The truth about screenwriting contests

Hey, it's Michael Jamin. Uh, today we're gonna talk about, uh, submitting your work to screenwriting contest and film contests and all that. And so are they good or are they bad? Here's what I know about that very little. I really don't. I don't know at all. I do know that the winners of those contests often, um, uh, draw attention from agents and managers and such. And so, and that sense if you win a contest, that could be really good for you because that person will see your script and say, okay, I'm now going to take a flyer on you and I'm going to help you open doors and so great that that can really help. And that's a wonderful thing to get out of a contest. So then the script winds up in a pile like of me, like showrunner, someone like me, someone who could possibly hire you.
And so when we're staffing for a show, not just me, but any show runner, you start from the top up. You, you hired the co-executive producer first, and then the supervisor cruiser, the people who get paid a lot of money, they get hired first because you know, you need people with experience. And then if there's money left over, hopefully there is, you might get something in your budget to hire a staff writer, some brand new someone with very little experience. And that's when your ma your agent or your manager puts that script in a pile. And someone like me will read it. And I'll have a pile of easily 30 scripts that people like that. And so often those are people that could be lately. The underrepresented people, people who don't really have a voice in Hollywood. So someone who grew up in the inner city and has an interesting story, or maybe someone who grew up in the country then went to the Marines and fought in the war.
And then now it was a writer. So those are interesting people, great backgrounds, and they could be helpful to have in our inner writers' room, but there they're going to be 30 of those people. So the one you're going to hire, there's only spot for one to hire. And so, and even by the way, even if you're not one of those people, that's okay too, because you know, you could have, you could still have a good story and interesting unique story, but we can only hire one. And so the one that gets hired is the one who knows how to write. So there are many people in that pile. They've already cleared that first hurdle of being good enough to get an agent, but now they have to get the second hurdle, which is people like me, that the show runner wants to know if you right.
They don't really, you know, your background is interesting, but can you write a story? Can you make me read, write something that makes me want to turn the page and find out what happens next? And if you can't do that, we're not going to hire you. We're going to hire that person who can, now you may think, oh, that's okay. I have an agent. The agent is going to push me again on something else. Well, no, the agent is going to open the door. They're going to put the script. They're not going to teach you how to do it. They don't know how to do it. They don't know how to write. That's not, that's not their specialty. They're going to open the door. And then they're going to put your script on a pile. Eventually after a couple of submissions, if you don't get hired, they're not going to fight for you.
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