An audience/studio based sitcom should still be very funny on screen though.
Is that not the idea of the sitcom trials.
Very often a comedy theatre play wouldn't come across as funny onTV.
Also films such as The Full Monty is hilarious on the silver screen but I didn't find it funny on TV 
Quote: Kev F @ September 16 2008, 7:00 AM BSTTalking of changing the subject, and taking us right back to the days when the Sitcom Trials was all about testing sitcoms out in front of an audience and then trying to sell the polished sitcoms themselves, here's a little gem I found in the Trials video vaults which I'd forgotten was there. It's Justin Lee Collins appearing in a sitcom by me called Rise & Shine (it's the Christmas Episode of R&S, the 4th out of 6 or 7 episodes we staged back in the early Bristol and London shows. We eventually got made into a radio pilot by the BBC, but no series, if you're keeping note). Enjoy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlWg9x6TU78
Kev F
sitcomtrials.co.ukNB: I've only clipped together JLC's brief appearances. As for watching the rest of the episode, well let's just say this would be one of the problems with webcasting the forthcoming shows, you really have to be there. Hilarious as it might be at the time, just pointing a camera at people on a comedy club stage really looks a little bit naff.
6 or 7 episodes of just that one idea. Was the voting element introduced to stop you just staging your own work then Kev?
Quote: Kev F @ September 16 2008, 7:00 AM BST
Link no work.
Quote: David Bussell @ September 16 2008, 10:18 AM BSTLink no work.
I know, but I went into youtube then searched for sitcom trials. Once they come up just scroll down till you get Justin Lee Collins one
Quote: Marc P @ September 16 2008, 9:51 AM BST6 or 7 episodes of just that one idea. Was the voting element introduced to stop you just staging your own work then Kev?
That was the end result! The Trials ended up as a showcase for other peoples scripts, with me spending more time producing and promoting it than writing stuff myself.
But one of the original buzz-phrases I used to use, about Sits Vac (the non-voting version of the show) and the Trials, was that we were able to create better comedy together than any of us could do individually. So team-writing and finding co-writers was always encouraged.
Rise & Shine (the one that JLC did an episode of, and Tony Robinson did a couple) was co-created by me and Ken Elkes, with episodes written by both of us; Didn't You Used To Be..? (the Tony Robinson vehicle) was created by me and Geoff Whiting; The Lavender Millbank Mob was created by Rich Johnstone, with episodes written by 7 or 8 different writers (yes, of course I wrote one); Can We Get Les Dennis was created by Roland Moore, with episodes written by 4 or 5 of us (including Declan Hill himself, who wrote the Comic Relief episode); and there were a few other collaborations along the way.
I've always liked the idea of team writing, and because of the radio-style script-in-hand approach of the Trials (1999 - 2006 version) we were able to test out scripts at short notice. But team writing is labour intensive. I'd happily try it again if I felt there was a project that was promising enough (though, to be honest, I think I collaborate best with myself).
I think you are doing a fab job Kev
Quote: Kev F @ September 16 2008, 9:28 PM BSTone of the original buzz-phrases I used to use, about Sits Vac (the non-voting version of the show) and the Trials, was that we were able to create better comedy together than any of us could do individually.
So you didn't think much of your own writing or that of the people's work you were showcasing?
I hope that is not true.
Quote: Marc P @ September 16 2008, 10:11 PM BSTSo you didn't think much of your own writing or that of the people's work you were showcasing?
I hope that is not true.
Far from it. The writing got better and better the more we nurtured it, the performing team became a stronger core unit, and then we moved on.
Harris & Blakewill (whose scripts The Client and Clinging On both made the Trials TV series as well as our Edinburgh 2001 and 2004 shows) went on to professional TV writing (currently for ITV's Headcases and others); Roland Moore (Can we Get Les Dennis made the TV series, Man's Best Friends was Edin 04) now writes regularly for Doctors; Steve Keyworth (Here Comes The Science, Edin 04) now writes Eastenders; and as for the writer-performers from our shows, including Laura Solon (Edin 02) and Miranda Hart (Edin 01)... well, okay, no idea what happened to them.
Me, I discovered my Socks were funnier than me (The Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre made their debut in the Shakespearian Sitcom Trials show in 2005) so I concentrated on them. Let us not forget, running the Sitcom Trials was always a good way for me to lose money, which was pretty well the opposite of my original plan.
Two other writer-performers from the Trials, Declan Hill and Simon Wright, decided the show shouldn't lie dormant, so they revived it in 2007 and they still carry the torch. Their emphasis is now on showcasing new writers, staging the shows in a more polished theatrical style, and running the competition so it offers a big prize at the end, which is ultimately more satisfying and more involving for a bigger number of people. Long may it last.
Kev F
PS: Our Justin Lee Collins clip just made the front page of Chortle.
Quote: Griff @ September 17 2008, 11:11 AM BSTOne of the Trials entries last year was written by co-organiser Declan Hill under a nom-de-plume. It was called Singing The Blues and in my view, it was the best of the lot. (However Simon assures me there will be no pseudonymous skulduggery this year.)
Psuedonyms have always been a concern. When you're running a competition, with open entry and a prize, and you're one of the judges, you realise you can't do that sort of thing, which is why Declan and Simon have decided not to enter their own writing. Last year it was more about trying out sitcoms of all kinds, so it was totally legitimate to include the producers' own work. And a good few of last year's script came from earlier Sitcom Trials (one script had been in the Sitcom Trials TV series, for example). This year, though, the whole competition has started from a level playing field, with the terms and conditions made clear from the start.
Back in the day I used to enter scripts under pseudonyms because of the peer-review method we used to select scripts. (If you weren't around then, what happened was all writers would upload their scripts to the Sitcom trials Files area, then all members of the group could read, review, and vote on the scripts. A Yes vote was worth 2 points, a Maybe was worth 1, and a No was worth minus 1. So your votes only affected those scripts you'd read, and left unaffected the ones you hadn't. Since we got up to 60 scripts a month at our peak, this turned out to be a very effective way of selecting the shortlist of 10 or 12 which would then be given a round-table reading by actors, from which we'd choose the 6 to perform in the show. This also meant I, personally, never had to read the mountain of shit that IS unsolicited sitcom scripts, though I often would anyway.) So scripts would appear by Jonathan Kirby and Jane Simon and, for the first few months anyway, no-one would know they were mine and would judge them more fairly.
Quote: Kev F @ September 18 2008, 10:21 AM BSTThis also meant I, personally, never had to read the mountain of shit that IS unsolicited sitcom scripts, though I often would anyway.)
Kev you want to go into comedy mate,
SITCOM TRIALS WORKSHOPS sold out.
Simon Wright writes, via every1sacritic blog:
With hundreds of entries to the Sitcom Trials and only 32 scripts being chosen, it meant that an awful lot of good stuff didn't get through. We had to reject scripts that were 90% there. Maybe all they needed was tweaking.
So we announced our first workshop. Which sold out within hours.
To take up the slack we announced another. Same thing.
Then two more, and they're fully booked too.
We're planning a couple more before Christmas so keep an eye on the website.
- Simon Wright at every1sacritic.com