Jamie asks:<\/strong>
\nSo, I\u2019m just starting to get familiar with the world of screenwriting competitions, and I\u2019m assuming they\u2019re not all created equal. Are there any drawbacks to entering more than one (several even) with the same script? It seems like some contests might require that you don\u2019t submit your script to any other contests? Do you have any strategies for approaching contest entry for a new screenwriter with only one script (besides, the advice that I should write a few more!)?<\/em><\/p>\n

Monica says:<\/strong>
\nJamie, you\u2019re absolutely right – competitions are not all created equal. <\/p>\n

There are several different kinds of opportunities for newer writers to get involved. There are professional fellowships that offer work experience and professional mentorships, there are competitions that can get you industry exposure and a nice cash prize, film festival competitions, and then some producer-driven smaller competitions that don\u2019t have name recognition or much upswing for the writer. <\/p>\n

There are a few specific benefits to the better screenwriting competitions:<\/p>\n

— Money. Many competitions offer a small stipend to the winner, however some competitions, such as the Nichol, offer enough for a writer to not have to work for a year and just write. <\/p>\n

— Networking with industry professionals, such as professional screenwriters, producers, agents or managers. <\/p>\n

— Mentorship with industry professionals to help you improve your writing and build professional relationships with professional screenwriters, producers, agents or managers<\/p>\n

— Getting your name out there: Sometimes, if your script places in a competition, producers, agents or managers will contact you to read your script. It is possible to get an agent or manager through placing in a competition if an agent or manager reads your material and thinks he\/she can sell it. <\/p>\n

Any competition that offers a professional fellowship or a sizable cash prize ($15,000 and up) is probably a safe bet, because that means they likely have proper sponsorship and legitimate professional connections. The Nicholl<\/a>, Final Draft\u2019s Big Break<\/a>, PAGE Awards and Scriptapalooza are all legitimate competitions. <\/p>\n

Film festival competitions can also be a safe bet, depending upon how well regarded the festival and competition are. The Austin Heart of Film <\/a>offers a great screenwriting competition, as well as the Nantucket Film Festival<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Professional programs such as the Warner Bros. Writers Workshop<\/a> or the Disney ABC Television Writing Fellowship<\/a>, the Sundance Institute Screenwriters Lab<\/a> or the Film Independent Screenwriters Lab<\/a> offer professional education with industry professionals that could help launch a career. <\/p>\n

Opportunities for mentorship from industry professionals as well as peer writer networking are offered through CineStory<\/a>, a non-profit that mentors writers. <\/p>\n

Other Things To Keep in Mind
\n<\/strong>It\u2019s really only the bigger name competitions wherein you will have industry professionals contacting you for your work. If you enter Joe Nobody Cares screenwriting competition and win, it\u2019s likely nobody will be banging down your door \u2013 so you might as well save your money for the competitions or professional programs that matter. You might think it\u2019s a nice thing for your resume, but nobody in the industry will care, so in the end it\u2019s a wash. In addition, legitimate organizations want to help you become a better writer and network. To that end, you shouldn\u2019t have to give anyone any rights to your material. Your script is your script. There are a lot of shady producers who hang a \u201cscreenwriting competition\u201d shingle and basically want you to pay them for them to read your script \u2013 and if you\u2019re the lucky \u201cwinner,\u201d you might get a $500 option and they claim they\u2019ll shoot your project. These contests to me are scams. Be absolutely sure you know where your material is going and what the expectation is before you send someone your screenplay. <\/p>\n

Beware the Coverage Upsell<\/strong>
\nWhen I was at CineStory in October, several of the writers there told me that they entered competitions to get some form of coverage or feedback on their script in return for the entrance fee. I personally don\u2019t think this is a good investment of time or money. This is basically an upsell of services so that company can charge you more. The worst coverage I ever received <\/a>on a script was from a Film Independent submission to the Screenwriters Lab. The coverage was clearly written by a male USC student who had smoked too much pot and was porn addicted. Now that I’m a reader, I have to laugh at that “coverage” – NO ONE who has EVER given coverage professionally would ever write the crap that that douchebag wrote to me. In the competition season, readers are slammed with screenplays. Proper coverage takes me hours \u2013 especially if there is any kind of synopsis requested. If these readers have hundreds of scripts waiting to be read, there is no way they will be able to pay proper attention to your script to give it decent coverage. If you\u2019re looking for objective industry-standard feedback on your material \u2013 a great idea, especially before sending it out \u2013 find a reputable reader with professional reading experience (agency, producer, studio). Pay them for full coverage on your script. You will likely learn a ton \u2013 because you\u2019ll get a taste of how other readers will be covering your material when you submit it. <\/p>\n

Can I Submit to Multiple Competitions With Multiple Scripts?
\n<\/strong>Yes. Well, perhaps it depends on the requirements of the competition, but for an open screenwriting competition, such as the Nicholl, I\u2019d say submit everything. If you really want to participate in something, go for it. That said, here\u2019s a little trick \u2013 screenplays are bundled for the readers, so if you send in 4 submissions, it\u2019s likely they\u2019ll all be read by the same reader. I\u2019ve written before here that reading is completely subjective. It is. I had a number of multiple submissions, and once I\u2019d read that writer\u2019s first crappy script, it negatively predisposed me to the other submissions \u2013 even if some were better than the others. For example, there was one writer who submitted 4 scripts, and I read one first that I found a tad offensive and very poorly written. I saw that one of his scripts \u2013 the better one \u2013 was placing in some competitions. Personally, I\u2019d assumed that maybe those other readers hadn\u2019t gotten 4 of his horrible scripts together but had maybe just gotten one very mediocre script on its own, so it looked better. I wouldn\u2019t submit your scripts together, but as separate entries \u2013 that way, you will be more likely to get different readers. Or, perhaps it\u2019s possible to request from the contest administrator that they can manually assign them to different readers \u2013 but that would be a pain for them, so best to just send them in at different times. That aside, know your audience. For example, if you\u2019re submitting to the Warner Bros Writers Workshop, they\u2019re looking for either drama or sitcom writers. To submit one of each won\u2019t help you \u2013 it will make you look unfocused. <\/p>\n

Submit Early<\/strong>
\nScripts oftentimes come in slowly in the beginning and then as the season ramps up readers are slammed. A reader might only get assigned 20-50 scripts for a several week period, but then will get several hundred due within 2 weeks once the deadlines get closer. I can say that I will pay a lot more attention to a script if it\u2019s in a pile of 20 as opposed to a pile of 100. The earlier you can submit, the better for you. Try to avoid being in the 100+ pile. <\/p>\n

The Bottom Line<\/strong>
\nCheck your expectations. I’d say if you’re placing within the top 10%, you can be assured your writing is somewhere in the ballpark. It\u2019s not many people who have their career break right off winning a competition. In fact, a friend was telling me recently that she met a Nicholl finalist who wasn\u2019t working afterward. That\u2019s a little disheartening \u2013 if a Nicholl winner isn\u2019t working, who is? However, it is still a great way to get your name out there. I do think to some degree it depends on the material you\u2019re writing. If an agent or manager sees your logline or title and it sounds commercial or high concept, they might call you \u2013 and then you have a foot in the door. That said, I think the movie business is really about sticking with it. There are a number of previous CineStory winners and semi-finalists who are now working \u2013 and very successfully so. However, it\u2019s taken them years to do it. But, it can be done. <\/p>\n

I plan to interview several people who\u2019ve either won or placed at any level in several of the major competitions and find out what the result was for them. I\u2019m going to pursue several interviews over the next few months and post them so you can have a better sense of what the specific outcome might be. <\/p>\n

Also, MovieBytes <\/a>is a great resource for information on competitions. <\/p>\n

Good luck, and let me know if you have any other questions!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jamie asks: So, I\u2019m just starting to get familiar with the world of screenwriting competitions, and I\u2019m assuming they\u2019re not all created equal. Are there any drawbacks to entering more than one (several even) with the same script? It seems like some contests might require that you don\u2019t submit your script to any other contests? […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59,120,1],"tags":[72,63,70,71,73,23,3,4,13,31,15,69],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.screenwriter-to-screenwriter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.screenwriter-to-screenwriter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.screenwriter-to-screenwriter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.screenwriter-to-screenwriter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.screenwriter-to-screenwriter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=530"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/www.screenwriter-to-screenwriter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":959,"href":"http:\/\/www.screenwriter-to-screenwriter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530\/revisions\/959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.screenwriter-to-screenwriter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.screenwriter-to-screenwriter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.screenwriter-to-screenwriter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}