Re: Can I do anything with a high placement in a screenwriting competition?
Nope. That's not how it works. You pay $30 to host your script. It will show up as a blip in the "newest" scripts added because they get so many.
The evaluation can take three weeks. Your script gets no traffic until and unless you get two reviews that average above the community ave which is 6.1 right now. You have to have two.
An industry person can download and read your script but their rating is WEIGHTED. Not sure why, because it seems that an industry person's point of view would hold more validity than the Black List readers, for sure. I mean, if they're an executive or assistant, right?
You can opt to make your review public or private. If your ave is still above the community ave you will show up on the top lists for the (if you have 2) for the month and quarter, but you need 4 to get on the annual top list which is the second, third, and fourth quarter and once you age out of ONE year, your script DISAPPEARS again, unless you pay to get two more evaluations and then another two more to get onto the top list for the rest of the year.
The deal with the 8s... if you get an 8 on any of your elements your script's logline gets sent out in the weekly email. If your evals come in in two separate weeks and you get an 8 on each evaluation, your script gets sent out twice.
If the indy pro does read the list that week, he will never know you're on the top list until, and unless, they go onto the site and look at the top lists.
You can restrict writers from downloading your script. You cannot restrict your script to ONLY producers/manager/agents. You have to allow all indy pros access. They can be assistants, prop managers, costume designers, hair people, any one that qualifies as an industry professional in their eyes.
And no, you do not get transparency to know what position the indy pro is. That's the part that burns.
Managers absolutely look at 8s. They cannot see the scores of the scripts on the top list. They have to select the script then, if the writer allows it, they can read reviews and see the scale of ratings.
I only have high scoring evaluations visible. And yes, it's expensive, but the return is faster. With a contest you have to wait 8-9 months to get an answer, while the Black List response is faster, a couple of weeks. You can rewrite it and submit again.
The downloads come from being on the top list, have your script be "reader recommended," and be a feature script. I have all three of those for Tracker, but when I initially hosted it I got a ton of downloads. Then I got a manager pretty quickly and every time any one looked at it they didn't know I was already repped until after they viewed it.
Then a year and a half later my manager stopped managing and is only producing, so my script was no longer on the top lists and I had no exposure. I keep it up because people do see it on the "featured script" page. But I totally lost all that momentum with the 8s & 9s. The only way I can get back on the top lists is to pay for more evaluations and I have two scripts I'm going out with about a month apart.
I don't think contests have the same ability to attract attention. For 9 months while scripts are being read and judged on a given contest, there are industry people who need material during that lag time. This is a valid place for them to search for new voices.
Originally posted by Friday
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The evaluation can take three weeks. Your script gets no traffic until and unless you get two reviews that average above the community ave which is 6.1 right now. You have to have two.
An industry person can download and read your script but their rating is WEIGHTED. Not sure why, because it seems that an industry person's point of view would hold more validity than the Black List readers, for sure. I mean, if they're an executive or assistant, right?
You can opt to make your review public or private. If your ave is still above the community ave you will show up on the top lists for the (if you have 2) for the month and quarter, but you need 4 to get on the annual top list which is the second, third, and fourth quarter and once you age out of ONE year, your script DISAPPEARS again, unless you pay to get two more evaluations and then another two more to get onto the top list for the rest of the year.
The deal with the 8s... if you get an 8 on any of your elements your script's logline gets sent out in the weekly email. If your evals come in in two separate weeks and you get an 8 on each evaluation, your script gets sent out twice.
If the indy pro does read the list that week, he will never know you're on the top list until, and unless, they go onto the site and look at the top lists.
You can restrict writers from downloading your script. You cannot restrict your script to ONLY producers/manager/agents. You have to allow all indy pros access. They can be assistants, prop managers, costume designers, hair people, any one that qualifies as an industry professional in their eyes.
And no, you do not get transparency to know what position the indy pro is. That's the part that burns.
Managers absolutely look at 8s. They cannot see the scores of the scripts on the top list. They have to select the script then, if the writer allows it, they can read reviews and see the scale of ratings.
I only have high scoring evaluations visible. And yes, it's expensive, but the return is faster. With a contest you have to wait 8-9 months to get an answer, while the Black List response is faster, a couple of weeks. You can rewrite it and submit again.
The downloads come from being on the top list, have your script be "reader recommended," and be a feature script. I have all three of those for Tracker, but when I initially hosted it I got a ton of downloads. Then I got a manager pretty quickly and every time any one looked at it they didn't know I was already repped until after they viewed it.
Then a year and a half later my manager stopped managing and is only producing, so my script was no longer on the top lists and I had no exposure. I keep it up because people do see it on the "featured script" page. But I totally lost all that momentum with the 8s & 9s. The only way I can get back on the top lists is to pay for more evaluations and I have two scripts I'm going out with about a month apart.
I don't think contests have the same ability to attract attention. For 9 months while scripts are being read and judged on a given contest, there are industry people who need material during that lag time. This is a valid place for them to search for new voices.
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