Friday, May 12, 2006

TriggerStreet top ten!

I put up that 2.0 version of "Sheep's End" I finished a couple of weeks ago on TriggerStreet to see what the folks there thought.

The first version had settled in at about #930 out of the 2,500 or so scripts TriggerStreet has online.

The newer version has garnered seven randomly assigned reviews so far, and I've been waiting for it to hit double digits before mentioning the gist of any critiques here. After seven reviews, yesterday this version ranked around #400. Top 20% is nothing to sneeze at.

Today, "Sheep's End" found its way into TriggerStreet's top ten screenplays. The top ten on TriggerStreet are selected outside the standard ranking system, and generally come from the top 400 scripts. They stay in the top ten until knocked out by a competitor or a lack of credits (earned by the author's reviews). The top ten placing sounds more impressive than it is, but it's still an honour, and it's rare to get into that elite class after only seven reviews.

Reviewer #1 was the most enthusiastic, calling my screenplay "postively delightful" and expressing hope that it would get made. He liked how I kept Hawthorn a down-to-earth protagonist with continuous obstacles.

Reviewer #2 mostly tried to teach me how to write the English. You get those reviews on TriggerStreet every once in a while.

Reviewer #3 enjoyed my "subversive comedy", but felt my heroes' goals were not ambitious enough. He said I aimed "for a three star movie and hit the mark but there are five stars for the taking." Worth thinking about.

Reviewer #4 thought I "really brought these people to life... by mere moments that contained pages worth of information about them." He appreciated my "fantastic" dialogue and its "juicy subtext", but had a few questions about motivation. That was a big problem in the earlier draft, so I'll look at that again, if I take another whack at this. I may move on.

Reviewer #5 also really liked it, but questioned the stakes. He also questioned the fantasy elements. Fantasy is derivative by nature, and I tried to break that with a less fantastic plot. Still, it's more to chew on.

Reviewer #6 echoed the first: he wants to sees this on a screen one day.

Reviewer #7 didn't like my jokes, but still enjoyed the read.

There we go (and, yeah, as far as I can tell, all seven reviewers are male). I'll probably get two or three more reviews, but not from anybody who has $20 million to blow on a fantasy adventure. I'll keep you posted.

3 Comments:

Blogger shecanfilmit said...

Hey! That's really impressive.

May 12, 2006 1:44 AM  
Blogger Systemaddict said...

Good Stuff. Top ten is nothing to scoff at...

And yeah, there are plenty of people who are more interested in correcting English than offering a take on the story....

Damn no good know-it-alls...and their perfect thingy with knowing how to not badly write poor....heh.

James

May 16, 2006 5:19 PM  
Blogger Warren said...

Cool! Nicely done.

May 17, 2006 8:38 PM  

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