Scott Edelman is offering $200 for the best mini-movie based on his zombie play A Plague on Both Your Houses. The “Blow the Top of Scott Edelman’s Head Off Really Cool Zombie Filmmaking Competition” is designed “to encourage the creation of short videos based on sections of the play, with the winner (as judged by Edelman) receiving $200 and his undying awe. (Zombie awe should always be undying, shouldn’t it?)”
He offers this background on the play and the competition: “Think Night of the Living Dead crossed with Romeo and Juliet. The play has never been performed, save for a star-studded reading during the 1998 Stoker Awards weekend. And by performed, I simply mean that since the work was on the final ballot that year, and all nominees got a chance to read a chunk of their work, and my play wouldn’t have been understood if multiple characters had been read in my voice alone, I dragooned a bunch of my friends on stage to read along with me.
“Had you been there, you’d have seen Michael Marano, David Honigsberg, Ed Bryant, Nina Kirki Hoffman, Gordon van Gelder, and others (including me!) as zombies. Well, some of us anyway. Some were the last surviving humans on Manhattan Island in a post-apocalyptic future. But I’ve always wanted something more.
“And while discussing the piece at Readercon last month—because people have been reading and talking about it again due to its inclusion in my all-zombie collection What Will Come After—I’ve decided to finally make that something more happen.”
Videos must be at least three minutes long, can use any film-making technique (live action, animation, etc), and must be uploaded to YouTube before 15 October 2011. Edelman will announce the winner and show the top three videos sometime during the World Fantasy Convention weekend in San Diego, 27-30 October 2011.
The winner will receive $200, plus a signed hardcover copy of my zombie collection What Will Come After. Two runners-up will each receive $50 and signed hardcover copies of the collection as well.
For full details, see this page.