Broadcast 1851 (Special Edition)

Guests: Dr. Bryan Laubscher, Victor Cummings. Topics: The space elevator screenplay, "High Lift." You are invited to comment, ask questions, and discuss the Space Show program/guest(s) on the Space Show blog, http://thespaceshow.wordpress.com. Comments, questions, and any discussion must be relevant and applicable to Space Show programming. Transcripts of Space Show programs are not permitted without prior written consent from The Space Show (even if for personal use) & are a violation of the Space Show copyright. We welcomed back Dr. Bryan Laubscher and for the first time Victor Cummings to discuss the space elevator screenplay, "High Lift." This screenplay won the ScriptVamp 2011 Dream Quest: Feature Screenwriting Competition and was the Grand Prize Winner. Visit https://scriptvamp.com/Victor_E.html for more information about the screenplay and the competition. Also visit the High Lift webiste for more information, www.highlift.us. Victor started our discussion by providing us with his background that took him into the screenwriting profession. He talked about challenges & screenplay issues plus the differences in a screenplay compared to other forms of writing. Both Victor and Bryan told us some about the story line, the plot and as a result of my pressuring them, the villain! The space elevator is considered to already be in existence in the story and there are space elevator centers for different purposes and destinations. As you will hear, using the space elevator is key to solving the global warming problem and saving the Earth. Both our guests talked about reviews and oversight from professionals, agents, etc. They told us how they had to remove much of the science jargon and focus the screenplay on a younger and more generally educated audience. Listeners asked several email questions about the science fiction genre in screenplays as well as target audience and marketing concerns. Our guests talked quite a bit about the issues in getting an agent, making that first sale, and capturing an audience. We also talked about science fiction usually being bigger in the budget area and more costly, probably due to technical special effects. Near the end of the first segment, a listener wanted to know if a successful screenplay and movie would further interest, funding, and development of the space elevator project. In the second segment, we talked about markets and the need to break the circular loop of needing to have a sale but needing to have an agent but first needing the sale. We talked about their winning the ScriptVamp competition per above and raising money for their project through crowd sourcing, particularly Kickstarter. A listener suggested our guests attend the well known Maui Writers Conference and another brought up the Darpa 100 Year Starship Program. As our program was drawing to a close, Victor and Bryan asked for help with Hollywood type contacts for their screenplay. If you want to contact Victor and Bryan, send your note to me and I will forward it to them both. Please post your comments/questions on The Space Show blog per the above URL.