Screenwriting : Contests by Thomas Barragan

Can it hurt to get your script out to a place (contest) that could potentially get you read by someone who could help you and your writing career? Go forth and enter.

I think you have to ask yourself "worth it for what?' Over the years I've won, placed and been a finalist in many "script" contests. It's good for the ego, so now I can say "I'm better than you" but so what. I've never had a winning script picked up for production or even representation. If that's your intention, I have to say that they are completely worthless. But they're great for the ego and I can honestly promote myself as an "award winning screenwriter". From the standpoint of self promotion, they have some value.

That depends on the contest and what you want to get out of them. As long as you keep your expectations reasonable they can be valuable.

For me they fall into three categories - Top, Practice & Maybe:

Top - Ones that will help launch your career: Nicholls, PAGE, Austin, etc.

Practice - Gives feedback and may still help launch your career: BlueCat, Slamdance, etc.

Maybe - Usually some compelling reason to enter: Low fee, genre specific, etc.

I've placed and even won a Practice and a Maybe. Once I've placed in a Top I feel it will be time to find an agent and/or manager.

Thank you for all the responses.

Anything that has the potential to give you a useful contact may be worth it, especially for somebody who doesn't live in Hollywood. Given the number of entrants for any given contest, especially the better ones, it's hard to say whether contests are the best use of your resources. I think one can only really do the cost-benefit analysis on a personal level.

So what would you--or anyone--do with the money if you didn't enter contests with it? What's a better way to spend the dough if your aim is to get better at screenwriting, get known, option, sell, get paid assignments?

Hookers and blow.

Eric, if your scripts have advanced at Austin, you may want to focus on making contacts. Perhaps through the various remote pitch opportunities e.g. Happy Writers, or pitch/screen-writing festivals, especially in LA or NYC.

There is also cold-calling agents, which is how a regular poster here broke in, which is relatively free.

If you feel your screenwriting needs improvement, you may want to purchase notes from somebody with Hollywood experience. Contest feedback is not very helpful for that. The only thing it's good for is checking on the quality read you got from the contest reader, which is generally not very impressive. I think contest feedback is kind of a rip-off frankly.

A win in the right contest can lead to bigger and better things, a win can also pay you in cash prizes and does no harm on the CV... gotta write something great to win though, so I'd concentrate on that first.

There are legitimate screenwriting comps and others (the majority) that are not. Make sure the ones you look into provide coverage and give a list of the actual prizes (not "prizes worth XXX amount of dollars"). Many are just fronts to take your money and provide nothing really in return.

Right on to ever'one but I simply LOVED Fiona's response. Mrr-ow.

As our fearless leader RB would say, only if they lead to something, if they will get you contacts and exposure with industry people. I hope I quoted you right, RB, if not, my apologies and hope this helps you, Thomas.