The Short List- West
David Tracey (Vancouver, BC)
MOVIE PITCH
Gumby -- The Movie
Tagline: You can bend him, but he'll break you.
We open with our hero -- a lean, green, fighting machine designed by military scientists out of reconstituted DNA -- imprisoned in a cave somewhere near the Pakistani border.
His torturers grow weary from jabbing him with sharp objects, but he responds as if tickled. They wire him for electric shocks, but only the light bulb is affected by the surge. They comment harshly on his appearance; and now he is moved, and blinking back the tears, yet still will not give in. He will offer no more than his name, Gumby, and his rank, Special Agent: Counter-terrorism. What about his accomplice? Gumby simply smiles -- a moment before the wall crashes in to reveal Pokey, his rubbery equine friend, with whom he escapes.
The adventures of the durable duo continue as they hunt the world's most dangerous criminal: a sinister cabal here, a car explosion there. Their assignment grows ever more perilous as they near their prey, and Gumby reveals a deeper quest, the search for an answer to the question that has long plagued him.
Is he for real?
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How It Works
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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!
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On March 14th and April 4th, 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 18th. Or join us at any of the three shows to root for the contestants in person. Go to cbc.ca/go for tickets.
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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!
For more photos, go to http://www.cbc.ca/go/photogallery.html.
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!
Western semi-finalist 09
