Here you go.
I read a bunch of that stuff about Nicholl and the argument seems to break down into two camps.
Camp 1. The Nicholl is the most meaningful contest out there and you should enter it because it will give you a good shot at launching your career. The most vocal supporters appear to include those who have won it, and those who make their living from it.
Camp 2. The Nicholl isn't really that big a deal. Dogtown and maybe some other people.
I am going to play Devil's advocate here and take an entirely different position. Here goes; if your metric for success is that a program help more of the "right kind of people" than it hurts, then the Nicholl is bad.
The Nicholl is supposed to provide a career boost for amateur writers who want to break in to the business. Approximately five thousand people a year enter the contest, one out of a thousand gets a fellowship. The Nicholl, for whatever reason, generally chooses what I think most people in town would consider to be "non-commercial" scripts. So, it is rewarding people who will be less likely to convert the win to a successful career. In doing so, it may well be discouraging people with more commercial instincts who might be able to better leverage the success of the Nicholl exposure into a sustainable career. If you have a commercial script, let's say a sexy teen thriller, you may well be so discouraged by failing to advance in the Nicholl that you mistakenly conclude that your script sucks and has no shot, when in fact the marketplace is more interested in your script than the Nicholl judges are.
I know, it's a ridiculous position, I am a big fan of the Nicholl and everything that they do. But, it's fun to discuss, isn't it?
I read a bunch of that stuff about Nicholl and the argument seems to break down into two camps.
Camp 1. The Nicholl is the most meaningful contest out there and you should enter it because it will give you a good shot at launching your career. The most vocal supporters appear to include those who have won it, and those who make their living from it.
Camp 2. The Nicholl isn't really that big a deal. Dogtown and maybe some other people.
I am going to play Devil's advocate here and take an entirely different position. Here goes; if your metric for success is that a program help more of the "right kind of people" than it hurts, then the Nicholl is bad.
The Nicholl is supposed to provide a career boost for amateur writers who want to break in to the business. Approximately five thousand people a year enter the contest, one out of a thousand gets a fellowship. The Nicholl, for whatever reason, generally chooses what I think most people in town would consider to be "non-commercial" scripts. So, it is rewarding people who will be less likely to convert the win to a successful career. In doing so, it may well be discouraging people with more commercial instincts who might be able to better leverage the success of the Nicholl exposure into a sustainable career. If you have a commercial script, let's say a sexy teen thriller, you may well be so discouraged by failing to advance in the Nicholl that you mistakenly conclude that your script sucks and has no shot, when in fact the marketplace is more interested in your script than the Nicholl judges are.
I know, it's a ridiculous position, I am a big fan of the Nicholl and everything that they do. But, it's fun to discuss, isn't it?
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