As I mentioned in my last post, after doing some research, I entered my screenplay for Dig Down to three contests right away. All of them provided some level of feedback, most of them offering several different levels.
This abundance was a good dilemma to have, although it did make me think and really contemplate what to go with. As a for instance, one of the contests I entered, Santa Barbara Screenplay Competition, offered an entry for just the script, an entry where you received the judge’s notes and your score, an entry where you received a writer’s room analysis, an entry where you received academy analysis, and an entry where you received a live consultation and line notes.
It might be easy to say just go ahead and sign up for the most extensive feedback and coverage you can get, but each level of analysis provided has a cost to it. And while I felt very good about Dig Down‘s story as a manuscript, this is a whole other medium I had adapted it to, and one that I didn’t have that much experience with.
Judge’s notes and a score might provide the same level of feedback that the script needed to be polished for this form of entertainment that the live consultation did, and at a fraction of the cost.
So with that, I had to really assess what level I really needed at this stage in my screenwriting career, as new as it was. I felt it was important to get the most bang for my buck.
I ended up going with the following: for the Santa Barbara Screenplay Competition, I went with the entry where I would receive the judge’s notes and a score. I felt the score would not only be an honest and fair assessment of my script and myself as a screenwriter, but based on that score, I’d have a sense of how I fared against the other screenwriters who had not only entered, but a rough idea of where I was at when compared to all screenwriters, my reasoning being a score in the 50s would probably mean I had my work cut out for me, and a score in the 90s probably would mean I could get some interest when I started trying to option my script.
I also entered the Finish Line Script Competition, also receiving a guaranteed minimum number of pages of notes on my screenplay. The last screenplay competition I entered was the Page Turner Screenplays Contest. Just like Santa Barbara, this offered multiple levels of feedback, though not as extensive as Santa Barbara. And just like SB, I had a choice to make – go with the feedback option, where I would receive notes of my scripts, or…go with an option to have an extensive analysis of my script, over the phone with the lead judge of the competition.
It was a tremendous opportunity…but it was the priciest. By far.
But I ended up going with it.
I’ll go into my decision on why I went with that option, next time.