I got all worked up about contests again last night, and I'm stripping my latest rant out of the other thread - no need to single out one contest, because they're all pretty much the same.
I got pointed to a blog written by a reader of one of the popular contests:
75 scripts, 3 hours. That's two and a half minutes per script, on average. Fifty bucks to get a judge to spend two and a half minutes reading your first few pages. And to do a little obvious math - the 20 that were passed on didn't get read all the way through. Unless after passing on 55 scripts, the reader found time in their three hours to read around 2000 more pages.
My guess? Most tossed on first two to three pages, if it seemed fine until page ten, it went on to the next round.
Of course, what that means is that most scripts haven't even hit their inciting incident yet. Night At The Museum? Judging by the first 10, it's a story about a guy who can't keep a job and his son is disappointed in him. Yawn. PASS!
It's why these commercial contests drive me nuts. (I'm not talking about Nicholl, Disney, Austin, etc.) They're moneymaking operations, pure and simple. Do a few people make some cash or get read by a manager? Sure. You need winners, so you can promote them and get more people to enter next year.
It's just skeevy.
I got pointed to a blog written by a reader of one of the popular contests:
Last night I managed to get through 75 scripts in about 3 hours. How are you so speedy and brilliant, you might ask? Easy, the 10 page rule. It’s true. All those stories about “make sure you grab ‘em in the first 10 pages” are absolutely true.
Honestly, I can tell in 2-3 pages if you are a writer. Then I give you 10 pages to show if you are a GOOD writer. If you’ve kept me going that far, then I’ll read further to see how you develop your plot. If you understand how to construct a midpoint, battle scene, and satisfying ending. And if your voice continues throughout, or if it tuckered out when the heavy lifting came into play.
Of the 75 I read last night, I advanced 20 to the next round, which was actually more generous than I should have been. What can I say, I’m a bit of a pushover.
Honestly, I can tell in 2-3 pages if you are a writer. Then I give you 10 pages to show if you are a GOOD writer. If you’ve kept me going that far, then I’ll read further to see how you develop your plot. If you understand how to construct a midpoint, battle scene, and satisfying ending. And if your voice continues throughout, or if it tuckered out when the heavy lifting came into play.
Of the 75 I read last night, I advanced 20 to the next round, which was actually more generous than I should have been. What can I say, I’m a bit of a pushover.
My guess? Most tossed on first two to three pages, if it seemed fine until page ten, it went on to the next round.
Of course, what that means is that most scripts haven't even hit their inciting incident yet. Night At The Museum? Judging by the first 10, it's a story about a guy who can't keep a job and his son is disappointed in him. Yawn. PASS!
It's why these commercial contests drive me nuts. (I'm not talking about Nicholl, Disney, Austin, etc.) They're moneymaking operations, pure and simple. Do a few people make some cash or get read by a manager? Sure. You need winners, so you can promote them and get more people to enter next year.
It's just skeevy.
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