Monday, May 29, 2006

How To Sell Part Deux

I'm back, we skipped away for the weekend to Massanutten (a resort in Virginia) for the weekend. They've basically raped the perfect forests & mountainsides of this amazing, beautiful area and dropped thousands of townhouses across the region, and invited the tourists and timeshare owners. It's quite disgusting how this once-beautiful area has been pissed on by development. Having said that, we had a blast.

I figured I would just follow up my previous post with a Part 2 to continue the discussions. Good points you've all made. I'll reply to your questions:

What do I think about Creative Screenwriting's Contest? Go for it, they seem like they know how to run it well, seem fair (no, I've never won but have placed) and it's not TOO HUGE that you'll get lost in a zillion entries.

Script Magazine - Oh, they can suck on BOTH of my balls. Honestly, they seem like pricks. I actually placed pretty decent with them a few years back with a comedy script, but I just don't like their attitude. Go and read their rules & regs, which to a point I understand, but also make them sound like assipes. They say that don't have to read past 30 pages if they don't want to---No assholes, we're sending you 45 fucking dollars, the least you can do is read it to the last fucking page. Fuck them.

I agree that if you're starting out and have no representation, contests are a great way to go and cut your teeth on the process, deadlines, rejection, etc. And if you can place in 1 or 2 decent contests, maybe you can snag a GOOD manager.

Aaron, sorry about the hot pics, I couldn't help it.

Regarding Cricket Hill, no I have no worries. I am in very good hands.

Slamdance offers feedback I believe, which is awesome. Feedback will always help, so I think they're a good bet. Plus, people KNOW about Slamdance & Sundance. Austin is a must for any screewriter, being a finalist basically gave me full access to everything when I went, but it's an amazing festival nonetheless.

Bluecat Screenplay Competition & Writer's On the Storm (Storm is new) both offer feedback and are cheap ($35) but both deadlines are past, however, catch them next year. They both seem to be run by good, smart people, and again the low fee & feedback are bonuses. If you can grab a spot in Nicholl, then go man. That's HUGE. Even quarter-finalists get plenty of script requests, just keep in mind that they usually get well over 5000 entries so don't send a half-baked script, get it ready (deadline also past).

And if you ARE placing/winning any contests, then great! But you're not done, you work is just starting.

Look, certainly take what I write with a grain of salt, I'm just discussing my experiences, yours may be 1000% different. Again, just don't reply on contests, get your work OUT THERE. Yes, copywrite it, writer's guild it, mail it to yourself, whatever, just don't be afraid to make your script known to the world.

I've had a couple of e-mails with writer's worried about getting ripped off, well, guess what, I guarantee you're not the ONLY writer that thought of whatever idea you have, and the other guys/gals that also have the same idea probably aren't afraid to take a freakin' chance and toss it out there, so GET IT OUT THERE.

Whatever you do, GET IT OUT THERE!

2 comments:

Adam Renfro said...

valuable stuff, man. thanks for sharing your own experiences with these contests. seems like a minefield sometimes.

Anonymous said...

of all the scripts and writers out there, really how many horror stories are there of being ripped off anyway? I think everyone remembers the same few that keep being passed around... I am not wasting brain cells and Pepto on it, cause like if that were to happen I'd just blog about it laying claim that the idea or movie was mine anyway (evil laugh)