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2010 Cyberspace Open: The Rules
Preface: Have Fun!
But The Challenges Require A Few Rules...
This contest is meant to be fun. But to keep on schedule, to
be able to tell one scene from another, to provide you with feedback,
and to judge the scenes, we need to impose some rules.
General Rule:
It's About Learning To Work For A Producer
On The Producer's Terms And Deadlines
This contest is about learning to meet the demands of a movie or TV
producer. In this contest, we are in the role of the
Producer. Rightly or wrongly, a producer presumes that an
aspiring professional writer knows how to use a range of software,
beats or meets deadlines, follows key instructions, and acts
with decorum and respect at all times with the producer's staff.
A producer assumes that a deadline imposed on you is a firm deadline.
Waiting for the last minute can put you at risk of missing that
deadline, so it is often wise to submit early.
This contest is principally about the writing, but it is also about
meeting these challenges of getting the writing done and delivered and
being calm under pressure.
Here Are "The Rules" By Rule Number
1. Time Zone. All time
referred to are Pacific U.S. time.
2. Producer's decisions
final. Contest
management is acting in the rule of "Producer," and you are entering
this contest in the role of "Writer." As Producer, contest
management has sole authority to rule on
receipt, timeliness,
format, and other aspects of entries.
3. Prize List.
The prizes are as stated on the Official
Prize List
page. If there is any discrepancy in descriptions
of prizes
at other pages, the Official Prize List page prevails.
Genre Prizes.
The Cyberspace Open management may, at its
option, add
genre prizes or other special prizes to the contest.
4. Announcements And Notifications
At Web Sites Only. All formal Contest
notifications to contestants as a group will be made solely by posting
them at these locations:
You agree
by entering that:
- While scene
premises will be
sent by email just before they are posted, the purpose of such
emails is solely to reduce the traffic burden on the server and as a courtesy to
you;
- You agree not to
depend on email as the method of notification and that non-receipt of
an email notification is not cause for a refund or other consideration;
and
- If you do not
receive the courtesy email, it is your sole
responsibility, under pain of forfeiting your entry fee, to
visit one of the web pages above to
obtain the premise and submission email addresses; and
- Your failure to
enter the
contest, or any claim that you did not "receive" the scene premise, is
cause for forfeiture of your entry fee.
5. File Name And Cover Page Rule
5a. Filename
Rule:
The filename of your scene must be named this way
ordernumber.yourfirstname.yourlastname.ext
To illustrate: if your name is Jane Smith and the order number of your
entry is 59001 and your file format is Adobe PDF, then the
filename of your scene must be:
59001.jane.smith.pdf
Any combination of upper and lower case is
fine. Co-authors: use the name of the author who
paid.
We
strongly suggest:
create this filename and your cover page immediately when you register,
not later. That will save you from having to search for your
order number or this rule on deadline.
5b. Cover Page Rule:
You must include a cover page with
the following on it:
- Your name(s). If
there is more than one of you, please put all names on the cover page.
- Your email address.
You will not receive feedback if it is not on the title page.
No exceptions will be made to this.
- Your order number
that you receive when you enter.
- 2011 RULE CHANGE: A title is optional
for your scene. A good scene title might or might not help
you
advance; that depends on the judge. To add flair, you might want tothink of a cool title, but that is purely your choice.
6. Acceptable Formats. Submissions must be
in English and in movie scene format, using
12-point Courier font. The only acceptable file formats are:
- Microsoft Word
97-2003 files (*.doc extension)
- Microsoft Word
2007 files (*.docx extension)
- Adobe PDF file
(*.pdf extension)
Recommendation: write
your scene in a scriptwriting software system and save it as PDF.
Script
software system formats (final Draft, Movie Magic, etc.) are NOT
accepted for submissions.
Unreadable files or wrong formats:
If we cannot read your
submitted file, your entry will be disqualified. You will not
receive a second chance to submit. Please understand
that it is your
sole
responsibility to ensure that the submitted file is in a format
readable with Microsoft Word 2003 or 2007 or Adobe
PDF. Make sure your entry is readable before you
submit it.
NOTE
to Microsoft Works users: Microsoft Works is not
Microsoft Word. Microsoft offers a Works-to-Word converter at
this
page,
but we have no idea whether such a conversion will properly
retain scene format. That is your sole responsibility should
you
choose to write a scene with Works. We recommend against writing your
scene in Microsoft Works
Note
to Final Draft users: To learn how to save a Final Draft
file in PDF format so that it
includes the cover page, please to go the support link at finaldraft.com
and search the knowledgebase using the search term "Cover Page."
Look for the article on saving to PDF. Please also
see
Rule 11, "No tech or format support."
7. Submitting your scene(s). Your scene(s) must be submitted by the deadline. To submit a
scene, go to any of these three web pages at submission time to use the upload form:
If the system is slow, try another of these three pages. If the system
"hangs," fails
to deliver a confirmation page with a big blue "YES" on it, or delivers
a page with a big red "NO" on it, contestants must try again
at
least once. If the upload fails or hangs more than once, then send the entry via email
to
the backup email address which will be posted on the entry pages above.
Contest
management may, at its sole option, extend Round 1 deadlines for up to
30 minutes on the basis of earliest entrants receiving latest entry
time
if the number of entries exceeds or appears to exceed the maximum that
the delivery system can handle at one deadline.
8. Deadlines and Dates.
Contest dates and deadlines are as
posted on the contest home
page. Any other date or deadline conflicting with that
page, such as an erroneously posted date or deadline on another contest
page,
is void.
Your deadlines are absolute; no late submissions will be
accepted.
Deadlines will not be individually extended
for you. By entering, you agree that your sole
remedy in case of any system failure, including
a failure on our part, which prevents submission or receipt of your
entry, is
refund of your entry fee. No refunds will be given
for failing to enter.
You must retain proof of your attempt to send the
backup
entry email to us to receive a refund for a lost entry.
9. Refund is sole remedy.
The sole remedy for any failure other than a failure on your part,
including a
failure to receive or judge your sent entry, is the full refund of your
entry fee. You agree in entering that contest management is not liable for any
inconvenience, hardship, expense, lost time, or any other expense other
than your entry fee(s) for any reason, regardless of whether such
failure was caused by us, our staff or agents, you, third parties, the
Internet or Internet email systems or other causes or
sources. Any decision to forgo other activities,
change
your schedule, miss work, or otherwise inconvenience yourself to enter this
contest is purely your responsibility.
9a.. No refund if
scene is judged. If your entry is received and read by a
contest judge, you
agree that you will not be entitled to a refund for any reason,
including non-receipt of the feedback on your entry.
9b. No refund for
failure to submit.
If you fail to submit or attempt to submit a scene,
you will
not receive a refund. You must retain proof that you
attempted to
submit. The submission procedure provides that you must
attempt
to upload your scene, and if that fails, you must email it as an
attachment to the submission backup email address posted at the
submission page and the home page. Your record of this sent
email
is proof that you attempted to submit your scene.
10. Contact information.
All requests for refunds must be sent only to customer.service@creativescreenwriting.com,
not to any other contest manager. Refunds will be
made after contest deadlines have passed.
11. Limited right to
display your scene. Your entry or entries remain your
intellectual property.
However, by entering, you grant to us the following unrestricted,
permanent, and irrevocable rights:
(A) If you are a semifinalist, finalist, or winner or
genre winner, the right to send your entered scene to
producers, agents, managers, and others on our lists of entertainment
professionals, giving you full credit, without giving you an
opportunity to further rewrite or polish it; and
(B) If your scene is among the top 100
scores and
ties in Round 1, or if it is a genre prize winner or a finalist, the
right to post the text of your scene,
crediting you as author, at our web site as a sample of excellence in
this contest,
without giving you an opportunity to further rewrite or polish it; and
( C ) If you are a winner, the right to
videotape
readings your scene and post it at our web site for contest-judging and
other purposes, giving you full credit, without giving you an
opportunity to further rewrite or polish it.
12. No technical, writing, or format
support.The
contest management will assist with web site problems and file
uploading problems, but otherwise does not and will not provide any
technical support whatsoever on software, file formats, or how to
write a scene, other than information posted at this site.
No assistance whatsoever is provided on writing a scene other than the
guidance posted at this and supporting web sites. Requests for
personal assistance with file creation, file formats, writing, style,
proper scene format, or any other subject related to writing a scene
will not be honored. See the guidance posted and referred to in
contest pages.
13. Writing partners may
enter together. Each partner must be an
individual at least 18 years of age. All partners must be
identified on the cover page as described in Rule 19.
14. Original, unproduced
work. Other than the fact that the
premise and possibly characters are provided by the Contest,
submitted scenes must be the unproduced, unoptioned, and wholly
original work of the writer(s). There must be no dispute about the
ownership of submitted scenes or the writers’ right to submit
the
scene. Entrants may not use characters or any other
copyrighted
material owned by others.
15. Multiple
entries allowed and encouraged. Yo may enter more than
once. However,
each entry must be a separate shopping-cart transaction with
its own order number. Do not pay for two entries
in one shopping
cart transaction. If you do, you will receive only
one
order number and your second or additional entry/entries will be void.
16. Nonprofessionals
only. Writers of submitted scenes must not
have earned more than $25,000 (in cash or other consideration) for
writing services for film or television in the three years before the
contest opened.
17. Length.
Your entry must be one scene three to five pages long (not counting the
cover page). The action must take place in one
location or be continuous action in a series of locations, and it must conform to the premise provided for that
round.
Other than the cover page, the scene must be formatted in Hollywood
script format. If
a scene exceeds five pages of standard Hollywood script format using
12-point Courier typeface, it will be disqualified.
The contest management does not advise, consult, provide examples of,
or
assist entrants in any way on what constitutes Hollywood script
format. It is solely and wholly your responsibility to learn
it.
One of the real-world conditions of this contest is that you must know
or learn Hollywood script format on your own. However...
Writing Advice: there are many books, courses, DVDs, and other
resources to help you learn Hollywood script format. Other
than our
own DVDs
currently on sale for $19.95 each, Creative Screenwriting does not
endorse any one over any other. However, for your
convenience,
Coverage, Ink, which manages this contest for us, is making
its own 80-page Coverage Ink Spec Format
& Style Guide available for only $3.95 in
PDF format. Email info@coverageink.com
to request a copy.
18. Our employees and
contractors banned. Employees, contractors,
or immediate family members of principals of Coverage, Ink., Creative
Screenwriting, The Screenwriting Expo, and their parent company Inside
Information Group, Ltd. may not submit scenes.
Exceptions:
a writer who has written rarely for Creative Screenwriting
or CS Weekly or who has worked in a one-time or one-time-annually
capacity (such as one time in the past two years as a Screenwriting Expo on-site worker or volunteer) may be accepted
at contest management's option.
19. Right to modify rules;
your right to withdraw with refund based on
rule or deadline change. As The Creative
Screenwriting
Cyberspace Open Scene-Writing Contest is a unique Contest using
a unique combination of technologies, management reserves the right,
with notice given on the website only, to modify these Rules, the
deadlines,
methods of submission, and any other details to facilitate the smooth
and effective management of The Creative Screenwriting Cyberspace Open
or to correct or remedy a problem.
20. Judging and Scoring.
The judges are professional
Hollywood script readers and contest judges. Each scene will
be
given a score from zero to 100 by one judge based on
these four judging
criteria:
25% (up to 25 points) for structure
25% (up to 25 points) for dialogue
25% (up to 25 points) for style
25% (up to 25 points) for originality.
Thus a perfect Round 1 score would be 100
points.
Entry into Round 2 ("finalists") shall be on the basis of the highest
100 scores and
ties on Round 1.
The three winners will be chosen on the basis of the highest three
scores of Round 2.
Other than genre winners, there will be only three winners.
If there is a tie in score
for places in the finals, a contest manager will serve as a tiebreaker
judge, and each of the "ties" will be designated as "Runner
up."
The places of winners (first, second, third) will be decided this way:
- Actors
will perform a reading of each of the three scenes before a
camera/cameras provided by the Contest, which will be video recorded.
- The three videos
of scenes and the scene texts will be placed on the Internet for
viewing.
- Recipients of
our CS Weekly E-Zine (approx. 80,000) will be invited to vote for a
winner.
- Voting will take
place through an online survey system. The
three winning positions (first, second, third) will be on the basis of this vote. One vote will be allowed per IP address.
21. Feedback on your scene.
Your score and
feedback will be posted at the contest web site by order number.
In addition, if you provide your email address on the cover page
as required by Rule 5 above, we will send a single email with your
Round 1 score to you.
You must provide on the cover page an email
address which does not block emails from *@creativescreenwriting.com
and *@screenwritingexpo.com in order to receive your score and
feedback. If feedback is not received within 21 days of the announced results of Round 1, entrants may contact customer.service@creativescreenwriting.com.
The only remedy if a scene has
not
been read is refund of your entry fee after completion of the contest.
22. No verbal abuse of contest management and staff.
The contest management and staff is acting in the role of
"Producer" in this contest. New writers who are so foolish as to
verbally abuse a producer's staff or management are unqualified per se
to work in the entertainment industry.
This contest requires that you maintain decorum at all time in contacts
with the contest management, just as you would with a producer, agent,
or manager. Verbal
abuse of the contest management or staff is cause for disqualifying you
from the contest. If we disqualify you for
abuse, we will refund your entry fee, but we will also reserve the
right to ban you from future contests.
23. Release.
By entering this contest, you agree to the rules above and
execute the Release below:
Cyberspace Open Scene-Writing Contest
Release Statement
Writers
who apply to The Creative Screenwriting Cyberspace Open Scene-Writing
Contest (The Contest) agree to the following terms.
I attest that I have read and
understand and complied with the Rules
and Regulations of The Contest and that I am the author and sole
owner of all rights to the Material.
I
understand that due to the
nature of the Contest, it is possible and indeed highly likely that
other submissions will bear close resemblance to mine. I
agree to
abide by and not dispute a judge's decision on
the score
given to my entry; that I do not have the right to learn the individual
judge's name or how the judge arrived at the decision.
I agree
that any dispute arising between us shall be subject to binding
arbitration pursuant to the then effective Commercial Arbitration Rules
of the American Arbitration Association. The arbitrator will be someone
with at least 10 years of motion picture industry experience and shall
have the authority to award all appropriate relief, including equitable
or injunctive relief; provided, however, that the arbitrator is not
authorized to award punitive damages. The award issued by any such
arbitrator may be entered and confirmed as a judgment in any court of
competent jurisdiction. The state with jurisdiction over any disputes
relating to this Agreement is California, and the sole location for
proper venue is Los Angeles, California.
Furthermore,
I indemnify Coverageink.com, Creative Screenwriting, the Screenwriting
Expo, The Contest, and Inside Information Group, Ltd., their
associates, judges and sponsors against all claims, losses, expenses,
damages and liabilities, if I do not satisfy all of the The
Contest’s rules and regulations.
I understand that the
submission of the Material into The Contest
does not establish any fiduciary or confidential relationship between
us, nor is there one intended or created by reason of this letter
and/or submission of the Material. I have retained a copy of the
Material and agree that you shall not be obligated to return the
Material to me, and I release you from all liability if the Material is
lost, misplaced, stolen or destroyed. Furthermore, I understand that
it is our sole responsibility to register Material with the U.S.
Copyright Office and/or with the Writer’s Guild of America.
Cyberspace
Open Entry Fees, Deadlines, and Entry Links:
(All times are Pacific U.S. time)
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Midnight Wed. Feb. 15, 2011 -- Only $14.99 to Enter
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Extensions from this deadline are not guaranteed and would be at a higher price.
Key Dates in The Fall 2010 Cyberspace Open
(All times are Pacific U.S. time): |
- $14.99 Last-Minute Entry Deadline Midnight Feb. 15, 2011
- First premise posted on this web page Friday, Feb. 18, 2011, 5 pm..
- Deadline to send Round 1 scene to contest server: Mon. Feb. 21, 9 a.m.
- 100 (+ ties) Round 2 entrants announced: about March 21-24, 2011
- Round 2 premise posted Fri., April 1, 2011 at 5 p.m.
- Deadline to send Round 2 scene to server: Mon. April 4, 2011, 9 a.m.
- Finalists and genre winners named about: April 18-19, 2011
- Finalists' scenes videotaped by mid-May 2011.
- Voting by the writer community opens about June 4, 2011.
- Winners announced about 2 weeks after voting begins.
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Key Changes From Spring 2010 Contest:
1. Both the entry fees and the prize amounts have been slightly reduced.
2. Round 2 survivors now have an entire weekend to write their scenes rather than one day. |
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The Cyberspace Open Is managed for Creative Screenwriting by Coverage, Ink.:
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