Why I don't like (most) contests

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  • #31
    Re: Why I don't like (most) contests

    Honestly, I find it difficult to disagree with her basic premise. I can tell if the writing just isn't there within the first page or two, and I can usually tell if a decently-written script has a story worth reading after ten. Even if a script starts with a slow burn, I can generally tell when that is the case and if it is being done well. But there's a difference between me reading some script I found on the internet and her being paid to read a script out of entrance fees.

    On the other hand, it sounds like she's talking about the initial read. It's not unreasonable to expect that a solid half of the entries in the average contest will be borderline unreadable. If she's passing along 20 out of 75 scripts, that sounds sort of like she's passing along anything that even remotely shows promise. So if all she's doing at this stage is cutting the wheat from the chaff, that might not be quite the contestastrophe it's being made out to be.

    Although if she's really doing this in the later rounds, that's another story.

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    • #32
      Re: Why I don't like (most) contests

      She said she was a later round reader. That meant someone must have found something of merit in each of those scripts in the first round.

      No one's saying that someone reads a script or two that is so bad that you have to stop reading at a certain point. But I find that hard to believe that this was the case in all 75, which apparently she was claiming if she burned through them all in three hours.

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      • #33
        Re: Why I don't like (most) contests

        EDITED (removed):

        I need to relax.

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        • #34
          Re: Why I don't like (most) contests

          Judging something based on the first 10 pages is one thing. Tossing out a script because you don't like the title page, or their address doesn't say California, is another.

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          • #35
            Re: Why I don't like (most) contests

            While I agree that the first few-to-ten pages are very telling of a writer's ability, I definitely do not condone the practice of burning through that many scripts from writers who have paid money. It's just a poor way of running a contest. It's a borderline scam.

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            • #36
              Re: Why I don't like (most) contests

              Originally posted by glantern2814 View Post
              She notes now that the contest she was judging for wasn't the Silver one, FWIW.

              She is blaming us for hating on her, but don't post a blog with the attitude that she could blow through 75 scripts in 3 hours because they all sucked and she only read 10 pages. People paid their money to get their scripts read. They have a right to at least think they are being read.
              Yeah let's just understand she had power, as a reader/judge, and was exerting it.

              Too. Much. Power.

              I'll take this from producers and their gatekeepers, but from somebody we're paying for the privilege? It's worse than the "reading fee" I've read about recently.

              Instead of boasting about what agents or producers or managers "might" get to see the winning scripts, these contests had better (fast) starting listing their judging criteria, even for the "first round". Don't need to regulate them, or have some Board certify them, but a Code of Ethics isn't out of order. It may be the only way to resuscitate these lotteries.

              This whole debacle is because of a blog "boast" that someone was so good she didn't have to read the whole script.

              But when I asked over a month ago elsewhere how this very thing can be proven, once we've submitted our fee and our scripts, all I did was get hammered. Naturally, I ignored this and am now being proven correct in my concern.

              This "subculture" of contests is unmatched anywhere else, in any other industry.

              Maybe the approach should be: Too. Many. Contests. Weed them out.

              Now. What's next.

              How about we clean up this annoying "coverage" subculture?

              Notes are okay. Proofreading is okay.

              But "coverage"? That's gotta bring in way more than the contests, especially since none of it's going back out. The only commonality is that most are really just out to find a "gem" before anybody else does, and they both play on people's desperation to obtain validation, and maybe a bit of cash.

              The masses stir! A rebellion!

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              • #37
                Re: Why I don't like (most) contests

                Originally posted by Telly View Post
                EDITED (removed):

                I need to relax.
                I thoroughly agree! DDP's seen the last of me today...

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                • #38
                  Re: Why I don't like (most) contests

                  Ah. She has learned me now and will leave her wise response to my post hanging -- I should apparently be "smarter than that" and ponder some -- and will cut anything I say after. This explains the large number of rah rah posts and lack of criticism. Oh, and Jeff, that math was apparently put together by a group of pissed off bitter DDer's who are just mad their writing is not up to snuff so you are learned too now you punkass wannabe. [wink]
                  GirlinGray

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                  • #39
                    Re: Why I don't like (most) contests

                    Her tweet:

                    Getting hated on for offering advice about how to get ahead in script contests.
                    Welcome to Done Deal, beotch.

                    The best way out is always through. - Robert Frost

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                    • #40
                      Re: Why I don't like (most) contests

                      I agree she shouldn't take the job if she doesn't want to do the work of reading the scripts.

                      But do you really know in 1-2 pages if someone can write?

                      The Sundance Lab accepts only the first 5 pages in their first round. They charge $35. They don't guarantee they will request and read the whole script. The difference is they are up front about it (and they are Sundance).

                      Interesting that the blogger defends her work ethic but refuses to say which contest it was.

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                      • #41
                        Re: Why I don't like (most) contests

                        Of course we all have had contest experiences where we suspected our screenplays weren't read. And occasionaly, something like this happens to fuel that suspicion.


                        I agree that you can often tell quickly that a script is crap, but like has been said above, 75 scripts in 3 hours is outright apalling. I've never judged a competition before, but I'm sure there are administrative functions that each judge has to perform for each screenplay. Like scoring it and transmitting this to the competition in either writing, or over the web. If it takes 1 minuted to perform such functions, that's 75 minutes right there for this individual. Which leaves her 1 hr and 45 mins to spend on reading the 75 scripts.


                        Adding to this the idea that determining the quality of a screenplay can be highly subjective, and again, the word apalling comes to mind.



                        Add "readers" and "contests" to my below signature and fill in the blanks.



                        .
                        Last edited by ; 07-02-2010, 04:25 PM.

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                        • #42
                          Re: Why I don't like (most) contests

                          For every one contest reader dumb enough to go online and publicize how they're not reading contest scripts, how many are doing that silently?

                          If this reader is getting handed 75 scripts and so little time to read them, isn't it safe to assume that EVERY reader is so overloaded that they couldn't possibly actually read the stuff they're given?

                          This isn't some anomaly. This is something we keep seeing over and over again in these unvetted contests.
                          Steven Palmer Peterson

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                          • #43
                            Re: Why I don't like (most) contests

                            Originally posted by mariot View Post
                            But do you really know in 1-2 pages if someone can write?
                            I once read finalists scripts for a contest (never again) and you can tell in a couple of sentences if someone *can't write*. These were the final 10, and one read as if it had been translated into Chinese, then translated into Swedish, then translated back into English. You had to read every sentence several times to figure out what it was supposed to mean. I read that whole script, waiting for it to get better and waiting to see that thing that advanced it to the finals... but in the end I thought it might have just been put in my box of scripts by mistake.

                            You read first round, you probably get lots of those scripts.

                            PS: Wasn't there a similar blog entry from some other contest reader about a year ago? This is reality - may not be fair, may not be right, but it's the way it is. Have to take that into consideration.

                            - Bill
                            Free Script Tips:
                            http://www.scriptsecrets.net

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                            • #44
                              Re: Why I don't like (most) contests

                              Originally posted by GirlinGray View Post
                              Oh, and Jeff, that math was apparently put together by a group of pissed off bitter DDer's who are just mad their writing is not up to snuff so you are learned too now you punkass wannabe. [wink]
                              I mentioned that on her blog, but the comment was deleted.

                              Comment


                              • #45
                                Re: Why I don't like (most) contests

                                You usually have a pretty good idea whether someone can seriously write in about 3-5 pages. You don't know if they can craft a story. But you usually have a pretty good idea of whether you are dealing with someone who can seriously craft words. There's a catch to that though. It's not a words competition. It's a film writing competition. And I have read scripts that surprised me. That happens when the writer doesn't have voice, doesn't have style, but the writer can seriously tell a story through visuals and dialogue alone. In other words, you're dealing with a writer who can't write pretty prose, but can write excellent film. There are not a lot of these people out there, but they are out there. You don't find them if you stop on page 3. You also can't fairly score a script unless you read the script. Not the first 3 pages of the script. The script.
                                GirlinGray

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