Telly Awards
 

Was thinking of entering, just on a whim - anyone ever enter anything and know about how competitive it is - or is it just a waste of 60 bucks?

One thing that kind of gets me is they have a million categories - most likely trying to trick you into buying a few hundred dollars worth of entries as I was unsure where to quite enter the piece as some of them are a bit vague in description .

I've entered three times and won two bronze (finalist) Telly's. You don't compete with others head to head, rather you compete against a set of "standards of excellence"

I entered two projects the same year one won and one didn't. The one that won had fancy graphics, moving backgrounds etc. The one that didn't was more straightforward historical documentary, with an interesting story.

I asked, since they don't offer critiques etc, if they could define the "standards of excellence", the response was "the judge's look at everything from top to bottom."

Take that as you will.

When I judged for the AP Radio Broadcasters Assocication, we had a sheet with parameters listed, when we went to judge. There was room for "intangibles" but we had a list on things like "use of sound" etc. We were able to offer difinitive comments on what we liked and what we didn't, and say why one entrant won over another.

Telly Awards
 

There are a lot of categories since there are more than 12,000 entries each year.

And the judges don't "critique" each entry simply becaus of the volume of the entries -- 12,000 is a lot of work.

The Telly Awards are one of the really credible competitions out there.

Thanks for the replies.

So just how anal are they? Would anyone have links to award winners? I'm moreso a one man band vs. a large volume studio, but would like to try the waters with a few pieces in the low budget categories.

I'm a one man operation. Came away with two awards out of three entries. So its apparently not a sham.

Don't know how "anal" they are since they do not specify exactly what criteria they use to judge submissions.

The statues do look nice in the office, and catch some sway with the suits.

That's good to hear. I'll have to track down a few winners clips online

Well, uh...
 

I'm not putting these "awards" down. And every single submitted work that wins may well be worthy of the recognition. It's just that if the poster who mentioned 12,000 entries and "not enough time to actually judge them all" is correct - well, then this isn't ANY kind of competition in a meaningful sense.

In order for an AWARD to be actually meaningful, someone with an demonstrated understanding of the industry MUST judge it against others. Period.

Sorry, but spending 60 bucks to enter a competition where at best the company sends you a shiny statue with a value of likely a fourth of that smacks more to me of a nicely lucrative BUSINESS than a real awards process.

12k entries X $60 bucks is 3/4 of a million dollars a year. For that, no awards show to produce, no real costs except administrative expenses and the cost of the statues - which in bulk is probably a VERY small fraction of what they make.

I suspect that this is not really an awards process, but rather a very lucrative business.

I'd WELCOME someone to set me straight. Perhaps I don't understand what a "TELLY" really is all about. But I've heard of them for years and have stayed WELL away because I simply don't believe in "PAY TO COMPETE" enterprises.

YMMV.

Read about this on their site - I think what the poster meant was they don't send you a written/emailed critique about your submission, not so much throwing away or ignoring submissions.

The Telly's are sort of easy to get, at least compared to Emmys, etc.

I have several Tellys and companies I have worked for have dozens.

If you win you get a certificate and must pay extra for a statue if you want it.

The good thing about the Tellys is that you can order multiple statues and specify different engraved names for the winner. I have known companies that ordered duplicate statues to give to the producing clients as a gift. They might list the client by name as executive producer on the statue. Makes the client very happy. Looks good in their office.

Bill, your right in a general sense that it's sort of smacks of a profit making business but alot of people and companies use them for bragging rights when pitching business so it does have some value since for many of the catagories they cover there are not any other competitions to enter. However, you have to pay to enter Emmy's and probably just about any similar competition.

Damn, never even thought of paying for the statues - wonder how much they are. Didn't think 60 bucks would cover the cost of a statue to make it worth their while to dish them out without a limit.

There are a number of "Trophy" wall awards out there, and they have a specific purpose. Yes, they are judged by people in 'the industry' which, believe it or not is usually some professional filmmkaker/documentarian/add agency owner/operator.

The purpose of the award is to elevate your work in the eyes of your business peers and clients. Your average person on the street hasn't heard of an Aurora, Telly or Videographer awards. BUT people in the industry have. Winning one isn't a HUGE merit, but it IS a merit. Ask anyone who has entered and NOT won... you'd rather win.

I was once sitting in a doctors office, looking at a whole wall full of 'credentials'. - "Wow" that's impressive. - He nodded and said, "Yep, all you gotta do is send them your money and your medical license info and you can be a member of all of these medical associations." I looked shocked, and he said, "Don't you feel better seeing them???"

My wife is an attorney, and gets solicitations for 'professional associations' all the time.

SO to sum up, the Telly's are a nice merit. It's not an automatic 'given'. It IS a cash cow for the operators. It does cost them money to run, and pay people to review entries. (Same thing with film festivals and screenwriting festivals.) .

There are a FEW big ones out there that are universally famous, (And yes, it costs money to enter Sundance, Slamdance, Moondance and the Academy Awards) a lot of 'mid-range' fests and some garage fests that aren't worth the stamp. Do your own research and see what its' worth to you.

I have a wall full of awards for filmmaking and screenwriting (yup, got a Telly too). They're nice to see, impress people who see them, and sometimes give me a little validation when I'm feeling down.

Think of it as a 'cost of doing business'... garnering awards and attention. Set up a budget for entering them, and pick and choose carefully.

Good luck.

Looks like they are charging winners $150 to recieve 1 statue and a printed certificate as well.