Voting Guidelines
Happy almost Christmas, Rouge Wavers! A number of readers have emailed me about the great number of votes that one Holiday Short Scene is receiving compared to the others. It is unusual, I must admit. In order to ensure the integrity of our short scene competitions here on the Rouge Wave, the Wave-inatrix must ask that voters please use the following criteria:
Which entry has the most "voice" and individuality?
Does the entry you want to vote for have a beginning, middle and end?
Does it surprise you?
How masterfully and organically did it incorporate the key words?
(eggnog, latke and blizzard)
Does the writer write seamlessly and professionally?
Is the dialogue organic?
Do characters reveal who they are in the way they speak, move and dress?
Does the short scene have a message, theme and tone that is universal and timely?
These considerations are very important when ranking or judging script pages. If we all log on and vote for our friends, then we aren't really rewarding good screenwriting.
I like each submission but I of course have my own professional opinion as to which is the strongest based on the criteria above. Rouge Wave scene competitions are for fun but they are also to teach us all a little something about the craft. So vote carefully and have a Merry Christmas. 
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6 comments:
I have to go with Zaide for its faux blizzard, fish out of water use of egg nog, the latke cultural connection but geographical disconnect. The snow globe tricked me. 18th century to Jerusalem. I hope the snow globe ties together loose ends in the final scenes -- "Rosebud".
Can you really track IP's, like Santa watches all of us?
Hi Geena - thanks for your feedback! Yes. I can track IP addresses. I know, it's creepy. But at times like this it's important, no? But that's not where this lopsided voting is coming from, it's coming from mass emails someone sent out. That much I can tell you. But, you know, I'm a positive person and I have to believe that Rouge Wavers are voting with the best of intentions and that they would never purposely chip away at the integrity of a competition that I run for free, and give prizes out of my own pocket for. Down the line, perhaps these competitions will grow into something more meaningful in the industry and then they won't be free to enter. We'll see how that affects the quality of work.
Ummmmm...would it be too un-original of me to not vote for any of the top three?
Two posts ago you said the voting was totally legit in a comment. Now the voting is not?
If you know the voting is not legit, why not DQ the script in question and drive on? Or reset the votes and start again and see what happens?
I'm all for more specific guidelines, but perhaps those should've been put out there at the start. Maybe by having those specifics out there now, it makes sense to reset the voting. Not my contest, just two cents (maybe more than two...sorry).
Hi Kings! Well, to me the voting guidelines are obvious. As to when and how to make note of them, the RW has had about 3 other competitions (is that right, Wavers?) and during that time, readership and therefore participation has grown exponentially. So this is a brave new world that the Wave-iantrix must learn to negotiate. It is my hope that eventually a win in these silly little competitions will have some meaning in the industry - just in that noting it will be a stamp of some kind of validity. So as we move closer to that kind of importance, the rules of engagement start to shift. The voting has been legitimate meaning that somebody intimated that Ann was voting for herself over and over. She has not done that. So it's legitimate in that sense. But I have never seen a RW competition with voting this lopsided. So it's been a new thing to grapple with. But at the end of the day, I made an executive decision to let Wavers vote on the 3 submissions I felt were the best of many submitted. So it's a People's Choice Award. If I just decide who wins, it's no damn fun, is it?
I really liked NO PLACE LIKE HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS by Dane Lowrie. It gave me a good laugh and I felt that I was there with these (almost) realistic characters. The presentation was certainly seamless.
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