UNSOLICITED SCRIPTS: AN UPDATE
Writersroom is updating the policy on what we do and don't accept, and compiling all our guidelines into one set of Terms & Conditions for anyone sending a script in to us. This is where it lives: Terms & Conditions. They will come into effect as of 1 December 2009.
We will now refer writers wherever possible to this information regarding any questions about submitting a script and how the system works. Much of this is brought together from what already exists on the website. But there are some new changes, the main ones being:
- We will no longer accept unsolicited adaptations
- We will no longer accept short films - only scripts of at least 30 minutes
- We will no longer accept scripts from overseas
© MMX~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~43~RS~)
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Hello. I was led to believe that the BBC were looking for new writers, and so submitted a script for Dr Who. I received this back with a covering slip stating you are only accepting scripts for Doctors or EastEnders. Isn't this a little limiting? I appreciate the BBC must get bombarded with material, but how are new writers in different genres to be encouraged if they feel dismissed or rejected? Surely the BBC should be encouraging material across all genres?
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Does that mean that as of today the BBC doesn't accept scripts from abroad anymore? UK only?
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What? Anne Caulfield in Writing for Radio, published this year, bemoans the "Home Counties" reputation of BBC Radio drama and urges writing to look farther afield for ideas, characters, plotlines and situations. BBC is, thanks to the internet, a global voice with more than the World Service reaching audiences beyond your shores. You need scripts from overseas, believe me.
What's the thinking behind this? Some kind of creative industrial protectionism? Those of us living outside the UK for reasons of marriage, economy or possibly service reasons can't send our scripts in? So we find a friend who'll lend us his address?
Why put writers through such a charade? Do you think it will cut down the slush pile?
This is really sad, short-sighted and disappointing from the leader in global radio.
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Hi Paul,
OMG!!! I live overseas (Ireland) and the BBC Writersroom recently invited me to submit my next script (after reading my last one)...I assume I can still send my next script in? ...Right?
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Saddened, dismayed, alas all hope is gone... I will be forever be stranded in America writing about chili cheese burgers, Hummers, and diabetes. I'd rather not mention any of this but, I really felt I must communicate my emotional state by realizing I shall never ever be considered by the BBC ever again. My only way to make it through this depression is to shove my mouth full of Twinkies, and pray that in my next life I'll be lucky enough to be born in the U.K.
:(
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Sorry Paul...ignore my last post...I see writers in Eire can still submit.
Forex36
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So, Forex36, can Liv and I possibly borrow your lucky address for sending in our scripts?
Or should those of us in Europe and the US invest in a shared London post office box?
I suggest we call it the headquarters of The Samuel Beckett Contraband Script Company. Ooops, Samuel Becket wouldn't be able to send in his scripts from Paris anymore. Sorry, Neil Simon, the British public won't be able to relate to you either, for sure.
When the BBC picks up a script sent in by Forex36 (who is suddenly going to be very prolific...what's your percentage Forex? Your moniker has me nervous...) we hop over on Easyjet or Eurostar and bunk at a very reasonable guesthouse I know in West Hampstead....that is..unless the WritersRoom is employing Enforcers who check the beds to make sure we sleep in them... I think I feel a radio comedy coming on. The BBC has to hire new staff just to make sure that the scripts they like are really written by bonafide English people living no farther to the east than the Isle of Wight and no farther than west of Forex's house. They fan out, sniffer dogs checking to make sure that computers on site are warm and that the teapot has indeed been used....Yikes! This Holby City episode we loved was scripted by...oh no! Jane, a resident of a small village in Normandy. Jane, Jane, don't you know that you could never grasp the BBC 4 zeitgeist from across that broad and windy Channel?
In the days of internet, email, webcams and cheap airflights, what a time to plead "close relationships" need immigration controls.
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I just read the new terms and conditions - indeed, writers from abroad are locked out. There goes the international air the Writer's Room always had, the idea of finding talent from around the world and invite them to be a part of UK television and culture. What a small-minded, irritating step backwards for such a forward-looking institution as the Writer's Room.
Disappointing.
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Awful news.
Just minutes ago, I finished the first draft of a TV pilot I wanted to send to the BBC. But as I live a continent away, and as I still have to rewrite, write a synopsis and the content of the next episodes, I will be unable to meet the Dec. 1 deadline.
I was also planning to write a second TV pilot right after that, also for the BBC.
Your decision to change the rules is a disaster for too many writers. I hope you will change your mind.
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Regarding the new submission rules: I'm a Brit living and working in Australia and most of the stuff that I write is aimed at the UK market. For the last six months I've been working on a series idea set in London. And now, at rather short notice, I find the BBC won't look at it unless I rush to get it completed and posted in the next week or so. I completely fail to see any logic in this new rule.
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Dear Mr. Joyce,
We regret to inform you that we are going to cancel your five-part adaptation of The Dubliners slotted for A Book at Bedtime because you are sending us your revisions from Paris. We'll be replacing your contribution, whcih we assure you was much appreciated, with an exciting new series on crippled lesbian shopgirls in Luton written by an exciting new talent, Boggles Krishnamurti who lives in the Hebrides. We're sure you understand that it is the BBC's remit to nurture local talent and to find stories and themes that our listening audience can relate to.
Although we have really enjoyed working with you, James, we regret that your living overseas might necessitate placing a trunk call to invite you to the studio for production consultations. Meanwhile, Mr. Krishnamurti has assured us that the twice-weekly boat bringing him to the mainland will be continuing its scheduled service through the winter months.
Best wishes for your writing future!
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@Paul M Slattery
Wasn't it a little naive to send in a Doctor Who script? The most cursory examination of the submission guidelines on this very web site will have told you that:
"BBC Drama will not consider sample spec episodes of existing or previous dramas; they are looking for writers with original voices and calling card scripts."
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This is most depressing. With just one rule change, thousands of writers are suddenly locked out of the ability to submit to the BBC without even so much as a reason being given for the change.
Not only is this a problem for people from outside the UK, it also complicates things for British people living elsewhere.
Please reconsider the decision, or at least share the reasons for the change with us so we're not left guessing as to why this happened.
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I read this and want to gag at the closed shop attitude.:
(Guidelines on why the BBC henceforth won't accept scripts from overseas)
" – we are looking for writers with whom the BBC can develop a strong working relationship and who have something to say that will appeal to British audiences. You may be a non-British-born writer, but you must be resident in the UK or Eire. The only exception to this is British-born writers who are resident temporarily overseas – if you feel this applies to you, you should email us at writersroom@bbc.co.uk to notify us in advance of submitting a script.
So...you can be British-born and living overseas, but only temporarily (exactly what's that, pray tell?) or non-British-born and resident in the UK. And that way, you'll surely be writing something that will appeal to "British" audiences. But you can't be American, Indian, Australian, or Canadian, Hong Kong Chinese, Pakistani or Guianan and possibly write anything that will appeal to "British" audiences.
Are they going to start asking for birth certificates? Shall we hire British actors to front for us during phone chats with producers? "Why, yes Reginald, I'm only here in Syndey— temporarily, mind you. Don't forget! I was born in Chiswick, old boy."
How parochial is the BBC trying to become? How long are those noses down which they peer at their listeners!
Oh, yes, and the BBC can't have "a strong working relationship with you" unless you live in NW1, preferably next to Joan Bakewell.
I suggest that the producers of House send Hugh Laurie home and that LA production companies ban Emma Thompson from submitting more Nanny script ideas.
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Please make sure you read the whole of the Terms & Conditions for full details rather than just the blog.
Overseas scripts - the reasoning is that we are looking primarily for writers to work with (rather than just scripts to produce). Obviously, it's extremely difficult to work with writers who are based permanently overseas. However, if a British writer is based overseas temporarily, then there is the prospect that they will return and such a relationship might be developed. Therefore we ask all such writers to email us before sending a script to clarify. Obviously, anyone who resides in or relocates to the UK - regardless of where they originate from - is eligible to send us scripts. The very large proportion of scripts we receive are from the UK and Eire - we receive fewer scripts from overseas than perhaps you might think. There is, remember, the World Service International Playwrighting Competition for radio writers overseas. I understand the frustrations but this isn't a question of diversity or being a closed-shop - it's a question of priorities and practicalities.
I do think some of you are missing the point with some of your comments. We are talking about unsolicited scripts and writers, not established ones. My job is to find writers with whom producers can develop a relationship, and doing so is hard enough anyway, never mind trying to do so across a continent. It's not just a question of script notes by email or conversations by phone - it's about getting to know writers, spending time with them, working with them face to face.
Paul M Slattery - we don't accept Doctor Who episodes. Nor do we accept Doctors or Eastenders episodes. But if a writer sending an original script would like to be considered for these two shows in particular, then they should specify that and we will make a note of it. we accept all kinds and genres of TV drama/comedy - but they must be original.
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Dear Paul,
Drop this blanket guideline. Let's use our common sense. Isn't there a difference between submitting a script for a running soap like Holby City from the Seychelles (which would make working longterm with the writer problematic) and absolutely ruling out 45" one-off radio dramas from somebody living a short hop away by plane or train? In the latter case of the radio drama, we're talking about maybe a two week stay in London during production. You don't need such a writer all year, unless you're looking for drinking mates, and even if a relationship did develop, what is the problem if the writer guarantees to keep writing to standard and show up for production on your time and their dime?
By the way, I entered the World Service Playwriting Competition and got a commendation for my entry. But give me a break. They had more than a 1000 entries and the next chance is two years away, as it's a biennial competition, and of course you know that very well. Being "commended" adds up to zilch if I can't build on that by submitting more scripts for BBC 3 or 4. The World Service has very few hours for original drama compared to the domestic stations.
I'm returning to radio after a long time, but I'm not new to writing, having published two novels in the UK and one in the US and having worked as a journalist for over twenty years. However, it's obvious that radio writing is not only a special skill, but that in-house producers are a separate tribe difficult to contact from abroad, and independents are getting less work from the BBC, we hear. You've just made it that much tougher to hope that fresh ideas and that much-touted diversity you post on your webpage can penetrate those Home Counties someone mentioned above.
In short, are you sure you want to close the door to radio plays posted from overseas mailboxes? "Overseas.." God, that's so Mrs. Miniver. You just admitted it's not really a large proportion of your submissions, ("We receive fewer scripts from overseas than perhaps you might think. ") so why, why, why the restriction in the first place? Okay, we'll find ourselves a friend to mail in for us, as somebody comically suggested above, and when we show up for work on Monday, we'll bin our Easyjet or Air Canada tags.
You've obviously put a few vocal people in a lot of pain for little gain, and in the process, damaged the BBC's online profile as a global media giant.
We can read the Commissioning Guidelines online and follow the submission cycles as well as somebody else inside or outside London, as well as listen to the stations online. For some of us, it's the only ready market for drama projects. And the "nurturing" and outreach thing was working, e.g. after the Playwriting Competition, I entered a 15-minute script for Opening Lines and now I'm working on a light-hearted one-hour play mixing love and espionage. It was zipping along until yesterday's news hit my screen. Salt in the wound, since I had just got offline with Sheila Crosbie helping to work out the bugs in the new Celtx radioplay software which supersedes the old ScriptSmart software for PCs. She says the BBC hasn't responded to their queries...but then Sheila isn't working inside the UK, so maybe she got binned, too.
Please reconsider. Or at least please confirm that you were concerned more about long-running television show staff and not one-off radio scripts.
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I suppose I just don't get it. Either there are plenty of foreign scripts remarkable enough to cause disappointment when the respective writers (for some reason) refuse to move to the UK - then obviously these writers from abroad (the ones you now lock out for not being British) have found a way to speak to a British audience. Or there are "fewer scripts from overseas than perhaps you might think", in which case there's no reason to change the policy at all - or do those few scripts cripple the Writer's Room in any way?
Again, I don't get it. The whole thing doesn't make sense.
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Oh - it doesn't make sense unless it's purely about cutting costs. Then I understand, although I'd appreciate a more candid approach in that case.
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@pauloashton: If at some point I would happen to write something that interests you, I'd be happy to relocate to the UK, making my current location kind of irrelevant. I'm just as interested in a lasting working relationship as you are.
Do all these new rules only apply to unsollicited scripts or would they also apply to agented screenplays or ones that are sent after you've shown interest in a query?
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Why has everyone lost their mind over this? I think everyone's forgetting what an amazing thing it is that the BBC accepts unsolicited scripts at all. Do NBC, HBO, ABC etc etc have this policy? Doubt it.
Of course there are dozens of individuals who have just moved abroad, moved abroad for special reasons, wrote their scripts on a plane flying across the Atlantic... But for the majority of people I would argue that this makes complete sense - the BRITISH Broadcasting Corporation concentrating on developing British-based writers. Canada has a great record of supporting filmmakers - they're in the Empire, why can't they fund me? BECAUSE THEY'RE BUSY FUNDING CANADIANS!
I work in short films; my local RFA have basically closed off shorts-funding to all but the most experienced writers/directors. RFAs in other parts of Britain would be better for me, but I can't apply for their funding because I don't live in the region. I could move house... or I could worry less about funding/opportunities, and instead concentrate on WRITING. I opt for the latter; I suggest others do likewise.
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JonJamesMills,
You make short films? Put them on YouTube.
I'm concerned about radio work for a worldwide audience increasingly lisening online for quality drama.
You may be unaware that NBC, HBO, ABC are not broadcasting radio drama globally, nor do they restrict their staff or freelance writers to US residence status by any means. If you have a job with them, you move to LA for the duration of the work, but ask any Brit working for a US production company what they do between gigs. We're not talking about film producers here, we're talking about an open shop for new writers.
Every BBC radio play has an average audience of 600,000 listeners worldwide, according to what I've researched. This doesn't apply in any way to the American television stations you mentioned. Their audience isn't global until you buy the boxed sets at Christmas. The BBC's reach is global, its ambitions are, thank God, more far-reaching and it is a national jewel admired world wide. I assure you, such is not the case with NBC which is right now the lowest ranked tv station of the big four and according to Tina Fey last night at the AdCouncil dinner, even lagging behind some popular radio stations.
btw, I don't think it's amazing the BBC reads unsolicitied scripts. Listen to the stale archived fare on BBC7 (Julie Enfield again, ten years later?) and see how much they need fresh ideas to fill the hundreds of hours they schedule on BBC 4 etc. The question is, with an audience over 40, educated and not interested in ABC-(Disney-owned) garbage, who's writing for them? Is it all vicars for tea, Council Estate soaps, or is it appealing to their global audience?
I simply don't buy this "develop working relationship" line. Anybody who sweats for months over a script is going to show up for work, again and again and again, whether their Mum lives in Bristol or Bangladesh. Pre-established residence in the UK is a red herring for something else and I'm afraid, it comes down to jobs for the boys.
As Paul says above, it might be about cutting costs--so don't return the manuscripts if you've saving on postage.
As Hommes says, if we can write a script the BBC wants, we'll come to the UK and stay as long as it takes. Just like the Brits and Canadians working in New York and LA.
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JonJamesMills - yes indeed, it's easy to lose sight of this, and I do believe that by hook or by crook brilliant writers will be found out or make themselves known.
Fearless - it's clear how impassioned you are about this and I know this change will frustrate some people.
Yes, TV and Radio are very different, as you indicate. But in my experience at the BBC, producers across all mediums and formats are looking for people to work with rather than just scripts to make. This is the feedback and sentiment I receive across the board. It's very much our job to respond to what commissioners and producers want and need.
The World Service is a real opportunity for radio writers - just yesterday I was told about the forthcoming two productions that came out of the last competition which TX tonight and tomorrow: http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/arts/2009/03/000000_world_drama.shtml
In your case, I'd perhaps argue that a commendation from them makes you not quite unsolicited. I am in regular contact with World Service. If a writer felt that their position is something other than simply unsolicited, then they are welcome to email us and make an individual case about their situation and work.
This isn't about diversity. There is a wealth of diverse voices in this country that we work very hard to bring to the BBC. Diversity isn't just about where people live or where they come from.
We have been considering this change for some time. Many procucers are genuinely surprised when they realise we have been accepting scripts from overseas because, as I say, they are unsure what they would do with such a writer recommended on to them. When a producer reads work that excites them, their first instinct is to want to meet and get to know the writer. Ideas tend not to come out of the ether unsolicited - they tend to come out of that special moment of connection and then the ongoing conversation between writer and producer. Of the overseas scripts we receive, a large part come from the USA, and a large part of those are Hollywood-esque movie scripts that we can probably do very little with even if they were brilliant. It is very very rare for a reader to recommend on to me a script from overseas. In the two instances I can recall, they were both British writers living overseas who were planning to return, and as such wanted to make contact.
Yes, cost is an issue in the sense that in these difficult times it makes no sense to spend in an area of next to no return. The money and time we spend processing overseas scripts could be used to support the writers we find here that we very definitely want to work with.
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I just happen to think that - especially for a broadcaster with worldwide ambitions, selling its best products to a global audience and creating shows and concepts with a British heart while appealing to a much wider range of viewership - local restrictions in finding talent are a tremendous step backwards.
There's a problem with too Hollywood-esque scripts? Update your terms and conditions to include a logline and recommend a low-budget approach. Get rid of the "We'll DEFINITELY read ten pages" policy and reject any script with a "Space cops from Mars blow up planets while chasing an interstellar serial killer" logline. For Christ's sake, read and cover and nurture every British script you find while just browsing the ones from abroad, but don't lock out all the foreigners without any chance of ever getting on your table - JUST BECAUSE THEY LIVE A FOURTY-FIVE-MINUTE FLIGHT AWAY.
Seriously, folks. The Writer's Room is an incredible institution, and for many aspiring writers it's the big goal to polish and perfect their script until one day it's shiny enough to make it to you guys. If you have to reduce the amount of screenplays sent in and there's a large amount of unfitting material - tighten the restrictions, content-wise. But don't go all Hulu on us and close your doors.
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Now we're getting somewhere, Paul..and Paul.
Blakenfield is right, Ashton. (Dialogue for an MI5 script? "You're a brave man, but we can't let you risk it...")
First off, let's repeat, we're all grateful that the WritersRoom even exists. That they've done yeomen's work others forswear and that they produce so many hours of fantastic radio product.
So, streamline your in-box in the direction you want, sensibly. Hone your requirements to what you can handle, and don't slam the door. Don't promise to return scripts. E-mail evaluations only if you think it's going to produce a good writer for you down the road. Throw out the Hollywood dross on sight. We can understand that the WritersRoom can't waste man-hours sifting through non-starters from the U.S., especially the blockbuster teen fantasies of New York Film Academy wannabes.You're not beholden to read ten pages of anything. Read five. Read one. That's what my literary agent does in New York. And I don't live in New York. I live far, far, away, a total of 90 minutes from London on Easyjet. My colleague Blakenfield has an advantage of 45 minutes on me. I bet we could both beat it to your door via the LDR faster than a West End writer stuck on the Circle Line on a bad day.
However, the last time I heard, Britain was in Europe (unless you still subscripe to the tabloid headline joke, "Fog Across Channel, Continent Cut Off.") And when I talk about diversity, please don't persuade yourself that moving from Brick Lane to Westminster to the Cotswolds to Welsh mines gives your vast online listening audience enough diversity. I want Phil Sanders (above) to write a domestic radio drama set against the Australian fires immediately. I want Blakenfield to write a comedy about a champagne producer faced with the result of a glut of grapes a few seasons back and plummeting prices in the current run-up to Christmas sales. I want Hommes (above) to write a lovestory set in a Swedish humanitarian aid office when one side gets assigned to Vietnam. And even Liv, stuck out there in the U.S. would probably show up for a special moment producing her comedy about a Chili-Cheese-Burger waitress who is promised five minutes with Obama in a diner during his last campaign.
As for developing a relationship, I'm starting to feel I know you already, Paul. For one thing, you have to work on Saturdays, and you do have my sympathy, as I work in my IKEA bathrobe, which will make for some special moments indeed if Woman's Hour picks up my play. Also, I appreciate you've tried to find a clear-cut solution to a tiresome artistic challenge. You're caught between producers and a slush pile.
Sadly, I still don't get your "face-time" argument. ( "looking for people to work with rather than just scripts to make") You've not convinced me that producing a script with a writer on site versus developing a relationship with a writer are such very different things. As Blakenfield says, have so very many wonderful scripts been put to one side because the writer wouldn't come to London? Weird...
As for ("When a producer reads work that excites them, their first instinct is to want to meet and get to know the writer. Ideas tend not to come out of the ether unsolicited - they tend to come out of that special moment of connection and then the ongoing conversation between writer and producer.") Well, I'm sure that a producer could manage to contain his excitement over the weekend while I pack my overnight bag and get to Gatwick or Glasgow.
Or do those "special moments of connection" only occur over Sunday lunch at the writer's Notting Hill apartment? Although I see the spirit in which you've engaged in this blog protest with constructive explanation, you may not realize it is starting to sound rather coy, and I must say, worryingly clubby, as if radio producers and writers spend every minute strolling along Shepherd's Bush intersection, saying, "Hey, thank God you're not going home to Bordeaux/Salzburg/Copenhagen tonight, I've just had another great idea!"
Once you like my script, I'll come and schmooze with any producer for months, if necessary. I can bring a whole list of ideas. One of my sons commuted all summer from the Continent for his violin lesson with a RAM teacher twice a month, going in the morning and returning the same night. I made thirteen short trips to London/Manchester over 2008. Both my sons at now at university in the UK. I have use of a god-daughter's pied-a-terre in Pimlico. For special moments, I invite any radio producer to come stay at my house, working in the morning and skiing all afternoon.
And lastly, as I now leave you time to take this blog to your bosses and demand a rethink on their rigid new guidelines, one last note: my ideas do come out of the ether. That's why they're not derivative, imitative, or based on Hollywood rubbish.
For God's sake, be flexible. So will I. I'll use any pen-name, any U.K. address, any funny wig or accent to get my foot in Radio4's door. Special moments and all.
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If writers are not living in the UK they are not paying the TV licence, therefore I see no reason why they should be entitled to the service of the Writersroom, especially in these days of tight BBC cutbacks.
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Dear Mark,
Let's think industrially, then. We writers, along with everybody else viewing BBC television outside the UK, pay special cable fees to watch anything beyond BBC World. If that's taken into consideration, we could even claim equal rights to the WritersRoom. Nobody's getting a free ride when it comes to television. But we're not talking about viewers here, we're talking about how the BBC can best profit from the creative pool and work with writers long-term. Obviously there are problems that need to be addressed and Paul has to make changes on script submissions and sorting wheat from chaff. Just not by postal barriers that make little sense.
What I don't understand is why not have every writer send in a query letter first? Maximum 250 words, c.v.'s paras included. Nobody gets left out. Forget the ten page guarantee. Make sure the writer is available. That would save a lot of people from sending in unsuitable ScriptZillas.
As for radio, it's pumped all over the world online for free. There's a political and commendable long-term rationale for that. With the Empire truly gone, all the BBC's online radio channels put together constitute one of the last influential exports the U.K. can be proud of. (As opposed to arms sales, where the UK topped all other nations in weapons exports in 2007, according to the Guardian.)
We're just arguing here how to improve one of the UK's finest exports; the BBC should work to reflect its broad vision, global reputation for original listening, and whatever you might like to think of as "British values" by broadening its appeal and using all the different imaginations available. Keep in mind, we writers outside the U.K. have a much better-developed sense of how BBC programmes "play" outside the context of the domestic listener. Some of it sounds universally accessible, and some of it just sounds provincial and "small." And I'm not referring to the size of the cast, the setting or the intimacy of the plotline.
If this is an important British export—and don't doubt it is— we can tell producers how it "test drives" on foreign roads.
We're listening to Paul; the WritersRoom is a portal that has to be tailored to producers' needs, but it shouldn't be mistaken for a union hall. (p.s. your British actors assuming "American accents" for reasons of union rules sound cringe-worthy.)
If you're worried about jobs and budgets, Mark, the BBC is saving your licence fees every time it picks up a cheap new writer freelance and cuts the expense account or pension plan of a former staffer. This is sad, but the times we live in. In many cases, the "Independents" are ex-BBC staff who now carry their own overheads.
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@Marko: I pay my local TV license, and I'm assuming most others here do too. I'd argue that anyone paying for their TV gets global rights to submit anywhere they like, from Iceland to Australia.
The blog post still has me confused. The header says it's about unsollicited work, but the last bullet point excludes ALL overseas scripts. Either the blog post isn't about only unsollicited scripts, or we're talking only about unsollicited overseas scripts...
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Concerning financial issues - I'm fairly sure that no writer from abroad would actually mind paying a coverage fee. That might even thin out the hastily cobbled script experiments.
Anything not to get locked out. All we're asking is to consider other, maybe even more quality-orientated options.
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Inkstain:
"JonJamesMills,
You make short films? Put them on YouTube.
I'm concerned about radio work for a worldwide audience increasingly lisening online for quality drama."
You write radio drama? Approach your local HE college, uni, theatre group, there'll be dozens of people willing to help get the work recorded. Then post it on the web, email it to friends etc etc.
I'm slightly baffled by the sudden interest in dropping the 'first 10 page' rule in favour of sifting on the basis of CVs/cover letters. Actors don't perform covering letters - they perform scripts. If anything, such a change would allow so-so writers through the door because they're good at writing a slick, three-act synopsis rather than them actually having a voice.
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Sorry Jon, what I was suggesting was simply one more hoop to jump to buffer Paul's staff from time-wasters. First a query letter, then the ten pages, or better yet more, but by no means should anybody be beholden to a guarantee to read ten pages of simply anything. It should be an option for the WritersRoom, not a promise, that's all, well before any actor has to read the lines in front of a microphone.
In case you missed this very obvious point, some of us can't ask our local HE college, uni, theatre group, etc. because we don't live in an English-speaking environment in which radio actors and producers are ready to work with our writing.
You're obviously in Britain, and it's telling that this problem for us outside the UK didn't occur to you before you responded.
By the way, Paul, I just Googled the two winners of the International Playwriting Contest airing tonight. They are both seasoned professionals, and entries from Fearless and others were up against 1200 plays. I'm very impressed Fearless got a commendation. It's just not fair to suggest we all go away and wait another year to compete with the Deputy Executive Director of the National Theatre of Ghana!!!
I though you were looking out for fresh voices, not National Treasures.
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Inkstain -
Thanks for clarifying your obvious points about your geographical location - a thousand apologies that I was too ignorant and insensitive to pick up on them. I am truly humbled by the enormous obstacles that you face to achieve your writing ambitions.
Hey - maybe you should write a script about it.
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Jon - it's simply a suggestion on how to streamline the process in a way that's based on the quality of writing, not the postal adress of the writer. I can't see what's wrong with that.
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Paul B:
Yes, I take that on board; I just personally think that quality of writing can be assessed best by the script. It seems curious to me that everyone above bemoans flashy Hollywood scripts, but then seem to advocate sifting on the basis of an introductory letter or brief synopsis - in other words, a paper pitch. I'm sure most readers at the Beeb can smell bad writing at page one, and will read pages two to ten in an instant, already knowing that this is a bad script. In other words, removing this policy would save very little time.
Having a stage prior to the 10 pages - the introductory letter for example - strikes me as just chewing up more resources. How bad would the letter have to be for a reader to be certain that the writer was a hopeless case?
Despite what others may think, I do understand that there will be people who lose out because of this change in policy, and I can understand their unhappiness. But... I don't know, I'd like to think that, as a writer, my potential success isn't dependent on the BBC. I'd like to think that if the BBC disappeared tomorrow, I'd buy the latest Artists and Writers Handbook and work from there, or I'd look at the producers whose work interests me and get in touch, or I'd start a one-man show and webcast it live from my bedroom. Maybe I'm utterly naive, but I'd like to think that the work will find an outlet - if it's good enough.
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I know Paul Ashton has already spent a lot of time on this, but could he at least answer Hommes' question? The new guidelines are supposed to be about unsolicited scripts but number three as posted just says, "No scripts from overseas."
Are you closing the door to all scripts sourced outside the U.K. and Ireland, whether solicited after a query letter, (or not,) unless we're a U.K. writer moving back permanently? Even if we're highly mobile and willing to work closely over an extended period of time in the U.K.? Is this really about work visas or some "hidden" order from above? It's starting to sound again like a hidden discussion about keeping commissions inside the British Isles. Interesting that Paul's readers only passed onwards two scripts in recent memory and they were both not only from British writers, but writers heading home.hmmmmmm
Please explain why would it be easier to work with a writer based in the far west of Ireland than in, say, Caens, France or Amsterdam? You talk about working across "a continent." I suppose by that producers really are talking about working across time zones, which is a definite argument against California and Hong Kong. But don't many of your U.K. writers have to travel hours to get to the studio?
Thank goodness the New York Metropolitan Opera didn't say, "Sayonara," to Anthony Minghella when he wanted to produce Madame Butterfly... simply because he was based in the U.K.
I agree with some of the above, especially Blakenfield and Inkstain. Devise better guidelines regarding content that save you sorting time, get fresh and committed writers for your producers from wherever, and don't limit your horizons to local postboxes.
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Jon,
There is no other market for radio drama of any consequence, sadly, except for the BBC. If you are passionate about the unique possibilities of this medium, it's only the Beeb. I know this doesn't hold for makers of films, short or long. There your reflections are quite pertinent. Please be patient with some of us who really have no other outlets. People do watch YouTube for visual talent. Nobody hunts down amateur radio productions via obscure links. I wasn't being sarcastic.
You're also right that we can ferret out independent radio production companies and try that route. But the WritersRoom was the main entry point for those of us unfamiliar with individual producers' preferences, schedules and fortes.
In other words, now we'll really waste people's time hunting around for back doors into the inner sanctum...posting scripts to various companies and radio departments without a guide, while the WritersRoom could save everyone time and money by directing a good script to the right producer.
I suspect you're right...sniffing out bad scripts right away wasn't really the problem. But perhaps just physically dealing with them in heft and postage was? Better one page in the outbox than fifty. My experience writing query letters is that they are actually very good at making you realise whether your script is going to be pitchable a producer and his team and attractive to an audience. But perhaps you're right, it's just more work.
Perhaps, Paul Ashton, it would be possible to utterly revise the WritersRoom starting point? Set mini-contests around themes, so that the producers had a good idea of what they would be offered, and writers from all over the world could test their skill at meeting the needs of the British audience you cite as primary?
e.g. Jan to March, we'll look for comedies with fewer than six characters themed around unusual workplaces. No medical or school setting, please. April to June, we'll consider scripts set in unsual holiday settings where Brits might go, with dramatic possibilities... July to August we want something that could be written by Tom Stoppard, playful, academic and fun.
You see, that way, no more Scriptzillas that wouldn't fly on BBC budgets, and some control over the workability of the product, while testing the writer's versatility to work to commission.
Anything but this postal ban...
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Inkstain,
Points taken respectfully - I can understand your frustration at this, and appreciate that radio is perhaps a unique case here.
All I can really add is that YouTube et al aren't some utopia for filmmakers (I wish they were) - there's a hell of a lot of well made and well funded content out there with fewer than a hundred hits to their name. Meanwhile, skateboarding cats register in the millions...
Guess the bottom line is it's bloody hard for everyone and likely to get worse - so good luck to us all.
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To clarify: Writersroom will not accept unsolicited scripts from overseas. Solicited writers, writers with agents or writers with a track record are able to contact other departments within the BBC direct - it is up to that department whether or not they accept such work from overseas. Our Terms and Conditions only apply to unsolicited scripts.
BBC radio drama is not wholly London-centric. There is a department in Belfast for those writers in Ireland. There are also departments in Scotland, Manchester, Birmingham and Cardiff. So it really isn't about proximity to London.
(Anthony Minghella was a sought after professional director, not an aspiring unsolicited writer, by the way. This really is confusing the issue.)
There are no hidden discussions or agendas - just priorities. Running the system we run is time-consuming, hard work, expensive and at all times must justify itself amidst and against all the other worthy services competing for money at the BBC. Accepting scripts from overseas simply has not justified itself, and I guess in that sense I'm afraid the argument has already been lost.
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I lived for a long time in Sydney and one of the things that kept me going as a writer was the writer's room, and the thought that at some point someone would read my script/s.
By blocking all unsolicited overseas scripts, you take away hope for many - and sometimes that's all a writer has.
I have recently returned to the UK as the opportunities for writers are far greater here. To me it makes sense to be closer.
If it's a return on investment issue, surely the Beeb might be allowed to charge some sort of 'administration' fee for an overseas script? I know I would have happily paid money.
I'm also not sure you can police this effectively. I could have got friends or relatives to submit work - it's too easy to get round.
It all smells a bit fishy. Is this a sort of 'do something a bit Tory in case Cameron gets in' thing?.
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I want to write something, anything, make suggestions, work with the team to make this decision less final. But since I'm living 45 flight minutes away it's pointless anyway - the Writer's Room is simply not for me anymore.
Thanks for your hard work in the past couple of years, I sure hope this step will, well, balance the budget. Good luck to those living in the right country.
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P.S.: Needless to say there are tons of options to make the WR a better, more efficient and most likely even cheaper institution - I have no idea why they aren't considered.
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I've spent the better part of this year writing a pilot episode and a full three season arc overview for a truly fantastic story idea, and in my mind I've always been writing it for the BBC, at least, It would always be you that i'd seek interest with first.
I'm an expatriate not one hour away by plane, Were you ever to do something so absurdly unlikely as to take interest in my work, then it is probable to sure that I would do what was necessary my end to make the relationship work.
For that reason I continue to write it with the full intention of sending it to you first, In about 12 weeks or less.
Residue - Simon's story will be told.
.. It always remains.
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Dear Paul,
Thanks for answering us through the weekend. And please excuse some of the extraneous, sarcastic or humorous expressions of frustration. You answer with the care of an employee in a large institution, which we have to respect.
Since you say that you receive few overseas scripts in the first place, and that most of those were easily identified as unsuitable Hollywood blockbusters, I'm afraid to point out that you haven't improved your work load-resources-ratio dramatically in any way whatsoever. You have simply given the impression, you say wrongly, of closing the shop on the excuse of "practicalities" that don't seem markedly improved by this alienating move.
I think a lot of suggestions came out of this blog with the genuine desire to help you rejig your office to get the best out of your work day and ours. Different parameters, query letters, content guidelines, seasonal submission cycles...
Either you had a large overseas submission pile that weighed you down and didn't pay off..or you didn't. Which was it? If I distill your answers down, it seems you had a numerically insignificant overseas submission pile that produced nothing. So you've plastered up a mousehole that was irking you, but the mouse was the whole world of writers outside Britain admiring the Beeb's open WR. How funny to think that you could have avoided all this by administering the work load as you liked, setting aside all the "distant scripts' without telling us, and concentrating only on the quality of the do-ables. But what was do-able? More on that below...
You clothe all this in terms of your producers' hope for long-term relationships, and your guideline assumes that means someone who lives inside Britain or Ireland, but as some of us live closer/faster to the studios than your British residents, this is disingenuous and the very practicality you've avoided admitting throughout. If you think I can't get to Manchester faster than a writer in the Devonshire countryside, you're wrong. I'm in the same time zone, and I'm twenty minutes from my international air hub. If it's your producers who don't understand that, you might explain what you've read in this blog.
In the end, you're safe knowing that with this blanket guideline, the whole problem is off your desk. What problem? That you can say upstairs that the WR resources are being expended on tax-payers or future tax-payers only. That any script you pass on is going to be written by a Brit or an assimilating domiciled future Brit.
Except for the Irish...But actually, Paul I believe you when you say it's nothing to do with an overt or hidden political agenda. I fear a hidden cultural agenda. As follows:
One really confusing comment from your side was that nobody wanted to work with people across a continent. But nobody was holding a producer's feet to the fire on that one. If that were going to be the situation, just take a pass if the writer wouldn't come to work in the UK as needed. I can't believe this happened so often. Because you said that no one ever passed such a script to you in the first place.
I've learned a lot from this blog, with thanks. Most disturbing was this about the only overseas scripts referred to you: "In the two instances I can recall, they were both British writers living overseas who were planning to return, and as such wanted to make contact." I note your implication that these were established writers paving a return mid-career, not breaking into the business.
Your readers didn't find one good overseas script in your memory written by a non-Brit to pass to you. Not one. Not one radio play? Not a single television pilot? Saying that the WR overseas script desk didn't justify itself means we were letting you down as a creative community, but really, not a single one?
It's about physical proximity to producers....it's about residence in the UK or Ireland, and coincidentally, the only two worthy scripts readers ever sifted out were written by Brits on their way home? That says something very worrying about the preparation of submissions from overseas or the taste of your first readers.
So, you're just stripping the veil off a situation that existed all along. You don't personally recall any non-Brit overseas getting through the system. This is the real revelation.
Maybe the "open portal" was never actually that open. And this rule is the easiest way on paper to make sure producers and writers are all part of the same British Isles community. It locks out any Commonwealth writers—mobile or not— who haven't got themselves established on their own home ground and I suspect, not even then. We're sad to learn that nothing they submitted got passed up. We won't even reflect on what this might mean to the Beeb's ambitions of digital growth in the U.S. market longterm.The effect on the insularity of your product and the value of your export in this digital age will remain to be seen.
I can think of only one more point to make. You said you were in close touch with the World Service. Did it not occur to anyone to open a WritersRoom for Overseas Submissions, tailored to producers' procurement guidelines, and specifically aimed at global audiences?
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Hi, just wondered if Writersroom will accept unsolicited scripts from BFPO addresses as I am only temporarily abroad?
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Inkstain - in my earlier blog I said:
"The very large proportion of scripts we receive are from the UK and Eire - we receive fewer scripts from overseas than perhaps you might think."
The point is that we aren't suddenly closing our doors to most scripts, only a smaller proportion. This doesn't mean we get few scripts from overseas, just fewer - we receive a huge number of scripts, the very large proportion of which are from the UK and Eire. It's still a considerable amount of time and money spent on processing overseas scripts, not an inconsiderable one. Believe me, there will be a noticable difference for the person opening post, the person logging scripts and sending out acknowledgment cards, the readers sifting scripts, the readers giving scripts full reads and feedback, and the people sending out reply letters.
Yes, there have been lots of interesting suggestions - but none that would really resolve it from our point of view. We do regularly assess what we do and how we do it, and this is the outcome of just such assessment.
"I note your implication that these were established writers paving a return mid-career, not breaking into the business." Sorry, but this is your inference rather than my implication.
There's no hidden cultural agenda. When they are sifting scripts, the readers don't concern themselves with where the writer comes from, they focus on the quality of the script. When a script gets a full read, we talk about it during a script meeting, at which point we decide the next step. Only a very small proportion are given to me. But if a reader believes a scripts is great, they will give it to me, full stop. In both instances I mentioned, the writer did not state in their cover letter that they were relocating, this was information I gleaned after being in touch with them.
It's easy to infer agendas. But there are no veils, no clothing of one thing as another - and we are certainly not being "disingenuous". I have pointed to the various reasons that have gone into our thinking - the ultimate one being that the subsequent output from writers coming to us from overseas does not justify the expense on accepting scripts from overseas. I think that is pretty clear and forthright. Again, we appreciate how strongly some people will feel about this - but that is the bottom line.
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It's great to see such interest (and venom). It's a change from the usual bland blogs, you should ban something else - maybe people who can't spell?
P.S. Our local radio station - Mars Broadcasting Mind Control Broadcasting also only accepts submissions from Martians that live near the canals.
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After reading the comments, I'd like to clarify, at least in my case, I never viewed the Writers' Room as an opportunity from abroad. It was always my intention if by some serendipitous alignment of the stars that I was granted an opportunity I would use it to come closer to my dream of working for the BBC. Personally I'd clean the toilets at the centre, but alas general work opportunities at the place are only to be bestowed upon nationals per policy of unsaid origin. Given that, and realizing the stark reality of my situation I took the only possible loophole left, learned how to write a script, and submitted it. My fingers have been crossed ever since, and though my head is rationally grounded, my heart sings that perhaps this is that chance of a life time. That something is written in the heavens and meant to be. In my self doubt I had always consoled myself that if my amateur attempt was returned with the suggestion that I have no value in this world, I could always re-attempt another effort after a couple weeks of crying in my bed snuggled up with a bottle of wine. I guess what I'm trying to say, while this may be just a policy for the BBC, this is my dream. This opportunity even if I fail miserably has, and is life-changing. It's given me hope where there was none, it undecidedly gave me direction, and inadvertently I think I found something I may actually be not completely crap at. I suppose I would like to thank you for that, and hope if there ever is any opportunity to reinstate the acceptance of overseas scripts, you will do so knowing that for some of us, it means much more than just words on a piece of paper. The story behind the scripts may include the hopes and dreams of its author.
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It is still not entirely clear to me what the position is on the 'temporarily abroad thing'.
If I send you a script and an outline for a TV series, email you beforehand to inform you that I would relocate to the UK if genuine interest was present on your part, would this ensure that my script would at least get a read through? I mean never mind the fact that any script from abroad will now have to fight for life on a whole new plane- The new anti-overseas script policy, which is surely going to taint the disposition of any script writer from page zero onward.
If I can at least know it will be read, even if it must be begrudgingly, I would be a little less perturbed than I am right now. I'd appreciate some feedback on this before my script grows darker in tone than a black hole.
Many thanks
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Ok I fully intend to send in nuff scripts from overseas in the recent future and you will read them. Wanna know why? Cos I'll bamboozle you with cunning and deviousity. Ha I'm way several steps ahead of the old beeb... I'm all over that fake London drop box and virtual server chicanery... PLUS, I'm fitter, better looking and with far superior hair to any of yous. Btw I love all the complaints - you people should get out more. Stop your blubbing or you're gonna smudge your boring scripts with tears and drool.
Oh well beeb, hope you enjoy my nasty foreign scripts, if I can be arsed to send one in!
Love,
Captain Sneaky
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Having read all the comments here I have to say that the Writersroom decision is IMHO perfectly reasonable. All the top writing competitions in the US are "US only" I believe and it seems reasonable that the BBC focus on the people in the UK.
Those saying "if you like my script I'll fly to the UK" seem to be expecting the Writersroom to say "We love your scipt, here's £100k and we want to start shooting next month". (Though clearly that's what I expect to happen with my script.)
I would assume that the actual process would be "Come in for a chat and a cup of tea" with nothing more promised and then, if they really love you, more one-off chats over the next few months as they explore the possibility that they might, just, maybe, give you the chance to possibly pitch an idea for Holby City. Maybe.
Are you really going to fly back and forward a dozen times over the course of six months with nothing guaranteed in return?
The view in the US industry is that you must live in LA to have the slightest chance of breaking into the TV business there, for this exact reason.
And, to put it bluntly, if you can't find a friend whose UK address you can use to at least get past stage one then you're really not trying. Just be prepared for some major excuses and air fares if and when the BBC do call.
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@Captain Sneaky. Nice to hear from such a refined and intelligent person such as yourself. Pulling wings off butterflies must be so satisfying.
Fortunately my great grandfather decided to come to this country after disguising himself as a child to escape from the Titanic. This means that the BBC can accept my submissions and turn them down without an interpreter being involved.
As the Beeb is the only proper outlet that reads unsolicited scripts I would have thought peeing them off is not an obvious career choice.
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ZZ9, perhaps better to lay off the assumptions.
People don't generally approach the BBC because it has a bulging budget for TV shows and a care free approach to handing never before heard of writers 100k advances. I mean please, get real. It has neither money or to my knowledge a fetish for giving out five figure sums of money to noobs like me.
Would I fly to and fro several times to London for meetings, chats, cups of tea, workshops, etc, if someone so much as showed mild interest in discussing my creative ventures? of course I would! are you mad?! this is not like flying to the UK for a second job interview with McDonalds. This is an opportunity to bring dreams to life (and it's not about money or fame for me), if you can't be arsed to get up and move for your desires then in my mind you don't deserve success in such ventures in the first place. Simple. Nothing ventured nothing gained.
And if the BBC decides they're not interested after I've suffered immeasurable easy jet cheese sandwiches and spent hundreds if not thousands on airfares then who cares? It would still of been worth it.
So the answer is yes, I would be willing to do what it takes without any guarantees of anything in return, and I would of thought any writer who genuinely cared about the writing above the rewards it might bring would feel the same way.
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You see, I can't even count! Clearly I don't care about the money :0p
(six figure sums)
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Philip, I would have hoped that my post was clear that the BBC did *not* throw around £100k advances, so telling me to "get real" is uncalled for.
There have been posters in this thread saying that they will "be prepared to come to the UK for a few weeks if their script goes into production", overlooking the maybe dozen or so ten minute chats over the course of six months that would lead up any commission. Do they have a job? Can they get days off at a minutes notice every few weeks? Is any employer that agreeable?
For all we know the BBC have tried to do business this way and been frustrated by people failing to show up or missing appointments.
Look at it from their point of view. They could try to get to know a writer but have to deal with the complexity of fixing an appointment around Easyjet's schedule, have repeated cancelations and rebookings and writers who my show promise but then just give up and are never heard from again.
Something has made them make this decision. I'm not privy to their reasoning but I can believe there are good and valid reasons and I'm prepared to give them the benefit of the doubt, and that's on top of the whole "The BBC is to serve the people of the UK" point and the view thatthey shoudl only consider UK writers as a matter of policy.
The ABC/Disney writing competition, one of the top US TV writing competitions, is US residents only for example.
And I speak as someone who flew to LA to meet someone for five minutes, and that was worth it.
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I was responding to your insinuation that people might be dense enough to actually expect 100k advances from the BBC. I'm pretty sure no purveyor of 'unsolicited scripts' expects anything of much at all, so I felt your comment was a little unreasonable, and negatively presumptuous of people's expectations in this ongoing discussion.
I find the idea that unknown writers who might be in talks with someone like the BBC suddenly decide that working in IKEA is more fun than turning up for another meeting to be borderline ludicrous, and if there are such nonchalant would be writers running about the place behaving like that then, wow, such knowledge would floor me. Its quite simple really, if writers from abroad are willing to be where they need to be when they need to be there then what is the problem?
My theory is simply that the BBC has soured on this because of a deluge of bad, bad scripts from the USA, written by ADHD suffering rainbow children tripping on Hollywood pulp, .. and perhaps a little exported Doctor Who too. There are better ways to filter out the chaff than an all out ban on overseas submissions. I'm British, I have to pay too to get BBC 1,2,3,4 on my television in Amsterdam, and I'm sure some of that money must go back to the BBC. It is not as if I'm a lazy freeloader from abroad looking for a cash cow in the BBC. The BBC is what motivated me to write in the first place, and thus it is only natural that I want to approach them with my work.
I'm sorry for all the bad scripts they've had to sift through, but that doesn't mean they won't get 40 cracking scripts in the post from 'abroaders' tomorrow. Surely searching for a good script is like looking for alien planets, it isn't about the 10 years you spent so far with no results to speak of, but the possibility that you might find 'planet x' tomorrow.
There are better ways of doing this, and many posters above me have detailed many such suggestions. The BBC is throwing babies out with the bath water, and I just don't think it's the right thing to do.
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P.S.
Easy jet vs London transport ...
Easy jet wins.
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• Charge a coverage fee
• Charge an ddditional coverage fee for overseas scripts only
• Demand loglines and reject scripts based on unsuitable concepts
• Demand query letters
• Don't read the first ten pages, but the first five or even one
• ...
There are so many possibilities to solve the problem in a creative, quality-focused way... I'd love the Writer's Room staff to reconsider.
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Well if the BBC no longer consider to accept oversea scripts does that mean all EU channels will also have the right to refuse UK programs - because it comes from 'overseas'? It seems to me that the BBC leans towards racist feelings about anything coming from the EU? Do they forget how many of thier products are shown on our channels? How many UK actors find a job overhere in movies etc. And that even UK writers / producers are involved in EU series, show programs? Or is the BBC only interested in brainwashing the UK viewers with thier views on the world and hates to think that 'showing' something that may not be 'British' is dirty or 'second class'? Then I would like them to consider this! During the second world war people risks thier lives to 'hear' the BBC news --- because they believed the BBC was truefull and upright. The voice that gave hope against Hitler's propaganda. Britian was than the nation that 'united different nations' to fight one of the worse dictators ever, while Hitler stood for pure German and 'only German please'! I guess things do change!
My cousin - Jozef Caluwaert - died in one of Hitler's camps (Esterwegen - 25 March 1944 two days before his 40 birthday) because he helped British pilots to escape, run safe-house and send messages to the Belgian section of the BBC in London! So - as Belgian - if I write a script telling his story I will be refused simply because I am Belgian? (While I can be in London in about 3 hours.) So next time I put flowers on his grave - would you of the BBC like me to put on the card 'thanks but no thanks you where only a Belgian not British!'
I honestly feel betrayed by the BBC policy to bare people from the EU just like that - without even a second thought --- but please don't be surprised that these anti-EU feeling may backfire. As 'our' good feelings towards the BBC may cool down and we no longer won't bother to 'pay' to have BBC channels on our cable, to watch BBC products on our channels and have rules to 'refuse' UK people from working for our companies! Wonder if the BBC can afford losing one of its most faitful 'markets'? Ask anyone in the EU about a British actor or series they all will know at least a few --- ask anyone in the US and you will be surprised how many won't be able to do the same --- or say they don't like should 'posh' programs.
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I've been an ardent fan of British television since I was a child. I always preferred BBC productions to American productions and I always hoped that I could find a way to write for British television.
When I learned of BBC's open door policy for overseas writers, I jumped at the chance to submit.
After several months of hard effort, I submitted my script, knowing the deck was stacked against me, but that the open door was an open door nonetheless.
I'm rather surprised at this policy change, given the fact that it seems the BBC is making greater inroads States-side. It seemed a logical conclusion that the BBC had an open-door policy to encourage overseas talent for possible overseas productions. I suppose that logical conclusion was nothing more than a hopeful assumption on my part.
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1. "If a writer felt that their position is something other than simply unsolicited, then they are welcome to email us and make an individual case about their situation and work."
In other words, write a query email or letter, just as if you were approaching a publisher. Forget all this stuff about "temporarily overseas." We're all temporarily overseas, when the BBC is interested and if we had the time to develop a worthwhile script. (bottom line, says Paul, virtually nobody overseas ever did.)
2. " Solicited writers, writers with agents or writers with a track record are able to contact other departments within the BBC direct - it is up to that department whether or not they accept such work from overseas. Our Terms and Conditions only apply to unsolicited scripts."
Get an agent. Locate a producer. But be prepared to hear from your agent, as most are literary agents, that they don't know or can't penetrate the BBC crowd and you're back on your own. My agent is in New York and knows London literary agents, and Hollywood scouts. The Beeb is another community.
3. Reread the "Sending Script to the BBC page" under the Writers Room menu. "We receive about 10,000 scripts a year." Then note Paul said fewer of them were from overseas, so let's guess that's about 2,000? Then reread Paul's comment, numbered 22, above that his first-line readers, in his recall, put forward only two overseas scripts they liked by Brits.
Two out of thousands.
It seems the taste of low-paid, intern-level readers determined that when they liked those two overseas scripts that met producers' needs, they then realised they were written by Brits, not Commonwealth, not American, not EU.
Conclusion? They really like the "local" stuff, the "local" tone, the familiar. Even before the ban, there was very little chance for the overseas mentality, as past experience proves. I would say to Christopher Turner that we're dealing with a real disconnect between the ambitions and international posture and reach of the BBC worldwide versus the product/producers churning out domestic mediocrity.
4. Forget the Writers Room. Again, look at their "success" stories on a different webpage and notice the people taken on were all in the U.K. and many of them pushed their work first through local stage groups and contests and as far as I can see, they were all comparatively green and young. The readers were told to look out for same ol' same ol'.
This is because, (viz successes' bios) most were farmed out to writing soaps. It sounds like Sarah Phelps had a broader vision, but she was funnelled inevitably into the Eastenders maw, too, (think of Mrs. Tweetie's pies in Chicken Run.) They're grooming hacks...little EastEnder workerbees who can churn out the low-budget low-brow soaps that are Britain's answer to Hollywood's blockbuster embarrassments. Paul has to find more every year, because no doubt the good ones move on.
The development programmes, Drama Academy etc., are distincly tailored to bringing in the local youngsters and not Alan Bennett or mid-career anybody, or any overseas vision.
5.The WritersRoom workload didn't match its success rate, so their budget was cut. They had to reduce hours on mailboy payroll. It was the easiest thing to do, instead of refining "up," as everyone has suggested. They could have eliminated the postal card budget, or opened an Overseas window for the World Service, or sent evaluations by email, (does any serious writer now not have accesst to a computer or email?) or simply posted the producer's requirements. To Paul Blakenfield, with whom I have so much sympathy, I would warn that the fees idea might have paid only for somebody to process the fees..
Paul Ashton also has my sympathy. As it turns out, there was tremendous misunderstanding/fantasy/confusion about what the WritersRoom was looking for and its limits. It posed as creative heaven, but turns out, was more the Casualty ward.
This is an industrial question, not a creative one. Ask yourself, what was the Writers Room for, in the first place? It has a purpose and that purpose wasn't to end up with the Terence Rattigan or Tom Stoppard of 2010, with no insult intended to the successes who may survive to become more later.
I know people are desperate--you should see the parking valets in LA, each with a dog-eared script tucked under his arm in case Spielberg pulls up--but I'd say only continue with the WritersRoom quest if you know you want to end up a "success."
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You lovely folks from abroad do realise there is more than one broadcasting company in the UK?
The BBC, though a world leader in drama etc is not the be all and end all radio and television on these fair shores and, from experience, I can assure the Writersroom, as good as it is, is not the only way to get your scripts read and considered. There are numerous production companies, many of whom work with the BBC, who accept unsolicited manuscripts. Thirty seconds of googling found this http://www.bbc.co.uk/commissioning/radio/network/docs/r4_indie_list.pdf enjoy.... and calm down... your careers are not at an end because one group of people won't read your work.
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What I don't understand is where Norfolk fits in all this?
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It's the lack of originality that gets me. America has produced a handful of really great shows recently; stuff like 'The Office' and 'Life On Mars'. Why can't the BBC do the same?
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My next script:-
Title: The unsolicited abroaders/ Read between the lines
Synopsis:-
'Jack the ripper has finally found his way you to eastenders, and The emergency room in Holby City just got a whole lot busier'
A loose nit group of unknown writers reach breaking point after having one too many doors close in their faces. They meet in Greece - which is abroad, and devise a devilish plan of revenge. forming a secret writers army they infiltrate the BBC as hired cleaners, Slowly killing off the writers of bad TV shows in hideous yet side splitting ways.
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Paul Blakenfield -
• Charge a coverage fee - we are not allowed to do this
• Charge an additional coverage fee for overseas scripts only - ditto
• Demand loglines and reject scripts based on unsuitable concepts - we don't judge on concepts, we assess the ability to write
• Demand query letters - processing this would be extremely time-consuming
• Don't read the first ten pages, but the first five or even one - fewer than ten pages is just not necessarily enough
Inkstain -
Your script number assumptions are inaccurate I'm afraid, the approximately 10,000 includes all of the other competitions and initiatives separate from the unsolicited system, all of which are for UK and Eire writers only (which this year will include CBBC, Scotland Writes, Writers Academy, Tony Doyle, Northern Laughs, Northern Voices and more)
"low-paid, intern-level readers" - again, a mistaken assumption. We only ever use experienced professionals, we never use interns or work-experience readers. Ever.
The success stories are a snapshot. Writers go on to be produced across the full range of BBC networks and programming. Hundreds of writers.
Neither our work nor that of the Writers Academy is designed solely for young/green writers. There are no ages next to the names on the success stories from which to make that assumption. In the 2008 Academy, for example, the majority were writers in their 30s and beyond.
"The Writersroom workload didn't match its success rate, so their budget was cut." Sorry, but this is entirely mistaken.
I_amMrP -
I think it's in Norfolk, isn't it? Nice place, but a long, long way away...
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"• Demand loglines and reject scripts based on unsuitable concepts - we don't judge on concepts, we assess the ability to write"
True, but I figured establishing loglines might actually focus more on the ability to write than randomly locking out 6.5 billion people.
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I only created an account a couple of days ago so I could voice my opinion about these rule changes. It really is a sad thing, but I'm not going to give up hope in the BBC and nor am I going to lie to you in the future in order to circumvent the new restrictions.
A few years ago I was in touch with a producer from the BBC, God knows how I got her email address but I did, I think someone took pity on me at the BBC. I was determined to share my idea with someone, I was Greener than a cabbage and about as smart as one on the process of pitching, too. I didn't deserve a damn thing, I'd not done any homework on the BBC's submissions rules and I had'nt even written a script. All I had was a rushed and poorly written 4 page overview of a tv series idea. Though I can't recall who she was I was shocked at how positive she was with me, she wrote back to me several times, she said that my idea was essentially a good idea, but that they felt it would require a high budget and that they were about to debut a new tv show that had some similar dynamics and was of the same genre. She told me that show would be called 'Life on mars'.
My story also involves police corruption with a sci-fi angle, so she was absolutely right. My story however is not life on mars, but I took her advice and I went away and spent some years rebuilding my storie's universe, stripping it of all unnecessary body fat and refining it to the point of obsession. Once I had my universe and story arc nailed I took one of the greatest challenges of my life and decided to learn how to write a script, I invested in a new laptop and forked out for a screenwriting software product, I read and read and read scripts, and fought hard with my internal insecurities all the way. This has been my life for the last year, writing, rewriting, learning, reading, writing, rewriting, rewriting. This whole journey was born out of the communication I had with that BBC Producer. She took the time to read my scrawled nonsense and somehow found coherence to it, enough to give me genuinely meaningful feedback. It is because of her that I am here today writing on this blog, and it is because of her that I will press on and finish the last 10 pages with the full intention of sending the finished script back to its spiritual home- The BBC.
That's my story behind the story, and why I feel so strongly, and in telling this story I have revealed my final card in respect to this discussion. I'm going to go back to finishing the script now, but I appreciate the fact that we were at least permitted to voice our misgivings in this blog. Good luck to everybody, whether at home or abroad, good luck to you in writing ventures.
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... And yes, my grammar and spelling's not always perfect, this is one of my weaknesses. This is why I've paid a proof reader to work on my final draft. I'd say to anyone with a vivid imagination but a slightly lacking command of grammar and spelling not to be put off by the rude and undoubtedly vacuous people who make a point of judging the superficial over the actual content.
Agatha Christie suffered with Dyslexia, as did Hans Christian Andersen. The former's work was only out beaten in sales by the Bible and perhaps Shakespeare. Grazi's be warned. Farewell!
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I think it's worth bringing out the point that the change in rules for those resident abroad only applies to sending us unsolicited scripts.
If you have an agent and they send your script to us, it would not be unsolicited.
If you have had some success writing (a produced film, or TV episode, or radio episode, or stage play) - email us with the details and ask if we'd be interested in reading the script. If we are (and if you've had a produced script, we probably would be) - then your script would not be unsolicited.
If you're only temporarily living abroad, and planning to return to the UK, let us know. If we then ask you to send us your script, then it wouldn't be unsolicited.
And as Oz Baston in the comments above have pointed out, the BBC also buys programmes from independent production companies, so our unsolicited script system is not the only route towards having your work broadcast by the BBC.
For radio programmes, for example, you could do worse than read Michelle Lipton's post on the Radio 4 commissioning process, which not only talks you through exactly how the BBC's radio commissioning process works, but also links directly to the contact details of companies who are already in a relationship with the BBC. And if they like your script, and send it to us, it wouldn't be unsolicited.
The unsolicited script system has a large part to play in discovering new writers. But it's not the only way.
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Ahem. Sorry Oz, I appear to have accidentally pluralised you.
As you were.
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Also it is probably worth pointing out that the Writersroom do not actually MAKE any programmes. The people who are on the look out for scripts to make and for people to work with are still on the look out. The WR is a filter as well as being and an encourager and an enabler and a resource. May seem odd but rather than spending years writing a pilot script for an original show - write is as a novel first. If it's a startlingly original take on a genre it will get noticed and probably make to the screen quicker than the route you have gone down. The chances either way are very very low mind.
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Oh, for this you can be serious, Mister P. Yet if I come to you for advice on the BCG it's Quip City. Shame on you, sir! ;)
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It's a fair cop! :(
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Poor WR. They've made their point quite clearly and immediately everybody thinks that there is some clandestine agenda.
In short the aim of the unsolicited script service was to develop talent.
The problem is that for most writers (myself included) the submission service become a yardstick to see whether we have what it takes to get into that top 5 percentile. I know when I submitted my script (and got the full read - nothing more) it provided me with a modicum of comfort that I wasn't writing myself into a railway siding with no possibilities of success. The fact that I didn't make a second read wasn't a crushing blow, as I had received the signal I was looking for (i.e. promising but more effort needed)
It is in this vein where I number of overseas writers are probably feeling sleighted. It's not that they want to make it onto the BBC staff (hell I only watch HBO dramas and my idea of fun is watching Eastenders with the sound muted just so I can see why as a society we have lost the art of conflict resolution), it's merely that in, what is otherwise a very lonely and isolated medium, the BBC WR stands out as a beacon or guiding light that "we" as writers might just be doing something right.
Like the iPlayer, there are always solutions for writers living abroad. rent a mailbox.
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I am British but working in France for a while and submitted a script for radio drama at the end of September. I have just noticed your change of terms and conditions which says you will no longer accept scripts from overseas - why? I can appreciate that it is difficult to work with writers who live far from the UK and who are unable to come to the UK for meetings etc,. but here in France I can return to the UK almost at the drop of a hat! I am constantly travelling to and from the UK to France and find it difficult to understand why there would be a problem.
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This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the House Rules.
Stonecatcher/charliepeaches - if you take a look at the Terms & Conditions page, you'll see that we make an exception for British writers temporarily living abroad.
If this applies to you, drop us a line at writersroom@bbc.co.uk to talk about your situation.
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I have noticed that several people are upset about the BBC Writer's Room no longer taking scripts from abroad. While I am not officially in the know, I am assuming this is less about xenophobia in the BBC commissioning office and more about the new immigration regulations. To work in Britain, even as a consulting or visiting artist (author), has become much more difficult since the regulation changes last March. This is not only effecting authors, but performers and artists of all kinds are finding it difficult to obtain short term working permits for Britain. Last summer Radio 4 had a wonderful piece on the circus and the Royal Ballet loosing performers due to immigration red-tape. I can empathise with the Writer's Room. Imagine reading a clever script, getting it pushed to commissioning, only to find that you can't bring the writer over to Britain because of governmental regulations. If you'll notice, ABC/Disney has a yearly fellowship for several new scriptwriters to live, work and develop a script in Los Angeles (http://www.abctalentdevelopment.com/programs/programs_writings.html), but this is not open to non-US residents for similar immigration reasons. So, I suggest that if anyone has a really big problem with it – contact the MPs who have made it more difficult to work in Britain.
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I wonder what will happen with series like Merlin - its shot in France - does that mean they have to hire French writers as if there would be a or she is 'living overseas' and he or she may not like to travel all the way to France to help solve a problem? LOL
And what about possible co-production with oversea companies? Does the BBC really can afford to 'ignore' the money what is going around in Europe in the movie production? Even small countries like Danmark can find enough money to keep up a constant flow of good series that are sold to other countries - they often work together with other countries too to produce some thing. Is the change to get involved in should a deal not greater if the they know the BBC is open to oversea talent? Even great Hollywood producers have discovered the European money flow and talent. Tom Hanks interviews are proof of that - only to mane one!
Plus - I am at present working together with an English editor to get my novel ready to be send out. We never met in person - only via email. But so far it worked - she is 'twicking' my English and we are constant improving the story arcs and characters etc. And when we get there - I am cetain that I will have to 'meet' publishers in person. And don't see where the problem - isn't the Briitsh touristboard not keen to attrack visitors to the UK?
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I quote from the BBC's website interviewing Amanda Dalton about developing her work with her producer for radio drama..
"How does the relationship with your producer work?"
Sue and I will be in email contact and probably meet up once through this process - and she'll ask me tough questions and I'll groan. Obviously, unless your producer really understands and gets your idea, it's impossible for her to sell it.
Meet up once. Anybody from overseas could manage that.
Cryptic silence from Paul and Piers on the question posted above regarding changes in immigration rules on visiting/consulting artists...
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Rachel Marsh (and Inkstain) - no, it's really nothing to do with immigration rules, just one of our priorities - and one of the BBC public purposes - to represent the different nations, regions and communities of the UK. Which is why we've been focusing a lot on Scotland, Northern Ireland, the UK regions, and are about to run a project in Wales. Other parts of the BBC, like BBC Global News, World Service and Worldwide, do have a priority of bringing the UK to the rest of the world and the rest of the world to the UK - but that's not amongst our priorities or purposes as a department. It never has been, in fact - accepting scripts from overseas has always been an extension beyond our remit, but it's one that's justified itself less and less over time. So the decision is a natural one that has come about over time, not a reaction to any hidden agenda. I know people like to find a sinister reason for change, but in this case it's pretty simple.
Btw - blog silences simply mean we're extremely busy doing other things...!
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Paul if you repeated episodes of certain BBC dramas as much as you have to repeat yourself on here, I for one would be a very happy man!
:)
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I understand that the BBC is BRITISH but than why is the BBC so keen on selling thier material overseas? They have BBC America channel and office, they have BBC channels on European cable TV (we pay to have them on our cable!) they sell DVDs in our shops of thier products! Our biggest woman magazine has published a list of great ideas for Christmas gifts on this list is the DVD of Merlin the first series! Plus I have been buying Radio Times (in our local newsagents) since it was still in newspaper format and saw it grow into the magazine it is today! I am sure they are also making money with this 'trade' - so would that be too much asked if they would now and than produce something that looks / feels a bit more international? You surely don't want us to turn our back on the British culture just because its not our culture? Are we than not going back to that age when 'our people first' ideas leaded to war between nations? The world is become more internationally - more colourful as different cultures overlap and intermingle - surely the BBC is not going to miss that train? And become regional TV ignore by those who don't live in the UK? If we Belgians can accept Dutch, British persons to help create our shows just because we feel the best man or woman should get the job regardless of his origin - as afterall the borders in Europe where taken down to allow people to do this - why can we have a change across the pound!?! Especially as our TV channels are buying BBC & British products to broadcast - while as far I know not many of our products made it on British screens? That there is no hidden agenda I can accept but that is not the issue or problem here. But more an issue of fairplay --- or is that aslo no longer British? If you don't mind taking our money can you at least not accept now and than our talent?
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The chances of anybody getting a commission through the Writersroom is on a par with winning the lotto. I should imagine the number of writers that have entered via this route in the last few years could be counted on one finger. I think that in the last ten years the writers of Smoking Room and a Packet of crisps and too many lagers were the only people to wriggle through that tight little aperture. Personally I think the WR should be more upfront and admit that they will give feedback (worth its weight in gold) but that's as far as it goes. Productions are expensive and you wouldn't let an amateur fix your Ferrari. To put me straight and enlighten other frustrated scribblers how many people actually became commissioned through this portal?
P.S. This is not an attack but merely a request for true guidance.
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It's extremely rare for a writer to get a direct commission from an unsolicited script anywhere, including here. Our job is to find and develop good writers and to help them in the early stages of their career, not to find scripts suitable for immediate production.
But if the question is: How many writers have gone on to being commissioned after being involved with the BBC writersroom (via the unsolicited script system, or competitions, or schemes that we've run), then that's something we can give you some figures on.
TV (and film, but mostly TV) - 100
Network Radio - 180
Local/regional radio - 35
Online - 8
You can also read some more detail about some of those writers by reading our success stories page.
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Thanks for that, most informative.
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A CRITIQUE OF THE BBCWRITERSROOM
I don't know anything about the BBCwritersroom other than what I have gleaned from their site and these blogs. What I have to say may be entirely wrong and unfair. But they do strike me as a very shadowy reclusive organisation holding a lot of would-be authors hopes in their hands. They didn't reply to Emails or letters and their telephone number is ex-directory. Authors wait in agony wondering about their copyright when they take so long to acknowledge receipt, much longer than promised on their site. Not the professionalism one expects of the BBC. Someone should open a dialogue about them. They are paid for, after all, by a levy on the telly and they should be more transparent to the consumer.
Please tell us what the writersroom is, exactly. Is it a clearing house short-listing scripts for a separate commissioning department; or a shop into which producers drop to rummage through the stock or do they, themselves, commission programs? Is it a BBC department; or an out-sourced contractor; a franchise or an independent commercial agency? Is it the sole avenue for scripts to the BBC?
The critique is in two parts.
I. Our Man in the Hebrides
Subjects:
1. The BBCwritersroom statement that they needing a good working relationship with authors.
2. The overseas script ban.
3. Improving communications
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Subject 1. The BBCwritersroom statement that they needing a good working relationship with authors
Their demand for "a good relationship with the author" sounds ominous to a first-time writer like me.
Does it mean that the writersroom expects the author to be relied upon to produce further work? We've seen the book publishers' reliance upon using authors' names as branded products to put on the book jackets. We have also heard that they are reluctant to take chances on new writers and fear that older writers have a limited time to continue to deliver the brand name. Would the writersroom have turned down "Gone with the Wind" if it was in play form from an unknown Yank who only had one story in her? Many quasi-governmental organisations and trusts have become introspective cliques.
There are differences between scriptwriter and playwright. Most of the former are product driven: he produces work on demand for a known audience. It is a job rather than art and, in most cases, he will usually only produce work that is predictable and competent. The playwright, on the other hand, is idea driven. A lightning flash of inspiration may hit him and he may produce a masterpiece that will break new ground and create its own audience: but it may only happen once.
Yes, the writer, writersroom and the producer must cooperate over the lifetime of the production: but they don't have to like each other. I believe that Gilbert and Sullivan didn't hit it off but they still came up with the goods. So even if the author concerned belches all through the business lunch, just try to remember: it's all about the words - not the author. Could it be that established writers are not expected to go through the preliminary reading stage and therefore are cheaper to administer?
First, the logistics. How close must the the writersroom or producers and the author be in proximity be to each other? Suppose the latter lives in, say, the Outer Hebrides. However established he is, is he likely to be prepared to sit in an expensive hotel for months in the Euston Road so he can be quickly summoned for face-to-face contact with the producer or writersroom to maintain a good working relationship? Hardly.
Why does a producer need to be so reliant on the writer's ongoing input? If the author is competent enough to include a decent scenario and direction notes, that is, surely, enough to go on in the early planning stage. By the very fact that the script was accepted in the first place indicates that the producer has a good idea about what to do with it. If a producer has so much need of the author's ongoing input, what is the point of being Producer? In the case of my script, the production notes were pretty fulsome and, unless the Producers interpretation differs significantly from mine (who's line is it anyway?), they should be enough to get along with for a while. If it does, then my attendance is moot as he wouldn't take any notice of me anyway and I wouldn't let him within miles of my earthshaking opus.
Subject 2: The overseas script ban.
This insistence on location is, in this age of fast travel and instant communication, is practical nonsense. Overseas authors should not give the BBC a logistic or financial problem. They can face-to face-conference or (net security permitting) participate in rehearsals or even watch the recording itself on line until the cows come home using something like Skype. It costs nothing other than a quick FAX to make a date. Rewrites can be transmitted the same way. Our famous man in the Outer Hebrides probably does something like that.
When production is planned or has started, most authors would be more than willing to travel to oversee their baby for a reasonable time. I certainly would even though I have a demanding business to run. Is my home in Los Angeles, in traveling time, that much further than the Outer Hebrides? The Globe was probably at least a day's coach ride from Stratford without a cell phone in sight.
The reasons for the overseas ban, from what I have read so far, do not make practical sense: especially coming from the BBC who has world-recognised tools of communication. The News Unit and Bush House are able to engage in real-time global dialogue daily. So what is really going on?
Subject 3: Improving communications
1. Using your internet computer, oblige would-be contributors to create an unique account on line BEFORE submission. This will ensure some copyright coverage during transmission and facilitate tracking, logging-in and databasing: no lost covering letters or manuscript covers.
2. Set it up to respond to an agreed identification by automatically declaring that the script has reached Stage 1, 2, 3 or toilet roll. That way you can save on postage on acknowledgements. And we would give you a quieter life: you should know by now how paranoid we Shakespeare wannabes get.
3. Make it a condition that the manuscript is accompanied by the script in text data form, as mine was. This facilitates editing or rewrites. I can understand their free-lance readers wanting paper at the first reading stage but, at the production stage, there will be a lot of editing and correcting. You still use blue pencils?
4. Insist on a comprehensive scenario, director's notes and, perhaps, any preferred actor's name in mind for the casting.
5. Insist on a Skype address, an Email address and a FAX number.
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A CRITIQUE OF THE BBCWRITERSROOM
II. Death in Ten Pages
I don't know how exactly writersroom run things but their policy of judging scripts only by the first ten pages seems to be rather arbitrary and wasteful. Their sudden death in ten pages method gives me the impression of a bunch of cats batting at a blizzard of snow flakes in the hope of catching one. There should be more efficient and economic ways
Ever since commercial TV started with less Reithian aloofness, it began to attract a bigger audience than the BBC. So each time the BBC approaches its political master for a license raise (the public views it as a tax), this point is probably thrown at them. So the Beeb has to chase ratings too: this means that they must compete in popularity which, in turn, means appealing to a lower common denominator in literary taste. It is quite possible that the writersroom, to maintain funding from its master in turn, thinks the same way. The manuscript readers may feel obliged to accept submissions that have a broad appeal rather than appealing to those old farts who listen to Radio 3.
It is arbitrary as, particularly in a dramatic work other than, for example, kitchen-sink or action, the plot may not be apparent until later pages. This is particularly the case with allegory. Political cartoons are allegories, they may depict a politician, say, as the Mad Hatter. It is a way of not only making people look in the mirror, but checking behind it as well. But the point is lost unless the viewer is familiar with both the politician concerned and Alice in Wonderland. I remember my editor putting one of my political cartoons on half the front page. I was flattered until I learned the reason: he had misinterpreted it. He saw it as pious: that is to say, he believed that it was flattering to the person depicted. But I would rather die than do a pious cartoon: my intent was quite the opposite. But he didn't know about the sub-story I had in mind. It seems that I slipped in the stiletto so subtly that no one noticed. So if an editor of a Fleet Street newspaper can get it wrong, how is a reader, who may be more familiar with Eastender scripts, going to detect the underlying meaning in just ten pages? So it would seem that less subtle popular fare has a built-in advantage over more challenging work.
One way of overcoming the first-ten-pages problem is the author adding a ten page sample of what he considers to be the best part of his script. If he considers that so good, and the reader thinks it so bad: well, so be it. Incidentally guys, do as I did: delay your fate by reducing the font size.
The only thing a reader can really evaluate from such a cursory glance, is basic dramatic competence and the spelling and grammar. But can they be that impartial about the subject matter of scripts? Even professionals have their prejudices.
I once went to a local play writing class run by a BBC producer and playwright. We got to discussing politics somehow and he remarked that a playwright had to be left of centre as only they were capable of sufficient sensitivity to create. While I was no fan of Mrs. Thatcher and her coven of new-rich spivs selling off my country, I am too brutal a pragmatist to be left wing or politically correct. I thought this was crap and told him so. He read everybody's play except mine: not even the first ten pages.
When I attended art school, I read that Leonardo procured cadavers and drew their bits. So I bought a book of artists' anatomy and, as the model posed, I began to X-ray her, book in hand. A vision in a purple beret trolled up to me. It was the tutor. He asked what I was doing. I told him. "Oooo," he said "put that book away: you have to feel it - feel it". The evil idea crossed my mind that the man who approached his art rather like a plumber approaching a blocked toilet, is the one we remember as Leonardo. Whereas the art-for-art's-sake guy who waited for the Muse to give him a hickey remains a poorly paid art instructor who no one remembers.
Then there was the cartoon agent to whom I first showed my work. He looked through my folio and then closed it with a snap. He said that, in three years or so, I would look back at these and realise what crap they were. My world fell in. But I looked across
Fleet Street at the newspaper office mentioned earlier and went in. It was lunchtime and there was no one around except a girl munching her lunch. She told me to leave my folio there and perhaps someone would look at it. I had lunch and returned, expecting it to be still lying there. Oh, said the girl, the editor wants to see you. I went into his office and the publisher was there also. They signed me up on the spot. Within two hours, I was crap one minute and the paper's resident cartoonist the next.
These are men who are supposed to know art. Would you trust your script to them? What are your chances if a guy like one of these has your script in his hand right now? Since I have only met ONE director/writer, ONE art tutor and ONE art agent, they don't look good. Arty-types, almost by definition, have their own view on life and may not like others. Only the public and posterity will decide true worth.
Each TV and radio channel caters for a particular audience. They have a scheduling pattern: X hours of soaps a year, Y hours of sports, etc. Very few new ideas would be so good that they will tear a hole in that schedule to fit it in. So the demand for appropriate material is precisely known to them in advance and should be known to the writersroom.
To simplify the argument, I will assume that there are only two genres: Popular and Erudite. Suppose the Beeb finds it has sufficient Popular scripts in hand but Radio 3 has a shortage of Erudite. Writersroom should state these needs on their site and say, hey guys, we have enough Popular, just send us Erudite for the time being. That way, not only would the avalanche of scripts be reduced but it would flocculate out into some kind of order before it reaches the writersroom. Yay, less staff.
The aspiring author would then be obliged to open a writersroom Email account registering his work and describing it not by genre - that is too vague - but by target audience or programming slot. For example, my Erudite effort was targeted at Radio 3 or 4 play listeners and could be designated as "Radio 3/4 - Drama - Single Play -Allegory".
With the submissions so categorized, those fulfilling the writersroom requirements should be distributed to the readers first. These readers should be those most sympathetic to the genre concerned. Just handing an Erudite script to a Popular reader is a waste - although the reader is qualified to judge competent writing, the subject matter may bore him to tears and he trashes it on principle He may be a classical theatre man handed Eastenders-style kitchen-sink drama. He may be Left Wing and the author Right Wing. He may be the very producer I mentioned earlier.
Since, for example, the demand for the Erudite is less than the Popular, you need less Erudite readers. Sort your cadre of readers according to genres of some kind and within each, only employ sufficient to cope with the demand, in broadcasting hours, for that genre.
A better idea, rather than having readers, is to package the submissions along the lines of the category designation above. So a producer into allegories from the Play for Today production office, for example, can drop into Euston Road and say: what have you got for me today, lads? They give him the Radio 3/4 - Drama - Allegory bundle. He then goes away and mulls over it at his leisure with the advantage of not being limited to the first ten pages. He can flick through it to see if the plot picks up later. Much better and less wasteful method than sudden death in ten pages at the hands of the Popular guy.
The system can be refined further. Rather than submitting bulky paper manuscripts, send text files. With a good categorisation system suggested earlier, a producer only needs to browse online within these at his leisure. The system can be Google-like: the author supplies a header with key words describing his work. If the producer finds something promising, the author would be more than happy to follow up with a paper manuscript. Since a text file takes up no physical room, they can be on file, hard drives permitting, for ever. BBC producers want the best and although they do not want to waste time on rubbish, nevertheless they don't want a good piece of work to become a casualty of the system. They want the BBC to be the leader in quality and originality: not having their supply limited to the safe bet and the lowest common denominator in taste. The BBCWritersroom should be a more an enlightened repository than the slaughterhouse it is now.
If the writersroom's choices are constrained by budget-driven bureaucracy; ratings or like so many publicly funded organisations, is essentially a closed shop to all but those with whom they have "a good working relationship", their output will be more competent than brilliant. The BBC themselves may become dissatisfied with the quality and reduce their budget even further. It is a vicious spiral downwards. And new writers, particularly the more avant-garde ones, may give up on them and turn elsewhere.
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A CRITIQUE OF THE BBCWRITERSROOM
I don't know anything about the BBCwritersroom other than what I have gleaned from their site and these blogs. What I have to say may be entirely wrong and unfair. But they do strike me as a very shadowy reclusive organisation holding a lot of would-be authors hopes in their hands. They didn't reply to Emails or letters and their telephone number is ex-directory. Authors wait in agony wondering about their copyright when they take so long to acknowledge receipt, much longer than promised on their site. Not the professionalism one expects of the BBC. Someone should open a dialogue about them. They are paid for, after all, by a levy on the telly and they should be more transparent to the consumer.
Please tell us what the writersroom is, exactly. Is it a clearing house short-listing scripts for a separate commissioning department; or a shop into which producers drop to rummage through the stock or do they, themselves, commission programs? Is it a BBC department; or an out-sourced contractor; a franchise or an independent commercial agency? Is it the sole avenue for scripts to the BBC?
The critique is in two parts.
I. Our Man in the Hebrides
Subjects:
1. The BBCwritersroom statement that they needing a good working relationship with authors.
2. The overseas script ban.
3. Improving communications
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Subject 1. The BBCwritersroom statement that they needing a good working relationship with authors
Their demand for "a good relationship with the author" sounds ominous to a first-time writer like me.
Does it mean that the writersroom expects the author to be relied upon to produce further work? We've seen the book publishers' reliance upon using authors' names as branded products to put on the book jackets. We have also heard that they are reluctant to take chances on new writers and fear that older writers have a limited time to continue to deliver the brand name. Would the writersroom have turned down "Gone with the Wind" if it was in play form from an unknown Yank who only had one story in her? Many quasi-governmental organisations and trusts have become introspective cliques.
There are differences between scriptwriter and playwright. Most of the former are product driven: he produces work on demand for a known audience. It is a job rather than art and, in most cases, he will usually only produce work that is predictable and competent. The playwright, on the other hand, is idea driven. A lightning flash of inspiration may hit him and he may produce a masterpiece that will break new ground and create its own audience: but it may only happen once.
Yes, the writer, writersroom and the producer must cooperate over the lifetime of the production: but they don't have to like each other. I believe that Gilbert and Sullivan didn't hit it off but they still came up with the goods. So even if the author concerned belches all through the business lunch, just try to remember: it's all about the words - not the author. Could it be that established writers are not expected to go through the preliminary reading stage and therefore are cheaper to administer?
First, the logistics. How close must the the writersroom or producers and the author be in proximity be to each other? Suppose the latter lives in, say, the Outer Hebrides. However established he is, is he likely to be prepared to sit in an expensive hotel for months in the Euston Road so he can be quickly summoned for face-to-face contact with the producer or writersroom to maintain a good working relationship? Hardly.
Why does a producer need to be so reliant on the writer's ongoing input? If the author is competent enough to include a decent scenario and direction notes, that is, surely, enough to go on in the early planning stage. By the very fact that the script was accepted in the first place indicates that the producer has a good idea about what to do with it. If a producer has so much need of the author's ongoing input, what is the point of being Producer? In the case of my script, the production notes were pretty fulsome and, unless the Producers interpretation differs significantly from mine (who's line is it anyway?), they should be enough to get along with for a while. If it does, then my attendance is moot as he wouldn't take any notice of me anyway and I wouldn't let him within miles of my earthshaking opus.
Subject 2: The overseas script ban.
This insistence on location is, in this age of fast travel and instant communication, is practical nonsense. Overseas authors should not give the BBC a logistic or financial problem. They can face-to face-conference or (net security permitting) participate in rehearsals or even watch the recording itself on line until the cows come home using something like Skype. It costs nothing other than a quick FAX to make a date. Rewrites can be transmitted the same way. Our famous man in the Outer Hebrides probably does something like that.
When production is planned or has started, most authors would be more than willing to travel to oversee their baby for a reasonable time. I certainly would even though I have a demanding business to run. Is my home in Los Angeles, in traveling time, that much further than the Outer Hebrides? The Globe was probably at least a day's coach ride from Stratford without a cell phone in sight.
The reasons for the overseas ban, from what I have read so far, do not make practical sense: especially coming from the BBC who has world-recognised tools of communication. The News Unit and Bush House are able to engage in real-time global dialogue daily. So what is really going on?
Subject 3: Improving communications
1. Using your internet computer, oblige would-be contributors to create an unique account on line BEFORE submission. This will ensure some copyright coverage during transmission and facilitate tracking, logging-in and databasing: no lost covering letters or manuscript covers.
2. Set it up to respond to an agreed identification by automatically declaring that the script has reached Stage 1, 2, 3 or toilet roll. That way you can save on postage on acknowledgements. And we would give you a quieter life: you should know by now how paranoid we Shakespeare wannabes get.
3. Make it a condition that the manuscript is accompanied by the script in text data form, as mine was. This facilitates editing or rewrites. I can understand their free-lance readers wanting paper at the first reading stage but, at the production stage, there will be a lot of editing and correcting. You still use blue pencils?
4. Insist on a comprehensive scenario, director's notes and, perhaps, any preferred actor's name in mind for the casting.
5. Insist on a Skype address, an Email address and a FAX number.
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Richard Ahearn - many thanks for your exhaustive suggestions on how to run writersroom. Writersroom is indeed an in-house department that works closely with all drama and comedy producing departments and commissioners across radio, TV and film at the BBC. The Wire, a new writing strand on Radio 3 (not the US TV show, obviously), has always been commissioned directly from this department. We've always been transparent about what we do, including numerous public events over the years across the UK where we answer questions live and in person. You don't get much more transparent than published Terms and Conditions.
Ps. I may be wrong, but I suspect that although Shakespeare was born in and retired to Stratford-upon-Avon, he was actually resident in London during his playwrighting career...
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"many thanks for your exhaustive suggestions on how to run writersroom"
Exhaustive and exhausting, Paul. In two interminable sections, and posted twice for good measure.
I admire your self-control; I really do.
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Sorry I have not come back on your responses to my long posting, but just busted my hip.
As I said there, being a one time political cartoonist, it is hard for me to refrain from the snide remark; equivocable example or the running joke. I hope I did not cause offence to anyone other than Mr. Garbutt. The double-posting was due to my ignorance of blog-posting: it appeared to go in the first time: then it disappeared. So I posted it again.
However, to return to the Shakespeare's address example taken up by Paul Ashton. Of COURSE he had to reside within a reasonable distance of his regular place of work: where "reasonable distance" depends on the speed of travel at the time. However, if you combine that example with that of Our Man in the Hebrides: does the latter, given modern transportation and means of communication, have to reside within a short distance from Euston Road also?
Also, until I am given reasons for the contrary, I stand by my remarks about procedure.
The registration prior to dispatch of a submission and auto-declaration of the reading stage that it has reached method would give a quieter life to both the author and the writersroom response staff. Declaration of target broadcasting slot, script format and some kind of genre would help them have some control over the incoherent flood of manuscripts.
The suggestion of a text-data based repository should be the most administratively economical to the writersrom; give a more level playing ground to avant-garde writers and make their work more available to sympathetic producers.
On the subject of our Will: seeing the writersroom's pride in Eastenders, perhaps he would write the following in an effort to get accepted.
HAMLET
Oy, Sunshine, wocher doin' creepin' arahnd 'ere. I 'eard you've bin givin' me bird a bi' o' the uvver ag'in.
POLONIUS
So wot? Yer dun own 'er.
HAMLET [thrusts face into POLONIUS']
Look, Romeo or wottevah yer name is: nah bloke is gonna git 'is mitts on me bird. Go' it? Orl right?
POLONIUS
'Ere - knock it orf! Yer squashing me 'oo'ah.
HAMLET
That's yer problem. I'll squash more than that if I evah see yer arahnd 'er ag'in.
POLONIUS
So wotcher gonna do abaht it? Eh? Wot?
HAMLET
Wot?
POLONIUS
Do wot?
HAMLET
Eh, wot, to me?
KING CLAUDIUS enters.
KING CLAUDIUS [thrusts face into POLONIUS']
Din' I tell yer there's gonna be nuffink but trouble? Plenny of uvver birds arahnd for a young bloke like yer.
Enter QUEEN GERTRUDE
QUEEN GERTRUDE [thrusts face into KING CLAUDIUS']
Eeeeeahhh yer old git! I fort I told yer to put up dem bleedin' shelves. Do I 'ave to do everyfink arahnd 'ere meself?
KING CLAUDIUS
Aw shuddup, yer silly moo. I ain't go' arahnd to it, OK. An' where did you knock orf dem eardrops? Betcha it wern't bleedin' Booths.
DOG enters.
DOG [thrusts face into cat's]
Bleedin' woof.
THUNDER AND TUMULT. FAGS OUT. ALL EXEUNT LEFT.
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