Screenplay Search Screenwriting Competition
Screenplay Search
Contact
4211 Laurel Canyon Blvd.
Suite 229
Studio City, CA 91604
Web:
Click here
Email:
screenplaysearchcompetition@gmail.com
Contact: Zoe Larson, Assistant
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(3.5/5.0) |
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(4.6/5.0) |
Feedback: |
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(4.5/5.0) |
Signficance: |
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(2.9/5.0) |
Report Cards: |
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Have you entered?
Submit a Report card
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Categories
Objective
We are a group of story analysts based in Los Angeles. We're looking for talented screenwriters and will show winning scripts to producers, agents, and managers in LA and New York.
Deadline/Entry Fees
The 1st of each month.Entry fee: $50
Notification: 30 days after contest deadline.
Rules
Screenplays must be correctly formatted, between 85-140 pages, any genre. We will accept Final Draft or PDF documents.
Awards
We offer feedback to each contest entrant--not full script coverage, but a few lines of brief feedback.
The winner will receive full coverage of their screenplay, and we will show the script to producers, agents, and managers in LA and NY.
Screenplay Search
Contact
4211 Laurel Canyon Blvd.
Suite 229
Studio City, CA 91604
Web:
Click here
Email:
screenplaysearchcompetition@gmail.com
Contact: Zoe Larson, Assistant
Report Card |
||
Overall: |
|
(3.5/5.0) |
Professionalism: |
|
(4.6/5.0) |
Feedback: |
|
(4.5/5.0) |
Signficance: |
|
(2.9/5.0) |
Report Cards: |
|
|
Have you entered?
Submit a Report card
|
Categories
Contest Comments
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Screenplay Search Screenwriting Competition
Contact
4211 Laurel Canyon Blvd.
Suite 229
Studio City, CA 91604
Web:
Click here
Email:
screenplaysearchcompetition@gmail.com
Contact: Zoe Larson, Assistant
Report Card |
||
Overall: |
|
(3.5/5.0) |
Professionalism: |
|
(4.6/5.0) |
Feedback: |
|
(4.5/5.0) |
Signficance: |
|
(2.9/5.0) |
Report Cards: |
|
|
Have you entered?
Submit a Report card
|
Categories
Contest News
MovieBytes Interview: Deborah Baxtrom
An interview with Deborah Baxtrom regarding the Screenplay Search Writing Competition.
Q: Who sponsors this contest, and what is their background in the industry? When was the contest founded?A: Screenplay Search was founded in 2008 by me, Deborah Baxtrom. I have a MFA in screenwriting/directing from Columbia University in New York City. I currently live and work in Los Angeles as a screenwriter, with two feature projects in development. Both have producers and directors attached. I'm also writing on an indie feature that I plan to direct.
Q: What role do you play personally in the adminstration of the contest?A: Actually, Jordan Abramson runs the day to day administration of the contest. He works hard and does a great job of organizing the entries, responding to entrants, and sending the scripts out to our stable of readers. The readers -- who are all excellent, working writers and story analysts -- read and score the scripts. The scripts are scored by two different readers, and those with the highest scores advance to the semi-finals. The readers then read the semi-finalist scripts (different ones than them read before) and score them. Those with the highest overall scores are the finalists. Jordan I and read the finalist scripts and decide the winners. I decide the grand prize winner.
Q: Have any of the winning scripts from the contest been sold or produced?A: Yes, we've had some successes. Jim Patton and Dwayne McKenzie won in the Comedy category in 2009 with their script POWER TRIP. As a result of their win, they signed with management (John Tomko of Rain Management Group). Also, our grand prize winning script in 2009, THE MOJO HAND (also winner in the Period category), sold to Reversal Films. The writers on that script are Marshall Hopkins and Jarad Matula. I can't say for sure if the sale was a direct result of winning our contest, but it certainly didn't hurt, and we clearly picked a winner.
Q: Who judges the early rounds of the competition? What are their qualifications? Who judges the final rounds?A: As noted above, our readers are working screenwriters and/or story analysts in Los Angeles. They've worked for many different companies, including Showtime, SyFy, Promark, etc. We have eight readers that we work with regularly, and several back up readers. I judge the final rounds.
Q: Do the early-round judges read the entire script, or do they stop after a certain number of pages?A: We require our readers to read the entire script. You can't really get a clear idea of how good a script is if you just read the first few pages. That wouldn't be fair to our entrants.
Q: Are the judges looking for any specific type of script? Are scripts of a certain genre more likely to do well?A: We select winners from seven categories: Comedy, Drama, Rom Com, Sci-fi/Fantasy, Period pics, Action/Thriller, and Family. This gives the writers more chances to win. Then we select one of the category winners as the grand prize winner. No particular genre has an advantage. It just depends on the quality of the script.
Q: What do you do promote your winning writers, and to publicize their scripts?A: We have relationships with several industry professionals, including Jeff Belkin (manager) and J. Todd Harris (producer, Branded Entertainment). There are several other managers and directors who have first look, but would rather not be named here. If none of these are a match for a script, we do a wider promotion. We send out the loglines of our winning scripts -- in all categories, not just the grand prize winner. We usually get people asking to read the scripts this way.
Q: What advice can you offer to writers entering your contest?A: Write a good script! Present it in a professional format. Make sure you have an interesting main character, and supporting characters. Structure is important as well. I suppose, for any writer, the cardinal sin is to bore your reader, so be sure you have an entertaining, tightly written story. And show, don't tell. Scripts with a lot of expository dialogue are never as engaging as a script with dynamic visuals. Dialogue should be natural and reveal character, but it should never be used to "tell" the story.
Posted Monday, September 13, 2010
Screenplay Search Screenwriting Competition
Contact
4211 Laurel Canyon Blvd.
Suite 229
Studio City, CA 91604
Web:
Click here
Email:
screenplaysearchcompetition@gmail.com
Contact: Zoe Larson, Assistant
Report Card |
||
Overall: |
|
(3.5/5.0) |
Professionalism: |
|
(4.6/5.0) |
Feedback: |
|
(4.5/5.0) |
Signficance: |
|
(2.9/5.0) |
Report Cards: |
|
|
Have you entered?
Submit a Report card
|
Categories
Submit Report Card
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First-time user? Register now to receive FREE email contest updates, news, results, deadline reminders and more. Rest assured, information submitted here is held in strict confidence. MovieBytes never sells or in any way distributes email names or addresses. We promise!