Message Board

Emails and on website are out.

Congrats to all those who made it!

Did a quick glance and saw Ron Brassfield and Philip Segdwick(sorry if I spelled your names wrong) and to all those I missed.

Don

Thanks, Don. Not to worry. Spent my morning going through search and replace in scripts for your/you're its/it's issues.

And now to next week.

Made it in CWA! Softens the blow of not making it through to the PAGE Semi's. Would have been nice. Only 2 of the 25 sci-fi semifinalists are women. Next year!

I'm through too! I missed Page also - yeah, it does help!

Congrats Lana, Philip, Matthew, Ron, and anyone else who made the list. Good luck!

Congrats all! My comedy is through as well - saw some of your names on that list. Any idea how many submissions they get? It's a pretty long list.

To all writers who advanced in the CWA Prelims, I'm a fellow writer and I recognized a few of the scripts in this contest. By the time I was done, I'd found five ringers. I contacted the contest and told them these writers had violated the rules by submitting scripts that had been produced or optioned. They were thankful and said they were going to be contacting these writers. These professionals do not belong and they take spots away from us accountants, bakers, housewives, etc. This has happened in other contests. Always check who you are competing against.

Congrats all!

Excellent detective work, Athena! That's a win for all of us. Thanks for keeping people honest.

thanks Lana! It wasn't intentional or malicious, just a heads up to the contest coordinator who was very appreciative.

I'm confused. How can someone enter a produced/optioned script into a contest? Doesn't that get the writer in legal trouble with the person or company who produced or optioned it?

I think we may be having a problem with tunnel vision when it comes to "produced/optioned" scripts.

A screenplay may be optioned for a dollar a year, or ten grand a year. A screenplay may also be produced in the form that you see them produced on amazonstudios - as a glorified storyboard or cartoon - or it may be a major studio release.

Certainly, a successful and well-made movie would not have its script entered in any contest by anyone with their head on straight (though there are plenty of produced and optioned screenwriters floating around town who DON'T have their heads on straight). It's the OTHER STUFF -- the borderline optioned or produced material -- that I think is causing all the aggravation on these boards today.

GRANTED, in an ideally-run, straight-ahead contest, all such material would be weeded out,(and I think it should be). But some of it is obviously getting through.

If you want to go to the fuss and bother of culling this stuff yourself, as a contest entrant, and reporting back to the contest so that the bilge gets thrown overboard, go right ahead. I don't have the time or the patience myself, but everybody's different.

WHAT I DON'T WANT TO SEE are those who do not win, at the end of this process, blaming their lack of progress on "cheating" by pros or semi-pros. I don't want to see it, but the direction things are going, it looks like that's on the horizon, with perhaps lawsuits a la Justin Samuels to follow.

And that's going to spoil things for all of us, the rotters and the simon-pure.

Forgive my ignorance. Who is Justin Samuels? Beyond that, I must agree with previous posters. It doesn't really matter who enters contests. Many produced writers are awful writers who would never get beyond round one in a contest. And yet, people with minimal credits (with no or little money earned) are eligible to enter contests. The Writers Guild allows its members to enter contests. I am in a writers group who has some pretty good writers who cannot advance in contests. In some cases, they have read the reader comments which seem completely off base. And yes, there are also a couple writers who have advanced from my group whose scripts are mediocre at best. This is all a crap shoot. We all must realize that when writing those checks. I have not entered anything in awhile, so I am not the best authority on what is legitimate or not. When I hear people speak of things where it is clear they were not read, I stay clear. It happens more often than not. But to all of you, I suggest getting so engrossed in your own work that none of this ultimately matters. Put it on the page, where it belongs.

re Justin Samuels:

http://johnaugust.com/2011/suing-to-get-an-agent

Does Screenwriting Expo post finalist list on their website or do they email everyone who entered with a list?