Blue Cat contest notes?

Collapse

Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • #16
    Re: Blue Cat contest notes?

    Originally posted by GirlinGray View Post
    Nicholl is not a reading service. It is a fellowship. If you want notes, hire a script doctor.
    We don't need notes. But for several thousand scripts @ $50 or so a pop, that's a lot of money to be collected and we don't know the scripts are even being read. I saw a topic on some contest that was won by one of the sponsor's employees. I've read of contests that make promises about awards and subscriptions that never come, etc.

    I was inquisitive about some proof that our scripts are being read. Notes. A judgement matrix. Character commentary. Something would suffice. For $50. If they're being done already by readers who are processing dozens of scripts...

    Since this topic is about Blue Cat notes, which they provide as part of the deal, it's great to get 'em. Proves they're reading the scripts. Three cheers.

    Comment


    • #17
      Re: Blue Cat contest notes?

      Originally posted by catcon View Post
      We don't need notes. But for several thousand scripts @ $50 or so a pop, that's a lot of money to be collected and we don't know the scripts are even being read. I saw a topic on some contest that was won by one of the sponsor's employees. I've read of contests that make promises about awards and subscriptions that never come, etc.

      I was inquisitive about some proof that our scripts are being read. Notes. A judgement matrix. Character commentary. Something would suffice. For $50. If they're being done already by readers who are processing dozens of scripts...

      Since this topic is about Blue Cat notes, which they provide as part of the deal, it's great to get 'em. Proves they're reading the scripts. Three cheers.
      Why have you gone back to questioning the integrity of the Nicholl contest when you were "utterly and completely satisfied" with Greg's response to your exact same issue just a couple of weeks ago?

      Originally posted by catcon View Post
      Nope. I was worried about "mistakes". And when there is a possibility of a mistake, then lesser contests (and this Board has plenty of topics about those) might let "mistakes" turn into "fraud" where money is collected and no service provided.

      Greg wrote back reiterating their methodology and I'm utterly and completely satisfied. That he spends a lot of time on this board explaining things is proof of their transparency and seriousness. I've noted that isn't the case with those operating many of the other contests.
      Just go read that entire conversation over again, because there's no point in prompting other people to provide the exact same response to your exact same misguided complaint.

      Comment


      • #18
        Re: Blue Cat contest notes?

        Originally posted by TheKeenGuy View Post
        Why have you gone back to questioning the integrity of the Nicholl contest when you were "utterly and completely satisfied" with Greg's response to your exact same issue just a couple of weeks ago?


        Just go read that entire conversation over again, because there's no point in prompting other people to provide the exact same response to your exact same misguided complaint.
        totally agree. i was reading this thread to hear about bluecat and i dont want it to revert to another nicholl debate thread. catcon, that debate already has been had by by you no less and has been answered.

        Comment


        • #19
          Re: Blue Cat contest notes?

          Unbelievable. Don't blame me for all the time you've wasted "responding" to and extracting old threads re: my use of the word "Nicholls" in comparison to Blue Cat! My comments began and ended about Blue Cat.

          On that note, here're my comments from the reader. I'll give you the latest (given I also got notes from the first "version"). I don't see any problem sharing these here. Even though these comments contain good and bad, and s/he got a few things wrong (despite clues or expressed facts in the script), they definitely prove the Blue Cat reader did in fact read my 100-pager. By the way, I've received feedback from 4 or is it now 5 readers of this thing, and they have all expressed varied opinions on certain scenes. One of the best things I've ever learned from a paid reader was "Keep in mind reading is a subjective thing" -- before she proceeded to absolutely hammer my first script!

          So, in the interests of helping others, here they are. My thanks to the "unknown reader" for his/her expansive and completely unexpected input.
          __________________________________________

          What did you like about this screenplay?:

          It was really nice to read a script that embraced a positive outlook on the universe. It seems like a small thing to love about a script, but for me I found the writer’s take on the universe’s design to be refreshing and enjoyable. Even when I wasn’t in love with the way the script itself was progressing in some places, I always appreciated the unrelenting happiness of the general message. Andy is apparently an extra terrestrial. A NASA-like agency is trying to hunt him down and capture him dead or alive to see what his people want with the planet. It is a legitimate curiosity, but one that (as most movie military organizations are prone to) is executed very unsubtly. Andy, in the meantime, seems bent on bringing joy and happiness to all those he encounters. He saves a girl from a near fatal car wreck. He implores a businesswoman to put down her phone and enjoy life. He sends a trucker home to his kids. And mostly, he brings hope to a dying, abused mother of two.

          One of the miracles Andy performs in this script, and one of the nicest things about it, is that he rebuilds trust in Helene and shows her to also be willing and excited to help those around her along with Andy. At first I thought it seemed pretty far-fetched that Helene would allow herself enough trust to pick up a very strange hitchhiker and allow him to get in the car with her and her two young children. A woman who has just escaped an abusive husband is pretty unlikely to have a very high opinion of the trustworthiness of men! However, once I got past that skepticism, I really liked the trajectory of Andy and Helene’s relationship.

          I also liked that Andy’s ultimate mission was to lead Earth and its people in the right direction before hatred and bad motives tore apart its civilization. The notion of some kind of intergalactic service organization was, frankly, kind of comforting. I hope there really is such a thing out there looking over us. This was a unique and pleasant vision devised by the writer.

          What do you think needs work?:

          There were some touches that the writer threw into this script that I wasn’t too excited about. For instance, on page 32, when Andy, Helene and the kids drive through the fast food restaurant and hear the employee singing beautiful opera, the writer mentions that the order-taker looks a whole lot like Susan Boyle. Honestly, this made me groan inwardly. I thought that the inclusion of this celebrity du jour would instantly date this script, and probably polarize an audience who might be equal parts Boyle fans and those who feel effects of Boyle media overload (like myself). In general, I thought that the continual singing of the characters started to get to be a little too much for me. I really could have done without a lot of that. It started to feel too bizarre and unrealistic.

          Also, I thought that the writer overdid the Keystone Cops-like chase scenes at the end of the second act when the NASA-like agents, and Mike finally caught up with Andy. Andy’s powers to change his appearance are great, but several pages of him running around Benny Hill-style waving his arms and pulling faces started to feel absurd and repetitive. I think that the writer could have varied the action here more.

          Finally, I think I would have liked to see Mike catch up with the crew a little earlier. Clearly it is Andy’s design that Mike and Helene will end up together romantically, so more of Mike in the script would have been a good thing. I also thought that Helene’s cancer could have been played for a little more gravity. Other than her looking peaked and staring at her diagnosis every now and then, the illness wasn’t much of a factor till the end. Since we weren’t aware of Andy’s grand plan on Earth until he reaches Hope, and the home of Ambika, her death feels rushed and not as tragic as it should. The writer needs to do a little work building up to this ending by emphasizing Helene’s illness and her hopelessness for survival. We definitely needed more of this for the script to be entirely effective.
          Last edited by catcon; 06-05-2010, 11:25 AM. Reason: Oops, my script was 100 pages, not 105. That was another one.

          Comment


          • #20
            Re: Blue Cat contest notes?

            Originally posted by catcon View Post
            Unbelievable. Don't blame me for all the time you've wasted "responding" to and extracting old threads re: my use of the word "Nicholls" in comparison to Blue Cat! My comments began and ended about Blue Cat.
            Umm, I don't exactly understand what you're saying. You're saying that you weren't talking about Nicholl when you quoted and then refuted comments about Nicholl?

            Comment


            • #21
              Re: Blue Cat contest notes?

              Catcon, do yourself a favor and take those notes down. You do not need notes like that about your work haunting you online. The untarnished translation: "The writer means well but this is essentially E.T. revisted -- and not revisited well. Characters repeatedly bursting into song is bizarre. Stakes in the story that might give the story teeth or depth -- like a character dying of cancer -- are relegated to a few repetitive scenes of a character sadly eyeing a piece of paper. Action and dialogue are in general repetitive, failing to move story, dragging down pacing and undermining structure. I was crying to get out of here by page 32."
              GirlinGray

              Comment


              • #22
                Re: Blue Cat contest notes?

                based on those notes it's quite obvious that your script wouldn't fare that well at Nicholls anyway.

                based on those notes i would suggest you move on to the next project. wait a couple of years before you decide whether to rewrite such a bizarre story. that my 2 pence.

                Comment


                • #23
                  Re: Blue Cat contest notes?

                  Originally posted by NikeeGoddess View Post
                  based on those notes it's quite obvious that your script wouldn't fare that well at Nicholls anyway.

                  based on those notes i would suggest you move on to the next project. wait a couple of years before you decide whether to rewrite such a bizarre story. that my 2 pence.
                  i know catcon's dense but that's pretty harsh, nikee. nor would i ever try to presume what it is that nicholl's wants. even if the story is bizarre, it's about the execution.

                  Comment


                  • #24
                    Re: Blue Cat contest notes?

                    yeah but she should move on regardless. never stop writing your next idea. and if your idea is good but your writing is not there yet. shelve it and come back to it later... much later.

                    also, what i said (except the bizarre stuff) could probably apply to 4000 Nicholl entries.

                    Comment


                    • #25
                      Re: Blue Cat contest notes?

                      received notes on my resubmission yesterday. The positive comments were very positive, focused mainly on dialogue and character.


                      the negative comments were, imo, very minor points and in two instances I felt the reader simply missed the point of the scene or item they commented on.

                      But there is no question both my readers read the script, read it thoroughly, and addressed legitimate points both pro and con.

                      So, good job to Gordy and his readers.

                      Comment


                      • #26
                        Re: Blue Cat contest notes?

                        I posted my screenplay notes to prove the excellent Blue Cat system -- and that it demonstrates that the darned screenplay was read. As far as usefulness beyond that, I have changed a single line of dialogue. Given that I didn't pay for the notes, that's still good value.

                        Anyway:

                        Originally posted by GirlinGray View Post
                        Catcon, do yourself a favor and take those notes down. You do not need notes like that about your work haunting you online. The untarnished translation: "The writer means well but this is essentially E.T. revisted -- and not revisited well. Characters repeatedly bursting into song is bizarre. Stakes in the story that might give the story teeth or depth -- like a character dying of cancer -- are relegated to a few repetitive scenes of a character sadly eyeing a piece of paper. Action and dialogue are in general repetitive, failing to move story, dragging down pacing and undermining structure. I was crying to get out of here by page 32."
                        These and the other remarks in response to my notes were criticisms by people who didn't read the script. Neither apparently did they even care to know it's genre. Instead, they made their unsolicited judgements based upon a single set of "notes", one of several I've received on this script.

                        And they were "notes" - not a synopsis. If I'd hired somebody to do, say, "coverage" of these "notes" I might understand the reaction because the story would be difficult to comprehend from the notes. Even the 100-page script is occasionally "dense", even if that's not what was meant in a subsequent criticism.

                        That's the way I choose to write.

                        I've been told by a 25-year pro that I write "thinking person's screenplays".

                        But there's no way to judge a 100-page script from a half page of notes, no matter what credence you give to these "subjective snapshots". Notes are already supposed to be "untarnished" and don't need interpretation.

                        Lastly, I said that these notes proved the script had been read, but that as notes they still illustrate how subjective an activity something as simple as reading can be. We've probably all seen those examples of notes - I saw one recently, of three sets - that turned out to be of the same screenplay but you wouldn't know it.

                        For instance, other professional readers who've read my script said the "scene about Andy jumping around" was a comedic highlight.

                        Perhaps it was because they knew the part about it being a fantasy-comedy.

                        And, as such, the prominence of the "cancer" stakes had to be suppressed as a significant subplot rather than taking over the whole story.

                        Oops, sorry. Of course one wouldn't know that unless one read the script.

                        And thus:

                        Originally posted by callingit View Post
                        received notes on my resubmission yesterday. The positive comments were very positive, focused mainly on dialogue and character.

                        the negative comments were, imo, very minor points and in two instances I felt the reader simply missed the point of the scene or item they commented on.

                        But there is no question both my readers read the script, read it thoroughly, and addressed legitimate points both pro and con.

                        So, good job to Gordy and his readers.
                        The point I was trying to make!

                        Comment


                        • #27
                          Re: Blue Cat contest notes?

                          No, that was my advice you take those notes offline as fast as possible. But if you won't save yourself oh well.
                          GirlinGray

                          Comment

                          Working...
                          X