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SimplyScripts Screenwriting Discussion Board    Screenwriting Discussion    Contests - Screenwriting and Filmmaking  ›  Interesting thread on X about script competitions Moderators: Don
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  Author    Interesting thread on X about script competitions  (currently 749 views)
Drongo Bum
Posted: August 14th, 2024, 1:52am Report to Moderator
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The topic is this:




Original thread is here:

https://x.com/HwoodScrptReadr/status/1823391901665689856


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LC
Posted: August 14th, 2024, 3:46am Report to Moderator
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Typical. Monopolies abound. Thanks for the info, DB, I had no idea.


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Drongo Bum
Posted: August 14th, 2024, 4:02am Report to Moderator
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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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ejrubeo
Posted: August 22nd, 2024, 11:24pm Report to Moderator
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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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LC
Posted: August 23rd, 2024, 1:19am Report to Moderator
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Quoted from ejrubeo
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 Report to Moderator
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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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Drongo Bum
Posted: October 5th, 2024, 8:22pm Report to Moderator
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Further to this...

https://x.com/aadip/status/1611116902063144960

Writers, do not pay people to read your work, unless they're actors delivering your lines in front of a camera or an audience.


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JtF
Posted: October 6th, 2024, 3:29am Report to Moderator
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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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Drongo Bum
Posted: October 6th, 2024, 4:57am Report to Moderator
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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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Grandma Bear
Posted: October 6th, 2024, 7:33am Report to Moderator
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I can't read anything on X without an account.


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Drongo Bum
Posted: October 6th, 2024, 8:02am Report to Moderator
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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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Drongo Bum  -  October 6th, 2024, 10:36am
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LC
Posted: October 6th, 2024, 5:56pm Report to Moderator
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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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Drongo Bum
Posted: October 6th, 2024, 7:42pm Report to Moderator
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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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MarkRenshaw
Posted: November 11th, 2024, 6:13am Report to Moderator
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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.


For more of my scripts, stories, produced movies and the ocassional blog, check out my new website. CLICK
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pauljwilliams9
Posted: November 11th, 2024, 3:53pm Report to Moderator
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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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