posted 10-23-2000 03:48 PM            

This contest has been advertised for SIX MONTHS. There are over 2000 scripts that were submitted correctly and early. It is not TechSupport's fault you waited until the last day. That fault lies with yourself.

posted 10-23-2000 04:16 PM            

Yes, there are exceptions to the rule. Yes, there are going to be some good scripts that don't get in. But if these writers are really serious and really want to be writers, then there are other contests. In fact, aren't you talking about doing this one every year? These late people can take the next year to revise their work and make it truly a script to remember.

I hope people don't think we are trying to disclude them; that is the last thing we want. We are simply trying to make this contest fair for the people who followed the rules and did what they were supposed to. I feel for those people that didn't get in. I really do. But how many of those people didn't have ample knowledge of the contest's existence, or the deadline? Very few. As I said before, the writers that are really serious will press on. With or without this contest.

posted 10-23-2000 05:21 PM            

But I gotta say that I am beyond impressed with the job you guys and gals are doing. Really. Seriously.

But this sudden incessant whining is really, really annoying. A deadline is a deadline. As a writer, I've always made sure that my stuff was in well ahead of time, if for no other reason than it could be edited.

People were given plenty of warning.
People are well aware of the vaguries of the Internet. Well, if they weren't before, they are now.

They just have a submission for next year!!

posted 10-23-2000 05:50 PM            

Hmmm, I wonder if a patient needing a heart transplant to live, would ummm, let's say, wait until he was gagging for breath to call a doctor?? Hmmmmm.....u think?...maybe just take a few rolaids and figure he can wait it out 'til the last minute and maybe, just maybe, pick up one of those "extra" hearts lieing around in such great abundance at Hearts R Us drive thru!!

Guess they would think a heart would take priority, hence a writer, meeting the deadline...but then that's just my take, what would I know, I submitted back in the stone age...

I'm with you queenie...stick to your guns PGL!

posted 10-24-2000 02:23 AM            

All of us could, but I was too worried about this upload process (having never attempted anything like it before).

I'm sorry for all of those who missed out, but I am indeed addressing you by the proper term. "Those who missed out".

If it were me, I would be upset and dissapointed, but not at Project Greenlight. What they are doing here is amazing. I would have been pissed at myself. I'm not the type of person who hesitates to point the finger back at myself when I know that is where the blame lies.

So please, don't whine about it or get down on this groundbreaking concept. Join the boards, get everything out of it that you possibly can, and be better prepared for the next contest than any of us were this year.

posted 10-24-2000 07:38 AM            

However, I submitted my screenplay to Adobe FOUR HOURS before the deadline, which by anyone's estimation should have been enough time to simply upload a text file to a website. We were never told our scripts would have to be converted to PDF format -- with all the harping on industry standards, Greenlight could have mentioned that detail (if I missed it, then they didn't mention it clearly enough).

Every contestant had the right to expect that they could safely submit their screenplay several hours before the deadline. Saying they should have known better and harping on the importance of deadlines in the business is tantamount to blaming someone if they leave an hour early to make a 15-minute drive but get caught in dead-stop three-hour traffic because of a five-car pile up.

I'm not sure about the deadline extension issue, though obviously if I had missed it I would be seeking an extension too. I suggested elsewhere that Greenlight accept any scripts that were submitted to the Adobe site more than an hour before deadline, because those writers followede Greenlight's suggestion of not waiting until the last hour.

posted 10-24-2000 07:42 AM            

However, many of us did not already have scripts in place when the contest was announced that matched the requirements, ESPECIALLY with the very low million dollar budget. So Oct 22 became a deadline that I took very seriously, even sending my wife and baby out of town for a week to write full time every day.

I graduated from USC film school, so I know deadlines, and I design web sites for a living, so I know what crunch time can mean to an internet server. However, I join the complaining side on this issue as it took Adobe FOURTEEN hours to return my script.

I submitted it four hours before the deadline, which should have been plenty of time, even with a weak server processing the conversion. My files finally showed up the next morning.

When I realized that I wasn't going to get any help from Adobe (this was about two hours before deadline), I tried placing EVERY SINGLE PAGE of my script into PageMaker to try to export it into a PDF, but error messages sprang up like weeds. Of course, no technical support around at that time on a Sunday.

For all the people saying a deadline is a deadline, listen I MET THE DEADLINE. I could have finished my review in plenty of time, even given the fact that the PGL site was moving slow as a snail.

Yes, a deadline is a deadline, but for such a "hip, hi-tech" and highly publicized contest, you would think they would have set up some MIRROR SITES. Or they could have at least sent out emails and/or pop-up windows that said to start the process much earlier. All they said was "don't wait until the last hour" in order to get all the 'paperwork' done, not for the purposes of LAME SERVERS where free programming resides.

Someone will inevitably write that the contest did say they were not liable for any technical problems that might crop up. This is written into ALL online contest legal babble to protect the people putting it on.

Having said all this, do you think it could be possible to still let the people in who can prove that they started the process early enough? I have email replies from Adobe to back up my claims of starting well ahead of schedule. I would be satisfied if given my four hours back to complete my upload and self-review. I think that's fair.