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As part of the upcoming screenwriting expo I'm attending, a contest was offered to those who wished to participate. Basically, you'd write three five minute scenes (one page normally equals about one minute of screen time) based on the premise that they supply you.

In the first round, the premise was emailed on a Friday night and contestants had until Monday morning to submit their entry. If you make it past the first round, the next premise would be emailed on a Thursday night and everyone has until the following morning to come up with something. Those good enough to make it to the final round would be emailed a premise on a Saturday morning and have 90 minutes to complete a scene.

So I dashed something off and made sure it was there by Monday morning.

It took about a week, but I finally got my score (based out of 100 possible points) this past Saturday.

It's the title of the post.

Now, it's not bad, but I highly doubt I made it to the second round with that. Actually, the score didn't bother me so much as did the accompanying comments. There was nothing terrible or anything to really fret over, but when I read something like "The characters are varied but a bit hard to believe and become invested in" and "We're a little confused as to who the characters are and what's going on between them", I get a little perplexed.

If you take a random five minute scene out of any film or TV show, how are you supposed to determine immediately who the characters are and what their motivations might be, much less get invested in them? I've seen many productions where I stuck with it just because I was curious and it didn't pay off...or vice versa (in the case of some shows where I gave them a second chance and they proved to be better based on more information down the line).

Granted, I'm fully aware that my scene wasn't reinventing the wheel or setting the world on fire, but I guess I'm just curious as to how they're judged. And, if they want something different from a scene (like say, an opening scene to establish the characters), wouldn't it behoove them to say that upfront?

Anyway, I didn't let it deter me from continuing to pursue what I want to do. Of course I was a bit let down, but living in my shoes, one kind of gets used to that...lol. I can take criticism because, in the end, it makes me want to be better at what it is I do.

So we'll see what happens when I'm out there. Hopefully no matter what happens, I can take some positive things away from it and build upon that.

Because, honestly...I really have little interest in many other facets of life in terms of career.

Believe me...I've sampled quite a few different ones and, after a while, they become monotonous.