DVX Screen writing Contest?

sean90291 said:
Entirely reliant on the willing imagination of the reader.
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Just as novels are. Would say there is also no objective way to judge novels also?

You can make this argument, but it's a minority opinion and invalidates criticism pretty much across the board.
 
sean90291 said:
And it's really ephemeral. I think my and your written words deserve better than getting picked over and voted on by a contest. That's not going to be the best test of a script. The best test is when the writer believes in it and writes something that really means something to him and a director successfully interprets that into something we didn't expect but still enjoy. I think the best scripts probably will not reveal themselves to be "the best" until someone has made them.

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:-)
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Interesting points. Of course I totally disagree. At least consider that contests are a fair emulation of the Darwinian game of submissions and phones calls and persistence that it takes to break in the industry. The scripts that make it through the slushpile usually do so because they're better. Usually.
 
brianluce said:
Just as novels are. Would say there is also no objective way to judge novels also?
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Novels are meant to be stand alone works that can be enjoyed (or not) on their own merit. You can enjoy a script, but it's not quite as meaningful unless it is produced into a movie. I can see where Sean is coming from here.How many times have you seen a movie with a good script that's completely torpedoed by bad acting, directing or production values? The Butterfly Effect comes to mind; a clever and well written script that's completely compromised because the directors hired current "it" boy Ashton Kutcher instead of a serious dramatic actor.
 
brianluce said:
Just as novels are. Would say there is also no objective way to judge novels also?

You can make this argument, but it's a minority opinion and invalidates criticism pretty much across the board.
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I think you judge a novel very differently than a script. They're different animals.

A novel is written to be experienced on the page. It's written in a different manner and relies usually on very interior experiences and reflections for its impact. Scripts are usually the opposite. Interior experiences have to be described for a director to translate into visual and auditory experiences.

I'm really not trying to be difficult or split hairs. But think of this: the Academy Awards does not offer a Best Screenplay award to a script that hasn't been made. We can all imagine that some wonderful scripts are floating around out there. But they're not nominated for an award for screenplay until they're actually produced.

Yes, a good screenwriter is pretty evident on the page. But a good script is just not all that evident. You might as well make it a short story contest. I think that is more likely to fit an online contest. Because like a novel, a short story is meant to be experienced by the descriptions and the interior reflections and the use of language. The poetry. Scripts use poetry (outside of dialogue) just to sell the idea to the buyers.

Anyhow, it will be really interesting to see the contest play out. But I think it's going to be hard to get people to read a lot of pages and it's going to be hard to get a consensus on which ones have merit and why. Because watching a completed film is really visceral and immediate. Reading a script is work. To say nothing of writing the damn things. Like, I just came back from holidays and there were hundreds of people on the beaches. None of them were reading screenplays. They were reading books and magazines!

And I agree with you, brianluce. You CAN judge scripts. You can judge them to death.
 
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I think brian is right.

To combat sean's comparison we are "filmmakers." We are not the average "beachgoer"

I think a script contest would be profitable not only for the writers but also for the readers. As directors or producers or anyone interested your career relies on your ability to see a screenplay and understand its merit instantly.

hopefully it will inspire some filmmakers out there who may not be "writers" and allow them the opportunity to make a film based on someone elses writing.
 
Excellent perspective Themathewbone.

As industry professionals, be it directors, actors, writers, etc., we are able to read scripts based on there merit as blueprints for a visual media. This is why Zoetrope uses 'cinematic quality' as one of its criteria.

When reading a good script, you should be able to 'see' it in your mind.

And yes, everybody in the biz will benefit if they better understand what makes a script good.

a

www.alexwhitmer.wordpress.com
www.guerro.wordpress.com

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I suppose if the prizes are great, there could be a big response. And in there will be some gems. Barry Green said they had trouble getting people to get interested in the past. But the prize packages for the fests seem to get better all the time, and a good prize would certainly be an incentive for aspiring writers.
 
brianluce said:
I don't understand this.
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I just meant that a good writer is evident in many ways. In their handling of moments or character or language. Countless ways. But a well written line or page or scene isn't really going to reveal that the script itself is great. You can read something and see a good writer at work and still not like the script. I just don't think most folks will like most good scripts until they're made. But hey maybe it's still a worthy exercise. Gets people writing, which is much harder to do than debating fine points on dvxuser. (And I just believe that writing is all about fine points, and isn't as readily appreciated as a finished film.) We've all heard that famous Goldman adage: nobody knows anything in this business. But to quote Joe Eszterhas, unfortunately, everyone still think thinks they know everything about other people's screenwriting. If you think this is a debate, I expect the debates on the script submissions will rage way louder.

But I think Brianluce and I have disagreed on art before. I don't think we'll see eye to eye.
 
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