Quote: Winterlight @ June 12 2008, 10:30 PM BSTOh I can still think of something to do with them even if you've got no hands!
Filthy.
Writing for a commercial channel Page 4
Quote: Seefacts @ June 12 2008, 9:56 PM BSTBenders.
BUMDER!
Sorry, I just wanted to say it.
Quote: hotzappa11 @ June 12 2008, 10:47 PM BSTBUMDER!
Sorry, I just wanted to say it.
Quender-A mix of queer and bender; an insult me and my friends made up when we were at school. Pronounced Kwender. We were quite proud of it. This thread has gone quite off topic.
Have some interesting word counts for sitcoms.
Checked up on a few a while ago and Seinfeld can go from 3100 to 4100 for an episode. A Friends episode I checked was about 3400. Two Frasier's I made note of were 3700 and 4100, and for the BBC an episode of Porridge came in at 4200, Only Fools at 5000 and The Office at 6100. But I suppose there's an awful lot of false starts in The Office.
whats a false start in that context?
Quote: Matthew Stott @ June 12 2008, 9:49 PM BSTYeah, a producer told me that too; a little sexist!! Surely it should be purely down to script quality, not tokenism. If a woman has a great script, then commision it, but it should purely be down to the script, not because she has a vagina. And boobies. That sort of thing annoys me. Not boobies, I like boobies.
I would take this to mean scripts where the lead character is a woman, rather than the writer.
Incidentally, I was told by a producer recently that the BBC format (as it is in the Final Draft BBC Sitcom template) comes up at about half a minute per page. We've just cut my 62 pages back to 56 to bring it in around 28 minutes. And, as luck would have it, the main character is a woman. Actually, it's not luck thinking about it. I generally have the lead character as a woman as there are always female actors bemoaning the lack of good quality lady parts so it seemed I may give myself a commercial edge. The longer I spend trying to break into this business, the more I'm realising that you have to write what people want to make, quality alone isn't enough.
Quote: steve by any other name @ June 13 2008, 8:03 AM BSTGood quality lady parts.
And back to boobies...
Quote: steve by any other name @ June 13 2008, 8:03 AM BSTI would take this to mean scripts where the lead character is a woman, rather than the writer.
No, I know what I meant, I was told broadcasters were on the look out for studio based sitcoms from female writers; it seems a little odd that you would try to correct me about something I was told and you werent! 
Quote: Pete @ June 12 2008, 11:21 PM BSTwhats a false start in that context?
A false start is where you start a sentence and stop and start another one. In other sitcoms they'd just have the line trimmed to perfection, but The Office was trying to mirror actual conversation which is full of false starts.
If it's of any interest The BBC want 7000 words for a drama script and ITV want about six and half thousand. Perry says 6000 because people laugh more at his scripts than mine - so you have to build enough time in to allow for it.
Quote: Marc P @ June 13 2008, 11:06 AM BSTIf it's of any interest The BBC want 7000 words for a drama script and ITV want about six and half thousand. Perry says 6000 because people laugh more at his scripts than mine - so you have to build enough time in to allow for it.
But ITV dramas are 45 minutes. So for a sitcom you'd need to half that, leaving you needing 300 words - about 25 pages.
Quote: Seefacts @ June 13 2008, 11:16 AM BSTBut ITV dramas are 45 minutes. So for a sitcom you'd need to half that, leaving you needing 300 words - about 25 pages.
Big font?
Dan
Quote: Seefacts @ June 13 2008, 11:16 AM BSTBut ITV dramas are 45 minutes. So for a sitcom you'd need to half that, leaving you needing 300 words - about 25 pages.
Have you watched Emmerdale Seefacts?
As we were discussing sitcoms which are half hour in length I was reffering to 30 min dramas.
Quote: Marc P @ June 13 2008, 11:06 AM BSTPerry says 6000 because people laugh more at his scripts than mine - so you have to build enough time in to allow for it.
I wish. I suppose it's all down to style isn't it? If you're a fast-paced wordy writer then you're gonna use 6000 words up pretty quickly. But for more sedate scripts I suppose 4000-5000 words is possible. I've just checked a BBC shooting script and it came in 5,420.
I dunno.
Quote: Marc P @ June 13 2008, 11:22 AM BSTHave you watched Emmerdale Seefacts?
Ahh, I see.
Look, you've written for a lot of stuff and are one of the most experienced writers on here - but Emmerdale is NOT a drama. Just because the BAFTA Awards big it up with 'Best Continuing Drama' it's a SOAP. We all know it's a soap.
Drama, to me, means an hour.
Quote: Perry Nium @ June 13 2008, 11:23 AM BSTI wish.
I dunno.
So the key here is there are lots of writers with varying experience levels, and no bugger knows!
I'm going to aim for around 25 pages and then I'll read it aloud.