The Nicholl Fellowship Is Now Open. But Is It Really Worth It? Unless You Live In LA/CA/Hollywood...

NickIandolo

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Every year I enter the 2016 Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting Competition, and every year I never win.

Now I'm not saying that I'm a brilliant screenwriter like Robert Towne. In fact, it may be that I have no business writing screenplays what so ever. That very well maybe true.

But one thing that I have seen with this competition, and the Final Draft Big Break winners, is the more often than not (like 90% of the time) the winners are predominantly from California—specifically Los Angeles/Hollywood.

Here's the 2015 Nicholl list of winners:

Amy Tofte "Addis Abeka" Los Angeles, CA
Andrew Friedhof "Great Falls" Ultimo, Australia
Anthony Grieco "Best Sellers" Los Angeles, CA
Elizabeth Chomko "What They Had" Woodland Hills, CA
Sam Regnier "Free Agent" Los Angeles, CA

Notice a pattern here?

Now before any of my fellow writers here start yelling at me because some of them are from LA and says, "...what does that have to do with the fairness of the contest..." take a look at this:

The 2014 Nicholl Finalists:

Sam Baron, Cambridge, United Kingdom, “The Science of Love and Laughter”
Alisha Brophy, Los Angeles, CA, and Scott Miles, Austin, TX, “United States of Fuckin’ Awesome”
Robert D. Cain, Los Angeles, CA, “Gagarin”
Josh Golden, Los Angeles, CA, “Road to Oz”
Melissa Iqbal, London, United Kingdom, “The Death Engine”
Ben Jacoby, New York, NY, “Earthwalkers”
Duncan Samarasinghe, Dandenong, Australia, “The Caretaker”
Ryan Trevino, Seal Beach, CA, and Robert Wolfe Dunn, Los Angeles, CA, “Arcadia”
Mike Van Waes, West Hollywood, CA, “Grave Hearts”
Sallie West, Charleston, SC, “Moonflower”

Granted the 2014 winners were mostly non-Californian but the finalist were.

And here's the 2013 Nicholl list of winners:

Frank DeJohn & David Alton Hedges, Santa Ynez, CA, “Legion”
Patty Jones, Vancouver, BC, Canada, “Joe Banks”
Alan Roth, Suffern, NY, “Jersey City Story”
Stephanie Shannon, Los Angeles, CA, “Queen of Hearts”
Barbara Stepansky, Burbank, CA, “Sugar in My Veins”

3 out of 5 are from California.

So what? California has better screenwriters than the rest of the country/world?

Here's what I think:

I do not believe that the Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting Competition is a scam or rigged.

But I do believe however that it is unfair—especially to fledgling screenwriters.

Hear me out.

The demographics of the finalists and winners don't lie. The majority of them are from California, and the majority of those are from Los Angeles. Go back and check the winners from years past and the data holds up.

So here's a question for you:

Where are most of the professional working screenwriters located?

Los Angeles/Hollywood.


And/or in the vicinity.

Now I'm not talking independent or international film production companies and writers (like in Vancouver, Canada). I'm talking good old fashioned million dollar bidding war screenwriters, and those WGAW screenwriters who sell their scripts and then get rewritten half a dozen times or more so that not one word of what they wrote appears on the screen!

And of course all of those TV teleplay writers who get let go during the summer hiatus, and who lose their jobs when the shows get cancelled. Unless you're Shonda Rhimes of course!

So it stands to reason that either professional screenwriters are entering this contest and/or the LA/CA-based screenwriters are in league with professional screenwriters and/or the professional script readers who either offer inside advice or judge the contest.

Not saying again that the contest is rigged. The anonymous script submission process mitigates some first-hand knowledge of whose script their reading. But I don't think it's hard to tell which ones are from local professional-level screenwriters.

Here's the thing about Hollywood, and I'm sure lots of you are going to disagree with me and that's fine.

If you don't live in LA, you are NOT a screenwriter! Period.

I didn't say this.

Thomas Lennon and Robert Ben Garant who wrote Writing Movies for Fun and Profit, said it.

Quite loudly over and over again in capital letters!

And so did Script Magazine's reporter Chad Gervich. In fact he said in a 2010 article, "If you don't live in LA you're not a screenwriter, you're a hobbyist."

So you still want to submit to the Nicholl?

I went out to LA a bunch of times trying to pitch my scripts. I spent thousands of dollars going to the Great American PitchFest, queried hundreds and hundreds of agents, joined multiple local film groups, got involved in local indie film productions, became a virtually unpaid journalist for an arts and entertainment magazine so I could use my press credentials to visit film shoots and have access to celebrities trying to make serious connections out here in the Boston area, and even worked for almost no money for a local cable access TV station to learn the broadcast business and break my back producing my own low-budget non-paying shows (that nobody seems to watch), and I got nothing to show for it after years of trying to break in except for a few rinky-dink faux agents who took my money and made me empty promises like the contract was in the mail (literally!), which never came. Some of whom are on the Predators and Editors list; yet, they're allowed to be at these pitchfests.

Oh boy were there some ruthless agents in LA that handed me my butt six ways from Sunday!

You think being a book author is tough, try being a screenwriter!

But I'm used to dealing with ruthless agents and such. Been to NYC pitch events and the literary/publishing ones can be even worse!

In the book Tales From The Script, the authors basically say that the moment you get off the plane in LA you start getting screwed over by the Hollywood system if you're trying to be a screenwriter.

I know from my own experiences that at least some of that must be true.

But there are three things, and I know they are arguable, that I learned over the years:


  1. You've got live in LA if you want to be taken seriously as a working professional Hollywood film/TV screenwriter. That's the bottom line. No ifs, ands, butts, or coconuts.
  2. No agent, no career! I can only imagine how much harder it must be for actors who are not repped—probably infinitely harder than it is for writers. And there are SO many dubious agents out there ready to scam you six ways from Sunday—especially if you're some naive amateur writer from somewhere else with dreams of grandeur who thought they could be a successful screenwriter because they read Robert McKee, Syd Field, or Blake Snyder's books! Ain't gonna happen. Sending spec script queries, entering contests, and going to pitchfests are exercises in futility—there are a scant few who do make it that way but they are the Powerball exceptions, not the rule. But we do it anyway for that scratch ticket chance to break in. But without an agent, and this is true for us book writers for the most part, you have almost NO chance of making a serious script sale and getting into the WGAW.
  3. Being a working professional Hollywood screenwriter is a game for the young, slick, and beautiful! Really! Imagine what it's like for an aging actor trying to get work in Hollywood, same is true for middle-aged writers. If you're not out there in Hollywood schlepping coffee for a ruthless executive in your 20s, learning the insider business, and making serious connections, don't even think you have half a chance in your 40s or older because if Maggie Gyllenhaal at 35 was too old to play the love interest for a 55 year old man, then the ageism (and sexism) is truly alive and well in Hollywood (and the work world in general!). Every story I've read about concerning working screenwriters has the same element to it: they went out to LA/Hollywood in their 20s, sometimes earlier.

I'll tell you a little story about a young woman, and I mean young (14!), whom I met at the 2009 Great American PitchFest. She had ALREADY sold a screenplay by the time she got to the conference and was in the process of optioning/selling another. Why? Because she was young, she lived in LA, and her mother was connected into the business. All things that I certainly don't have, and I'm betting most of you don't either.

I'll tell you another story of a friend of mine who went out to LA right after college. Here's a guy who was not great looking, had medical problems his whole life that bereft him of the ability charm people (in that Hollywood/The Player kind of way), and he spent 22 years in Hollywood trying desperately to break into a business that nobody wanted him. He finally gave up and moved back to the east coast to write for a local coastal community newspaper.

He's a very talented writer and a very nice guy, and he even managed to becomes friends with two well-known Hollywood directors. But my friend was not able to exploit those connections like a good and "slick" aggressive Hollywood writer should. Hence, he never got anything looked at, not even by his director friends—let alone sold a script and got repped by a real agent.

Why? Because he wasn't beautiful and "slick". He was young when he went out there; he's not young anymore though. And he's no longer any aspiring screenwriter: Hollywood broke him.

And one of my other friends who went out to LA in his early 40s, made a short film that went viral, got repped, got only one job for a short viral movie that was a tie-in to a tent pole film. Shortly after that he got dumped by that agency! Now's he's pushing 50, out there and struggling to get any kind of directing work to feed his family. And he's the most talented writer/director/kindest man I know!

But no... let's give immature directors like Josh Trank a tentpole film so he can mess it up, where as my more mature and talented friend would have made it a blockbuster!

I know that a lot of you are going to say that these are isolated cases but I have a feeling that I'm not too off the mark here.

Look, I've accepted that I will never be a working professional Hollywood screenwriter. I'm neither young, beautiful, represented, nor do I live in LA. So that's that.

But chances are I'm still going to enter the Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting Contest!

Why?

Because the very definition of insanity is: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results!

Such is the life of a writer...
 

mccardey

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In the immortal words of my son's Year 8 Maths teacher (a long time ago). Fair is what you pay on a bus and bears no relation to Life.

(It works better aurally.)
 

WriteKnight

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Sure the game is rigged, but how ya gonna win if you don't play?

Most of what you say is of course true. Most of the winners for Nicholls are from LA - because that's where most of the GOOD writers live. So there's no small coincidence there. Shouldn't come as a surprise at all. You've discovered that the grass is wet when it rains.

Hollywood is a youth-centered culture. Wow... more wet grass there. Yup. That's true.

People with connections get farther than people without. Uh- huh. That's something to keep in mind.

Selling a script is like winning the lottery. Absolutely. If you need to sell a script to save your home - save the time and buy a lottery ticket instead. I think your odds will be as good - and you'll beat yourself up a lot less for 'losing'.

CAN you sell a script without an agent? Yes. Can you option one? Yes. Can you do it even if you're 60 years old? Yes.
I'm living proof. Do you have to be 'slick'? Hmmmmmmmmm. Well, maybe. Depends on what you consider slick. Do you have to be personable, someone who can take notes without falling apart? Someone who can 'pitch' on their feet? Does it help if you are 'good in a room'? Yes. That's part of being a good screenwriter. Like being able to do research. It's the stuff that happens when you're NOT in front of the keyboard that makes your time at the keyboard more productive.

Is there any reason to enter Nicholls (or Austin, or Sundance) if you DON'T live in LA? Sure. If you place highly enough - you can garner attention. I get queries via InkTip "Looking for Nicholls finalist scripts" or "Looking for high placed scripts in known contests". So winning or PLACING in a good high-quality contest - can garner you a read with a decent agent or pro-co. If you can get read, then it is going to rest on the quality of your work - and your ability to take notes.

Because you WILL get notes. Especially if they like it.

It's a marathon - not a sprint. Write screenplays because you enjoy writing them. You enjoy the process. I think if you're making forward progress - then keep going. What does that look like? You're writing ALL THE TIME. I mean you're cranking out product every year. More and more. And you're getting better at it. You're improving. You've gone on to win or place. You've gathered some requests and feedback from agents and production companies.

But also understand that no one says "No" in Hollywood. Sometimes 'no' comes in the form of silence. Usually, "This is a great idea, but not for us right now..." - which is really another way of saying "It's not good enough". If you're getting lots and lots of 'no' - then maybe you're not in the right business. Maybe some other form of writing is what you're better at, and what you will enjoy.

"I can take the despair, it's the HOPE that's killing me."
 
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NickIandolo

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Well, I did it anyway! Hahaha!

Not only did I enter a script into this year's Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting Competition but I also entered one in the Final Draft Big Break Contest as well!

Either I'm a glutton for punishment or a naive hopeful that thinks I might get that scratch ticket win!

You never know!

Either way, you've got to be in it to win it!

Wish me luck!
:partyguy:
 

DevelopmentExec

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I think the Nicholl's reads are blind - they read the scripts without cover pages so they don't know the name, location, etc of the scripts they're judging.

But I do think if you're serious about a career as a screenwriter - once you're a good enough writer to become a professional (and sadly most aspiring writers will never be good enough) it does make sense to move to LA. The internet has opened up opportunities but it's still mostly about who you know, and you've got a lot better chance of getting to know the people you need to know if you're out here.
 

NonieMaus

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If you make it to the quarter-finals, you'll get read requests. I know this first hand. If you make the semi-finals or above, you'll have a good chance of selling (or at least optioning) your screenplay. This is also a good way to land an agent. I know this second hand. Often, after that first sell, writers will move out to L.A. Some make it (and by make it, I mean work steadily, not pull in million dollar paychecks) but most don't. Though if you don't try, you'll never know.
 

odocoileus

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I think the Nicholl's reads are blind - they read the scripts without cover pages so they don't know the name, location, etc of the scripts they're judging.

Nicholl reads are blind. Location doesn't matter.

Most writers can't meet the high standard required to advance. Just like the best baseball player in your hometown high school never made it to the major leagues. He made it to AA ball, and never went any further. AA ball is full of great baseball players who will never be good enough to play in the major leagues. Such is life. True talent combined with a disciplined, determined work ethic is rare.
 

screenscope

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I don't think the competition is rigged for local writers. If your script is good, you will get through. I know local writers here in Australia who have made it to the semis.

I also know two writers personally who are represented in Hollywood and have sold to (and are currently working with) producers there while living in Australia, so it's certainly possible to succeed in LA while located elsewhere. I can see benefits in living in LA, but it's not as important these days.

I never made it as a screenwriter, but I still got meetings in Hollywood and developed a project with a producer there (the script is still in development hell until it freezes over) while based in Sydney. If they love your script, they don't care where you live.
 

Jamesaritchie

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The numbers you give should be encouraging, not discouraging. I sometimes think you aren't even allowed to live in California unless you have several screenplays on the market. By numbers alone, it's a wonder anyone outside California ever wins. The fact that some do say this contest is about talent, not about where you live.

Besides, what's the alternative? If you don't enter, you've already lost.