Dated: 13 April 2004
The Media Development Authority (MDA) has presented awards totalling $17,700 to the third MDA National Scriptwriting Competition winners this evening. The awards were presented at the first ever "Screenwriters Nite" organised by the MDA. A new format for he competition was also announced.
The Guest-of-Honour Mr Lim Hock Chuan, CEO of MDA, presented three Golden Pen Awards and nine merit awards to the winners (the list of prizes and award winners is attached at Annex A, with the synopses of the winning scripts). The winning scriptwriters range in ages from 18-year-old student Ms Maureen Yeo to 48-year-old tutor Mr Pang Weng Foong. There was also a second time winner - Mr Tan Chee Wee, who won an award for the television drama category last year, walked away with the feature film award this time round.
The MDA together with its partner, Digital Media Hub, will select one of the winning entries of the Feature Film category to be developed into a full-length feature film. As in previous years' competitions, the MDA and MediaCorp TV may be working with the winners of the TV drama category to develop their scripts into a TV programme as part of the Blueprint series.
The second season of Blueprint, featuring the winning entries of the National Scriptwriting Competition 2002, will be telecast this Friday at 8.30pm on MediaCorp TV Channel 5.
Mr Lim also announced changes to the competition format. The key changes for the MDA National Scriptwriting Competition 2004 are:
instead of one-hour drama entries, only scripts for pilot episodes will be accepted for the Television Drama category. This is in line with market practices for quality drama series.
scriptwriting workshops will be organised for aspiring scriptwriters. For this, the MDA has partnered the Screenwriters Association Singapore to organise the workshops. Participants will be helped to develop their story ideas in order to gain an understanding of the essentials of scriptwriting for the different genres. For more details on the workshops, visit the Screenwriters Association's website at www.screenwriters.org.sg
experienced international script consultants will be engaged to conduct a script clinic for writers of shortlisted entries. These consultants will advise and guide the writers through their scripts. The writers will then be provided with the opportunity to fine-tune their scripts and submit them for another round of judging for selection of the winning entries.
a special pitching session will be organised for the winners to pitch their scripts to invited broadcasters and production companies. This will take the place of guaranteed production into the Blueprint series.
Submissions for the categories of Television Drama and Feature Film opens tomorrow and more details can be found on the MDA website.
To encourage the participants, Mr Lim had this to say, "Congratulations to the winners once again. I hope this will spur you on further. For those who will not walk away with a prize tonight, remember that you are also winners. What you must do next is to keep polishing, editing, improving. Sooner or later, you will find your diamond."
"The judges were encouraged and impressed by the quality and diversity of the entries. We have observed a clear trend - creativity and enthusiasm are definitely increasing in Singapore, and the Competition is stimulating writers to not only write but also take several additional important steps towards translating their ideas and visions into feature films and television programmes to be produced," commented Mr Kenneth Tan, the Chairman of the Judging Panel of the 2003 MDA National Scriptwriting Competition.
For more information, please contact:
Sharanjit Kaur
Corporate &Marketing Communications Manager
Communications Division
Email: sharanjit_kaur@imda.gov.sg
Website :
http://www.mda.gov.sg
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