busyWhat I have learned from this is that SFWA blithely put the words "professionally produced" in the guidelines for Best Script without having a clear notion of what that means exactly -- and the discussions that have burst out on the subject on this LJ, on
pnh's LJ, on SFF.net, in the SFWA community, and every-damn-where else indicate that no else has a clear notion of it, either.As far as I'm concerned, the ballot issue's closed. The only thing I want to add is that in my original post on the subject, I was lamenting the fact that tie-ins have hardly ever been able to sniff the prelminary ballot, yet a fan film has made the final. This wasn't me saying SFWA is a bad organization because of that, it was simply lamenting the state of affairs -- and yeah, me whining a little. But I intend to see what I can do to address the disparity through action rather than Internet whining (radical, I know....).
Personally, I think that CBS/Paramount's "tacit approval" is a dubious criterion to base this on, and seeing an organization that supposedly values the protection of copyright and trademark use that is disheartening. On the other hand, if CBS/Paramount can't be arsed to protect it, it's hardly SFWA's job to do so.
So whatever. It's done.
My intention, however, since I started this mess, is to sit down and watch, in succession, "Blink," Children of Men, The Prestige, V for Vendetta, and "World Enough and Time" and review them on this LJ. Since SFWA has deemed that they be measured against each other, that's just what I'm gonna do -- in March some time, once I'm past Ghostwriting Project #1. (I have Children of Men on the DVR, V for Vendetta and "Blink" on DVD, and I will have "WEaT" on DVD soon thanks to one of the scriptwriters. I just have to track down The Presitge. Edited to add: Now have The Prestige on the DVR, too.)
