Managed And Judged By Coverage, Ink

The 2010 Revised Cyberspace Open Scene-Writing Competition

Updated Rules And Release  (rev. 10/03/09)

To enter: scroll down to the bottom of this Rules and Release file.

Important: You may enter more than one scene by purchasing two or more entries.  But you must submit only one scene per entry, in one of the formats indicated below.  DO NOT include any images in your submission. 

General rule: No Second Chances for your mistakes.  In 2010 Round 1, our attempts to help writers who had failed  to either submit in a readable, accepted format or who failed to identify themselves on the title page of the file cost so much time that we ran out of time and were unable  to help many who were affected by technical glitches in the system.  We were simply overwhelmed by failures to submit in the correct  format (Rule 9) and failure to have the first page of the file be a title page with the necessary information (Rule 10).  It is now your sole responsibility to ensure that the file is readable in Word 2003 (.doc or .rtf) or Adobe Reader. 

General rule: you are responsible for knowing and adhering to these rules. If you do not understand the rules or accept full and sole responsibility for adhering to them, do not enter the contest.

1) Deadlines are absolute for you but may be revised by the Competition.   All submissions must be submitted online by the prescribed methods, and must be submitted no later than the deadline day and hour.  The Creative Screenwriting Cyberspace Open Scene-Writing Competition reserves the sole right to extend the deadline or to choose any other remedy which includes a full refund of the entrance fee in case of technical delivery problems.  See Rule 5 for your rights in case of a rule or deadline change.

3) Writing partners may enter together.  Each partner must be an individual at least 18 years of age.  All partners must be identified per Rule 10 on the cover page. 

6) Original, unproduced work.  Other than the fact that the premise and possibly characters are provided by the Competition, submitted scenes must be the unproduced, unoptioned, and wholly original work of the writer(s). There must be no dispute about the ownership of submitted scenes or the writers’ right to submit the scene.  Entrants may not use characters or any other copyrighted material owned by others.  

Use of a character or other intellectual property owned by any third party, other than premises or characters provided by the Competition for the purposes of the scene, shall be cause for automatic disqualification without refund. 

7)  Multiple entries are allowed ($12 each), but one submission only for each entry.  You may enter more than once.  Each entry must be by the posted  deadline.  You will be given an account number for each entry.  You may submit only once for each entry. If you submit more than one draft under the same account number, the Competition has the right to (a) disqualify all your entries with no refund or (b)  take the first submission as the final submission.    

8) Nonprofessionals only.  Writers of submitted scenes must not have earned more than $8,000 (in cash or other consideration) for writing services for film or television. Furthermore writers must not have won a fellowship or writing Competition that includes a “first look” clause.

9)  Format and English language.  Scenes must be in English, text only, with no images, in one of these electronic formats only:  PDF, Microsoft Word, or RTF format. Movie Magic and Final Draft users: save and send your scene in PDF format.  If you do not know how, the instructions are at the web sites of these vendors.   Do not expect us to tell you. DO NO SUBMIT IN MICROSOFT WORD 2007 ".DOCX" FORMAT.  BE SURE TO CHECK YOU FILE FOR READABILITY IN THE PERMITTED SOFTWARE PROGRAM.  You will be immediately disqualified if your file is not readable.  We do not provide ANY technical support, including the answer to the question,  "How do I save my file in (format)?"   It is one of the real-world conditions of this contest that you must know or learn that on your own.

Adhering to this rule is very simple on your part.  The contest is run on a very tight schedule.  The 2010 Round 1 proved that it is very time-consuming for us to notify entrants of these mistakes.  You need to get it right.  You are solely responsible and solely to blame if you do not have a proper title page as the first page of your submission.  The title page may not be in a separate file.

Our attempts to help 2010 Round 1 submitters who ignored this rule used up most of the time we had set aside to deal with all problems. As a result, these writer failures made it impossible to help a significant number of contestants whose difficulties were not their own fault. Then we were blamed  for failing to act quickly enough on other problems. Not again.   Either get this part right, or you are disqualified, and you will not hear from us until after the Screenwriting Expo. If you cannot accept sole responsibility for submitting with a correct title page and in an accepted format, do not enter the contest.

10)  First page of submission must be a title page with writer's writers'  identity. 

The submitted scene file must have as its first page a cover page containing ALL of the following information: (a)  the order number or at least the first five digits of the account number of the submission; (b)  the name(s) of the writer(s), one of which must be the name given in the shopping cart at the time of entry; and (c) the writer's or writers' email address(es), one of which must be the email address given in the shopping cart at the time of entry.   Failure to provide all of the above information will result in automatic, immediate disqualification with refund.  There will be no appeal, no opportunity to re-submit, and the only notification you receive will be the emailed refund notification.

The purpose of this rule is to be able to match the scene with the author(s).  This is very simple on your part.  The contest is run on a very tight schedule.  The 2010 Round 1 proved that it is very time-consuming for us to notify entrants of these mistakes.  You need to get it right.  You are solely responsible and solely to blame if you do not have a proper title page as the first page of your submission.  The title page may not be in a separate file.

Our attempts to help 2010 Round 1 submitters who ignored this rule used up most of the time we had set aside to deal with all problems. As a result, these writer failures made it impossible to help a significant number of contestants whose difficulties were not their own fault. Then we were blamed  for failing to act quickly enough on other problems. Not again.   Either get this part right, or you are disqualified, and you will not hear from us until after the Screenwriting Expo. If you cannot accept sole responsibility for submitting with a correct title page and in an accepted format, do not enter the contest.

11) One Scene, 3 to 5 pages, equal to about 3 to 5 minutes.  Other than the cover page (See Rule 10), the scene must conform to Hollywood script format.  We do not advise you on Hollywood script format; please do not ask.  It is one of the real-world conditions of this contest that you must know or learn that on your own.  Each page must equal about one minute.  Length must be no less than three pages and no more than five, plus the cover page. 

12) Our employees and contractors banned.  Employees, contractors, or immediate family members of principals of Coverage, Ink., Creative Screenwriting, The Screenwriting Expo, and their parent company Inside Information Group, Ltd. may not submit scenes. 

13) Your responsibility to understand rules.  Please read and understand these Rules and Regulations. Failure to adhere to The Competition guidelines will result in disqualification and forfeiture of entry fee.

14) Judging and Scoring.  Unless revised, each of four judging criteria is worth 25% of your total score.  Scores will be on a zero to 100 points basis.  Thus each criterion may be as high as 25. Judging will be performed by trained readers and industry professionals. The finalists’ scenes will be read by industry professionals. The decisions of the official Coverageink.com Judges will be final.

15) The Competition may substitute alternative prizes of equal or greater value in place of previously announced prizes other than cash prizes.

16) Refunds in limited circumstances. Entry fees are nonrefundable except as provided for in these rules.. There will be no exceptions.   Refunds of 100% will be provided (a) to an individual requesting a refund under the terms and deadline in rule 5 above; or (b) to an individual if the electronic delivery system and its backup system fail to accept, or prevent submission of, that individual's scene; or (c) to all entrants in the unlikely case that the submission technology fails or the competition is canceled. Contest management MAY, at its sole option, provide additional remedies, such as scoring the scene or coupons for products.

17) Questions regarding The Competition should be directed to: addresses provided on the contest home page.

18)  The only official prize list for The Creative Screenwriting Cyberspace Open Scene-Writing Competition is the prize list at http://screenwritingexpo.com/writingtournament.prizelist.2010.html.  Any other prize list, such as in an email blast or on another page, is an informal, non-definitive summary.

19) All U.S. winners will be responsible for their own U.S. income tax withholding.  As required by law, withholding will be done and  forwarded to the IRS for contestants outside the U.S. 

20) Important: submit on time, once only per entry, in one of the formats indicated below.  DO NOT include any images in your submission. You will be disqualified without a refund if you do.

21)  Immediate Disqualification Without Refund For Verbal Abuse:  Yes, you DO have the right to complain about problems in a civil manner.  However, we disqualified two 2010 Round 1 entrants after repeated verbal abuse of our staff or contest management.  After that experience, we will not wait for "repeated." Any entrant who engages in what we, in our sole judgment, determine to be verbal abuse will be disqualified immediately without refund.   But raising your voice to a member of our staff for 15 minutes on the phone is abuse. Calling contest management names or engaging in personal disparagement will also get you disqualified with no refund.

22)  No tech support whatsoever on any software or systems not licensed by us. It is your sole responsibility to know how to use a browser, how to use and properly save a file in the software program of your choice, and any and all other aspects of software or the Internet.  The upload function IS software we have licensed. We have provided for backup submission by email.  DO NOT send  from a "@yahoo.com" email address. It is our experience that it sometimes or always does not work.  If you try and fail, here is the technical solution: sign up for Gmail.  Other technical solutions:

             (a) If you go to to the upload page a second time,  REFRESH/RELOAD the page in your browser. We heard from several contestants who blamed us because the entry page in their browser was an old page.  It is YOUR responsibility at ANY web site you visit to empty the old page out of YOUR browser's cache. 

             (b) Renaming the file extension of your scene file such as renaming it from ".doc" to ".docx" does not work.  Some entrants did try this with Word files. Sorry, that will get you disqualified.  Microsoft provides instructions on the web on how to overcome this problem with .docx -- a problem created solely by Bill Gates and his minions.  We WILL NOT give you a second chance if you send a".docx" file.  Here are two pages describing solutions if you have Word 2007:

http://www.mydigitallife.info/2008/11/25/how-to-change-default-file-saving-format-from-docx-to-doc-in-word-2007/
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc178949.aspx

             (c) Our fault, your solution: The FTP upload system we subscribed to worked every time we tested it (about 200 files, including very big ones) and then did not work for a startling number of entries.  We have no idea why, and we  suspect that asking the vendor will be met with the same  horse hockey about reliability that we received before signing up.  Our solution: we will look for and test another vendor. Your solution: We have altered the instructions to say DO send a backup copy via email.   

23)  Immediate response is not among the contest terms. Management reserves the sole right to respond to problems and provide remedies after the Screenwriting Expo is over.  We will do everything possible to respond as quickly as possible.  However, the labor involved in judging this contest, combined with the hundreds of email per day in the weeks before the Expo, are likely to make it  impossible to respond to a personal email n a timely manner. DO NOT ENTER THE CONTEST if this is unacceptable.