Monday, 8 November 2010
AMAZING new opportunity...
Sunday, 7 November 2010
Writing Opportunity - Radio...
The biennial clickInternational Radio Playwriting Competition is run by the BBC World Service and the British Council and is now in its twenty second year.
It is a competition for anyone resident outside Britain, to write a 60-minute radio drama for up to six characters.
There are two categories: one for writers with English as their first language and one for writers with English as their second language.
The two winners will come to London and see their play made into a full radio production, which will then be broadcast on the BBC World Service. They will also each receive a £2,500 prize and there are also prizes for the runners-up.
The play must be in English, unpublished and must not have been previously produced in any medium. Whether you're experienced, new, or somewhere in between, we want to hear from you.
Just check the Rules and How to Enter sections to find out more about sending us your play.
Wednesday, 3 November 2010
Great Opp for Writers from C4...
- There are places for 12 writers
- The "course" runs from Jan to June 2011 but it's not onsite. It's specifically designed for people who also work so there are only two residential weekends.
- A fee (not specified how much) will be paid for attendance.
- Over the duration of the course you write a pilot script with a C4 scriptwriter.
- Entry is by CV and a script of at least 30 mins - radio, tv, film or theatre script.
- Entry by Nov 12th, so not much time!
CHANNEL 4 SCREENWRITING COURSE 2011
We are running a new screenwriting course for Channel 4 drama, running from January to June 2011.
We are looking for 12 talented, original and diverse writers who currently have no broadcast credit but wish to write for television drama.
The course will give you a chance to find out how TV drama, particularly Channel 4 TV drama, works, and to write, over a 5 month period, you own 1 hour pilot script for an original series or serial, working with an experienced script editor.
You will also attend two weekends of talks and script meetings at Channel 4’s Horseferry Rd building.
The course is designed so that writers should be able to take part even if in full-time employment (the only attendance is on two weekends, in January and June 2011, and you will have five months to write the required two drafts of a one hour drama script).
Writers will be paid a small fee for attending the course.
Here are all the details on how you can apply:
DATES: 22nd and 23rd January 2011
11th and 12th June 2011
Writers must ensure before entering that they are available to attend both weekends, and to write two drafts of a one hour television drama between 24th January and 27th May 2011.
HOW TO APPLY:
Applicants should submit by email a CV and one writing sample. This can be a screenplay, a stage play or radio play, minimum length 30 minutes (novels, treatments, short stories, unfinished screenplays and "shorts" are not acceptable).
The scripts should be original, not episodes of existing drama series.
Email scripts and CV’s to:- screenwriting@channel4.co.uk
ELIGIBILITY:
Only writers who do not have a broadcast credit as a television or film writer may apply (although produced short films – 20 minutes or less – are exempt).
CLOSING DATE FOR SUBMISSIONS: Friday November 12th 2010.
FEE:
Writers will be paid a fee for participating in the course and for completing two drafts of a one hour script. Writers will grant Channel 4 an option on their script and will be told within six months of the end of the course if Channel 4 wishes to exercise this option.
COURSE CONTENT: GENERAL
The purpose of the course is to offer 12 writers new to television drama an insight into the industry and to provide a "dry-run" of what it can be like to write under a television drama commission, for one hour series and serial drama, and for script editors to work with them as they write an original drama script.
Writers will be expected to write an original, pilot one-hour drama series or serial episode, and 4-5 page outline \ pitch for the series \ serial as a whole. Each writer will be assigned a script editor, who is currently working in the industry, to guide them through this process. The writers will meet with their script editors between the course weekends to discuss how to approach each draft. Second draft scripts will be sent to the script editor and two other writers on the course, for workshop discussions at the second weekend.
FIRST WEEKEND
Writers, directors, producers and script editors in the industry will give talks to the participants on a variety of subjects relating to television drama. There will also be time set aside for writers to discuss their proposals and ideas for their one hour scripts with their assigned script editor.
SECOND WEEKEND
This will be split between a reading of the opening section of each script by actors on the first day, and discussion and analysis of each of the twelve finished scripts in small groups on the second day, finishing with a screening \ workshop and an overview of the course and of the specific requirements of series and serial television drama.
It is essential to the success of the second weekend that writers submit their scripts on time and make time to read the (2) other writers' scripts (i.e. there is a time commitment involved beyond the time put aside to write a one-hour drama for television).
You can go over and look at that info on their site by clicking here.
Thursday, 3 June 2010
Red Planet Prize 2010 Announcement.... Update...
The Marvellous Sally Brockway...
Wednesday, 26 May 2010
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?
Sunday, 23 May 2010
Coming Up Belfast - The Review....
Ok, so remember I said Channel 4/Coming up were coming to Belfast via Northern Ireland Screen and how fab that was and expect a post soon on how it went, etc, etc, blah, blah, blah.? So, after writing that post I sent my little email requesting my place and...
It was sold out!
Well, it was free. But you know what I mean. They had over 100 places and they all went in a couple of days. They also had a waiting list of 30-odd people. So, that was me out of the picture. But, not to be deterred, I got in touch with the rather marvellous and talented Mr Ian Nugent, who had rather fiendishly managed to snag a ticket, and asked him if he would do the honours. And being the mucker that he is, he came up trumps. Based in Belfast, Ian works as a script writer, copywriter and TV researcher. He has supplied commissioned work for TV and radio, and has just finished writing episodes of Sesame Tree for Cbeebies in London. Ian considers a world without curry to be a world without hope.
Coming Up presentation – Belfast
Wednesday evening saw an event get underway organised by Northern Ireland Screen in the Dublin Road Moviehouse in Belfast. The event was organised to tell Northern Irish writers about Coming Up, an annual competition run by Channel 4 in conjunction with Touchpaper Television.
In short, they guarantee a commission on prime-time Channel 4 to 7 competition winners. Each successful entrant will get their 24 minute film made (filling a half hour slot: last year’s winners – being screened this year – will have their film go out after Big Brother in the summer), edited, and professionally finished by Touchpaper Television.
To that end, the presentation was hosted by Andrew Reid, Head of Production at Northern Ireland Screen, and his guests were Ben Stoll, Channel 4’s Coming Up Commissioning Editor, Elinor Day along and Emma Burge – producers from Touchpaper, along with Ronan Blaney, one of last year’s winning writers who’ll have his film ‘Boy’ broadcast this summer.
Attendees were given the opportunity to see a preview of 3 of last year’s winning entries, all of which are yet to be aired on Channel 4. We saw the previously mentioned Boy, along with Would Like To Meet and Half Term. A variety of stories, told in a variety of styles, with varying degrees of success. All were finished to a remarkably high standard, with both sound and vision illustrating a high degree of professional finish.
The three films dealt with, in turn, handling a spouse’s terminal brain tumour, a suicide attempt, and child abuse. Not surprisingly, in the ‘Questions and Answers’ session after the screening, the Touchpaper producers admitted they’d like to see more comedy entries into the competition.
Saying that, all three films handled their subjects with sensitivity, and managed to mix heart-warming and light-hearted moments of comedy in their weighty stories – possibly reflecting the consultative script development process that the winning writers enter into with Touchpaper Television.
As well as the call for more comedy, various other points came up in the Questions and Answers (in no particular order) –
Although Coming Up will be 10 this year, this is the first time that the producers have made it across to Belfast to encourage submissions from Northern Ireland. They are aware there is a pool of talent based here, and feel the entries leave us under-represented every year.
Coming Up is the only national annual scheme which guarantees a commission on Channel 4: the channel will also agree to screen winning entries at least once more, and the final 7 films are screened in June at the Edinburgh Film Festival, which is always attended by industry insiders looking for the next new emerging talent.
Channel 4 Commissioning Editor for Coming Up said that the competition stands for ambition, boldness and variety of tone. Writers should take note of this when considering their entries.
This year’s closing date for applications is June 9th.
The competition is open to writers, film-makers and directors. Writers should submit a 2 page treatment, along with a script (no shorter than 10 pages, no longer than 60 pages) which best illustrates their individual tone. Scripts can be excerpts from bigger pieces, but must be a complete scenes showing coherent character and story arcs. Directors must submit showreels, and they should submit full scenes rather than flashy montage edits.
From successful submission, it takes about a year to get your film from a 2 page idea to a finished piece ready to broadcast. About 6 months of this time is taken up with the selection process, as the hundreds of applicants are shortlisted and (some) then invited to workshops before the finalists are selected. Last year they had about 1000 applicants.
The producers took the opportunity to urge writers to be as bold, imaginative and ambitious as possible. As for content/tone (sex, swearing, drug abuse etc), if it’s a scene likely to appear in Shameless, it can appear in your script. Winning films will always be screened after the watershed.
They always look for work of distinction – i.e. it MUST stand out. Anything with a strong voice will stand out. If you do respond to their encouragement for comedy, it must be comedy with a purpose ... comedy with something to say.
Whatever the subject, make sure it is something you want to say, and you must be prepared to speak from the heart.
When considering your script, involves no more than about 5 characters, and think practically about production – budget will dictate that your story must be filmed in about 4 days max.
It’ll help your film if it isn’t geographically specific. For example, of coure it can be set on a beach, but if it’s that little sheltered cove at the furthest north shore of the furthest Hebridean Island you’re not going to get anywhere. Likewise, Apache helicopter attacks on fully armed aircraft carriers may prove difficult to bring in on budget.
Submissions can be made as writer/director pairs, though in the 09-10 round they separated some of those writers and joined them with directors of Touchpaper’s own choosing. They do this to give as many varied people a chance as possible.
It’s cheaper and easier (therefore more likely to result in a commission) to keep your story contemporary. Historical or futuristic stories eat set-up time and budget.
The same crew work usually across all 7 projects, and they block film them back-to-back to try and keep costs down. Budget for all 7 projects is roughly one hour of series drama – this get split across all the films.
Writers don’t need to have a previous credit as a writer, though they can still apply if they have. They can’t apply if their credit was for a prime-time commission. Same story for directors.
Directors can’t usually choose their writers, and writers can’t choose their directors. That selection and pairing process is down to the competition organisers.
Touchpaper will hold the rights to the story and characters you create, though if your winning film leads to a series, you will get first refusal on whether or not you want to write the series. Though Touchpaper will make and own the series.
Industry insiders pay a great deal of competition to the winning films, and make a point of seeing them. As far as the organisers know, every previous successful writer now has an agent.
Your story has to exist as a one-off piece. There will be an ad break roughly half way through. Aim for 25 – 30 pages.
You will get help writing your story, from writers, readers, scripts editors and industry professionals.
They don’t do boring.
More details about the competition can be found on Channel4.com, Tochpapertv.com, and RDF.com (Touchpaper’s parent company).
That's it! And marvellous it all sounds too. Thanks for that, Ian!
Tuesday, 11 May 2010
Channel 4's "Coming Up" comes to Belfast...
- 7 films will be made
- scripts should be 30 mins
- applications are invited from writers, directors and writer/directors.
- the closing date for applications is Wednesday, 9th June.
"Northern Ireland Screen has teamed up with Channel 4 and Touchpaper TV to host a specialComing Up event in Belfast on Wednesday 19th May. Coming Up is the only talent scheme currently in the UK where emerging film-makers have the opportunity to make an authored drama with a guaranteed network broadcast.
Ben Stoll, Channel 4’s Coming Up commissioning editor, Elinor Day and Emma Burge, Touchpaper producers, will be in Belfast along with local writer Ronan Blaney, who wrote Boy one of the successful 2010 Coming Up films. Three of this year’s diverse 30 minute films will be screened, including Boy.
Applications are now open for Coming Up 2011, after the screening Ben will explain what Channel 4 is looking for. Emma and Elinor will discuss how the production works and Ronan will speak about his experience of the scheme. There will also be time to network following the event.
This is an excellent opportunity for writers and directors who are trying to break into the film and television industry.
The event is free of charge and Northern Ireland Screen strongly encourage all local writers, directors and emerging short and feature film makers to attend. Places are limited so please contact ursula@northernirelandscreen.co.uk as soon as possible to secure a place.
Date: Wednesday 19th May
Time: 6.00pm
Venue: Moviehouse Cinema, Dublin Road
Contact: ursula@northernirelandscreen.co.uk
See you there!!
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