Academy Nicholl Fellowships - 2014 - Questions & Answers

[Storytell]

Re: Academy Nicholl Fellowships - 2014 - Questions & Answers

Just sharing my small success with using the "Nicholl Awards Quarterfinalist- email from Greg Beal with my contacts via email. DDers who are quarterfinalists have probably already thought of doing this so this is just FYI.
Sent 12 emails to contacts I have that had read work in the past (some from VPF). And receive 4 requests for the quarterfinalist script pretty quickly. Wasn't sure if anyone would be interested in a quarterfinalist script so was pretty happy with those quick responses back. "FYI - Nicholl Awards Notification- in the subject line seems to get their attention.

Good luck to all DDers' in the quarterfinals!

[Willoughby]

Re: Academy Nicholl Fellowships - 2014 - Questions & Answers

Congrats to everyone in quarter-finals! As they said in Airplane...

"Good luck. We're all counting on you."

[gregbeal]

Re: Academy Nicholl Fellowships - 2014 - Questions & Answers

Just sharing my small success with using the "Nicholl Awards Quarterfinalist- email from Greg Beal with my contacts via email. DDers who are quarterfinalists have probably already thought of doing this so this is just FYI.
Sent 12 emails to contacts I have that had read work in the past (some from VPF). And receive 4 requests for the quarterfinalist script pretty quickly. Wasn't sure if anyone would be interested in a quarterfinalist script so was pretty happy with those quick responses back. "FYI - Nicholl Awards Notification- in the subject line seems to get their attention.

Good luck to all DDers' in the quarterfinals!

Good to hear. Best of luck.

I wish more quarter/semi/finalists would be equally proactive. Always surprised to hear that many writers simply sit back and wait for the contact lists to be distributed in October.

[LateNightWriter]

Re: Academy Nicholl Fellowships - 2014 - Questions & Answers

Good to hear. Best of luck.

I wish more quarter/semi/finalists would be equally proactive. Always surprised to hear that many writers simply sit back and wait for the contact lists to be distributed in October.

Not me! I'm getting my queries out at this very moment.

Late Night Writer

[MacGuffin]

Re: Academy Nicholl Fellowships - 2014 - Questions & Answers

Last year two of my entered scripts garnered two positive reads, a first for me. This year, the same two scripts, only one positive read for one, and no positive reads for the other.

Different year, different Zeitgeist! (the entered scripts were the same as the ones entered last year).

Onward and upward!

And, major congrats to all those who are moving on in the competition.

[knoxdewitt]

Re: Academy Nicholl Fellowships - 2014 - Questions & Answers

Delighted to have two scripts advance to the quarterfinal round. Last year I had a script make the Top 50, and I've tightened it up quite a bit, so fingers crossed going forward! Proud to be a member of this community--though I'm usually passive--and thankful for all the knowledge I've soaked up from it.

[knoxdewitt]

Re: Academy Nicholl Fellowships - 2014 - Questions & Answers

P.S. I've read Neal's Top-50 script, and it's completely bizarre that it didn't advance.

[goldmund]

Re: Academy Nicholl Fellowships - 2014 - Questions & Answers

Er, does the $25,000 barrier apply before or after taxes? :-/ seems I'm cut off from the great opportunity of Nicholl by a very slim margin.

[LateNightWriter]

Re: Academy Nicholl Fellowships - 2014 - Questions & Answers

For those who've submitted a script that received positive reads or placed previously, and then this year the same script (or re-written into better shape) did not do well -- head over to the Nicholl Facebook page and check out the Nicholl staff's (Greg's?) very thoughtful and insightful post on subjectivity. It's worth reading.

Late Night Writer

[gregbeal]

Re: Academy Nicholl Fellowships - 2014 - Questions & Answers

Er, does the $25,000 barrier apply before or after taxes? :-/ seems I'm cut off from the great opportunity of Nicholl by a very slim margin.

Yes, that would be before taxes, agent's commission, expenses, etc. Sorry.

[gregbeal]

Re: Academy Nicholl Fellowships - 2014 - Questions & Answers

For those who've submitted a script that received positive reads or placed previously, and then this year the same script (or re-written into better shape) did not do well -- head over to the Nicholl Facebook page and check out the Nicholl staff's (Greg's?) very thoughtful and insightful post on subjectivity. It's worth reading.

Late Night Writer

Here's the link (my social media colleagues keep telling us that traffic is important or I'd just post it):

Academy Nicholl Facebook Post on Subjectivity

[BenJacoby]

Re: Academy Nicholl Fellowships - 2014 - Questions & Answers

Hi Greg,

Just curious about the reader scores of the QFs, SFs, and Finalists. Do you guys ever show stats on the average score that advances to each successive round? I haven't seen it here or on the FB page, but I could be missing it.

Thanks!
Ben

[gregbeal]

Re: Academy Nicholl Fellowships - 2014 - Questions & Answers

Hi Greg,

Just curious about the reader scores of the QFs, SFs, and Finalists. Do you guys ever show stats on the average score that advances to each successive round? I haven't seen it here or on the FB page, but I could be missing it.

Thanks!
Ben

We haven't really done that - just a few words about scores every once in a while. Since we don't distribute individual scores, there's not much context for entrants. In any case, here's what I believe we have said about quarter/semi/finalist scores over the past few years:

The Academy Nicholl Fellowships uses a 100-point scoring scale.
A high score that guarantees a script a third read during the first round tends to be in the low 80s.
Scripts advancing to the quarterfinals usually have at least two high scores (and so at least two scores in the low 80s).
Scripts advancing to the semifinals tend to have at least five scores averaging in the low to mid-80s.
The top 30 scripts in the competition tend to have at least eight scores averaging in the mid-80s.

[BenJacoby]

Re: Academy Nicholl Fellowships - 2014 - Questions & Answers

Thanks so much for the quick reply. You guys are amazing.

[Manchester]

Re: Academy Nicholl Fellowships - 2014 - Questions & Answers

A high score that guarantees a script a third read during the first round tends to be in the low 80s.

What's a "positive" score/read in the first round?