Friday, April 6, 2012

The Official 2012 Twit-Pitch Post!


Twit-Pitch is now over.
Check my Twitter Feed and click "favorites" to see everything I've chosen.  I won't have picked everything until tonight though.  Feel free to start sharing your favorite Twit-Pitches in the comments. I'll be choosing the final 5-10 Twit-Pitches based on the loglines you liked best.

Update: I have officially chosen 74 tweets . That means you, the readers get to choose up to 26 tweets to add to the list.  I'll be closely monitoring the comments section to see which pitches made the most noise.  And hey, if only 5 are talked about, then I'm only taking 5.  The number added will depend on the interest.


 "Chirp chirp. How the f&%k am I going to get my logline down to 134 characters???"

Welcome everyone.  Come one.  Come all.  To the first annual Scriptshadow Twit-Pitch Contest Experiment Extravaganza.  Where you, the hardworking unknown writer, tweet me your logline in 134 characters or less!  Now I know a lot of you Twitter newbies have been freaking out over this process. You're scared your tweet won't show or you won't know how to see it.  Bad news. I'm scared too. However, I came up with an idea.  You can test your tweets all day long if you want, just to make sure they work.  I'll only look at the ones from 2-4pm though.  Those are the only ones I'll count.  This way, everyone can make sure they're prepared.

Now how DO you see your tweet to make sure it's shown up?  Simple.  Well, not simple.  But it's doable if you have an IQ approaching 140.  Tweet your pitch, i.e., "When a pizza man is late for his delivery, he turns into a pizza."  Then, AFTER your pitch, you want to leave a SPACE and then this unique hashtag identifier: "#tp12" which stands for "Twit-Pitch 2012."  All in all, your tweet will look like this:

When a pizza man is late for his delivery, he turns into a pizza. #tp12

Then, all you have to do, is CLICK on the #tp12 (which will be a link) in your tweet and Twitter will take you to all of the other twit-pitches, as well as your own, so you can check to see that it's there.  This is where I'll be monitoring everyone's Twit-Pitches.

Now, here's how it's going to work.  If I like a pitch, I will FAVORITE YOUR TWEET and DIRECT MESSAGE YOU, just to double-confirm I've picked you. You will then send your first ten pages, or your entire script (doesn't matter as I'll just read the first 10 pages regardless) to carsonreeves3@gmail.com with the subject line: "TWIT-PITCH."  You'll have a week to do this.  Now I have no idea how many people are going to be participating.  It could be 400.  It could be 4000.  If it's over a thousand, it will probably take me awhile to read through all the tweets.  So just because you don't get picked right away, don't worry.  It might be because I haven't read yours yet.  I should be done by the end of the day though.

Once those are chosen, I'll take two months to go over them.  You'll definitely want to follow me on Twitter as I'll be tweeting updates about the contest throughout those two months.  I'll let you know when I've found something good.  I'll let you know when I've found something...errrr...not good.  I plan for this to be totally open.  At the end of the two months, I'll announce 20-25 finalists and read the entire scripts, from which I'll pick a winner.  I will then read the winning script live on a web feed.  That's not true.  I won't do that. 

BUT THERE'S MORE!  What I love about Scriptshadow is how bright our commenters are.  Easily the brightest on any screenwriting site.  So, if you guys get all jazzed up about a particular Twit-Pitch logline that I didn't pick, I'll add up to FIVE of those pitches to the first round pool. So even when it's over, it's not really over!  Feel free to leave your opinions on Twit-pitches in these comments or the official Top 100 twit-pitch thread, which should be up tomorrow or Monday, depending on how many there are.  Also, guys, don't recruit your friends or sign in with different accounts and tout your own twit-pitch.  I know the commenting rhythm of this site like the back of my hand.  I'll know what you're doing and I'll get really really angry! (or just slightly annoyed).

Well, that's it!  Feel free to ask any tech questions in the comments section.  There's a lot of smart people here who can help you.  Also, if this is the first time hearing about the Twit-Pitch Contest, please head to this post to look over the rules.  Good luck everyone!  And remember, you're writers.  Be creative.  Be fun.  The whole idea behind this is to have a good time. :)