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  • SilverScreenwriting Competition

    Just posted:

    Here you go, everybody! The top 50 scripts of over 1,000 submitted. So this represents the top 5% and that's quite an accomplishment! The 20 semi-finalists will be announced on August 1st.

    ---------------

    Abeyta, April & Kim Nunley - Super Ted

    Amdahl, Joseph- A Boy in the Woods

    Axelrad, David & Michel Plaxton - Machine Gun Kelly: The Real Story

    Barlowe, John & Irin Evers - Miss Christmas

    Bauer, Kristin - Edultery

    Booth, Thom - Jaunt

    Bowlden, Kelli - Venus Envy

    Brown, Harold - Dewey and the Magic Library

    Burningham, JR & Tess Ortbals

    Cambria, Craig - Canaries

    Catz, Sarit & Gloria Ketterer - Instant Karma

    Cecchini, Ron - Blue Lady

    Dilier, Matthew - The Sandbox

    Donald, Mike - Cortex

    Donald, Mike - Shadow Trade

    Donnelly, Scott & Joe Douglass - Cows

    Downs, Christine - The Jupiter Syndrome

    Evans, Corey- Death's Horizon

    Farrand, Carol - Nobody in My Family Has Sex

    Fass, Rick- Love Erasers

    Figel, Rich - The Doll

    Fortune, Jules - Better Than Broadband

    Headley, Jason & Michael Tumino - Seniors

    Hoover, Stephen - Buried South of Galatians

    Hoover, Stephen - Ghosted

    Hoover, Stephen - To Live, Press 1

    Luu, D.N. - Faithful

    Jackson, Ryan - Fix

    Knutson, Forrest - Samurai High

    Lammey, David - Shotgun Wedding

    McCoy, Michael - Under the Rising Sun

    McMinn, Dave - O Boy

    Moore, Sherry Lynn - Hunting Season

    Nolan, Tom - The Quick Way Home

    Puterbaugh, Joseph - The Jack Johnson Story

    Ridone, Steve - Colby on the Potomac

    Rosen, Jane - Ancestral

    Sayle, Allie & Liz - Troublemakers

    Sheehy, Rich - The Intake

    Simpson, R. Ian - Paraplizzle

    Spiegelman, Bruce - IsiS

    Stein, Christopher - Moment of Conception

    Shyu, Tony - Macau Twilight

    Stirling, Bruce - The Embalmer's Apprentice

    Wasserman, Daniel - Stowaways

    Watson, Robert Keith - Bank Robbing for Dummies

    Wiggins, Joseph - Amsterdam XXX

    Wolfe, Celeste Chan - Spotnik

    Tze Yun, Sun - The Sun Rises East

    Zakalik, Marc - Drumadoon

    Now, a word to those of you who didn't place. Why god, why? you might be asking yourself right now. There were two of three reasons your script didn't move up to the quarter finals and they are (broadly speaking) a) your script had significant format, spelling and language usage problems b) your first ten pages were not entertaining, the genre wasn't clear and the tone was all over the map and c) subjectivity.

    Now a small (but loving ) slap on the wrist and weird pattern I will note: this year, the scripts that didn't make the cut were far worse than the scripts that didn't make the cut last year. The scripts that made the cut, however, were far better. I have no idea why this is but the scripts that are moving up to the next round are going to be VERY tough to judge. I have my eye on about ten or twelve that I particularly like but on the other hand, I read one that was SO excellent for the first seventy five pages - great, right? - and then tanked out with a confusing, illogical, lazy ending.

    So the real judging begins now. Can you write opening pages that engage, that are professional, that entertain and intrigue? Can you write with the proper format and without eight (YES, true story) pages of action lines first? Great. That makes you a quarterfinalist. Let's see what you quarters can show us beyond that. This is where the going gets much tougher.

    Good luck to you all and for those who didn't make the cut here but did somewhere else, don't forget subjectivity is at play here, so don't be too downhearted. As I am wont to say, until they invent the Read-a-tron 5000, you have to make do with live humans who have experience and background reading scripts. If you didn't place anywhere else, take this as a sign that you are completely NORMAL and just need to keep writing. Don't take it too seriously or too personally. Every single person who took the time to enter and who tried his or her best is a winner in my eyes and if you've ever met me you don't doubt the truth of that. Onward!
    "I talked to a couple of yes men at Metro. To me they said no."


    http://wagstaffnet.blogspot.com/

  • #2
    Re: SilverScreenwriting Competition

    Now, a word to those of you who didn’t place. Why god, why? you might be asking yourself right now. There were two of three reasons your script didn’t move up to the quarter finals and they are (broadly speaking) a) your script had significant format, spelling and language usage problems b) your first ten pages were not entertaining, the genre wasn’t clear and the tone was all over the map and c) subjectivity.
    I'm the resident curmudgeon when it comes to all things meant to separate screenwriters from their money, so bear that in mind.

    But when a contest lists the three most important things you need to advance, and the first of those is the one that people who actually make movies would put dead last in the "things we care about" list...

    Comment


    • #3
      Re: SilverScreenwriting Competition

      Arrrrgh.

      Someone just emailed me a link to a blog post by one of the main judges of this contest.

      [note: unclear whether or not this is about silver screenwriting.]

      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.

      So, what were the deal breakers? (Always makes me think of Liz Lemon.)

      I had a few things pop up last night that immediately made me pass on a script:

      1. Incorrectly formatted title page.

      Yes, some people do interesting things with their title font, which I am not a total hardass about. But things like:

      A GREAT BIG ADVENTURE: A Screenplay

      by

      Anonymous Writer

      Really? You put “:A screenplay” next to the title. ?? What did you think I thought I was reading?

      2. Address

      I will admit it. I take into consideration what address you put down on the title. I don’t automatically pass if you’re from Hong Kong, but I do weigh that in my options. Often people not from LA or NY are the ones that have the most formatting mistakes, write the least commerical stories, and often set their stories in weird, distant locations that make it hard to consider pitching this to managers, or let alone, to get an audience engaged. I don’t need every script to be a detective thriller set in San Francisco, but understand, if you set your movie in the Australian outback, it better be really ****ing good.

      The flip side of that is: If you put an LA address on your title page, and you can’t format a script correctly, you are donezo. Seriously, if you live in LA where screenplays line every recycling bin in town, and you STILL don’t know how to properly format a script, your days are numbered my friend. So, I expect the bar to be that much higher for people who live within spitting distance of the industry.

      The solution? Email and phone number, and leave it at that. Who needs your physical address anymore? Also, I always find that a little odd. Like some agent is going to show up at your doorstep screaming about how great your script is? Not likely to happen.

      3. “Hey girlie”/ “What!”

      Yeah, dialogue. Now that I am a jerk about. Our job is to make people talk, do exciting things, and make us laugh or cry from time to time. Dialogue HAS to be good. It just does. There is no gray area here.

      If you start conversations with, “Hey, girlie? Kisses! ” I am already throwing up in my mouth.

      If you start your movie with: “We gotta get outta here, Pa.” or “I don’t know how much longer I can work at this dumb job. I want so much more out of life.”

      ie, breaking the cardinal rule of TELLING me instead of SHOWING me. All you’re doing is showing me that you don’t have an ear for dialogue, don’t know how to advance your story, and haven’t read or watched enough GOOD writing to know the difference. Yeah, that’s how I know by page 2 that you didn’t make it to the next round.

      4. “Nattily dressed”/ ADVERBS

      People, please watch your adjectives and adverbs. It’s one thing for a character to get into his RED CORVETTE.

      But does he have to “speedily hop into his cherry red corvette”?

      Stephen King mentions this in in his AWESOME book, “On Writing”. After his advice, which is NEVER to use adverbs, I consider adverbs a necessity only item. And if I see too many, I consider you an amateur.

      Screenwriting is closer to journalism than fiction writing, I would argue. Your job is to paint the picture, SHOW me the movie/show. Not TELL me all the little details like your life depended on it.

      When you read a newspaper, how often do you see an article saying “The red flames of the fire licked the sky as they burnt Paddy’s Pub to the ground.” ?

      No, it will just say, “Paddy’s Pub was on fire last night until the fireman were able to contain the flames around 5am this morning.”

      (Okay, that terrible example might be why I didn’t finish double-majoring in Journalism, but you get my drift.)

      In a script last night, a character was “nattily dressed”. Who uses the word “nattily” in conversation? Maybe when I lived on a farm in the 1800s with my Ma and Pa, Pa used to say that that neighbor boy always dressed so “nattily”, but that was probably the last time I heard that word.

      These things count, people. You don’t have much time to impress me. And I really am reading to find a winner. When I write here not to give people ANY reason to not like your work, these are things that count.
      Three of those four (1, 2 & 4) would have no bearing on how a script would be judged by a real buyer.

      (To be fair, address would play into what a rep would think.)

      And if you stuck to the advice in 4 too closely, I think it actually would hurt a script - you don't get an entertaining read by aping the style of a newspaper article.

      (And again to be fair, the blog writer is a TV writer, and it's different with TV scripts. But this is a screenwriting contest.)
      Last edited by JeffLowell; 07-02-2010, 01:51 PM.

      Comment


      • #4
        Re: SilverScreenwriting Competition

        Originally posted by JeffLowell View Post
        Arrrrgh.

        Someone just emailed me a link to a blog post by one of the main judges of this contest...
        Astonishing.

        Is this "judge" a writer or aspiring to be one? Aspiring movie critic, or blogger, more likely. No, let's go all the way and give some career advice of "Twitterist", oh, except that was more than 140 characters. Perhaps 140 characters of value were in it.

        I had a big "contest" oriented topic planned for posting once I knew for sure none of my three scripts got through to the first rounds in any of the lotteries I submitted to.

        Unfortunately PAGE surprised me and okay'ed my most bizarre story, so I guess I have to be a bit more patient before issuing my final condemnation.

        The thing is, I'm getting reads for, so far, two of these same scripts.

        That is, while the contests are passing on 'em, I'm sending log-lines by the hundreds to prodcos, who've asked for reads, some of whom have responded with some pretty nice compliments -- and my first assignment.

        So except for PAGE, on the quickie script I threw together in 15 days, I guess not all's lost.

        But judges, contests, and even paid coverage and notes: I'm fazed on the whole subculture. I'm finding it all a big distraction to our main objective.

        Comment


        • #5
          Re: SilverScreenwriting Competition

          Originally posted by JeffLowell View Post
          Arrrrgh.

          Someone just emailed me a link to a blog post by one of the main judges of this contest.



          Three of those four (1, 2 & 4) would have no bearing on how a script would be judged by a real buyer.

          (To be fair, address would play into what a rep would think.)

          And if you stuck to the advice in 4 too closely, I think it actually would hurt a script - you don't get an entertaining read by aping the style of a newspaper article.

          (And again to be fair, the blog writer is a TV writer, and it's different with TV scripts. But this is a screenwriting contest.)
          shocking. horrible. reading 75 scripts in one night is tragic. advancing 20 which is almost half the total 50 that advanced out of more than 1000 shows the system for judging is broken, flawed, a p.o.s. won't enter this one again.

          Comment


          • #6
            Re: SilverScreenwriting Competition

            Wish I'd known my location put me behind the 8 ball before they started reading page 1.

            Could have saved myself $50.
            TimeStorm & Blurred Vision Book info & blog: https://stormingtime.com//

            Comment


            • #7
              Re: SilverScreenwriting Competition

              Horror Comic (Stephen Hoover) is kicking ass this year.

              Will be interesting to see how he goes with Nicholl. Good Luck H.C.

              Am I confused. I don't think his names Horror Comic here. Is it somewhere else? Two Adverbs maybe?

              C.C.Baxter here.

              BTW, I really feel sorry for anyone who pays good money just to have three pages read. This strikes me as yet another money grab.
              Last edited by Jules; 07-01-2010, 08:36 PM.
              It's the eye of the Tiger, it's the thrill of the fight

              Comment


              • #8
                Re: SilverScreenwriting Competition

                Sad to say, I'm one of the suckers who entered this thing.

                Never again.

                Comment


                • #9
                  Re: SilverScreenwriting Competition

                  Just noticed there's two active threads on this today - strange.
                  It's the eye of the Tiger, it's the thrill of the fight

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Re: SilverScreenwriting Competition

                    Three of those four (1, 2 & 4) would have no bearing on how a script would be judged by a real buyer.
                    this is probably why so many contest finalists and winners still can't sell their scripts.

                    shouldn't the contest administrators have a "criteria" list for the readers? the judging process is already subjective enough they need to at least keep everyone on the same page.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Re: SilverScreenwriting Competition

                      Jeff-

                      On the blog itself there is no mention of which contest this referred too. Do you have further info that this was for SS? It doesn't seem likely as only 50 scripts out of the 1000+ entries advanced and this reader indicates he passed 20 out of 75 through.
                      If a woman has to choose between catching a fly ball and saving an infant's life, she will choose to save the infant's life without even considering if there are men on base.
                      Dave Barry

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Re: SilverScreenwriting Competition

                        On the "about"page of the blog, it mentions that she helps run the contest ... so it's likely that it's the Silver she's talking about, though that bit about her passing on 20 to the next round does make one wonder.

                        Yeah, 75 scripts in three hours does seem to reflect poorly on this competition. But I wonder if a script gets any more attention when it is sent in for a read by someone in the industry, say, a manager off of a query. That is, it may be that this reader's m.o. actually resembles non-contest reality, and the contests with more thorough reads (such as Nicholl) may not.

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Re: SilverScreenwriting Competition

                          Originally posted by JeffLowell View Post
                          Arrrrgh.

                          Someone just emailed me a link to a blog post by one of the main judges of this contest.



                          Three of those four (1, 2 & 4) would have no bearing on how a script would be judged by a real buyer.

                          (To be fair, address would play into what a rep would think.)

                          And if you stuck to the advice in 4 too closely, I think it actually would hurt a script - you don't get an entertaining read by aping the style of a newspaper article.

                          (And again to be fair, the blog writer is a TV writer, and it's different with TV scripts. But this is a screenwriting contest.)
                          the thing is... by the time a script gets into the hand of a "buyer", the script is considered high calibre so the reader would give the writer the benefit of the doubt, albeit wrong formatting, etc etc.

                          i think a reader for an agency thinks along the same line as the reader for that contest.

                          no?

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Re: SilverScreenwriting Competition

                            The person who forwarded me the link made the assumption that it was this contest, and it made sense to me. She's an employee of the consulting company that runs the contest. If I'm wrong, I'll happily revise the post.

                            i think a reader for an agency thinks along the same line as the reader for that contest.

                            no?
                            A reader at an agency, prodco, studio, whatever will read the whole script, and evaluate its (and the writer's) commercial potential - not whether or not there are formatting errors in the first few pages.

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Re: SilverScreenwriting Competition

                              this is julie gray's blog. dont know if it's the same person you all are talking about though the procedure seems to be similar with the huge difference that the 70 scripts she has ALREADY HAVE NOTES from earlier judging. so she goes through and compares the notes and skims the scripts to judge for herself 20 to eliminate, thereby reaching the final 50 quarterfinalists.

                              http://www.justeffing.com/2010/06/30...d-this-script/

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