Scriptfest guidelines

[arroway]

you don't think discussions would occur after the comments are revealed and the votes are cast?

[thartley]

I'm with Krestofre on this one. At the stage the scriptfests are at right now with mainly increased knowledge, practice and skill as the prizes, the immediate feedback on submissions is great. I pretty much made my own comments without reading others' posts and not once did I change the way I rated a script based on someone else's comment on it.

If there were a set panel of judges, instead of voting by peers, I would say hold comments til after. But this is like a roundtable critique process, and its helpful to keep it as it is.

[jasonthewho]

Judging from other fests I've been a part of, it seems that commenting generally stops after the announcement of winners.

I think that although reading comments can influence voting, it's better than not receiving any comments at all.

[krestofre]

I agree with what Thartley and Jason said.

[Captain Pierce]

I never changed my vote because of comments, but I did change my comments because of other comments.

Judging from other fests I've been a part of, it seems that commenting generally stops after the announcement of winners.

ScriptFest I is a pretty good example of that... admittedly, it might be different if you couldn't comment until after the voting was in, but that's never been the way that DVXUser has worked...

[Isaac_Brody]

BUT MORE IMPORTANT than any of that...comments should be revealed only when the voting period is over. this is how almost all online contests and workshops are handled and for good reason. there's too much influence between critiques when the work isn't read fresh. plus, spoilers would no longer be an issue...

That would take the wind out of this pretty quickly. I like the workshop setup, I think there's more gained from the feedback coming back and forth. And really, if you're worried about spoilers you should read the script first before clicking on that big juicy tempting thread. I do read comments before responding, just so I don't totally rehash what's been said, or just to simply reiterate by saying so and so said it well and I agree.

[arroway]

I'm curious which 'pros' your are referring to.

the half-dozen working Hollywood writers i know personally and the professionals whose work i've read including their spec scripts, many of which are readily available online.

Screenwriters who write specs are bound by different rules than those who write per a contract, or those who film their own material.

bound by different rules? where are these mythical rules specified exactly? oh, that's right, nowhere! only in how-to books written solely to sap money from amateur writers who would rather steadfastly concentrate on an ever-changing list of irrelevant guidelines that no one in the business adheres to or cares about rather than concentrate on telling an honest-to-god good story.

your fervor for these "rules" is even more ridiculous when you consider how much passive voice is in your entry...the excision of which is another BIG RULE (that we are apparently bound by writer law to comply with until we receive our get-out-of-jail-free WGA card)...that all the how-to books twist themselves in knots over.

in any case, i agree that you should keep any such devices to a minimum but that's about the extent of it.

the only rule anyone is bound by is to tell a great story and even that's debatable considering the schlock released in theaters every week.

sorry to bust your bubble.

[thartley]

From the scripts I've read here and elsewhere, I have found that those that are written in a particular format are much easier for me to read. Any camera direction takes me out of the story when I am reading a script "for the story". Just as the use of "We" and other pronouns do in the descriptions. Makes me feel I am being talked at instead of just being in the story.

Alot of the formatting things, I am just learning. But in the process of trying to get a handle on technique for this fest, as a newbie but frequent reader of many types of writing, those things I mentioned bother me.


One thing I don't understand is why scene numbers are wrong. I can't remember if I used them in my submission or not, because I had them and then took them out, but may have added them again because they were helpful to me in my re-writes and revisions. But what's the deal with using vs not using them?

[jamiejay]

I can't even begin to make suggestions about formatting because I am new to script writing, but, as someone who is new, guidelines for formatting would have been very much appreciated. I'm sure people judged my script based on my formatting errors, but those errors wouldn't have been there if I had something to go on other than just six pages. So I am glad we are going to be more clear about what's expected in the future.

I would also like to say that, based on the comments in nearly every single thread, six pages seems to be too short. I'm not even just saying that for me. If I had to tell a story in six pages, I would find a way to do it no matter what the guidelines, but when the page limit becomes the reason why nearly every script isn't as good as it could have been, that seems easily fixable. Just a thought...

[ConspiracyPenguin]

There are plenty of ways to avoid "WE," and those techniques should be employed at all times. That being said, the term (in my opinion) refers to the writer and the people reading/viewing, so it DOES make sense in that respect but I think it is a slippery slope where directions are concerned. Don't use camera directions, people will murder you.

Also, I think some of those things are a bit petty:

*No scene numbers
*Fade In and Fade Out - Several ixnayed this step and bought some space
*Font size - 11.5 can slip by undetected and buy the writer a few coveted lines

What's wrong with scene numbers? I didn't use them, but just wondering.

Fade in/fade out or cut to: I don't see the problem with these phrases. I mean, if you refrain to buy more page room, fine, but I don't think there should be a rule prohibiting the use of them.

How they hell can we measure font size? Should I get out my fancy Pixel Ruler? (By the way, that is trademarked by me, so don't use it! ) My point is, what's the big deal about .5? When there is a page limit and you are one or two lines over, I don't see an issue here. I have done it numerous times on school papers, etc (never on scripts, because I use the standard format in the program)