The Circuit

The Doorpost Film Project is boasting the most expensive cash prize of any short film competition -- $100 grand for the first place winner.  All you gotta do is make a film in any genre that includes one of several topics - Freedom, Love, Pain, Forgiveness, Redemption, Energy, and Greed.  After first round, 15 finalists will be paid $10 grand to make another short film. 

But if you get to that point, some fine print kicks in: 

IN THE EVENT THAT THE SUBMITTED FILM IS SELECTED AS ONE OF THE 15 FINALISTS, THE FILMMAKER SHALL HEREBY GRANT THE DOORPOST FILM PROJECT A FIRST RIGHT OF REFUSAL ON ANY NON INTERNET RELATED DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO ALL ADAPTATIONS, SEQUELS, TRANSLATIONS AND OTHER VERSIONS OF THE FLIM IN ADDITION TO THE "GRATIS," NON-EXCLUSIVE LICENSE MENTIONED ABOVE. The top 15 finalists will be paid $10,000.00 each to make another short film on a topic to be released June 2nd, 2008 as a "work for hire". This 8 - 15 minute film will be used to determine the first, second, and third place finalists.

While fine print is typical with competitions, this fine print is essentially a first-look deal for "ANY NON INTERNET RELATED DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS."  Filmmakers who specialize in Bondage, Hate, Pleasure, Grudges, Damnation, Sloth, and Prudence need not apply.

Yet sometimes having no fine print is a problem. 

The Beaufort Film Festival probably should have put something up that says even though they can choose three finalists for their screenplay competition, they don't have to pick a winner.  But it probably wouldn't have helped much. 

Joseph Kenny's screenplay, "The Swimmer Manuscript," was one of the three.  When he was informed that no one would get the award, he was a little peeved in his letter to the fest:

You failed to make an announced award.  You failed to provide a disclaimer regarding withholding awards.  You failed to tell those who entered that you were not giving an award, until just days before the festival.  And you have, consequently, presented yourselves as a cadre of pseudo-elites who suggest that there should be no 1st Place winner (or any award winner) among your entrants in this competition, because your artificial and uninformed standards apparently weren't met. 

This incendiary letter sparked a strange blog post by someone named "Cineman" on the Beaufort Gazette site.

And can you blame Kenny/Cineman for being angry?  Who wouldn’t be pissed that their script couldn't pass muster even with a "cadre of pseudo-elites"?  How hard is it to pick the best, worst script?