Quoted from mcornetto You are assuming the site is the boards.  The site is not the boards.  The site is http://www.simplyscripts.com.

Right. Right. So what happened to "The more and different input we get the better writers we can be"?

Quoted from sniper Right. Right. So what happened to "The more and different input we get the better writers we can be"?

Well, we do get an influx of people in the process on the boards.  It's not a one way street.

Quoted from mcornetto Movie Poet doesn't specify genre.  The last time it did was the horror contest and if you remember there were plenty of arguments and disagreements about what horror was.  As far as I know a decision was never made except individually by the readers.

Fair point, but at the same time there weren't any out and out comedies during that month.

Agreed with Bert, these aren't complaints about how Don or any of the mods run things. If everyone abided by the unspoken rules then there would be no problem. When people don't abide by them, I think you need to make them a little more formal.

Ste

Quoted from stebrown Fair point, but at the same time there weren't any out and out comedies during that month.

Comedies can be unintentional.

They can, but if you're asked to write a horror and unintentionally write a comedy then you've failed the challenge.

As I said before, the main point I agreed with from Jonny is to limit the number of entries per member - I think that would sort all of these issues out as people wouldn't want to waste their only entry.

Every genre should contain some comedy, just like every genre should be dramatic. A genre only indicates what you should expect from the story. If I tell you drama, then you pretty well know you're going to get a dialogue heavy script where the story is primarily character driven.

In a horror, you know you're going to get something that typically contains death and revulsion along with a fair amount of applicable imagery. However, that script is going to have drama between the character dealing with the situation and there's going to be some comedy to break up the atmosphere a little bit so you don't keel over halfway through.

A genre is a guideline for expectations, not a repellent for other elements.

Let's be honest here, this OWC has been a let down. Which is a shame because normally they are a lot of fun and you get some quality scripts arise out of it. I think the way to avoid another disappointment like this one is to be less stringent with the actual theme. If the theme is too narrow it limits the direction and approach you can take with the story. People who want to enter but don't like the narrow guidelines rebel against the restriction imposed on them and write pisstakes and joke entries as we have seen here. How many have been serious entries, and furthermore, how many of those have actually been good? Less than five I would say.

IMO a theme should never impose itself upon a story, it should be subtly woven into it. So the people who have tried to weave a story around this month's theme have been met with comments like 'Doesn't fit the theme/Not enough debate between vegan and carnivore'. While the ones that do focus more on this aspect are being labelled as boring, generic, lacking a story or conflict. It seems like a lose/lose situation. If you try too hard to nail the theme perfectly you are sacrificing your own creativity and the opportunity for the characters to dictate where the story may lead.

That's why the last OWC was a bigger success. The theme was simply 'The Dark' and the rest was open to each individual's interpretation. If the theme is looser it gives people the chance to write the stories they want to write and be able to fit the theme into it. Which will produce better entries than writing about a theme they have no interest in and trying to fit the story into it. If people can have more freedom in what they can write about then there won't be so many joke entries as they'll be spending their time writing stories they care about and are invested in.

There'll also be a wider variety of stories which will make reading all the entries more of a pleasure. This month's have been too similar and therefore gets quite monotonous reading and commenting on them all. To me an example of a theme could be things such as:
-new beginnings
-a deadly desire
-self sacrifice
-redemption
-last resort
-for the love of money
-second chances
-against the odds

Just a few off the top of my head. I think even though there were 40 submissions this month they probably only came from about 20 or so authors. Which means less reads and debate on each script. There are some still in single figure comments that have been up for awhile. If the challenge is a bit more open you'll get more people enter and people focus on one really good script insrtead of several half-assed ones and it will be better for everyone.

Tim.

Damn...I go to sleep at night and look what I miss!

Lots of good points from everyone here.

I sure hope I'm not the one George is calling out.

I agree with Tim's last post here...pretty much completely.

I also want to point out that there have been complaints about multiple pisstake entries in the past and nothing was done about it.  There have been complaints about scripts that go over the page limit in the past, yet once again, we have at least 1 script that clearly is over the 15 page max that got included.

If we want this thing to run a certain way, it has to be enforced.  When something happens that shouldn't, it needs to be addressed immediately.

In the past, I've been one of those that has complained about certain issues, to the point where I said I wasn't going to participate again, as the integrity of the OWC had been lost.  Maybe that's why I didn't take this OWC seriously and entered nothing but pisstakes...very funny pisstakes!

Quoted from bert I know that a certain amount of bitching and groaning always accompanies the announcement of the OWC genre and theme -- and I realize they are meant to be challenging -- but in the future, I would hope they are also a bit more conventional.

I thought this was a pretty conventional theme.  From the scripts I've read, there was plenty of room to play with it and some can be shot on a student filmmaker's budget.  There were complaints about how some were selected in the past (sci-fi/popcorn comes to mind).

I think, in the future, non-SSers shouldn't be invited.  And I think that people should be limited to only one submission.  If you have time to crank out two or three scripts, then you're probably better off working on one really good script and tweaking it..

Quoted from mcornetto And as far as closing this to just board members.  How do you expect the site to grow if you don't allow an influx of screenwriters during one of the most important and attractive events on the site?

These 'outsiders' post a OWC script and then they disappear on us until the next OWC.  If they're not members, then they can't even post feedback.  And it's the feedback and active participants that help the site grow.


Phil

Quoted from Dreamscale I sure hope I'm not the one George is calling out.

Had to go back and look to see, and sure enough, Jeff commented on several typos. But it is Jeff's nature to exaggerate. He was one of a few to say it though.

So, looking at what people have said, I reccommend a couple of things that should hopefully ensure a few issues are avoided next time:

- enforcing the 'Helio rule' - one entry each. If you want to use your entry for a piss-take, then that's up to you. But it should mean more entries that honestly try to get to grips with the challenge.

- a minimum, as well as a maximum, page limit - it is, after all, supposed to be a challenge. If part of that challenge is keeping your script UNDER a certain amount of pages, then shouldn't it be OVER a certain number of pages, too?

That wouldn't require much more than the briefest of flick-throughs from whoever was checking, and for people to be honest when uploading their scripts. As for the 'tackling the theme' thing - well, that is more subjective, although I do think that with one entry each people will try to use that one shot as best they can.

Quoted from Dreamscale Maybe that's why I didn't take this OWC seriously and entered nothing but pisstakes...very funny pisstakes!

...

Seriously?  Please tell me that's a pisstake of a post.

Quoted from JonnyBoy - a minimum, as well as a maximum, page limit - it is, after all, supposed to be a challenge. If part of that challenge is keeping your script UNDER a certain amount of pages, then shouldn't it be OVER a certain number of pages, too?

We discussed a minimum page limit, but since it is possible to write a very short, quality script, we didn't want to rule those out. There are actually contests out there for these ultra-shorts, and we also reasoned that people are more likely to sit through a 2 minute short than a 15 minute one. Hence, no minimum.

EDIT: Every time someone says "pisstake" you have to scream.

Quoted from Dreamscale Damn...I go to sleep at night and look what I miss! Lots of good points from everyone here. I sure hope I'm not the one George is calling out. I agree with Tim's last post here...pretty much completely. I also want to point out that there have been complaints about multiple pisstake entries in the past and nothing was done about it.  There have been complaints about scripts that go over the page limit in the past, yet once again, we have at least 1 script that clearly is over the 15 page max that got included. If we want this thing to run a certain way, it has to be enforced.  When something happens that shouldn't, it needs to be addressed immediately. In the past, I've been one of those that has complained about certain issues, to the point where I said I wasn't going to participate again, as the integrity of the OWC had been lost.  Maybe that's why I didn't take this OWC seriously and entered nothing but pisstakes...very funny pisstakes!

So, basically, because I wrote a script that was a whole two pages too long (and a story, for that matter, that has resulted in one of the best young visual effects artists in the country asking me to let him help out making it) you've decided to sabotage the OWC for everyone and waste the time of people like Phil and Don who have to work hard to run it?

Nicely done, Jeff.

Quoted from George Willson We discussed a minimum page limit, but since it is possible to write a very short, quality script, we didn't want to rule those out. There are actually contests out there for these ultra-shorts, and we also reasoned that people are more likely to sit through a 2 minute short than a 15 minute one. Hence, no minimum. EDIT: Every time someone says "pisstake" you have to scream.

Then let's have a special, super-short OWC. I know 2-page scripts have their place, but I'd argue that the shortest OWC entries aren't usually the best. They're often rushed, minimal-effort entries, and show that (I accept there are exceptions). It'd actually be more of a challenge if the boundaries were, say, 6-12 pages.

P.S. Piss-take.