Update 1 (10:17 a.m. April 1) - Added thoughts about using text-speak.
Update 2 (10:45 a.m. April 3) - Added advice about including title.
Update 3 (10:37 p.m. April 3) - IMPORTANT - Character count down to 134 characters (not 135).
Twit-Pitch. You thought it was dead and buried forever. It wasn't! It just went through a few permutations. For those not in the know, Twit-Pitch is a Scriptshadow Event/Experiment whereby you, the readers, will pitch me your logline on Twitter in under 135 characters! The top 100-200 of these loglines will be chosen to move on to the next round, where you'll send me the first 10 pages of your script. The Top 20 of those First 10 will send me their entire scripts and from those I'll pick a winner. The winner will then be reviewed on the site.
Now I'll be the first to admit, this is an experiment. I have no idea if this will lead to finding a great screenplay or not. But I do know this: It will be fun as hell trying! And if you do get reviewed on the site, you'll guaranteed get reads around the industry. And if I personally really love your screenplay, I'll send it to my heavy-hitter contacts. So, here's how it's going to work.
1) Get a Twitter Account. You'll need one if you want to tweet me your pitch.
2) Follow me on Twitter. It's not required, but I'll be using Twitter to keep people up to date on the goings-on of the contest so it's a good idea.
3) You only have one tweet to pitch your logline, which means it has to be 135 characters or less. Twitter allows you 140 characters to tweet, but you'll need 5 of those characters for...
4) The hashtag - A "hashtag" is a virtual keyword to help me find your tweet, therefore it's ESSENTIAL that you include it in your tweet. It is marked by the "#" symbol right before the word you're hashtagging. This unfortunately means less characters to tweet your logline, but those are the breaks! The Scriptshadow Twit-Pitch hashtag will be "#tp12" (which stands for "Twit Pitch 2012.") So this would be how your tweet would look: "A global warming scientist travels back in time to save the iceberg that was hit by The Titanic #tp12." Edit - You NEED A SPACE BEFORE YOUR HASHTAG! If there's no space between the end of your logline and the hashtag, your logline won't show up!
5) @Scriptshadow - You do NOT have to put "@Scriptshadow" in your tweet. That's taken care of by the hashtag.
6) "Favorite" - I will "favorite" any logline I like. If you get favorited, you can send me your First Ten pages at carsonreeves3@gmail.com. (Being favorited will appear in your Twitter timeline. It's easy to see. Just make sure it's me who favorites you and not someone else).
7) Text-speak - Try not 2 use txt-spk. It's not an automatic disqualification. But it will be strongly looked dwn upon.
8) Title - No title is required in your pitch. But feel free to use it if you want.
9) First Place - The winner of the contest will be reviewed on the site and expected to post AT LEAST the first 15 pages of their script. However, I strongly recommend that the winner post their entire script. That's what happened with The Disciple Program. Since it was so easily accessible, everyone was able to read it right away and that's how the mayhem started!
10) Turnaround time - Turnaround time on the first round will be kind of long. After announcing the Top twit-pitches on the site, it'll take me a little over 2 months to read them, which is kind of good cause it will give you guys plenty of time to sharpen up those full scripts!
Rules
1) You can only tweet me one idea. Tweet more and you'll be disqualified.
2) You can have representation. But you CANNOT have a TV or Feature produced credit or have made more than $10,000 in a total screenwriting revenue (this doesn't count contest money. So if you've made $30,000 from Nicholl, you're still eligible).
3) Yes, it can be an adaptation.
4) Writing partners can only submit ONE pitch.
5) You can only tweet me between 2-4 pm Pacific Time next Saturday (April 7th). Any tweets outside of that timeframe will be disqualified. (note: Twitter allows you to schedule tweets. So if you're in a different time zone, look up how to do this and have Twitter tweet for you!)
6) Features only
7) It's free, so stop complaining!
Now keep in mind: THIS IS AN EXPERIMENT. I'm sure there will be questions and people pointing out flaws in the rules that I'll need to address. Check back here every evening starting Monday for updates/reminders to the rules/contest. Also, for those asking questions in the comments, I will not be able to answer them right away cause I'm leaving. Will be back to try to answer them later tonight or tomorrow morning though. Now, start working on those tweets!