My script was the best!

You replied before I could modify my post lol - Your fast! My name is Lawrie :)

Oh just to add id like a review of the rating system too, so that the top positions could be a for a number of categories - best story/ best character and so on (maybe just 4 categories!)

But i don't think that would be adopted, it was cited that more complex systems lead to less feedback - or that reviews include this information anyway. My argument against it though is that when asked to mark something out of ten its so abstract that we rate it more on our emotional/personal taste, than on the technical merits that are so important to critical reviews too, which a categorical review system would force folk to think about!

But that said, the present system is simple and easy to manage!
 
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seansshack said:
...This is part of the reason I wanted the score system reviewed. The craft of scriptwriting is made up of too many elements and far too complete to be a 1 out of 10 score. We could learn far more from detailed breakdown. But looks like the simple score system is here to stay.
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I gotta agree that something is askew is Amnesiac placed that low - WTF?!:huh: I only docked it a few points for not feeling like a complete narrative. However, that is the only thing keeping it from being one of the top 3 or 4 IMO. That being said...21st?! WTF?:huh:

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I disagree with you about a different score card. Believe you me, a reader (in the real world) doesn't bother to break down the reason(s) it is a "pass" or the reason(s) it is a "yes". A "yes" might as well be a 10...and a "pass" could just as easily be called a 1. Something may be amiss...but it ain't the score card.
 
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The real question is how your blooming script made #4 - damn you Callaghan! Callaghaaaan!!! You must have slept with the moderators!!

lol j/k - all positions are yummily deserved! Well this will sound hilarious but i entertained notions mine would have been higher too! But then what writer doesnt! What confused me was some folk really seemed to like it but others (ok lets try the word 'most') lol obviously didn't? I mean Callaghan rating wise do you mind i ask where you put mine (for the record i put yours around #7 points i think-) but don't spare me - hit me with it and why if you would be so kind!

Im just wondering if certain cultural things 'typical' to british/ or even scottish folks didn't cross over so well to predominately american readers (and if thats something i should bare in mind.) Or if perhaps people rated against it for the films subject matter etc (as well as maybe just not thinking its great anyway lol)
 
I
'typical' to british/ or even scottish folks didn't cross over so well to predominately american readers
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I was born in england and grew up in Ireland and nothing went over my head.
 
This post does not in any way allude to how I voted. This is my opinion on rankings, everyone perceives things differently so where someone may read a piece another person can pick it up five minutes later and think what the... Whose wrong or right? Not sure, I guess that depends on how they are looking at it. For example, a producer will pick a script and think ABC where as a Director will pick up the same script and think XYZ.
 
Cool Sean - well thats the thing eh, its hard to know why scripts are rated less? lol do you mind if i ask what you rated it too? And why? Likewise if anyone else would like to know what i rated and why im happy to oblige.

Personally i think we should have our results posted (simultaneously) - ok typo there - because we're all mature enough to get on with each other and stand by the ratings we give each other etc!

Oh yah totally agreed with you there Noel :) its great to know the reasoning behind folks ratings and its far more useful to know why as regards to poorer marks than better haha! The most amusing is when you read a script - and you might think meh and then someone else reads and explains an interpretation of it that makes you go WHAT - that IS amazing!!!
 
I think the lowest score I gave anyone was a 5. There really weren't any bad scripts, in my opinion. For me, the rating was determined by my reaction to the script, (the more times my hand covered my mouth, the better), as well as how the script flowed. If I was left with too many questions, or if I had to read it 3 times to answer them, then I scored it lower than others. I think many had more potential than might have been immediately evident, and would have done far better with some editing and peer review.
 
or if I had to read it 3 times to answer them
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For me layered and complex is more interesting. If you had to read again and again, mores the better.

But hey. I'm a complex multi layered kind of guy.
 
It's not the complexity that bothers me. That, I love. It's distracting language and a general lack of fluidity. Unless it's unnecessarily complex, like Bordieau. I hate that guy.
 
What happens if you are reading say a british script and you are from America? We both speak English, but our use of it is very different... So do you mark them down if it is a different use of the English language, one you don't fully understand? (which I think I have mainly been marked down on), And please remember, it is our language so we use it better!!!!
 
Cute. No, I don't. We are inundated with British TV over here as well. I don't even recall any language confusion in your script. It is colloquially different, not structurally. If that were the case, half the noir films would've been marked low on that score, since no one speaks like that either.
 
Yah its an interesting point - i think certainly if someone feels culturally unaware of something in a script - i mean imagine a story about a hindu trying to redeem himself in the eyes of one particular god - in a certain region of India where people act / dress in a manner that defies all expectation and stereotype.

Certain customs and forms taken for granted there would not be by most script readers - and depending on where you are some parts will be more familiar than others.

Yanks will be more familiar with say Mexican customs /cultural references - Brits more so with the peculiarities of Scotland/Wales and other nations of the United Kingdom.

And so on and so on. I think you'd have to be a jerk to just blithely go 'this makes no sense' due to cultural forms. I was concerned about that with mine, as it referenced somethings particular to britain (like the post war construction of new towns.) I also had a few comments of utter (modern perspective bewildernment) at what occurs in my story - which only explained in historical and cultural contexts make sense.

The domination of american pop culture does lend a far easier impression of basic story and character types. This makes it easier for american script writers to make a story more accessible than say an Indian or Spanish! On the flip side that often relies on stereotypes and cliche too which can be really challenging for american writers wanting to tell it like 'it really is' or tell innovative stories outwith cultural or pop cultural expectations!
 
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nitramlehcar said:
Cute. No, I don't. We are inundated with British TV over here as well. I don't even recall any language confusion in your script. It is colloquially different, not structurally. If that were the case, half the noir films would've been marked low on that score, since no one speaks like that either.
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Extremely cute... You get the shows that translate well, let's say the easy ones, and the rest are remade so you don't get lost!
 
Come on guys - you mean your not even going to comment once on my wonderful post - it sounded so clever too.

Anyway we're not talking abotu scripts and understanding them. Cultural references can and are lost between scripts - not because of how their written but because we live in different parts of the world.

You can't tell me that BBC America has made you so familiar with british culture that you could watch a short film about Manchester beer brewars and take from it the same message as the limey's might hehe.

Likewise too with a story set with particular references for americans that could be lost on others, but its different, since Hollywood has a huge impact on how US stories are percieved around the world.

Oh but of course you are saying that the script you read was not particularly esoteric lol so who knows what im rambling about - im sure it sounds clever anyway!
 
Going back to what was said a few posts back about good scripts being quite far down the ratings, and people not understanding how this happens - I think I might be able to shed some light. I would say that the vast, vast majority of the scripts I rated had very similar ratings to each other (mostly somewhere between 5 and 8), and I would bet that most other people rated in the same way. Not to say they were all necessarily in that score range, but that most scripts would have been rated in one bracket.
Therefore, the likelihood is that most of the scripts are going to average very similar scores. I'm willing to bet that if Isaac told us the difference between the average score for the lowest script, and the average score for the highest, it's not going to be a very big gap.

Basically, somebody has to come last. It's pretty possible for the losing script to have an average score of 8 out of 10, and the winning to have an average of 9 out of 10. 80% isn't bad in anyones book, but like I said, somebody always has to be last.

I don't really know how much sense that made. It's pretty late over here and I've had a long day, I'm not very coherent.
 
themightyshrub said:
Going back to what was said a few posts back about good scripts being quite far down the ratings, and people not understanding how this happens - I think I might be able to shed some light. I would say that the vast, vast majority of the scripts I rated had very similar ratings to each other (mostly somewhere between 5 and 8), and I would bet that most other people rated in the same way. Not to say they were all necessarily in that score range, but that most scripts would have been rated in one bracket.
Therefore, the likelihood is that most of the scripts are going to average very similar scores. I'm willing to bet that if Isaac told us the difference between the average score for the lowest script, and the average score for the highest, it's not going to be a very big gap.

Basically, somebody has to come last. It's pretty possible for the losing script to have an average score of 8 out of 10, and the winning to have an average of 9 out of 10. 80% isn't bad in anyones book, but like I said, somebody always has to be last.

I don't really know how much sense that made. It's pretty late over here and I've had a long day, I'm not very coherent.
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You're pretty much 100% right. My score in twilight fest was something like 7.6.. and I came in second!

All this is besides the point... I can't believe this dude is whining about his score.... sure he didn't deserve last... but it's not like he wrote the next Citizen Kane either...

What importance does your score in DVX User's scriptfest really hold in the grand scheme of things? I don't think I deserved 19th... but I also don't give crap. I just wanted to participate.
 
Aweee its always a bit rough for folk who come last in the ratings thing even if you don't take it seriously. I think there was a bit of favouritism in ratings and all that kind of jazz but of course there always is in any contest.

In anycase everyone got really good feedback i think (compared to say zoetrope.)

For me the point made by the winning author of this competition - in that his last entry came 2nd last - is that things can't be that biased. Even you blindbusta - i mean your film was very beautiful and well written for TwilightFest - and you did well in that despite coming #19 here (heck i cam #20 god damn you!!!)

But its so subjective - and among the reviewers are good and bad, folk of differing tastes and such like. So i mean its not the be all and end all worth getting worried about - and its really about the feedback.

For that i am SO grateful that folk took the time to give comments! Im rambling on aren't I lol... but heres another point worth noting.

If your writing something more unusual - then say out of 20 folk how many do you expect to like it? I wrote a dark/ noir drama with a strong dose of nihilism dealing with infancide.... YEY PAARTY huh? I got a few pms from folk that REALLY liked it - and obviously others really didn't - thats just fine - so long as someone other than me liked it haha.

For a real autuer bad ass he wouldn't even care if his own mother didn't like it - so long as he/she thinks it has its place!
 
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