The Short List- West

Kurt Armstrong (Winnipeg, MN)

For Manitoba Tourism

Long shot: flat, empty winter landscape. The wind whistles.

A car sits in an empty parking lot. Icicles hang all around the edge of the car, touching the ground.

The crunch of boots on snow as a young boy dressed in parka, ski-pants, boots, mitts, hat, scarf (only his eyes are visible) approaches. Boy notices icicles, tentatively kicks one with his boot. Icicle shatters, ice tinkles. Boy kicks another, and another, working his way around the car. Hollers "Hi-ya!" Karate-kicks icicles, chops some with his hand. Jumps around car, sweeps his leg, takes out six at a time. Boy whoops, cheers "Woo-hoo!" Long camera shot -- barren landscape, dark car and cheering, karate-chopping boy.

Cut to shot of car: one icicle left. Close up of boy's face, his eyes narrowing. He winds up, kicks out last icicle.

Car crashes to the ground. Doors fall off, windows shatter, trunk pops open, front and rear bumpers clunk, corner panels crash, hood flies up, wheels fall off, wobbling as they roll off in four directions.

Cut to long shot "“ disintegrated car and boy running off into distance, hollering, "AAAAH!"

Big words fill the screen: "Manitoba. Dang cold."

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How It Works

Write In!

Out of hundreds and hundreds of entries, just twenty Canadians made it to the Short List and won themselves an audition with Canada Writes. Then eight semi-finalists were picked to play in the Eastern semi-finals and Western/Northern semi-finals.

Read their winning songs, blogs, ads, rants and movie pitches!

Tune In… or Join Us!

On March 14^th and April 4^th, tune in to GO! on CBC Radio One at 10 am (10:30 am NT) for the Eastern and Western/Northern semi-final games in Halifax and Vancouver. The finals will be held in Toronto on April 18^th. Or join us at any of the three shows to root for the contestants in person. Go to cbc.ca/go for tickets.

Play Online!

The Canada Writes 09 Online Challenge is now over. Thanks for playing!

Updates

(Toronto, April 25, 2009)

It was a very tight race in the end. Our four finalists fought it out by blog, song, ad and a three-line story. First, they each drew a blog topic, from “the best hundred dollars I ever spent” to “one fact I would like to ‘un-know’”. Challenge number 2 was to re-write a song by Queen, with Valerie Stanois from the musical We Will Rock You bringing power vocals to their surprising new words. Then judges Geri Hall, Terry O’Reilly and Darrell Dennis sent Kaveh Mohebbi through the infamous Trap Door. Challenge number 3 was the radio ad. Clever ads for Cornhobbler’s Crematorium and Juice Bar (obviously not a real business) and Christmas greetings from the makers of Flank Chainsaws won Katie Sanders and Laurie Schwartz a last chance at writing glory, but it was Margaret Beach’s turn to go through the Trap Door. Finally, Laurie and Katie had to come up with the first two lines of a three-line story… on yellow writing pads on their laps…and in 90 seconds….

After weeks of effort and tension and achievement -- from the writing contest in January, through the auditions, the short list, the semi-finals and the finals – it was all over in a couple of minutes. Katie pulled ahead by a crucial point -- and became the winner of Canada Writes 09! Listen to the show! Read the blogs!

Winner of the Online Challenge! Ontario's Heather Smith is the winner of this year's People's Choice Award. Her winning entry was a re-write of the ABBA song 'Waterloo.' Take a look!