Hi Scott Is there a limit as to the number of people who make it through to the first round? And what are the key criteria for making the first cut? Thanks Sutinder

Don't forget there's a back-up plan, too. For those of us who don't make Scott/Max's cut for The Quest, The Black Board will host Go On Your Own Quest with our family of writers to follow along with.

sutinderbola, I have been posting about this for 19 day with tips, so your best bet is to do a Google search of the site for "The Quest Initiative: Day" and go through all 19. If you don't have time for that, be sure to read the bottom part of the latest post to give you a general idea. No number in terms of 1st round, all dependent strictly upon the quality of the story concept and execution of the logline.

Yup. What Despina said. Come on over, the water's fine and join in GOYOQ at the Blackboard. :-)

I've already figured I'm not moving on, so dealing with defeat/not getting selected is all that much easier. On a less cynical note, I just enjoy the opportunity to further and improve my writing abilities -- which this site and The Quest provide.

I will be posting daily items associated with GOYOQ which will carry over to The Black Board. Seamless. More information on that after things shake out with the Initiative.

Zach, you should be a Mets fan! When we lose, we go, "That was expected." When we when, we dance in the streets like we've been hit by a double rainbow.

Is this 11:59 Pacific time or Eastern Coast time? I'm LA so I don't want to miss the cut off because I'm thinking of another time zone. Please let me know. Thank you

Sorry. Stupid question.

Tamir, not stupid, just a fact of life dealing with multiple time zones. It's 12:28AM on the East Coast as I post this which means there are 2 hours and 32 minutes left until the submission deadline. Good luck!

Gosh this is a great post. And quite possibly the most important lesson of this entire exercise. Pertinent anecdote: Last year I made a short film. The people I made it with were absolutely sure, totally positive, completely without doubt that we'd clean up at every festival we entered, not a chance we wouldn't be hailed as geniuses and masters of the world. It was their first film venture. I've been kicking around this stuff for 25 years. Not wishing to take a pin to their balloon, I would subtly hint, "it's very competitive out there, there are no guarantees, while I appreciate your vote of confidence I must give you pause and rattle off the numbers and odds..." "Oh no, Jeff, that's defeatist, we got it made in the shade," they'd answer. Well the film was completed (which, for me, was the ONLY brass ring). The producers shopped it around hard. And we were met with extremely polite indifference. They were utterly devastated. To the point where I don't they'll ever venture into 'indie film' again. Logically I suppose I should have been demoralized too but I guess my special brand of insanity doesn't allow for that. I was just grateful for the chance. Last year I tossed out three Quest loglines. Prior to composing anything this year, I went back and re-read last year's batch with my Max Millimeter T-shirt on (you don't have one of those? I sweet talked one out of his secretary which was not easy nor pleasant and we're not even going to go there so don't ask...) And ya' know what? I took issue with all of them. They didn't stack up to over half the criteria that Scott has been driving home these past few weeks. Learning. Growth. Enlightenment. All still wondrous and possible even at 42 years of age. So this year I fired off just one. I have dozens upon dozens scattered across various iPads, hard drives, notebooks, and KitKat bar wrappers (don't we all?). But only one seemed to fit the bill. I don't kid myself at all here. The wall of competition in this thing is huge. But it's obvious to me that every Quest Season will consistently yield new lessons, new opportunities for growth, and, in the end, simply improve my craft. What more can one ask for? I'm in an even worse baseball sewer than Scott. I'm a Milwaukee Brewers fan. A small market team that hit the world series once, in 1982, and lost. This year has been especially stinky (25-37). Disappointment is a way of life here in "Harvey's Wallbangers" country!

Jeff, I've been in the same situation as you in-so-far as film is concerned. I've always had the opinion to have no opinion. I've very much always had a "wait and see" attitude with every project I've worked on. That's not to say I don't believe in what I do (or else I wouldn't be writing it or in some cases acting in it) but like you've mentioned, competition is a very real thing. Personally, I've never "really" thought about writing a log line until this Quest came around. For me it's always been the last thing I end up doing. However, I have spent the past few weeks combing through posts and rather than throw something on a piece of paper, for the first time in years, I actually had to think about it and even if I don't go forward I'm grateful to have found this resource because I think I actually learned something even at my "advanced" age.