Another Contest Judge Speaks

Collapse

Announcement

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

  • Another Contest Judge Speaks

    From the Scripped.com boards. Doesn't say which contest. Link below:
    http://scripped.com/discussions/view/2601

    It's been quite a while since I've had the pleasure of stopping by this site, but believe me it was for a worthy cause. I was asked to be a judge for a film festival screenwriting contest, and three months and 200+ screenplays later, I am finally done with the competition and trying to get back into my old workflow.

    Now I've been involved in film festivals and contests before, and while I won't name this one in case anyone here entered into it I will say it's the largest and most prestigious one I've had the honor of being involved in. It was a very fun and hugely educational experience to say the least, but what I found so shocking was that a lot of the issues that plagued scripts in the smaller contests I've worked with also plagued the scripts I was reading in this contest.

    What I'd like to do is share a few things I've learned from being on the other side of a screenwriting competition in the hopes that some of the things I've learned might help with others' chances if they are sending a script to a film festival. Please remember that these are just my observations, not hard and fast rules, and the capitalizations are just for dramatic effect. Enjoy!

    1. IT AIN'T EASY.

    Being a judge for any writing competition is a daunting task in and of itself. There were 8,000 entries into this competition, all full-length feature scripts, and every single one of those had to be read. Most contests and film festivals are volunteer-staffed or are run by a small cartel of devout enthusiasts, and most are doing this on top of full-time jobs, families, and other responsibilities. I was personally responsible for reading 200 screenplays and re-reading another 100 from other judges. I can't imagine how people manage to organize contests for novelists!

    Complicating matters is the fact that I'm a writer myself and I know what's at stake for every single script I read. Writing a screenplay takes a lot of effort. The writer's ego is impossible to separate from their work. I might be reading a script that is written by a young writer looking for their big break or an old writer looking for validation after years of rejections. This contest might be a make-or-break moment for someone out there. Knowing so many writers and knowing how much their scripts mean to them puts quite a bit of pressure on me, but in the end there can still be only one winner.

    2. BE TRUE TO YOUR STORY, NOT THE TRUTH.

    It didn't take long for the words "based on a true story- to become a warning sign for me. I picked up a least a dozen scripts based on actual historic events or real people that ended up being terrible because they tried to cram the entire history of a person or event into their script and ended up failing to tell a single, coherent story. Many of them were even about interesting places or people, but without a focused conflict the script felt disjointed and pointless.

    History is a great source for ideas and stories, but a screenplay isn't a textbook. The Patriot was a story about a father, not the Revolutionary War, the same way that Titanic was a love story and not about a big boat. Use the larger setting as a means of pushing the story forward, but don't try to tell the whole story of the Cold War in 120 pages. Pick one story from the saga and focus.

    3. YOU'RE A WRITER, NOT A DIRECTOR!

    You'd think it'd be common knowledge that you're not supposed to put things like camera angles and special effects in a non-shooting script, particularly one that was heading to a competition, but I read plenty that tried to direct me through their story. The words "WE SEE- would start every single action line, and telling me how the low light obscures a character's face isn't telling me a story, it's directing.

    This isn't a matter of what's "supposed- to be in a script or some kind of high-falootin' "rules- for screenplays. This is a matter of readability. Scripts that take me through a shot-by-shot breakdown of how they think their movie should be filmed are not easy and not fun to read. It is a HUGE distraction from the story itself and it is impossible to look past. Tell me a story, don't describe a storyboard.

    4. DON'T DROWN YOUR STORY IN DIALOG!

    Action is the name of the game. Action is your friend. Action should be the overwhelming bulk of what is in your screenplay, no matter the genre.

    This contest taught me just how important it is to be conservative with your dialog. Long speeches and expositions get boring fast, but almost worse off were long conversations where two people would just stand and talk about a situation from beginning to end. Some of these conversations were six or seven pages long, with the only activity being the characters walking into or out of the scene!

    Conversations are key in playwriting, but not on screen. The "show up late and leave early- rule applies to conversations as much as it does to situations. We don't need to hear the formalities. We don't need to hear the banal chatter about the weather, and we certainly don't need to hear a character explain what happened in a situation we'd already witnessed or heard explained before. Once it's been said, assume that all your characters know what's going on because your audience certainly does!

    The same goes for parentheticals. They are to be used with extreme caution! The best scripts I read didn't use any at all!

    5. I KNOW HOW TO MAKE TOAST!

    You want to know a great way to get a script reader to lose interest? Take them trough a normal breakfast scene step by step. Explain in the action line that your character takes out a piece of toast, then puts it in the toaster, then takes the jam from the cabinet, gets a knife from the drawer, waits for the toast to pop up, removes the bread, places it on a plate, spreads the jam on the toast and then they eat it.

    Did you read that last paragraph? Do you wish you hadn't? I know I do.

    It amazed me how many people wrote scenes just like that, and usually all in one action block too. Not only is it a bad way to write a script because it doesn't pace the action well at all, but it has nothing to do with anything. If your character is eating eggs for breakfast and nothing happens until halfway through the meal, start the scene halfway through the meal. You don't need to show them making their breakfast from scratch.

    A good way to judge if you need to write out a scene is to think of it like this: If someone was watching this movie at home and they fast-forwarded through this scene, would they miss anything? At what point would they have to push play to get the important information in a scene? If you have a scene or parts of a scene that don't move the plot or characters forward, consider cutting it or changing it.

  • #2
    Re: Another Contest Judge Speaks

    Continued:

    6. PROOFREAD OR PERISH!

    Look, I know that after working for weeks on a screenplay it all starts to blur together. I'm so sick of my own ideas by the time I write "fade to black- that the last thing I want to do is read it through again. But there were a number of scripts in this contest that were amazing, but did not make the cut because the writer did not proofread.

    Writers use shortcuts sometimes. The story changes and character names get switched around. I know how dynamic the writing process can be, but if you have a character who is called NAME1 and NAME2, it brings the entire script to a screeching halt. Sentence fragments that didn't get deleted will trip up a reader and break your story's momentum. If you change a character or leave something out to add in later, make sure you go back and correct it!

    This is where friends who aren't screenwriters pay off. They won't know to look for formatting issues or subtext, but they'll know if your character's names change or if your action has typos and mistakes. They'll pick up on the glaring issues that others might not even be looking for.

    Another key point, proofread a script ON THE PAGE, and not in a computer file. That is the only formatting that matters when the script is submitted.

    7. DIVE RIGHT IN AND GET THINGS MOVING!

    If I wanted to advance a script to the next round, I had to read it through to the end. If I wanted to eliminate a script, I only had to read to page 30.

    Why page 30? Because if your film hasn't taken me in by the 30 minute mark, something is wrong.

    I can't tell you how many scripts I eliminated because the conflict or central issue of the story never really came together, and I made a rule of at least reading to page 60. An hour into the movie, and I couldn't tell what I was supposed to be watching. Characters drifted in and out. Situations were murky and unmotivated. For whatever reason, I had no idea what this movie was supposed to be about at the halfway mark.

    They say that you need to have your story started by page 10. I don't think that's entirely true, but you need to at least have your story IDENTIFIED by then. It should definitely start within 30 pages, but try to give an indication of where things are going sooner so your story has a solid foundation and the genre is established. There's a reason why the first victim of a slasher movie dies in the first five minutes!

    8. SOME READERS AND JUDGES ARE JUST PLAIN MEAN!

    I actually got in trouble with the head of the competition because I was being too lenient. I was not supposed to just "give the script a chance- because it had promise or I thought it was enjoyable. I was supposed to eliminate all but the best. I literally lost sleep over this. It was a huge challenge for me to pick which scripts to eliminate when I needed to deliver my final judgment.

    I came to realize that I was somewhat of an anomaly among the other judges.

    Apart from the 200 scripts I was responsible for, I also had to check an additional 100 scripts from other judges and either pass or veto their decision. I quickly learned that a good number of the judges in this contest were cold-hearted and bitter. Where I would reject a script because the main character was lacking an endearing flaw or meaningful character arch, they would reject ones that they felt were overplayed genres. There were notes like "Another vampire movie? No way.- and "High school romance stories are not original.-

    I was aghast! I sat and talked with some of the judges and wondered how they could be so biased and not even give the script a chance. Wasn't the true measure of a script in the virtue of the story itself?

    Some of them could justify their icy hearts. By being brutal against all things conventional, what they were doing was trying to isolate the truly original scripts, the ones that really surprised them or went places they'd never heard of before. It was a waste of time to humor cookie-cutter scripts in a contest of this size, since it was only the few diamonds in the rough that we were supposed to be looking for in the first place.

    Then there were others who were just mean. The same sort of stuck-up art-flick types who plagued me in film school. No two ways about it, and it was the luck of the draw that determined who would be reading each script. Sadly, they had just as much power as any other judge and many fell to their pretentions.

    9. THERE IS NO SILVER MEDAL!

    Okay, that's not entirely true. A lot of contests have runner-up and honorary mention categories, but in an open-entry competition that might have thousands of entries you're just as likely to take the gold.

    What I'm meaning to say is that you'll never know exactly how well your script did unless it ends up winning. I had to reject a lot of very, very good scripts because I had a limited number of entries that I could advance to the final round. It was heartbreaking, really. Some of them were so close to being perfect, but they just lacked the polish of one or two others that bumped them off the list. You'll never know how close you were, so never take elimination from a competition to mean that your script was bad. Keep working, keep polishing, and submit it again to another contest.

    So you didn't win. Does that mean your script was just as bad as the erotic Dragonball Fan-script in broken English (and yes, people really do send things like that in) with no understanding of screenplay formatting? Absolutely not. It just might not have been quite as good as the innovative drama that was as amazing a script on paper as it was a story. You might have been a close second. You might have won in another year or even another category. Your script is still yours, so go ahead and try again.

    IN CONCLUSION! *ahem* I mean, in conclusion:

    The one thing I took from working in this competition was that a contest is just as much of a gamble as sending your script to a production company because there are a large number of factors that are out of your control. It's not purely a matter of how good your script is, it's also a matter of how good everyone else's scripts are. Much like a production company, it's a matter of having the right story told in the right way at the right time and have it read by the right people. The main advantage of a contest is that it's guaranteed that your script will be read and there is the potential for feedback.

    I highly recommend getting involved in a competition to anyone looking to really further their screenwriting. Think of it as a free class, just with a lot more reading and a lot less time to do it in, but free is free! By reading so many scripts, you can clearly see what sort of things work and don't work, and what kind of themes seem to connect with you more than others. Plus, you can make some great connections and meet a lot of wonderfully like-minded people that are good friends to have in this industry!

    Good luck everyone! And keep writing!

    Comment


    • #3
      Re: Another Contest Judge Speaks

      8,000 entries. That's insane.
      Last night, Jesus appeared to me in a dream and told me that loving me is the part of His job He hates the most.

      Comment


      • #4
        Re: Another Contest Judge Speaks

        Another person who doesn't like parentheticals.

        Comment


        • #5
          Re: Another Contest Judge Speaks

          What contest(s) received 8000 entries? Which ones have judges read scripts read by other judges, with a veto? Which ones have their readers each process 200+ screenplays?

          Should be easy to figure out.

          I don't know if anything can be deduced from the author's "Austin" indicator... ?!

          Comment


          • #6
            Re: Another Contest Judge Speaks

            Originally posted by catcon View Post
            What contest(s) received 8000 entries? Which ones have judges read scripts read by other judges, with a veto? Which ones have their readers each process 200+ screenplays?

            Should be easy to figure out.

            I don't know if anything can be deduced from the author's "Austin" indicator... ?!
            That would be twice as many scripts as last year. (I think I saw they got 4,000+ on their site.)

            I wonder if all those unemployed people are giving screenwriting a try. I feel sorry for contest readers, I really do. I would never do that job. Never. I couldn't do it. I'm reading a friend's screenplay because I have to, but it's so bad, it has taken me a month to get through the first 30 pages.
            Last night, Jesus appeared to me in a dream and told me that loving me is the part of His job He hates the most.

            Comment


            • #7
              Re: Another Contest Judge Speaks

              Looks like they modified the numbers to not give it away. Sounds like Austin though. Judge did a good job based on this report.
              "I talked to a couple of yes men at Metro. To me they said no."


              http://wagstaffnet.blogspot.com/

              Comment


              • #8
                Re: Another Contest Judge Speaks

                Originally posted by C.C.Baxter View Post
                Looks like they modified the numbers to not give it away. Sounds like Austin though. Judge did a good job based on this report.
                I don't know about adjusting the numbers, but I agree about the judge doing the job right. I don't think which specific contest is relevant so much as the commonalities a lot of these contest judge posts have.

                Comment


                • #9
                  Re: Another Contest Judge Speaks

                  I don't think the post reflects negatively on the judge or the contest. Sounds like the judge did a great job.

                  You thought differently?
                  "I talked to a couple of yes men at Metro. To me they said no."


                  http://wagstaffnet.blogspot.com/

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Re: Another Contest Judge Speaks

                    Not at all - I agree, I just don't care which specific contest it is. I just mean that it's more of a testament to how much these contests have in common with submission errors and subjective judges.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Re: Another Contest Judge Speaks

                      It's art, not physics.

                      Just about every film released has a good percentage of critics bashing it.
                      Why are script contest judges going to be any less subjective than anyone else in the business?
                      "I talked to a couple of yes men at Metro. To me they said no."


                      http://wagstaffnet.blogspot.com/

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Re: Another Contest Judge Speaks

                        Hey - this is advice a writer can actually *use*! Stuff that has to do with *writing* rather than whether you live in the correct state.

                        Yeah, I'm sure some contest facts were changed to protect the innocent.

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

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Re: Another Contest Judge Speaks

                          There's some great advice in there. Worth a read, especially for new writers.
                          NOTES / COVERAGE
                          15,000+ Screenplays
                          [email protected]

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Re: Another Contest Judge Speaks

                            Originally posted by C.C.Baxter View Post
                            Looks like they modified the numbers to not give it away. Sounds like Austin though. Judge did a good job based on this report.
                            why does it sound like austin? 8000 seems like an unreal number. maybe if you include the tv scripts i could possibly see it being true.

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Re: Another Contest Judge Speaks

                              Originally posted by EvilRbt View Post
                              There's some great advice in there. Worth a read, especially for new writers.
                              Agreed. I read for a contest one year and it was painful. Almost all of these points would apply to the majority of the scripts I read. (But damn, I really need to get over my addiction to parentheticals).

                              Comment

                              Working...
                              X