Upon applying for the inaugural SBS Emerging Writers Incubator last year, Brisbane writer-director Nicholas Lin admits his mindset was “completely defeatist”.
Apart from thinking the opportunity was “too good to be true”, he had also received less than positive feedback from his friends on the coming-of-age romance short film idea he submitted as part of his application.
“They read the idea and went ‘Gee, this isn’t your best work’,” he said.
“They told me I may as well send it in but that they didn’t think it was going to get me anywhere, so I took that advice and I submitted it, believing full well that I would never actually get into it.”
Not only was Lin chosen as Screen Queensland’s participant for the initiative and given a year-long placement at Ludo Studio, but he has continued his relationship with the company following the end of his 12-month placement in September – working on a script for ABC animated comedy The Strange Chores.
While At Ludo he also had the chance to work “in a lesser capacity” on award-winning children’s series Bluey, and join writers’ rooms for an upcoming feature and SVOD series.
The former broadcast news editor said with the production company Ludo had a Dunning-Kruger effect of making him “learn just enough to make him realise how much more there is to learn”.
“With screenwriting, or with any other craft, there is always more to learn,” he said.
“I learned so much from being with Ludo about their DNA and how they approach stories and what they value. I came to realise that not only does every production compan have similar but slightly different values, but you can learn so much from just being in rooms with different writers.
“It’s both a positive and a negative that screenwriting, and maybe filmmaking in general, has no hard and fast rules about everything.”
Lin’s time at Ludo is the latest step in a journey that began in a primary school maths class with a sympathetic teacher.
After struggling to make sense of the subject, the future Griffith Film School graduate ended up striking up a deal that would allow him to write a short story instead of the assigned homework, opening the door to his true calling.
“I was really just ripping off Futurama episodes that I’d been watching for these short stories that I would give to her to grade,” he said.
“For the first time in ever, I started to get a bit of validation for what I was writing, and instead of just being an average, and maybe sometimes slightly below average student, I was actually doing a little bit better.
“That is what really propelled stories, English and filmmaking for me because it made me realise that I was at least okay at it.”
Having previously written and directed the short film Hollowed Stone while completing his Bachelor of Film and Screen Production, Lin is now on the verge of his first broadcast credit for The Strange Chores, while continuing to note take on one of Ludo’s upcoming film projects.
He is also preparing to send some of his own projects in the next couple of months to “test the waters and see what people say”, with most of his attention going towards writing series aimed at peers in their early 20s.
“[My projects] almost always have of my own identity and question that sense of belonging and what it is to be a multicultural, a diverse person living in Australia, whether that is in regard to your culture, sexuality, or something else,” he said.
“For me, it’s about that sense of belonging and how you fit into the Australian landscape as someone who doesn’t quite look like the stereotypical Australian.
“I’m hoping to tell those stories in an entertaining, heartfelt, and humorous way.”