BAFTA are doing their Rocliffe comedy scheme/competition again.
One with a Submission fee (£46) but the prize, if they like your work and you're in the top 3, is your sitcom being showcased, introductions to industry people and some mentoring.
Given that I'm very down on my opinion of my own skill, I'm not 100% sure I will. Has anyone done this? I've been so close to submitting to this one a few times but chickened out.
Yes I'll be entering again for I think the fourth time. The comp's format has stayed pleasingly consistent so I know exactly what they want by now (and it's never my stuff ?). It's biannual now so if you don't enter this one you'll have another two years to wait for the next chance, just to add to the joy of being a scribbler. Their website isn't the easiest to navigate imo so I'll highlight the entry format (This comp has as much emphasis on the backup material as the script, so be prepared to bluff if you haven't realised the full scope of your project yet). -
A ten page extract of your sitcom script (10 consecutive pages from anywhere in your episode script). A 25 word synopsis, a 300 word SERIES treatment, three to six 50 word episode guides, a 100 word intro to place the context of your 10 page excerpt within the episode and they also want to know what number episode it is. ? Oh and a character guide, 50 words each again. I reckon those with just a pilot will struggle with this comp.
The feedback is very good, with almost as much about your series and episode ideas as the script itself (3 pages in total usually) so it's a useful one to enter, if a very tough one to win. Formatting will also be judged, even if you thought it was perfect like me. Er, good luck.
Good value for the feedback, alone, I'd have thought.
Is the feedback bit new?
I seem to remember entering something years back, but don't remember any feedback (too grim, probably).
I have an idea it started off as an option, with a cheaper non feedback option, but last few pretty certain it's the only option. But they've introduced a bursary scheme for those who can't afford the £46 entry fee, only gone up a quid since last comp two years ago so it's very fair. Also I've noticed the feedback has got better or more detailed, quite defined to certain areas of strength and weakness and obviously given by a prod or script editor at least.
Yes - you could easily pay twice as much for a page - so good value.
Plus - you never know...
It is a shocker of a website, though.
Comes to think of it, I did enter something.
Got nowhere - but, ironically, got optioned shortly afterwards.
Then it got nowhere again!
Still, earnt a few quid....
Quote: Alfred J Kipper @ 5th April 2022, 9:43 AMI reckon those with just a pilot will struggle with this comp.
Indeed! Even though I've been unsure of my skills, at least I let myself run away with it and think up all sorts of story ideas. Helps when it comes to this sort of thing and writing a new story.
Actually, speaking of having not just a pilot, that's a thing - I'll need to look it up in the T&Cs but IIRC, one of the competitions aren't just looking for pilots, and that it can be any episode, as long as it's the best one to show the writer's vocie. Will have to see if it's Rocliffe that do that. I actually found myself laughing writing the early part of an episode 2.
Quote: Feeoree @ 5th April 2022, 6:19 PMI actually found myself laughing writing the early part of an episode 2.
Often the way - you've done all the heavy lifting in the pilot.
Gonna try and get something in for this. Not sure I have anything I'd consider a potential winning entry, but this new 'one contest every two years' caveat and the loss of the annual BBC comedy contest kinda makes me feel like you can't let these sorts of windows pass you by if you're not 100% ready any more. Plus £46 is probably worth it for the feedback alone. Anything else is a bonus.
I'm a bit confused by the request for 'any ten pages of any episode script' (think the last couple of BBC submission windows had that criteria as well). I've always been told that writing multiple episodes of one idea is a waste of time (if you've got the time to write six scripts, write six unique and interesting pilots, not six episodes of the same exact thing). But now everyone seems to be all 'Why, yes, of course, we'd love to read pages 22-31 of episode 7'.
I assume they do this because a) these contests aren't so much looking for scripts that will actually get made, more finding writers with solid comedy writing chops that they can then help develop and b) there can be few things more soul-crushing than reading hundreds of 'first ten pages of the pilot episode' from a bunch of amateurs. But, I dunno, feels a bit weird. Like I should stop crafting scripts with tight, interesting high concept plots*, and just focus on packing ten pages of contest-winning knob gags into the middle somewhere.
And I know that every ten random pages of every script you write should be packed full of contest-winning gags, knob-based or otherwise, so it shouldn't matter, but still. Feels like you're skipping crucial aspects of writing like seamless character introductions, strong pilot writing, plotting, etc, when you can explicitly tell everyone who your characters are and what the story is in the supporting material, then point the reader to ten random pages. I remember when "But it gets good on page 23 if you keep reading!" wasn't a good enough excuse for your first 10 pages being three blokes with exactly the same speech pattern sitting in a pub together pointlessly bantering on about their favourite types of jam.
Ah well, back to writing Jamie and his Magic Knob of Justice - Series 8, Episode 5: "The Favourite Jam Conundrum" before the deadline.
* Not that any of my plots are especially tight, interesting or high concept, but the intention is usually there. 
Good points.
By the time they've read all the 'supporting material' - they could have read your 35 page script (or stopped after 5, because it's clearly the work of a lunatic).
If they don't get the gist of the series, characters and longevity of the idea from that - then it's a pretty shit script.
Think I'll go for it. I have a series idea with many episodes planned in my head. The first one was already written for a different competition. The second one is flying onto the page. I know the characters and have really got accustomed to the 'feel' of the thing from writing the first episode which seems to make it much easier. Not sure if the overall concept will be popular though.
Quote: Tiggy @ 6th April 2022, 12:15 PMThink I'll go for it. I have a series idea with many episodes planned in my head. The first one was already written for a different competition.
Yeah, my script I sent to the beeb's Comedy Room window 2 years ago was one I was pleased with at the time but feels even sharper on a recent rewrite (and I think its the longest I've stuck to a project, it started life in Summer 2019!). At least that's eligible for Rocliffe as I haven't submitted it to Rocliffe before.
Though a different and new project is one I'm more excited for. It's also the one I'll have to send if the Galton and Simpson Bursary comes back (as it's BBC related and can't send something I already sent to BBC, so my 2020 comedy room one I mentioned above can't go to that).
There are other my older ones I sent to BBC Submission Windows and other schemes/comps years ago (like... 2010/2011 and the few years after was a busy time for that for me) I could also re-jig but probably not. Been a few years since I touched those.
Quote: Crindy @ 6th April 2022, 11:36 AMI'm a bit confused by the request for 'any ten pages of any episode script' (think the last couple of BBC submission windows had that criteria as well).
And I know that every ten random pages of every script you write should be packed full of contest-winning gags, knob-based or otherwise, so it shouldn't matter, but still. Feels like you're skipping crucial aspects of writing like seamless character introductions, strong pilot writing, plotting, etc, when you can explicitly tell everyone who your characters are and what the story is in the supporting material, then point the reader to ten random pages. I remember when "But it gets good on page 23 if you keep reading!" wasn't a good enough excuse for your first 10 pages being three blokes with exactly the same speech pattern sitting in a pub together pointlessly bantering on about their favourite types of jam.
Ah well, back to writing Jamie and his Magic Knob of Justice - Series 8, Episode 5: "The Favourite Jam Conundrum" before the deadline.
Most comps including the infamous BBC WR window only read your first ten pages, then if it passes that stage the script gets a full read, which the vast majority of entries fail to do, many of them because they are too slow to develop the action because the writers feel they have to introduce the reader to their world to appreciate the context. This comp has got round that difficulty by letting you choose the best ten pages hopefully with your episode story in full swing, and its context within the episode and your whole series concept will be got in the supporting materials.
Quote: Feeoree @ 6th April 2022, 1:42 PMThough a different and new project is one I'm more excited for. It's also the one I'll have to send if the Galton and Simpson Bursary comes back (as it's BBC related and can't send something I already sent to BBC, so my 2020 comedy room one I mentioned above can't go to that).
Yes you can, that rule's unenforceable and total bollocks anyway, do you think they keep copies of all the binned first reads to know if you've sent it before or not?
Quote: Alfred J Kipper @ 7th April 2022, 4:05 AMMost comps including the infamous BBC WR window only read your first ten pages, then if it passes that stage the script gets a full read, which the vast majority of entries fail to do, many of them because they are too slow to develop the action because the writers feel they have to introduce the reader to their world to appreciate the context. This comp has got round that difficulty by letting you choose the best ten pages hopefully with your episode story in full swing, and its context within the episode and your whole series concept will be got in the supporting materials.
Yep, I get that. Trust me, every submission I ever made to the BBC WR is painfully aware of the ten page discard pile.
My point was that if you're trying to write really great scripts, sitcom or otherwise, then passing the 'first ten page' test is a key part of it. That's where a script stands or falls. When a new show starts on TV, you don't get handed a little booklet explaining what the story is and who the characters are which then tells you to just fast forward through the first 15 minutes cos they're not very good. It's got to be interesting, funny and engaging from minute one, otherwise I'm changing channel. Or asking Siri to power up Netflix. Or watching that YouTube video of three kittens on a trampoline again.
As I say, I think it's just that these contests are being more truthful now about not wanting to find the right script, but to find the right writer, hence why they're asking for a sequence that highlights your 'voice', rather than treating your script as a complete script. Which is totally fine. It just feels like I've spent all this time trying to get past level one of the video game, and now the game developers have said 'Here's a free cheat to get everyone through to the end boss, have fun!'.
(I'm just being bitter because I really don't know where to start when it comes to picking out a random killer out-of-context 10 page section from any of my potential submissions, so I'll end up sending the first ten pages anyway through muscle memory and being the first script in the bin!).
Quote: Crindy @ 7th April 2022, 11:54 AMAs I say, I think it's just that these contests are being more truthful now about not wanting to find the right script, but to find the right writer
Exactly.
A quick scroll through previous years finalists tells you all you need to know.
Oh, found the answer to my "can it be from another episode other than pilot?" question, it was here under submission materials:
" Introduction to extract that sets the scene (100 words) - what happens before and which episode it is"