James E. Sperl

After becoming addicted to writing in 1995, James, an avid movie lover for as long as he can remember, has sought to explore the mystery of the human condition in the form of the written word. Having penned seven feature length screenplays, four short scripts, a handful of short stories and now in the initial stages of his first book, he has devoted himself to the art and craft of writing.

His scripts have placed at the quarter-final level or better in a number of screenplay competitions including, but not limited to, the Nicholl Fellowships, Austin Heart of Film, Scriptapalooza and Project Greenlight in which he finished in the Top 30 from over 7000 competing scripts in that competition's inaugural year.

In 2001 he applied to the University of Southern California's M.F.A. in Screenwriting program and was one of several dozen accepted into the highly selective program. Eventually opting not to attend, James chose to use this acceptance and its rigorous application process as a measure of his knowledge of the craft of screenwriting.

Although primarily a screenwriter, James has other interests in film as well. Graduating with honors from Armstrong State University in Savannah, GA with a B.F.A. in Music, James has scored short films (his credits for this may be found at IMDB.com) and has even stepped behind the camera as Director of Photography on three short films, two of which were written by him ("Heartbreaker" and "Cookies For Callie").

James knows the business of screenwriting is a fickle one and successes may be few and far between. But his love of story is what compels him. If he ever becomes discouraged all he has to do is read one of his favorite quotes, taped beside his computer screen, to get him back in the game:

James is available for writing assignments and will consider script work on zero or low budget films. You may contact him at Jnote7@hotmail.com.