Shriekfest
This is a little frustrating. A while back, I’d asked Denise Gossett, the founder/director of the festival if we, the finalists, could get contact info on the judges who read our work so we could follow up, etc. Denise told me (and I’m paraphrasing) that we’d have to wait a couple of weeks as the festival was swamped and all that goodness. I had also asked if we could see the judges’ feedback on our scripts. She had a similar response. I got an unrelated announcement from her today. Considering the date, I thought hey, it’s been a couple of weeks isnce the festival, good time to query about my concerns, right? The answer to the judges’ feedback issue is that in a few days, yes, we’ll get the notes on our work. The answer to contact info on the finalist judges is no.
Huh?
But didn’t Denise say that after the festival was over, after a couple of weeks, we could get contact info on the judges so we could follow up?
Yes.
The answer this time was that she could only give out such info if said judges had requested we contact them.
Now I’m not calling Denise Gossett a liar, but…
I asked her at the post-awards ceremony party if we could get the contact info for the judges so we could follow up, and this is apparently the answer I got:
“Yeah, Denise told me in a couple to three weeks, she should have all that info ready. I think I’ll wait till the penultimate or last weekend in Oct to ask her about contact info.” –Me
This was part of correspondence I’d had with a fellow finalist on the night of the awards ceremony. The interesting thing here is that I have no e-mail with Denise that says the same thing. So, if I were to ask about this, she could easily say that she never communicated that she’d give out judges’ contact info, which, via e-mail, is true. My question then is, why did she give that impression at the party?
The answer is simple. She was being polite and political. She had no incentive to tell me the truth, that if we were not contacted directly by her or a finalist judge that that was it. And I’m not saying that Denise is a conniving woman. I’m sure a good bit of what was going on was that it was a party. But the fact remains that an impression had been made.
The reason I find this frustrating is that it’s exactly the same behavior as what the Fade In Awards and other contests and festivals have done. The Fade In Awards has made a couple of very misleading claims. 1 has been that they have a very A-list advisory board. The implication being that the finalists and winners of their contest will be read by said board. Now, I understood that that was not the case at all, but I corresponded with many finalists who did get that impression. So the information was not communicated clearly enough for all to understand. 2, it says that 1 of the prizes is that you get your script covered by a WGA-credited writer. Technically, this is true. What they don’t tell you is that the writer, Allen B. Ury, is on their staff and only has 1 or 2 credits (And they aren’t Terminator and Terminator II). So they’re not lies with a capital L, but they aren’t exactly straight-forward. Why not? Because if their ad copy read: “All these A-list writers we mention don’t gie a shit about your script because they’re busy A-list writers who have careers to attend to, and that dude who does read your script, yeah, he’s just Allen. He works with us. And there’s a reason you’ve never heard of him.” No one would enter.
“Anton, there will be more people interested…I get contacted all year round and I’ll be sure to send their info your way….” –Denise Gossett
So there we are. The very indicative thing about this is that on Shriekfest’s site, they plaster all over the place the finalist judges. Some of the companies are quite reputable. These companies were 1 of the few reasons I entered the contest. Obviously Denise can’t promise that every script the companies read they’ll want to take on, but it ultimately is a bit of a sale.
Now, maybe no one was interested in my script, but I find it additionally interesting that the only company who requested to read the finalists right after the festival was NOT 1 of the finalist judges. In fact, Denise was a bit surprised by their interest.
“Hey guys! I received this email and thought it might interest you. I don’t know them, so do your due diligence.” –Denise Gossett
The point is that it’s all bullshit. Shriekfest never had any intention on giving out contact info to us finalists. The finalist judges might be interested in us, but since there were about 30 finalists, unless they were really turned on, that’s a bit of a crapshoot. The 1 guy who was interested in us this soon had nothing to do with the festival. And the more time that passes from the actual festival dates, the less relevant our status becomes.
It’s all bullshit.
Leave a Reply