Imagination is at the core of filmmaking. So many pieces of the puzzle—an idea, a script, a location, actors, filming, editing, score—have to come together before movie magic can be made. Tying it all together is vision: the ability to see something amazing in the mind’s eye, and then turn it into reality.

A script may involve dialogue, yes, but the screenwriter also develops characters, situations, and action. No one knows this better than Oscar-winning screenwriter Geoffrey Fletcher. With his award-winning adapted screenplay for the film Precious, Fletcher transformed Sapphire’s glorious abstraction of a novel into a powerful cinematic realization. The result? One of the most talked-about independent movies in years, featuring breakout performances from fellow Oscar winner Mo’Nique and Oscar nominee Gabourey Sidibe.

Our friends at Bombay Sapphire have taken their interest in imagination + film to the next level with “The Script,” the first Imagination Series contest. Fletcher has developed the framework of a script for a 5-minute short film, but he needs you to infuse this with imagination to fill in the details—genre, location, situation, characters, action—and bring it to life, creating a storyworld of your own.

The five winning treatments will be made into short films, with the goal being the creation of five films that share dialogue, but diverge wildly in the stories those words tell. The five winning screenwriters will be involved in the making of the individual films—to varying extents—and will get the invaluable prize of seeing their visions realized on the big screen. How cool is that?

Here’s how you enter:

1. Download “The Script.”

2. Develop a treatment of your own, bringing the script to life. Tell Bombay the story you envision, submitted in the form of video introduction, visual images as storyboards, or just text, using Fletcher’s words as a cornerstone. Don’t worry if visuals are not your thing—words only are just fine, and will be judged on equal terms as other formats.

3. Remember: everyone has a story to tell, and now is the time for you to tell yours. You do not have to already be a filmmaker; this is your chance to create a movie. What would you do if you were the director?

What happens next?

1. The deadline for entries is August 1, 2012, so you only have a few weeks to get cracking.

2. Once all the entries have been submitted, an esteemed panel of judges from the filmmaking community—led by Fletcher himself—will judge the entries.

3. Five winning entries will be made into short films, with the aim of showing them all together sometime next spring.

Good luck! We know you have a movie in you.

Stay informed:
♦ Read more about the contest. Review the terms and conditions.
♦ Follow @imaginationsrs on Twitter for inspiration.
♦ Like Bombay Sapphire on Facebook.