Anyone else apply for the Writers Lab "women over 40" retreat?

[wenonah]

Or anyone else admitting to applying? It's the one supported by Meryl Streep. Notifications happening on or before August 1! I would love to attend this.

http://www.nywift.org/article.aspx?ID=5503

Wenonah

[liverbird]

Re: Anyone else apply for the Writers Lab "women over 40" retreat?

Yes! I applied to this and would also love to attend. They say announcements could be before or on August 1st. I haven't heard of anyone getting word either way, in or out. Best of luck to both of us and any other ladies of DDP who entered

[wenonah]

Re: Anyone else apply for the Writers Lab "women over 40" retreat?

Thank you! Good luck to you too!

[Fahrenheit451]

Re: Anyone else apply for the Writers Lab "women over 40" retreat?

Me! It served as the inspiration for me to finally, finally finish the screenplay I'd been tinkering with for ages.

Liverbird, I haven't heard anything either, though they did say that they planned to have rolling admissions. Fingers firmly crossed...

[carcar]

Re: Anyone else apply for the Writers Lab "women over 40" retreat?

I did.

They got 7000+ applications, more, I suspect, than they anticipated, so if there's a delay, I wouldn't be surprised. Impressive and a little discouraging.

[bmcthomas]

Re: Anyone else apply for the Writers Lab "women over 40" retreat?

I did.

They got 7000+ applications, more, I suspect, than they anticipated, so if there's a delay, I wouldn't be surprised. Impressive and a little discouraging.

I thought it was impressive and thought provoking. If there are 7000+ female screenwriters over forty out there milling about, why do women make up less than half of the Nicholl entries?

The confidence gap is probably a factor, but that much of a factor?

[carcar]

Re: Anyone else apply for the Writers Lab "women over 40" retreat?

Nicholl limits to three scripts, and limits earning. (I didn't see any earnings limit restrictions here.) So maybe there's a whole bunch of lady writers with a trunk full of scripts and a sizable income to pay entry fees. But still, that's a crazy amount of applications.

With that kind of cash coming into the program, I hope next year they offer a few more spots and/or maybe cover travel. It will be interesting to see how they expand the network, now that the need is seen. As far as I can tell, there's been radio silence since entry closed, and who can blame them? I'm sure it's all hands-on deck to get those all read. But I look forward to hearing more from them in the coming year. Emerging writers come in all forms.

[MoviePen]

Re: Anyone else apply for the Writers Lab "women over 40" retreat?

I thought it was impressive and thought provoking. If there are 7000+ female screenwriters over forty out there milling about, why do women make up less than half of the Nicholl entries?

The confidence gap is probably a factor, but that much of a factor?

Apples and oranges. The Nicholl is a contest. The Writer's Lab is an intensive weekend workshop. Two very different beasts. I don't go for contests any more unless I'm feeling particularly whimsical, but a workshop is worth applying for.

I think stats from the Sundance Writer's Lab would be a better comparison, but I can't find them (with only a quick search).

[Margie Kaptanoglu]

Re: Anyone else apply for the Writers Lab "women over 40" retreat?

I did.

They got 7000+ applications, more, I suspect, than they anticipated, so if there's a delay, I wouldn't be surprised. Impressive and a little discouraging.

7000+? That's an astonishing number. Where did you see that, Carcar? I didn't see anything posted on their site.

I've entered contests for women writers only (of any age), and typically they don't get more than a few hundred entries, even when there's no restriction on money earned. I realize this workshop with Meryl Streep's support (although I don't think she's planning on being there) sounds particularly tantalizing, but still I can't picture that many women over 40 having a feature script to submit.

Nicholl entries from women of all ages are about a third of 7500 this year. Even assuming they were all over 40 and they all entered NYWIFT too, that would leave about 4500 scripts being entered into NYWIFT that must come from women over 40 who have earned money as screenwriters (so they can't enter Nicholl), or who are newbies who don't know about Nicholl.

Even considering that writers were allowed to submit multiple scripts, this number just sounds way too large.

[carcar]

Re: Anyone else apply for the Writers Lab "women over 40" retreat?

Well, maybe they started at 1000, but my last minute entry # was in the 7000's and based on what I heard from others on Twitter, it was in line with the number of entries. (I hope I'm wrong, honestly.) Maybe they'll reveal numbers at the end. I think, coming on the heels of HBO's diversity kerfuffle, a lot of people jumped on this.

[carcar]

Re: Anyone else apply for the Writers Lab "women over 40" retreat?

Just checking to see... at least 3800, based on the available tweets out there now. Not that it makes it much better.

[gregbeal]

Re: Anyone else apply for the Writers Lab "women over 40" retreat?

Just checking to see... at least 3800, based on the available tweets out there now. Not that it makes it much better.

I bet the 7000+ entry number has to do with the way the database/application interface works.

When our new database was being built a few years ago, the db developers wanted the counter to simply register every time anyone accessed an application. Given hundreds of false starts, etc., the numbers jump must faster than actual submissions. (BTW, we nixed that methodology and only had entry numbers appear during processing of applications.)

I believe the first year of Project Greenlight, the application numbers being reported to entrants were well over 10,000, perhaps over 15,000, though the contest only received 7000+ scripts.

In any case, whatever the actual number of submissions to the Writer's Lab, it's impressive.

[NightWriter]

Re: Anyone else apply for the Writers Lab "women over 40" retreat?

I entered as well. I've been wondering if anyone else on here was compulsively checking their email every day hoping for news. For the record, I entered on the first or second day of the contest and my entry number was in the 4000 range. I was like, , there are already 4,000 entries and it's only been two days?! Best of luck to everyone who entered. With only 8 slots, the odds seem daunting, but for the 8 who get selected, what a great opportunity!

[ChickenScratch]

Re: Anyone else apply for the Writers Lab "women over 40" retreat?

I checked and my number was in the 3500's on May 7, which may be after Nightwriter entered... but I had logged in and looked at it the first few days.

I think Greg is right about the tracking not based on entry.

Good luck to all the DD folks entered!

[jcpdoc]

Re: Anyone else apply for the Writers Lab "women over 40" retreat?

I entered and completed my application about four minutes after the submission window opened on May 1, and my entry number was in the 300s. I know they had received "thousands" of applications by the third week in May because I got a call from them about my application and I asked them how many apps they had received. (And yes, when I saw the New York area code, I was in a goofy mood and I said out loud to myself 'Oh, that's probably Meryl!" so I answered the phone in my Sunset Boulevard voice and the voice on the other end said "This is so and so from the NWIFT" and I then I spilled my coffee and eventually remembered how to speak.)

I hope they'll share application stats at some point in term of number of writers/numbers of scripts. In any case, the numbers are high and the spots are few.