Quote: Little Jersey Devil @ June 17 2009, 2:04 PM BST3. Writing for Mitchell And Webb.
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Matthew, that is great.I didn't know they accepted outside writers. I had a go anyway but I think they hate me. They either hate me separately or hate me en masse. I think the sketch about the cannibal couple put them off.
Was it funny or gory or both?
Quote: Griff @ June 16 2009, 8:43 PM BSTAwesome. I know Yacob Wingnut's written for them as well... I got a rejection from that quarter only last week saying "liked your sketch but not enough to use it sorry."
Hello - where did you send it?
Good:
* Getting several gags on the News Quiz that were broadcasted on two episodes
* Current TV saying 'yes, that's a good idea - you're commissioned' to my comedy doc pitches, a couple of times.
* A prodco saying 'that's a good enough idea for us to pitch it to the Comedy Lab on your behalf.'
Bad:
* An additional material slot on the Now Show being blighted by family issues, resulting in a lack of inspiration, a lost opportunity to impress a producer and no broadcasted gags.
* My first sitcom rejection a few years ago (but I can SO see why now!)
* Channel 4 saying 'no' to the comedy lab pitch
A quick question to all on the subject of pitches. Have you just pitched your idea to producer without having written the script at all? Or have you at least written some kind of treatment?
Quote: hotzappa11 @ June 17 2009, 9:11 PM BSTA quick question to all on the subject of pitches. Have you just pitched your idea to producer without having written the script at all? Or have you at least written some kind of treatment?
I hate pitching without basically having a 1st draft script written. I am generally poor at pitching, partly due to the fact that I normally only start off with a half-formed idea in my head about what I want to write. I can pitch things a lot better after I have at least written a rough draft, because it's usually only after I write it that I really know how to describe it.
But pitching is something I have worked at getting better at, because it can lead to further interest and commissions.
I am at talkback Thames next week for a meeting and am preparing at least a few brief pitches of future show ideas, in addition to the script I am actually there to discuss.
Quote: hotzappa11 @ June 17 2009, 9:11 PM BSTA quick question to all on the subject of pitches. Have you just pitched your idea to producer without having written the script at all? Or have you at least written some kind of treatment?
I've never pitched an idea without already having the script done. In fact I've only once had to try and pitch something to a producer, rather than them already having read the script, and I was awful at it. Luckily I could foist the script itself on them, rather than rely on my awful selling ability, so they could actually read it and see that it was a whole lot better than the dull, incoherant nonsense I was babbling.
Quote: Matthew Stott @ June 17 2009, 9:50 PM BSTthe dull, incoherant nonsense I was babbling.
I know the feeling! To me (not usually a tongue-tied person under pressure) it doesn't help that I always feel faintly ridiculous pitching a comedy. Partly because practically any comedy idea seems faintly crap when you reduce it a brief outline (that may only be my comedy ideas, of course).
Quote: Tim Walker @ June 17 2009, 10:10 PM BSTPartly because practically any comedy idea seems faintly crap when you reduce it a brief outline ).
I feel the same, I can't even tell friends what a scripts about when they ask out of interest/politeness without it sounding awful!
Quote: Matthew Stott @ June 17 2009, 10:19 PM BSTI feel the same, I can't even tell friends what a scripts about when they ask out of interest/politeness without it sounding awful!
You can imagine just how much fun my producers had pitching around a sitcom of mine which is set in a hotel. Trying to get the words "Not like Fawlty!" out before they were shown the door.
Quote: Tim Walker @ June 17 2009, 10:22 PM BSTYou can imagine just how much fun my producers had pitching around a sitcom of mine which is set in a hotel. Trying to get the words "Not like Fawlty!" out before they were shown the door.
Best:
- Selling sketches to NewRevue, which ran for a month.
- Selling a gag to 118118
- Working with some of the people I respect on here.
- Having positive feedback of my stuff.
Worst:
- Being so goddamn lazy.
- Not being able to finish any sitcom scripts.
- 118118 not buying anymore of my jokes.
- Being so goddamn lazy.
Despite being liked around the networks, Vacancies got the same response everywhere - too much of a risk doing a sitcom set in a "dysfunctional hotel". It was a very different type of hotel, a different style, etc. Didn't matter, that show (rightly to a degree) casts such a fearful shadow over the world of sitcom that it never stood a chance. (Tomorrow, of course, I'll find out a hotel-based sitcom has been commissioned. Still, it was my first proper sitcom attempt, I was not young, but rather naive.)
Napoleon Wants a Car being performed with Leah MacRae at the Stand. That rocked - I wasn't even all that fond of it, but it got a giggle.
Waiting is always the worst part, worse than rejection sometimes.
Quote: Leevil @ June 17 2009, 10:30 PM BST- Being so goddamn lazy.
I think most of us suffer from that, mate. (I'm on here when I should be working on a new script, which I've promised to a couple of people for Friday. Long night ahead now...) 
Quote: Balf @ June 17 2009, 10:33 PM BSTWaiting is always the worst part, worse than rejection sometimes.
Definitely.
The thing about pitching is that, as the writers, we tend to be unable to easily separate the essential detail from the huge sprawling mass that is the birthplace of the idea, within our heads. My pitches are always terrible. I'm useless at face-to-face.
