Trackinb Contest

[jsay Member Find all posts View Profile Close jsay]

Re: Trackinb Contest

I think what is being discussed here is levels of transparency of the judging process of contests.

Final Draft just says your script will be evaluated by story analysts.

Austin doesn't even mention on site who 1st round readers are, but says if you get to the 2nd round, you'll get notes.

Trackingb says their staff read entries, before The Insider and judge's panel help narrow it down further.

Nicholl reveals their entire judging process and procedure.

Just because a contest doesn't reveal as much about their judging process as the Nicholl, doesn't mean they are doing something untoward. It's okay to want to know more (we all do, and I eat up every Nicholl morsel!), but it's also okay for contests to not reveal their entire process if they don't want to.

Trackingb says their staff read your script... It doesn't say they read one page or ten pages. I'm taking that at face value. They've always kept their word (no "extra" deadline extensions, announcement dates are kept, promotion is done, results are achieved, etc.)... Since trackingb has built its reputation on finding and promoting great scripts, its obviously in their best interest to not let anything slip by. And you can usually count on businesses acting in their best self-interest...

Having said all of that, if a contest doesn't reveal enough about their process for you or what you see is not to your liking, then you don't enter... period.

[JeffLowell Member Find all posts View Profile Close JeffLowell]

Re: Trackinb Contest

Perfectly said, jsay.

[thrill14 User Find all posts View Profile Close thrill14]

Re: Trackinb Contest

Greg, he's had Esola on board for two years. The hottest rep in town by a mile. And Boxerbaum (another hot rep) actually SOLD a finalist script. The TrackingB panel of judges is impressive. This does not happen by accident. If the Insider was covert, as implied by a few ridiculous posts in this thread, he wouldn't name names.

There is no need to take the contest down a rung. As Jeff pointed out, Nicholls is still the gold standard. And I would guess that those entering TrackingB are doing so in addition to Nicholls, not in place of.

To the rest of the detractors, again, who the F cares what his procedure is. It works. And it's validated by everyone who has placed. Every contest is a lottery ticket for something bigger. In this case, representation and a hopeful career. What is that worth to you if you were able to buy it directly? How many tens of thousands of dollars? Well, a $65-$95 entry is that ticket. And you could skew the odds in your favor with a killer script.

[ATB Member Find all posts View Profile Close ATB]

Re: Trackinb Contest

Sundown,

Figment was only making this point to you: If you aren't ready for the show, you can't quite judge whether someone else is.

And you've admitted that:

I never once made any assertion that I was ready to go pro and am yet to enter any competitions.

It doesn't matter if Fig thinks your Act One Thread was a sign of a green writer. What matters is that he thought you weren't ready to go pro and then you admitted it.

So was he wrong? I guess not.

There's nothing wrong with that, but you can't really throw around accusations that people on this forum aren't good writers because they question a contest.

And that's mostly why you got a backlash from me.

[nojustice Banned Find all posts View Profile Close nojustice]

Re: Trackinb Contest

Probably 17 or 18 years, whenever we first met on GEnie. Thanks for the kind words about the Nicholl competition.

Actually, I'm just wondering why people make statements about what a competition does or doesn't do and offer no supporting evidence.

The no competition scripts produced statement earlier in this thread is yet another example. Similar unsupported statements about TrackingB, Nicholl and other competitions litter this thread. As you often show, Google can be a friend.

What are you even doing on this thread? Dumping on the competition? Well, that's very unprofessional of you.

Accusing another contest of having friendships? What about your friendship with Lowell, who coincidentally is the only pro supporting you?

And google is your enemy as well:

Season of the Witch, Nicholl's biggest success:

"Season of the Witch is watchable for the most part but save some money, stay home, wait for it to be released on DVD and rent it so you can enjoy it in the space of your own home. Besides, you might have some vacuuming to do or the first chance all day to read the newspaper and in the background Season of the Witch can cover up the neighbor's dogs barking or rush hour traffic returning home after a long day at work."

Real world reviewers certainly make your "reader line of the day" seem like a fairytale.

What about this reader whose employment was terminated for passing in the wrong draft, is this how you treat people? You take away their livelihood for making one admin error that was obviously caught?

And all this childish bickering, and obsessive focus on winning one of these amateur contests, I don't think any of it is healthy.

[ATB Member Find all posts View Profile Close ATB]

Re: Trackinb Contest

Yep, I think that's about it for this thread. Countdown:

3

2

1

... .... ...

[SundownInRetreat Member Find all posts View Profile Close SundownInRetreat]

Re: Trackinb Contest

Figment was only making this point to you: If you aren't ready for the show, you can't quite judge whether someone else is.

The point I was making in counter to fig's "you're not ready" comment is that skill level is irrelevant when judging people. Whether the comments I read were about writing, music or sport competition - they would still alert me to think they are not ready. That they were making excuses. Maybe I was wrong - no one is omnipotent - but those reactions triggered my spidey sense - and it wasn't just me. Even writers who you believe are pro level.

As a side point, we've all watched sports and said a young player is not ready yet or that an older player should retire and is past it. But as we've not played at the highest level then by your logic we can't pass comment.

It doesn't matter if Fig thinks your Act One Thread was a sign of a green writer. What matters is that he thought you weren't ready to go pro and then you admitted it.

I didn't admit anything. A lot of people have made assumptions. All I said is that I've not entered any contests as I hadn't felt I was at the required stadard (negating "his everyone lacks self awareness when it comes to their level of writing" assertion). That my first bunch of posts were all about agents and managers, Amazon Studios, and my presence in this sub forum should be telling, though

So was he wrong? I guess not.

Yes he was. My response to fig came about because he totally misunderstood my Act I thread, thus came to a wrong conclusion, and yet when I explained he continued to believe what he wanted to. Total bs. Totally wrong.

but you can't really throw around accusations that people on this forum aren't good writers because they question a contest.

See above about a) commenting not on their writing but their actions and b) sports fans passing judgement.

And that's mostly why you got a backlash from me.

The only post I read since I posted "ditto" was my reply to fig so I'm unaware of your backlash.

Bottom line: whether I believe I am pro level or not, I am just as well placed (and just as prone to error as every other pro and amatuer) to interpret and judge peoples' actions and reactions. And that is why fig harking back to my thread - even if he one day manages to do correctly - is comepletely irrelevant.

[ATB Member Find all posts View Profile Close ATB]

Re: Trackinb Contest

I didn't admit anything. A lot of people have made assumptions. All I said is that I've not entered any contests as I hadn't felt I was at the required stadard (negating "his everyone lacks self awareness when it comes to their level of writing" assertion).

You just said, "I'm not at the required standard" for screenwriting competitions. But, despite that, you are pro-ready?

And you've said at least twice that you've proven Fig's idea that everyone believes they're ready to go pro wrong... Meaning you do not believe that.

This is how it feels debating with you:

Family Guy Donkey/Footloose Video

[gregbeal Member Find all posts View Profile Close gregbeal]

Re: Trackinb Contest

Show me where I dumped on TrackingB. What I dumped on were people making false or unsubstantiated claims. People such as you.

Season of the Witch is Nicholl's biggest success? How exactly did you come up with that fact? Season of the Witch was produced, yes; a good script turned into a bad movie.

Since you mentioned it, I'll elaborate. Back in the hard copy days, a reader was handed a script to read (among a small batch of scripts). He returned the batch and didn't say a word about anything odd occurring. There was something strange about one of the scripts he returned, and we noticed it during processing sometime later. It was longer (or shorter, I don't remember) than the submitted draft.

When confronted, the reader claimed that he dropped the script in his washing machine and destroyed it (really, your washing machine?). And so he told an agent friend what had happened, and the agent just happened to be considering the writer for representation and so had a different draft, which he handed to the reader so that he could return it in place of the destroyed version. Before it was returned, though, the reader was careful to remove the title page and any other identifying information on the script.

When we asked the reader why he hadn't called us immediately when the mishap occurred, he hemmed and hawed. In addition to talking to the reader, we spoke to the agent and to the writer. It's possible that there was an accident. It's also possible that someone saw this as an opportunity to slide a new, improved draft of the script into the competition. Since we could no longer trust the reader, we decided not to use his services any longer.

What are you even doing on this thread? Dumping on the competition? Well, that's very unprofessional of you.

Accusing another contest of having friendships? What about your friendship with Lowell, who coincidentally is the only pro supporting you?

And google is your enemy as well:

Season of the Witch, Nicholl's biggest success:

"Season of the Witch is watchable for the most part but save some money, stay home, wait for it to be released on DVD and rent it so you can enjoy it in the space of your own home. Besides, you might have some vacuuming to do or the first chance all day to read the newspaper and in the background Season of the Witch can cover up the neighbor's dogs barking or rush hour traffic returning home after a long day at work."

Real world reviewers certainly make your "reader line of the day" seem like a fairytale.

What about this reader whose employment was terminated for passing in the wrong draft, is this how you treat people? You take away their livelihood for making one admin error that was obviously caught?

And all this childish bickering, and obsessive focus on winning one of these amateur contests, I don't think any of it is healthy.

[Guest Close KenRichards]

Re: Trackinb Contest

Real world reviewers certainly make your "reader line of the day" seem like a fairytale.

What, you don't think that with over 6,000 scripts submitted, there would be a few dozen glowing remarks about a few dozen screenplays? That honestly reviewing that many scripts would not yield some very good screenplays?

[nojustice Banned Find all posts View Profile Close nojustice]

Re: Trackinb Contest

We will obviously only hear one side of the story.

Look, I'm sure the Nicholl started with the best of intentions. Possibly new writers were told about it by screenwriting teachers, or their reps, or they read about it in a screenwriting magazine. And Nicholl built their catalog of contacts, with a certain amount of integrity.

But it has eerily joined the ranks of all the other methods of viral exploitation of underdeveloped writers, and because of that it appears to be just another marketing scam that merely seeks to attract as many $$entrants$$ as possible.

Of course a small number of these 6000 writers will get somewhere eventually. Those have roughly been the odds for more than fifty years. One in 2000 gets somewhere.

But there is no parallel universe that can show us if in fact they might not have gotten further WITHOUT the contest. And on top of that Little Miss Sunshine has demonstrated that possibly the better scripts are in fact overlooked.

With a bit of talent, and a bit of hard work, and a bit of fire in the belly, you get where you're going. All of these contests are irrelevant to that. In fact they really only appear to have become a time-wasting distraction. Yet another cyber obstacle to draw you into its clutches.

[AlexNoa Regular Find all posts View Profile Close AlexNoa]

Re: Trackinb Contest

x

You don't have a clue.

[SundownInRetreat Member Find all posts View Profile Close SundownInRetreat]

Re: Trackinb Contest

You just said, "I'm not at the required standard" for screenwriting competitions. But, despite that, you are pro-ready?

And you've said at least twice that you've proven Fig's idea that everyone believes they're ready to go pro wrong... Meaning you do not believe that.

This is how it feels debating with you:

Family Guy Donkey/Footloose Video

Jeez, dude, what is your problem? I say exactly what others have said yet you only take issue with me, you then gloss over my above post which clearly explains I wasn't commenting on anyone's writing, only their actions, and now you're looking to try and catch me out by quoting select excerpts. And if you're going to go down this route then at least quote me properly.

I said "I've not entered any contests as I hadn't felt I was at the required standard". That is a big difference to what you just pulled out of your arse: "I'm not at the required standard".

As for proving fig wrong - what is so bloody hard for you to understand, here? It's a simple concept. Here, one more time: I do not believe that everyone believes they are of a pro level because I have been living proof. For most of my screenwriting life I've been aware that I wasn't ready, which is why I resisted the urge to query with my first batch of scripts and enter contests. I wrote, read and lurked. Therefore I do not ascribe to fig's blanket statement that "everyone believes they are of pro quality" and I disagreed how even believing that means you are somehow being abused by competitions who gladly take your money.

Whether I feel I am pro now or not, or good enough to place in a competition, is irrelevant. I hinted I've moved on to a higher level but that's equally irrelevant. My point was simply that I've been acutely aware of my position at one time or another. Maybe last year, maybe still now.

Got it? Or do you still want to misquote me?

[CthulhuRises Member Find all posts View Profile Close CthulhuRises]

Re: Trackinb Contest

I see, so out of all of these contests combined, over all of the years they've been running, you have one title.

"Likely coming out in a few years" doesn't count.

That's certainly no justification for thousands and thousands of writers to pay contest entry fees every year for over a decade, is it?

I said "off the top of my head". Do some damn research yourself, because there are plenty.

[ATB Member Find all posts View Profile Close ATB]

Re: Trackinb Contest

Sundown,

"I hadn't felt I was at the required standard" vs "I'm not at the required standard" hardly seems like a misquote to me.

Especially when you've also said, "I've never said I'm ready to be a pro" or something similar. And the topic was a thread you started maybe a week ago. You hadn't felt you were ready a week ago but you are now.

Okay, sorry, my bad. Didn't realize things changed so quickly for you.

Either way, my point is that you can't judge a writer's skill-level based on their feelings about a contest.

And that's what you were doing.

Okay, go ahead and tell me others were too. Fine. Wonderful. But not as adamantly as you were and are.

And to top it off, you readily admit you may not be ready (maybe you are, I don't know, but what you've said hints that you're not... and that's okay).

You've said that you can judge whether an athlete is good enough to go pro even though you have no experience in the sport you're watching.

But no, you shouldn't do that either.

You can talk amongst your friends and make fun of a college athlete for ****ing up, but you can't tell that athlete they're not good enough for the next level.

Because you don't know that. You can't know that. And it's ridiculous to think so.