AAA Screenplay Contest

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  • AAA Screenplay Contest

    Anyone enter and order judges' notes?

    Just wondering if you received the notes as of yet. Contest ended in June and I still haven't received mine yet. I've emailed them several times and pretty much get the same response, "you should receive them soon.":

    Thanks.

  • #2
    Re: AAA Screenplay Contest

    I can't answer your question but I saw on their website they had a hell of a time selecting the best scripts... Thought it might be of interest to other DD's too...

    How Judging Was Done:
    Why Judging Required Extra Time


    The short version of the main caues of the delay was that with such close scores after two rounds of judging, one judge reviewed judged 40 scripts a third time and we agonized over such matters as how to weight each criterion to come up with the best choices.

    The long version:

    Our original plan was that the semifinal round of judging would be the final round. In this round, the 100 top-scoring scripts and ties (totaling 125), which scored 90 or higher in the first round, were all judged a second time by a different judge.

    When the semifinal judging results came in, we found that semifinal judges' scores differed considerably from first-round judges on most scripts. That left us with a quandary: some scripts which scored extremely high in the first round received semifinal scores which were 7-10 points lower. Some other scripts, which barely made the semifinals, were scored much higher in the semifinal judging.

    So which score was more valid? Which judge's score should be used to decide the winner? First round? Second? An average?

    Here is what we decided to do:

    We decided to have one judge re-read and evaluate every script which met one or more of these criteria:
    • It scored very high in the first round (94 or above), regardless of how high it scored in the second round; or
    • It scored very high in the second round (93 or above), regardless of how high it scored in the first round; or
    • Its average score of the two rounds was one of the highest.


    In this third reading, the judge added points to the average of the first and second-round scores based on these criteria:
    - Originality
    - The opening
    - Special moments and plot turns
    - Vividness and depth of the main character and antagonist
    - Endings and pre-endings
    - Marketability in any known market
    - "Heart" - is this a script about a person you care about who has a goal you care about?

    In all, 40 scripts met at least one of the criteria above and received this third reading and evaluation. It takes a lot of time for one person who also has a day job to read, re-read sections of, and judge 40 scripts.

    During this process, we consulted with advisors and debated the weights of each of these criteria. For example, is "heart" -- a script with a deeper emotional impact -- intrinsically more important than a great opening when adding extra points, or should each be simply given 0 to 5 points, and let the results fall where they may? (We decided on the latter.)

    The key benefit of this approach is that it comes as close as possible to ensuring that no judge's preference for one type of story over another will knock an excellent script out of contention.

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    • #3
      Re: AAA Screenplay Contest

      For Honorable Mentions and semi-finalists, they had to re-release it again because they left off several people. Which resulted in another delay.

      It was great that they kept entrants updated but it was absolutely utter confusion in the end.

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