College of Comedy 2
It is now a week since deadline day, and the intensity of submissions arriving at a rate of one every two minutes has been replaced by a period of reflection.
There have been some queries to the college mailbox and on writing forums, largely to do with process, communication and the genre of submissions, so I will try to answer them all here.
I and a colleague read all the entries, and have produced a long-list of forty. Two colleagues are now reading the forty to come up with a shorter long-list (a top 20), which will be read by senior colleagues in the comedy department. All being well, they will get their reading pile by the end of the week. Guided by them - and optimistically hoping for consensus - we will then have a list of people to invite for interview.
All of the 40 have something special to offer.
I will write to the top20 to let them know they have got this far, and to the second 20 to let them know that they nearly made it. Obviously those are messages which are going to be difficult to write, and difficult to read for those who got close. I will also write to people whose work impressed but which failed to make the cut, as well as to the few whose lengthier CVs suggested they were prospering already in the industry.
That equates to a chunky number of emails, but I intend to get them out as quickly as possible, beginning with the 20 who have made the long-list, which should be by next Monday.
Some people have been wondering if submitting material not written for television has ruled them out. We received television and radio writing, film scripts, stage plays and animation scripts. Submissions of any genre were assessed in the same way, so no one needs to be concerned that a particular form counted against them.
Meanwhile, more writers have agreed to be involved with the college. They include Kwame Kwei-Armah, Sanjeev Bhaskar, Jan Etherington, Graham Linehan and Steven Moffatt.
© MMIX~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~40~RS~)
Comments
Sign in or register to comment.
Hi Micheal
You must be reaching the limits of human endurance by now!
Very interesting blog though, thanks for posting this info.
My question is - if the nation's sketch writers are writing about Facebook, antenatal classes, and police interviews, what subject matter did you find cropped up most often in the sitcom format ?
Cheers,
Griff
Complain about this comment
Hi Micheal
Will the list of 40 be published on the BBC website?
Cheers
Cosmic Crabman
Complain about this comment
@Griff
Sitcoms tended to be about flatsharing, getting drunk and trying to have sex (or having it), or about women talking dirty.
@cosmiccrabman
It would be invidious to publish names, I think. We'll announce the six.
Complain about this comment
Hello Micheal
Do the 40 have the wow factor and are so different from all the others?
Have you selected half sitcom and half sketches?
Thanks
Complain about this comment
Thanks Micheal. No surprises there then!
Cheers -- Griff
Complain about this comment
@juggles
They're roughly 50/50 narrative and sketches, juggles, though that wasn't deliberate. What impressed about the 40 was an original approach to sometimes hackneyed comedy topics, compelling writing and being funny from the first page.
Complain about this comment
Thanks Micheal
I'll go and look up "invidious" now.
Cheers
Cosmic Crabman
Complain about this comment
Thanks Michael for taking the time to let us know how the selection process is going.
Obviously we'd all like to be part of the top 20 or the top 40 or the ones who impress ed but failed to make the cut. It makes the waiting bearable and it gives us something to go on rather than the form rejection letter or silence.
And I appreciated the email reciept. How many times have we submitted writing by email to have it chewed up in the electronic ether?
I'm looking forward to your next blog and value the time you've taken to keep us in the know.
Complain about this comment
Yes Michael thanks for the update. It's also great to know that the BBC is investing in comedy and acknowledging that it's as tough to pull off as drama.
Complain about this comment
Thanks Micheal.
Complain about this comment
If only forty are being discussed, does it mean the other thousand odd were all dreck?
And I appreciate you can't individually critique all those that failed, but will you offer general comments on your blog as to reasons why so many failed?
Complain about this comment
@AspieBoy
I'll talk about that when I blog next, but it doesn't mean there were only forty good ones, and it doesn't imply failure if people didn't make the cut.
Complain about this comment
Hello,
may i make a comment please. I put my self forward for this scheme because it is just the thng i need at this stage of my career.
however i found understanding some the rules and what was required difficult to grasp- such as, it wasn't clear to me that i could enter a stage piece. I would have much prefered to have entered that, over what i did. not saying that i'm unhappy with the peice i did enter.
I was aware that a theatre commision/productions was acceptable in terms of relevent expiriance; as in my situation.
But I thought the peice had to be either narritive half hour comedy or sketches - both for tv. But reading your blog I realise stage peices were entered.
my point being, is there anyway of letting those who organise things know that instructions need to be a bit more idiot proof and clear, it would certianly help someone like me.
thankyou and kind regards.
Complain about this comment
@datelesswonder
We asked for half hour narrative comedy and received submissions covering tv, radio, stage and film. We didn't specify television writing as a requirement.
But it's helpful to know that the rules could have been expressed more clearly, and should we do it again, we'll certainly bear that in mind.
Complain about this comment
Just to say I have now written to everyone who I'm planning to contact.
Complain about this comment
Hi,
Just wondering if you have written to everyone by email or the old fashioned way. Just so I'm not waiting for the postman to come.
Complain about this comment
New-fangled email, imperial.
Complain about this comment
Micheal,
Thank you for letting us know inadvertantly that we have not been successful in this quest to become part of the BBC's comedy generating factory. Wouldn't it have been apposite to send out e-mails of rejection and congratulations at the same time. It would have been kinder and more respectful, I feel, to have discovered the reply in my inbox rather than through the blog site.
Complain about this comment
Far be it for me to answer for Micheal but, whilst that would have been lovely, no doubt, it would have meant emailing 1200 people, and I can't see that that's plausible.
Complain about this comment
Sorry Anthrax, disagree. It is easy to e-mail 1200 at once - spammers do it all the time. Nothing wrong with a personalised 'Thank you, but no thank you'.
Complain about this comment
Sadly, Kroggy, I don't have spamming skills, and I don't know how to do a mass email which would be selective at the same time. Most if not all similar schemes undertake to let people know by a certain date whether or not they have been successful, on the basis that if you haven't heard you haven't gone through. As it is, I wrote individually to the long list, the long long list, and the over-qualified. I'll see what can be done should the scheme continue next year.
Complain about this comment
I think it's really good that you even 'talk' to us, I can't think of any other producer that does, not at the mo anyway
Complain about this comment
Kroggy, the difference with Spammers is that they use randomising programmes to generate random names and email addresses. No-one goes through and manually types out 1200 names.
Complain about this comment
Sorry, I'm confused with regards the long lists, long long lists, etc. Have the short list (i.e the final 20) been informed? Or is the short list something else? It says in the blog they will be contacted by monday, but I take it the selection process is ahead of schedule now?
Complain about this comment
Everyone who is going to be contacted has been contacted. The process is actually on the schedule we envisaged, but in case it wasn't, we built in short grace periods.
Complain about this comment
Anthrax,
Thank you for the in-depth knowledge of spamming - perhaps it is you I have to blame for an inbox full of e-mails offering me a way to sexual fulfilment and endless sensual paradise . That said, at least, I got an e-mail from you.
Yes, potatohead - it means we( including YOU) have not been selected; We are, regrettably, one of the 1380 who just didn't cut the funny mustard; all those common facets of humanity such as flat sharing, having sex, getting drunk, women wanting sex are just passe - it is a shame this revelation has not got through to most of the present writers of BBC sitcoms. Bitter? Moi? How you can judge someone's comic writing potential and comic stamina from a 10 page sample is beyond me.
Complain about this comment
Hi Micheal,
Is it possible to tell us which sitcoms and sketch shows the successful cadidates will be working on? I'm dying to know.
Thank you.
Complain about this comment
@Sniper28
Not yet. It depends on what's being produced when and the kind of show that people will be suited to. I'll be doing progress reports on the blog.
Complain about this comment
View these comments in RSS