Scene and Pitch Competition
There are plenty of good reasons why scene writing and learning how to pitch are crucial to your craft and career, but there is a simple reason we added this competition. Because it’s fun. It’s fun to read, and it’s fun to write. We want to meet more writers and have more excuses to hang out with them during the Los Angeles Champion Lab or with the online scene writing class or even one-on-one.
Sometimes a full length script is a multiple-year odyssey, but now you can whip out your best three scenes or something brand new to show off your voice, or take a few screenplay ideas, throw them against the wall and have us help you make one stick.
Pitches
Our goal is to help a writer turn an amazingly clever idea into an amazingly polished script. What will the winner owe us? A smiling picture of themselves holding the big check from Warner Bros. or the little contest check from Champion. That’s it. Hey, our fingers are crossed for the big sell, but we want to be realistic. You know the Hollywood fairytale of the aspiring writer who sells a script based on an idea over lunch? Sadly, in this spec market, that’s not just a fairytale, it’s a myth.
There are no shortcuts to success in Hollywood, but we want to champion your idea, so we are giving away more than $500 total to the top four pitches. The overall winner will receive a development package worth more than $3,000 that includes feedback from story analysts and a manager to help them write the script.
You’re probably thinking, “What the heck is a pitch?” Good question. And good news. For our purposes, a pitch is anything you want it to be. This is a freeform category where writers have a chance to quickly tell us a high-concept idea for a screenplay.
Entrants have up to three pages in any combination of formats including synopsis, treatment, logline, outline, beat sheet, prose, dialogue, or “scriptment” to hook our attention. We will allow you to cheat an 11 point font, but keep in mind that a tight one-pager is just as likely to win as a 3-page step outline. We are looking for a story that sells itself quickly – it’s obviously a movie waiting to be written.
Scenes
Here is an excerpt from the book proposal that landed Champion’s Jim Mercurio a deal with Linden Publishing for the first-ever screenwriting book focused solely on scene writing:
Let’s be honest, no one comes out of a movie talking about structure. What audiences love and remember about a movie are the scenes. Marlon Brando in the backseat of a cab in On the Waterfront giving his “I coulda been a contender” speech. Meg Ryan’s fake orgasm in Katz’s Deli in When Harry Met Sally. In Superbad, Jonah Hill professing “I love you” to his friend Michael Cera by touching his nose with a “Boop.” And who can forget the climactic scene in Dirty Harry when he holds a .44 Magnum—“the most powerful handgun in the world”—to the killer’s head and asks, “Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?”
Jim is hosting a private online class for at least the top ten semifinalists in the scene category. We will give away $750 total to the winners of the Best Comedy Scene, Best Dramatic Scene, and Most Audacious Scene.
If paragraphs are the building blocks of fiction, then scenes are the building block of a screenplay. A scene is a short chunk of story that is unified by time and space. For this contest, scenes must be in standard screenwriting format (12 point courier) and five pages or less, not including the (optional) title page. If writers need to present additional information to allow their scene to be fully understood or appreciated, they are encouraged to include a brief setup. This introduction is not necessary and should be used sparingly because it will be included in the page count.
Scenes do not have to be from a completed script. Sketches or short films would qualify if they are restricted to essentially one location.
Prizes
This is the inaugural year of the Champion Scene and Pitch Competition, so we have modest expectations. In general, we are a competition that adapts. We dig small and cozy but we also adhere to the idea of the more the merrier. We expect to invite some of the Scene Writing and Pitch semifinalists out to the Champion Lab in Los Angeles. And if we receive as many scenes and pitches as we do features and shorts, we will double the amount of cash we give out as prizes in the Scene and Pitch Competition.
| FEES AND DEADLINES |
Coverage/
Discount Jul 31 |
Late Aug 31 |
One Week Ext. Sep 6 |
WAB Ext. Sep 16 |
| Scene or Pitch* | $15 |
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$20 |
*Entry for Champion Scene and Pitch Competition only available via here at this site.
• Reminder: Scenes are five pages or less including (optional) introduction and Pitches are three pages or less.