About Champion Screenwriting Competition
After placing in the top twenty we were excited and after finding out that we placed first in the competition, we we're absolutely thrilled! The class that followed was fantastic. It helped fine tune our story and there is no doubt that we walked away with a much better script. Winning also helped us get a manager that we are currently working with. Winning the Champion Screenwriting Competition really is just the beginning!
Thank you so much for the fantastic opportunity you gave me and the other Champion Screenwriting Contest finalists to attend your Champion Lab this weekend. And what an immersion it was! I can truly say I got more out of those three days than I have in other writing courses that have lasted for months. The principles you teach are so essential to good screenwriting and you somehow managed to make them all so clear for me—I now know what I need to do to make my writing better. I really appreciate this amazing gift you've given to me. I will definitely be spreading the word about what a great contest this is—I feel so fortunate to have found Champion Screenwriting!
Jim Mercurio and his staff were incredibly friendly and responsive, and I received terrific comments and feedback. As luck would have it, Jim liked my script and connected me with a producer — and after a couple of weeks, the producer optioned my script and now it looks like my script will be produced later this year.
I am incredibly excited, and I have Jim and the Champion Screenwriting Competition to thank for all of this success. Oh, did I mention that my script didn't even win? That it didn't even make the finalist round? Imagine what Jim and his staff will do for you if your script wins!
I'm very impressed with Jim and Champion. The contest was run smoothly and updates were timely, and when my short was chosen as the winner, Jim called me personally to congratulate me and talk about possibilities for the short's future development.
Jim was then gracious enough to invite semi-finalists, finalists, and winners to attend his seminar for free in LA. It was a jam-packed, intensive, romp of a weekend — a wonderful group of people — full of Jim's zany and meaningful tips about theme, exploitation of concept, great openings, killer endings, and intensive scene analysis, among other things. Jim's greatest strength is his ability to analyze and dissect scenes at a molecular level.
Every writer had multiple scenes workshopped and received individual attention and critique from Jim, and his incisive comments helped each of us rethink and retool to make scenes work better.
Every writer also had scenes read live and critiqued by professional actors that Jim had invited — which was incredibly illuminating. I brought material from a feature I'd been working on and saw it come to life before my eyes in ways I didn't expect. When I submitted my short script to this contest, I could not foresee being in LA having this experience about additional material I'd been developing. It was one of the more meaningful experiences of my writing life. Thanks to all those who made it happen!
I look forward to a continued relationship with Jim and the folks at Champion — and hope they continue to champion new talent in the way they have helped me. Cheers to Jim and Champion!
Just wanted to let you know that, to my surprise and delight, the finished film of "Shoe" (which won second prize in your last Champion Screenwriting Competition) has been shortlisted for an Oscar in the Live Action Shorts Category. (We find out on January 25th if we make the final nominees - fingers crossed.)
Your early recognition of the script was a big step for me in getting the film made, so I just wanted to express my appreciation once more.
After being a Finalist in the 2009 competition, I came in Second in 2010 with a different script, Bank Robbing For Dummies. Not only was the prize money delivered immediately (the check was actually placed in my hand at the time of the announcements), all Finalists were invited to attend a free class taught by Jim Mercurio—a very informative and in-depth examination of writing for film. I’d highly recommend entering the contest, and if you become a Finalist, be sure to attend the class.
Read the piece Jim Mercurio wrote about The Edge for Creative Screenwriting.This guy knows character and theme—among a great many other things—inside out and sideways. That article convinced me to make the pilgrimage to L.A. for Jim's workshop after my script made the finals of the Champion contest, and I was not disappointed.
Jim and his staff could not have been more welcoming. As detailed by others in these comments, the workshop, a three-day master class, was as lively as it was invaluable. Seeing a movie—or better yet, your own script— through Jim's eyes is like playing a round of golf with Arnold Palmer. Moves you never imagined are revealed, and techniques you thought you knew cold are plumbed to greater depths. And on the 19th hole — Kung Pao Kitty's on Hollywood Boulevard—Jim will replay the round with you over a steaming bowl of Mu Shu.
Jim's support continues beyond the contest, as the Champion staff assists us in taking our scripts to another level, and in getting them in front of the eyeballs that matter. To truly appreciate Jim's enthusiasm and generosity you must experience it firsthand, which I wholeheartedly recommend.
Having attended a Jim Mercurio seminar in the past and having read many of his Creative Screenwriting articles, I expected a lot from this contest, even though it was new. I was still surprised and very pleased at the professional quality and value of it.
Comments from the reader and follow-up by Jim showed they not only knew their craft at the highest level, but that they really cared about me as a writer and helping me market my script. Questions were answered promptly and fully.
Just when I thought I had received everything that was promised as a prize, more e-mails started coming in, each bringing a new prize, perk, or opportunity to get my script read. One script from the contest has already been bought! I know that my script will also get the best chance it can as well. What more can you ask from a contest?
Development Notes