Endless Applications
There are times when it seems life has become one giant application. This is one of them…
In the last few months I have applied to: The Canadian Film Centre’s TV Writing Program, a Canada Council for the Arts Screenwriting Grant, The Toronto International Film Festival’s Talent Lab, The ABC/Disney TV Writing Fellowship Program, The National Screen Institute’s (Canada) Features First Program, The Berlinale Talent Campus, and The Bell Media Fund. Currently, I am working on an application for the Canadian Television Fund Digital Media program.
It’s too much. They all vary, but each application is at least a couple days of work to assemble (some are far more) So far, I have not been successful in any of the above, although I’ve only heard back from the first three. There is a strong part of me that is very curious as to why I even bother. I’ve never received a grant in my entire life, although, in the private sector, I seem to do quite well.
Perhaps I belong in the States?
You always hear how envious US filmmakers are of the funds that we have access to up here. However, sometimes I wonder if they’d feel the same way were they to experience how difficult it is to access any of those funds.
What’s remarkable about these applications is that they basically all require completely different supporting materials. It’s not like one can just copy and paste from one application to the next. Rather, it’s as if each one is carefully worded to purposely require unique responses. For the Berlinale Script Submission, they ask for a 10-15 page treatment of my script. This script is currently in the second draft. I did write a treatment, but it was prior to the first draft and is twice the length they allow. To try to rewrite it, that alone would take at least two days. Who’s got the time?
When I was in the early stages of writing Bitter Pills (my new script), I applied to all the Canadian funds I could think of – Telefilm Writers First, Corus Made with Pay, Harold Greenberg…
…None of them supported me. I told myself that the application process helped me refine my idea before moving to the draft stage, and although that’s probably true, the apps still required a lot of busy work that took me away from being creative.
I often wonder if all the time I spend applying to programs and funds was directed towards creating, how much more prolific I could be?
So, after all the rejections, I went ahead and wrote the script anyway. Who knows if it’s any good. I think it is, and, of course I also know it could be better. But, I also know that it’s miles beyond a lot of the scripts those funds that rejected me churn out.
So what’s the deal? What am I doing wrong in my applications? Is it a matter of not yet being well established to appeal to the burocrats? Or, is it that I’m just not good enough to be accessing these resources?
We’ll see. I have hope things will start to turn my way with this upcoming batch of applications… Otherwise, sooner or later, I’m just going to stop applying.
