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STOP PRESS! Writersroom script system
Thursday 9 February 2012, 16:17
Writersroom will soon be launching a fantastic new, improved, more efficient, more effective script system. Full details will be announced when our website is relaunched in early March 2012.
So all writers who are planning to send a script, please do this one thing for us: HOLD ON TO YOUR SCRIPT and WAIT until all the details are announced in March. If your script is eligible to send in now, then it will still be eligible to send in then. Please don't rush your script in before 1 March - if you do then it will simply go into the current system. But it would be better off in the new system.
We want to reassure all of you that the new system will continue to accept TV, radio, film and theatre scripts from writers in the UK, whether or not you not have experience, agents or contacts - just as it does now.
So:- Please don't ask us for further details - everything will be published early March.
- Please don't send us a script for the new system until full details go live in March.
- We will continue to process scripts currently in the system - if you wish to hold yours over for the new system, please email your request ASAP stating your script reference, name and script title with the subject...
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Prisoners' Wives
Tuesday 7 February 2012, 12:46
Whenever I get the call offering me a new job, it's always the same old response: the panic, the urge to run, change my phone number, buy a wig. This is it - this is the one where they'll 'find me out'. So it was no different when Tiger Aspect commissioned me to create an ensemble drama about a group of women with a family member in prison. Sweaty palms, sleepless nights..what do I know about the criminal justice system?
And then - the life raft. Research. Myself and my fellow writers, James Graham and Chloe Moss, spent months visiting prisons, talking to offenders, chaplains and, most importantly of all, to families and partners of the men inside. It was a both a privilege and an eye opener but that's not to say it wasn't tricky. You're asking people about what is clearly the most traumatic time in their lives - but their response was an inspiration. These women were idiosyncratic, brave, funny and resilient and we were very lucky to have their support.
Prisoners' Wives is a mainstream show, popular telly, aiming to get a mass audience. To that end, I was asked to create strong characters who undergo big transformative journeys, but it was the moments of truth and authenticity... -
How to avoid canned laughter in your Laugh Track script
Thursday 2 February 2012, 12:47
We've just launched Laugh Track - a fantastic new comedy sitcom writing talent search which will be judged by none other than Dawn French.
While you're thinking about writing your Laugh Track script, here are a few thoughts to remind you of:
Studio
There are generally up to three large sets and perhaps a couple of small ones, there is a limited amount of location taping edited in later, and the action generally happens over a short period of time - because every new day demands a change of costume that slows down the recording. And remember, physical comedy works brilliantly in front of an audience - from Basil Fawlty goosestepping to the Vicar of Dibley dancing with Darcey Bussell to Miranda falling over anywhere and everywhere.Laughter
In non-studio comedy series you can do strange, subtle, unusual things - think The Office, Peep Show, The Thick of It, Flight of the Conchords. In studio sitcoms, you have to make the people in the room laugh - out loud, and preferably as often as possible.Character
They need to be recognisably human (even if they're an alien like Mork or a Mongrel puppet) rather than from some kind of artificial 'sitcom world'. Make them authentic and give them...Read more about How to avoid canned laughter in your Laugh Track script
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Writersroom 10 update
Monday 30 January 2012, 14:00
What it is
Last year BBC Writersroom put a call out to theatres to nominate playwrights for their Writersroom 10 scheme. As the name suggests ten playwrights were chosen on the strength of their writing to be given the opportunity (seed commission) to write a new play with their respective theatre. The selected playwrights and theatres can be seen here.
How it has worked so far . . .
1st Meeting
When the ten of us arrived on a warm May morning to have our first meeting at the BBC we did not really know what to expect as the premise seemed simple; write a new play with your theatre. So why did we need...
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Writing a Doctors script: Do It! Do It! Don't! Don't! Don't!
Friday 13 January 2012, 13:58
An advisory list of potential delights and horrors when writing DOCTORS scripts.
100% my opinion - In no particular order...
1. Trust your script editor and use their skill and experience. They can have moments of genius for which you can take most of the credit.
2. Go with the suspension of disbelief... up to a point. Yes our doctors will make unannounced house calls (that nobody working in the NHS would) but there needs to be a convincing impulsion.
3. Resist the temptation to cram too huge a change into too short a time. Someone who deeply loathes their neighbour at breakfast...
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Future Talent Award: My experience as a finalist
Monday 9 January 2012, 12:21
When I entered the Future Talent competition during Christmas 2010, I genuinely didn't expect to win. The only other competition I'd ever entered was for a Pokemon game in the late nineties (I was a cool kid and they were crazy days) and I didn't win that, even though I put a load of Pokemon stickers on the envelope. I didn't actually win the Future Talent thing either, but I was one of the three finalists, which is why they asked me to write this, I guess.
Having been the first script I'd properly finished, I was totally self conscious about my entry for the competition. There are some people...
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Christmas scripts
Thursday 15 December 2011, 17:42
As a special Christmas treat for you - we've put together a selection box of scripts from our favourite Christmas episodes of BBC continuing dramas over the past few years.
Download them using the links below. Enjoy!
EastEnders
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Christmas Day 2009 part 1 & 2 by Simon AshdownChristmas Day 2007 - part 1 by Simon Ashdown
Christmas Day 2007 - part 2 by Simon Ashdown
Holby City
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"Snow Queens", Series 13, Episode 11 by Martha Hillier (Christmas 2010)Casualty
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"Winter Wonderland", Series 25, Episode 17 by Daisy Coulam (Christmas 2010)
Keep...
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Changes to the BBC writersroom blog
Monday 12 December 2011, 15:45
Just wanted to let you know that the writersroom blog is going to be going to be going through some changes in the next week.
We'll be moving over to the new pan-BBC iSite system - which all current BBC blogs will be moving over to within the next few months. In design terms, iSite blogs will follow GEL - the BBC's new global experience language for its digital services, giving a unified look and feel across all blogs and websites on bbc.co.uk. Read more about GEL.
From your perspective as a user - blog comments will work in exactly the same way, they'll just be using the new comments system...
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Postcode
Tuesday 6 December 2011, 15:10
I had written about kids before (most notably in Kid in the Corner) but never before given them the central driving narrative. What was also new to me was the notion of writing 'for' kids as opposed to writing about them. To be honest, this was a distinction I was never entirely comfortable with (it might even have been a distinction i put in my own head) save for making sure that you didn't put unlikely words in the mouths of 13/14 year olds or have them over expressing their thoughts.
Ultimately the rule of thumb of good writing is authenticity and portraying the kids as accurately as possible...
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Jesting About 2: It's not all vanilla lattes and falafel fajitas
Monday 28 November 2011, 10:18
Hello. You don't know me but I am yet another of those regular people what made it through that Jesting About-initiative thing last year. I've been asked to write a blog about it. I also work part-time in a cafe, but you're not interested in that, are you?
Of course not.
So, I was asked to write about my experience on Jesting About, and I thought that as well as doing that, I would give some (hopefully) helpful tips on what to do when applying. Now, I feel it's worth pointing something out before we go any further on this prose-based journey of ours - being a writer isn't glamorous. Despite...
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