Research for Interview (The Academy Nicholl Fellowships Screenwriting Competition)

1.      What time is your interview scheduled and who will you be talking with when you call/skype?

            I will be speaking with Joan Wai, Program Manager of the Academy Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting Competition at 3 PM on Sunday 9/7.

2.      Who started it and who runs it?

         It was started by Gee Nicholl and Julian Blaustein in 1985, after meeting with the Academy’s then-Executive Director Jim Roberts and then-Executive Administrator Bruce Davis. Robin Swicord is the chair of the Writer’s Branch, currently the head of the committee in charge of the competition, while Joan Wai is the Program Manager. Greg Beal – director.

3.      What is the mission of the festival/conference? (copy and paste the first paragraph)

         N/A (no mission on their website)

4.      How does this compare with their actual programming choices from the past two years? Be specific in describing what they program (mode, categories within mode, niche, Political? Global? Local? Gender? Sexuality? Race? Any themes that you see? etc...)

         They accept screenplays worldwide regardless of any particular theme. A lot of the screenplays that have won fellowships over the years have been dramas, but there are enough in other categories that it does not feel like a particular theme of the competition’s.

5.      Where is the event?

         The Academy is located in Los Angeles, but the members of the committee are able to judge the scripts from anywhere.

6.      When is the event? (Give dates from last year if not current)

         Quarterfinalists were notified by August 1, and Semifinalists were emailed in early September. The fellowship recipients will be notified in late October.

7.      How do you submit? Snail mail, online, withoutabox, through their site, etc...

         You must submit a PDF file of your script, as well as their Online Application form through their own website.

8.      When are the deadlines to enter? Early? Reg? Late?

The deadlines for this Past Year: Early – February 28; Regular – April 10; Late – May 1

9.      How much does it cost to enter?

         Early - $35; Regular - $50; Late - $65

10. Who’s eligible, what are the guidelines to enter?

         Screenwriters may submit if they have never made more than $25,000 from writing fictional work for film or television. Entries must also be original works written in English by either one or two writers working in collaboration.

11. Is there a Student category?

         No. In the event of a student winning the competition, he or she would simply defer the beginning of the fellowship year until after the completion of his or her educational requirements.

12. What formats do they except for jurying? DVD, Vimeo, Flash drives?

         The screenplays must be submitted in PDF format.

13. What formats do they except for exhibition/screening?

         See above.

14. How many films screened at the festival last year?

         Five fellowships were awarded last year: Four individual writers and one writing team.

15. How long is a typical shorts block or paper presentation block at their event?

         N/A

16. How many films or papers do they program per block?

         N/A

17. How do people register to attend? Is there a cost to attend as a guest?

         N/A

18. Look at sponsorship page and see what businesses. Grants and private entities give money to the event. Figure out how many of each kind and note any leads that might be useful to us.

         A lot of the money to support the competition comes from entry fees, but the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences support any additional costs.

19. What are their sponsorship levels and incentives for each level?

         N/A

20. Did they have a kickstarter or indiegogo? What incentives did they have for each level of donor?

         No, they do not have a Kickstarter or Indiegogo.

21. What kind of non-traditional film/video events have they had before? Things like Installations, 'Visual Soundwalls,' VJing etc.

         N/A

22. Are there ways in which they have expanded the typical film screening event? How have they branched out from sitting in a dark room in front of a screen?

         They have branched out a lot from the beginning. Back in 1986, it used to be that only scripts from California were accepted, but now anybody from across the world can enter, as long as the screenplay is submitted in English. They originally had 99 entries in their first year, but last year, they broke their previous record and received 7,251 entries.

23. Is the layout easy to navigate? What makes it easy?

         The layout is fairly easy to navigate, with pages clearly labeled to know where you can find anything.

24. Is the layout difficult to navigate? What makes it difficult?

         The page for the competition is part of the greater website of oscars.org, so it can be difficult to find just going through the Academy’s website and sometimes it can be difficult to lose track of the various subsections.

25. Can you find the information you are looking for on the homepage or via a link on the homepage?

         If you go to the homepage of oscars.org, you can easily find the Academy Nicholl Fellowships through a link. Going to the main page for the Fellowships, you can easily find the information you’re looking for through various links.

26. Aesthetically, what catches your eye? What's cool about it?

         The fonts are pleasant and it’s all organized very neatly on the main page.

27. Aesthetically, what doesn't fit in? What makes it look bad?

         It does not make the site look bad, but it would be nice to have a bigger font on some of the explanatory parts of the site (describing what certain links lead to and such).

28. Should there be more information? Is the page too bare?

         The homepage is fine, but on the About page, the spacing between the lines makes the page feel more bare than it really is. This is not because of lack of information, though, as they have plenty of information on the page.

29. Should there be less information? Is the page too busy?

         No, the page never feels too busy, even though there is plenty of information on it.

30. What would you do differently if you were to redesign this website?

         I would put some of the information in the FAQ section in the About page, or the Rules page, since there is a lot of useful information that somebody could be liable to miss there.

31. What would you keep the same if you were to redesign this website?

            The design and layout of the general space is very well-done and easy to navigate around, so I would keep a lot of the design.