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Interesting thread on X about script competitions (currently 749 views) |
Drongo Bum |
Posted: August 14th, 2024, 1:52am |
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Been Around 
LocationU.S.A. & Japan Posts614 Posts Per Day 3.10 |
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LC |
Posted: August 14th, 2024, 3:46am |
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Administrator
LocationThe Great Southern Land Posts8255 Posts Per Day 1.38 |
Typical. Monopolies abound. Thanks for the info, DB, I had no idea. |
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Drongo Bum |
Posted: August 14th, 2024, 4:02am |
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Been Around 
LocationU.S.A. & Japan Posts614 Posts Per Day 3.10 |
Yeah. All these outfits prey on the desperation and dreams of hopefuls. It's despicable, although those hopefuls really ought to stop and think this stuff through before they pay someone for the privilege of writing for them.
Writers don't pay to write. That's not how it works. |
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Reply: 2 - 15 |
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ejrubeo |
Posted: August 22nd, 2024, 11:24pm |
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Posts14 Posts Per Day 0.04 |
FWIW - American Zoetrope and the Academy Nicholl Fellowships appear to be separate and real (but you have to pay for them). |
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Reply: 3 - 15 |
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LC |
Posted: August 23rd, 2024, 1:19am |
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Administrator
LocationThe Great Southern Land Posts8255 Posts Per Day 1.38 |
FWIW - American Zoetrope and the Academy Nicholl Fellowships appear to be separate and real (but you have to pay for them). |
Independently run apparently, yes. Zoetrope is still owned by the Coppola's I think, and Nicholl is the elite screenwriting comp run by the Academy. Very few screenplay comps are free for entries, but the occasional one you see. The Coverfly monopoly annoys me. |
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Drongo Bum |
Posted: August 23rd, 2024, 1:58am |
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Been Around 
LocationU.S.A. & Japan Posts614 Posts Per Day 3.10 |
A few years ago I went through the list of NF winners and found something interesting but not entirely unexpected:
1. Few of those who won gained any real benefit with regard to their future within the business. 2. the few who did move forward within the business were already established in it before their wins.
Most winners never progressed far in film and television. The NF was about as good as it got and the names of many or most were never heard again.
The winners who are still around -- or who at least didn't vanish into obscurity immediately -- had pre-existing relationships within the industry, such as agents, managers, or employers.
In other words, the pre-eminent screenwriting contest -- the poster child of movie contests, the one all others worship and aspire to being -- was no more worth the entrance fee than any other.
Have things improved? Hard to imagine they would. Because why would they? |
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Reply: 5 - 15 |
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Drongo Bum |
Posted: October 5th, 2024, 8:22pm |
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Been Around 
LocationU.S.A. & Japan Posts614 Posts Per Day 3.10 |
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Reply: 6 - 15 |
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JtF |
Posted: October 6th, 2024, 3:29am |
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Posts221 Posts Per Day 1.30 |
Within the UK Publishing world, around 85% of published books DO NOT sell their entire first print run of 2500. Mostly the ONLY way to secure representation or indeed a deal is by winning something. The lead time to see your work on the shelves might be 18 months as the houses are servicing their top sellers. Once ON the shelf you might get five pounds per week to make personal appearances / have a daily social media presence / deliver a second book / have outlines for the third (these are options of course on your contract) and garner a GBP800 advance. The royalties on sales are hardly a retirement fund! I also worked 25 years in the music business. Here praying on the starry eyed hopefuls is even more pronounced. A con man spools out a cool line and the punters will always fall for it. T'was ever thus. . . . . JtF |
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Reply: 7 - 15 |
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Drongo Bum |
Posted: October 6th, 2024, 4:57am |
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Been Around 
LocationU.S.A. & Japan Posts614 Posts Per Day 3.10 |
Yikes! I had no idea it was that tough. Safe to say you're gonna snicker if you read one of my short scripts, Words, currently in the Don's pile and likely to be posted in SHORT DRAMA some time within the next year or two...  Just ask LC, coz she read it and probably thought I was on crack. |
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Reply: 8 - 15 |
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Grandma Bear |
Posted: October 6th, 2024, 7:33am |
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Administrator
LocationThe Swamp... Posts8122 Posts Per Day 1.31 |
I can't read anything on X without an account. |
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Drongo Bum |
Posted: October 6th, 2024, 8:02am |
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Been Around 
LocationU.S.A. & Japan Posts614 Posts Per Day 3.10 |
It's an older, more detailed thread. It adds additional names of competitions and companies all owned by the umbrella corporation that is selling them as separate and unrelated events and businesses. From that thread:
Quoted Text Am I correct in saying that CAST AND CREW owns: Backstage Coverfly Done Deal Film Freeway Final Draft Industry Arts Screencraft StarNow (NZ) The Mandy Network (UK) The Script Lab The Tracking Board Voice 123 WeScreenplay |
Tentatively adding ScreenPit to the list, since I've asked them several times if they're owned by EQT/Cast & Crew, and so far they have refused to reply. |
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Revision History (2 edits; 1 reasons shown) |
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Reply: 10 - 15 |
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LC |
Posted: October 6th, 2024, 5:56pm |
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Administrator
LocationThe Great Southern Land Posts8255 Posts Per Day 1.38 |
I can't read anything on X either and have no intention of signing up so thanks for the info, DB. I think the good thing is that PAGE & Shore Scripts and quite a few others haven't succumbed to being bought out yet. As with all monopolies this is not good. The monetization aspect is quite shocking. Quite frankly a rort. I was reading this post from CJ (Script Revolution) last night. This was 7 years ago. https://www.reddit.com/r/Screenwriting/comments/763wo7/this_is_starting_to_terrify_me/ |
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Reply: 11 - 15 |
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Drongo Bum |
Posted: October 6th, 2024, 7:42pm |
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Been Around 
LocationU.S.A. & Japan Posts614 Posts Per Day 3.10 |
He wasn't wrong, although I do take issue with the comment that some screenwriters are forced to run competitions or reader consultations just to survive: they should go get real jobs instead of preying on their fellow screenwriters. After all, if you're not writing, you're not a writer.
Btw, someone responded to me about ScreenPit. They said, "It's a non profit event run by volunteers."
I suspect they were talking about a Meet-Some-Pros get-together ScreenPit is currently running, and not about ScreenPit itself. So, as far as I'm concerned, ScreenPit is likely just another name on the growing list of Cast & Crew shell companies until somebody can show me otherwise.
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Reply: 12 - 15 |
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MarkRenshaw |
Posted: November 11th, 2024, 6:13am |
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January Project Group 
LocationUK Posts2358 Posts Per Day 0.55 |
Yeah, they have spent billions over the years obtaining a monopoly over screenwriting competitions - which shows you how much the industry is worth. And when I say industry I do not mean Hollywood, I mean the screenwriting competition industry which, in a lot of cases, has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with Hollywood - they just sell the illusion that it does.
I see a lot of writers getting very excited when they place highly on Coverfly's Red List and then wonder why agents and producers are not contacting them. It's because The Red List is just an achievement for writers entering competitions - the more they spend the higher they place on the list and that's it. You can be number 1 on that list and it means nothing. |
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Reply: 13 - 15 |
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pauljwilliams9 |
Posted: November 11th, 2024, 3:53pm |
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Posts11 Posts Per Day 0.00 |
I agree, Mark Renshaw.
I'd been hoping for years that by this point in time (almost 2025!), the screenplay contest bubble would've burst, but instead it's the opposite. More and more waves of newbie or delusional screenwriters are continuously giving their money to these meaningless competitions that have seemed to grow exponentially. Even the contests that have pure intentions can do little to get a screenplay sold or launch a screenwriter's career.
The Screenplay Competition Industrial Complex is a business driven my anecdotal evidence (e.g.: a quarter-finalist in the Northern South Dakota International Screenplay Contest once sold a script to Paramount, so we can too!) or promotes how many entrants have gone on to option a script or land a manager - two situations that require little to no financial obligation by the other party.
Will it ever stop? Maybe one day, but no day soon. |
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Reply: 14 - 15 |
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