I'm still getting e-mails from them, years after having asked to be taken off their lists. I was not favourably impressed by the coverage offered by them, (which was my only reason for submitting to their contest). Triggerstreet might have been more helpful, (with all its flaws), and cost much less.
I imagine the quality of coverage you get is hit-or-miss, depending on which reader you draw.
In my case, I submitted a script which later placed in other contests, but the Slamdance reader clearly didn't read it and gave my useless cursory notes based on the first 20 pages or so. Very irritating.
I received two pages of generally negative coverage. Slamdance also included a form letter in which they state: The coverage itself is by no means an indication of whether or not your screenplay has advanced in the competition.
There is a user over at another Screenwriting board, called Queen Uhuru, who does the most extensive coverage I have ever seen.
Sometimes its positive, sometimes its negative, but its honest, extensive and FREE.
She needs to start charging for what she does.
She's like me, when she gets down to it, she goes over it with a fine tooth comb. I don't always do that, but when I'm serious about critiquing a script I will.
I got an email from Slamdance reminding me to enter my screenplays before the July 1st deadline. I checked the rules portion on their website and was surprised to see many grammatical errors. I guess it is true about the new American screenwriter: you don't need to have a command of the King's English but you damn well better have a good "concept"-- excuse me, "high concept." After all, movies are a visual medium and thanks to today's technology any passionate dyslexic with a Sony can become a player. Who cares about spelling and grammar if the log line rocks? As for Slamdance: this is the organization that is going to judge my work? Call me old school but, I think not.
I just received awsome coverage. The reader's final comment was "This script is in great shape and ready to be considered a finalist."
The only critiques were on very minor dialogue issuse and the role on a pair of minor characters. The rest was such an ego boost, with things like:
"The best bart of this script is the ability of the writer to show instead of tell. The resoourcefulness in the telling of this story is super The action is clearly and concisely laid out .... the dialogue is tight and poignant. This makes the words more impacting and the images quite haunting."
And so forth....
Actually makes me feel like there may be hope for me yet...
My Screenplay Kosovo was a war drama. The synopsis is as follows:
Vera, the daughter of a Serb commander, betrays her cultural background and joins the KLA after her sister kills her Kosovar husband in battle. As she deepens her relationship with the KLA... and with her commander... she becomes further estranged from her own family, turning into a brutal killer as she struggles with her darkest nature. Meanwhile, Vera's father struggles between his doubts about the morality of ethnic cleansing, his ambition, and his duty to finish off the last KLA enclave quickly; the enclave his daughter belongs to. As the Kosovars are pushed back toward defeat, the stage is set for a final confrontation between Vera, her sister, and her father.
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