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Thursday, January 24, 2008

Athenian congratulates me.

From Athenian Alumni News

Alumni News

Athenian alumnus John M. Osborne '97 recently became a finalist at the Slamdance 2007 Teleplay Contest with his teleplay entitled "Dr. von Kaiser." In the following press release, John receives wonderful feedback about his writing and the comedic animated series, which features fictional evil scientist Dr. von Kaiser and other fun, devious characters. Congratulations, John, on your continued success!

ANTIKAISER PRODUCTIONS CONGRATULATES SLAMDANCE TELEPLAY WINNERS
Pilot script for "Dr. von Kaiser" not selected as a winning teleplay, but honorably takes its place among the top twenty finalist entries.

SAN DIEGO — December 14, 2007: AntiKaiser Productions would like to congratulate the three top finalists in the Slamdance Teleplay Competition: "Fairy" by Anthony Roberts; "Stage Six Pandemic" by Barbara Marshall; and "The Union" by Matthew Patrick. This year, over 500 entries were submitted in the Slamdance Teleplay Competition. "Dr. von Kaiser" advanced to the finalist stage — amongst only 20 total scripts at this level — and is considered to be among the top four percent of this prestigious contest.

"Although we are disappointed to not have been selected as a winning teleplay script," said Aaron Matthew Kaiser, co-creator and producer of the property, "we understand that there was tremendous competition this year and we are honored to have made it as far as we did. This is still quite an achievement for an animated series."

"Drs. Von Kaiser, Nemesis, and Sapphire are the kind of devious, fun characters that I can't help but write," said writer John M. Osborne, who penned the teleplay from a story by Aaron Matthew Kaiser and Michael Callahan. "There's nothing they can do or have done to them that won't be hilarious."

As part of the competition, Slamdance judges provided script feedback in the form of coverage. AntiKaiser Productions would like to share the following excerpts:

• "The pilot story is thus a neat, rather charming and thoroughly simple and coherently told little tale just right for a half-hour episode. It is an especially good story in that it manages to introduce all the necessary principals, as well as involving them in a fully rounded story, all within format constraints ..."

• "Not uncommonly, spec television writers fail to tell a complete pilot story, try to introduce too many characters and end up with a pilot story both incomplete, too long and with much too slow a pace. The writer here is due much credit for very professionally avoiding these pitfalls."

• "The writer here presents a very neat and promising concept for a comedic science fiction fantasy that could prove appealing and marketable, not to mention highly 'brandable' and merchandisable. In effect, the series could become a franchise with copyrighted and trademarked characters and gizmos from the shows appearing as lunch boxes, action figures, puzzles and the like.

• "It's a very cute and imaginative piece. The writer has a great imagination and weaves an original world with wonderful characters, elements and details."

• "This presentation has a number of noteworthy strengths in terms of adherence to format, pilot plot and narrative structure, including good pacing."

While the fictional evil scientist himself, Dr. von Kaiser, could not be reached for comments, he has been heard screaming the word "Affenüsse!" from his castle laboratory.

AntiKaiser Productions is currently seeking private investments and/or distribution agreements for "Dr. von Kaiser" as it continues development and production on the animated series. Interested parties should contact series producer Aaron Matthew Kaiser at (619) 328-6758.

About AntiKaiser Productions: AntiKaiser Productions is an independent development company for film, television and new media. It has produced multiple award-winning projects since its inception in 1998. The company has corporate headquarters in San Diego, CA. For more information, please visit http://www.antikaiser.com