freight elevator inside descends deep underground to a bomb-proof cylindrical concrete bunker where two officers would share 24-hour duty in the launch command center, waiting for the order to deploy their nuclear warheads. In the early 1980s, the Air Force began to allow women to share duty with men in the control facility.

Site supervisor Mark Sundlov was himself a missileer, and can provide historical guidance for contest applicants. Applicants may request assistance with historical accuracy (dates, details, procedures, historical anecdotes, etc.), as well as help obtaining extras and access to other nearby locations.

The deadline to submit a logline, synopsis, and sample script pages is Aug. 15, 2010, with winners announced on Sept. 1. Selected movie projects must arrange to shoot their missile site scenes for sometime between Sept. 15, 2010 and Feb. 28, 2011. The finished movies (or screenplays for the script-only competition) must be submitted by June 30, 2011. A committee will review applications for both cinematic and historic qualities. Finalists and prizes will be announced by July 31, 2011 with the public premiere of the winning movies in August.

The entry fee for either a script or a movie project outline is $20, or $10 for students. Anyone who tours the site in advance may deduct the cost of the admission fee (with a receipt) from their contest entry fee and all other applicants may take the tour without buying a ticket (normally $10 for adults).

Details and forms can be downloaded from http://www.coldwarfilmcontest.com

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