Coming Up Dos and Donts...

After the marvelous Mr Nugent’s review yesterday, I thought some of you might be interested in some feedback from the event that Northern Ireland Screen posted on their website here. But rather than have to do clicky-clicky all the way over to their site, I’ve copied it all below for you.

How good am I to you…?

Norther Ireland Screen Feedback

Following a successful Coming Up event in Belfast yesterday Ben Stoll, Channel 4’s Coming Upcommissioning editor, Elinor Day and Emma Burge, Touchpaper producers, very kindly gave us a list of dos and don'ts for applicants.

DOs

· Be distinctive. Coming Up is always looking for subjects they haven't done before.

· The films are 24 mins long, so the central idea/hook needs to be strong and clear, and with some room for dramatic development. More complex than a 10 minute film, but not too complex a plot.

· Remember it's for Channel 4 so the films need to appeal to their post watershed audience.

· Do send comedies, tragedies and anything and everything in between which reflects our society in all it's diversity.

· Surprise us with your approach to storytelling

· Send ideas with 5 characters or less that can be shot in 4 days

· Do be ambitious with your idea while remembering the practical considerations of the scheme.

· Do think about the tone of your story and if that might work well in 24 minutes.

· Do send in samples of your work that you think represents the best of you - it's your individual voice that we're interested in.

DON’Ts

· Don't try and second guess what Coming Up is looking for. We always want to be surprised.

· Don't be nervous about submitting comedic material. Coming Up is always looking for a range of tones.

· Don't shy away from subjects off the beaten track. Its your approach to them that we're interested in.

· Don't send soap or continuing drama scripts as writing samples - we want to see your original approach to story and character.

· Don'’t send hollywood style trailers as your showreel - we need to assess your storytelling skill.

· Don’t send multiple applications.

The closing date for receipt of applications is WEDNESDAY 9th JUNE 2010

Details on how to apply can be found here.

There you go. Useful stuff. So, what you waiting for? It’s only a couple of weeks. Get writing!!!

Has anyone entered in other years, by the way? Or planning on entering this year?