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| Good competition results may not get you the 007 kind, but you may just find your lit agent that way. |
The goal of any screenwriter should be to see his/her story on the silver screen. If you want your screenplays to be bought, your stories to be produced - then tackle the people that make movies, production companies, networks, studios.
I'll tell you why screenwriting competitions were highly valuable for me when I started out ... they charged me, they pushed me - and, when I qualified for quarters and semis and finalist places - they made me feel good. So is that worth spending entry fee upon entry fee? To get a bit of a feel good vibe? Nope - of course not.
I entered several different competitions with my first four spec scripts. As a beginner I had no way of knowing whether those scripts were any good - and I had no access to anyone in the film industry. Friends liked my writing - but I craved professional input. When I received the first qualifying letters from competitions - they were like beacons to me. They signaled that I really was onto something. That, all by itself, made me push myself all the harder. On to the next script, the next deadline, write, write, write.
However, the far more tangible benefit was a different one. My semi-finalist letter from the Nicholl Fellowships got me my first agent. I copied that letter and walked it to dozens of New York lit agencies. The letter opened quite a few doors, the semi-finalist mention raised enough interest for agents to want to read my scripts - and a highly reputable agency ended up signing me exclusively shortly thereafter.
There you have it - if you think screenwriting competitions will lead to your brilliant script getting made - forget it. Ain't gonna happen. But if you're just starting out, if you want to gauge what others think of your writing (whoever they may be behind those contests), if you're looking for an agent ... well then a few of the most respected screenwriting competitions just may be worth your time.
1 comment:
I think the competition advantages are: deadlines, professional feedback, objective criticism (my mom likes it is not), script counseling for minimum cost... certainly depends on competition, but there are quite a few that are substantially well-worth the entry fees and analysis costs.
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