Joe Leone is an American Screenwriter with over 200 film festival/screenplay competition selection/awards in more than a dozen countries. His additional experience includes nearly 6 years as a Marketing Coordinator for Paramount Pictures Motion Picture Marketing Administration and as a Story Analyst for Prelude Pictures and Kamin & Howell Entertainment. While attending Chapman University in Orange, California, he produced an award winning student film, which was purchased and distributed by Pyramid Films (Santa Monica, CA).
Screenwriter of DIRE CONSEQUENCES (SHORT SCREENPLAY) - selected in (51) Film Festival/Screenplay Competitions in multiple Countries over the past 24 months. (7) Award Wins, (1) Honorable Mention, (12) Finalist, (12) Semi-Finalist, (7) Quarterfinalist, and (12) Official Sections to date.
Siren By The Sea (Jury Scorecard) - 04/15/20 - This was extremely well written and I would love to see it as a short. Considering that I am both former Military and a call-center employee, I am able to completely relate to this entire story line...even the frustration of Steve. I was actually able to interpose my work place, employees and Management into every facet of this story. Very well done!
Feedback received from the Austin Screenplay Awards on (03/01/20) - Authenticity is the key word for Dire Consequences. Obviously the plot has some more bombastic elements to them, but it’s all grounded in a tone that takes itself seriously. This is a script where every bullet fired feels consequential, and although we get a lot of violence throughout, there’s a purpose beyond a cheap adrenaline rush. Characters deep seeded internal problems, and the writer treats their internal conflicts with as much seriousness as the bullets that whiz across the pages. It makes for more than a standard popcorn muncher, as we get to know and understand these characters’ motivations and flaws.
The moment-to-moment writing is also great. While still concise, the writer packs in a lot of visual detail that imparts a lot of the writer’s distinctive style and personality. It also imparts a lot of the emotion of the scene by putting the reader right in the thick of the action with the characters. It makes it easy to see the world from the character’s perspective and is a great tool for forming a connection between reader and the cast. It may seem like an odd detail to harp on, but the attention to detail in the action description makes even the basic act of understanding the scene and taking in information interesting. It’s the difference between being told a series of facts about the story and real storytelling. This script falls into the latter category.
With a subject matter like a workplace shooting it must be very tempting for the script to dive into classic dramatic tropes and veer into melodrama. Dire Consequences masterfully sidesteps these pitfalls with highly believable characters that rely on archetypes, but serve their role well. Everyone from the leads to the supporting roles feel like great characters who have specificity in their action and dialogue. The writer does a good job of peppering the dialogue with moments that show a lot of history between characters with maximal efficiency in the page space. We understand the relationships at play quickly, allowing us to see a glimpse of how they can evolve in the early going. It all amounts to a highly engrossing read that I couldn’t put it down from first page to last.