Quote: Renegade Carpark @ January 24 2010, 10:54 PM GMTCretin
1. (Medicine / Pathology) a person afflicted with cretinism: a mentally retarded dwarf with wide-set eyes, a broad flat nose, and protruding tongue
The love child of Jeanette Kranky and Jamie Oliver?
I once wrote a radio pilot about a failed writer who was so infuriated by a negative script report that he went and confronted the guy who wrote it. Unfortunately the guy had a heart attack and died, and the failed writer wound up in prison. I looked for it yesterday but can't find it anywhere. 
Quote: morgills1 @ January 24 2010, 4:11 PM GMTAnd I'm not questioning the method of quoting back sections - it was merely that there wasn't exactly a huge amount of feedback provided. For what it essentially meant to be £5 worth anyway - it doesn't really look like an hour's work. But hey, what's done is done and I suppose I have no idea what I'm on about. I'm just quite tight cos I'm a post-graduate student with no money.
But yeah the criticism was spot on. It confirmed things I already thought as well as giving me food for thought...and it has given me the motivation to do a massive overhaul.
Come off it - £5 for 'spot on' crit of a 15-minute script given by seasoned pros who know their stuff... That's a ludicrously tiny fee by commercial standards. If you went to one of the agencies that offer professional crits, you'd be looking at around £150 - and I seriously doubt you'd be getting crit 30 times better than that offered by Simon and Declan. It's pretty obvious on that evidence alone that these guys must be doing it (the comp etc) for the love of it.
My crit was brilliant. It was completely fair and opened up my eyes to a few issues I had. Without it, I might not have made the final 32.
So no complaints from me.
(It was the 'Silver: get-your-crit-in-time-to-resubmit' option. I went on a workshop earlier last year with a different script entirely. The workshop was brilliant and well worth the money)
Dan
Here are some responses to the crits we've had over the last couple of days. As you can see the general theme seems to be 'harsh but fair', which is what we're aiming for.
(Your mother will love your script for nothing)
Fantastic: swift, accurate and insightful feedback of a type it's virtually impossible to get anywhere else..
Thanks very much for your feedback - it was harsh, but completely right, and has given us plenty to think about - which is what good feedback is meant to do!
I'm very grateful for the feedback and I've taken the advice on board..
Thanks so much for your robust and astute feedback! Makes complete sense and really helpful to move on from. Really appreciate it.
This is all very useful--will try to utilise it positively!
I am grateful for all the positive comments about what you liked and even what you didn't. It has been very helpful and very encouraging.
Thank you ever so much for the feedback. Everything you said made a lot of sense and I really appreciate it. I will take it on board for the future.
Yes, I accept all those points...
Thank you; that's all really useful
really appreciate the honest feedback.
can see each point you make, can't wait for the second crit thanks very much.
It made a lot of sense.
As Dec said, running a competition like this is a surefire way to make 32 friends and 468 enemies. We're not called 'Every1sacritic' for nothing.
i hope this post dosen't mean you have finished with the crits I'm still waitng for mine, I don't know ifthat's good or bad, mind you I sent mine in november so a couple more days won't hurt
J26 
Quote: morgills1 @ January 24 2010, 1:28 PM GMTGot the 'first half' of my feedback - was pretty scandalous to be honest. Basically just 6 pages of my script copied and pasted in with about half a page of comments. The criticism that was offered was pretty spot on mind.
I may have missed the boat on this, but surely that sounds like effectively targetted feedback? They didn't say much but what they said was accurate and to the point. Should they add a couple of pages of padding? As many have already pointed out this represents value for money.
I can't personally comment on the written feedback but I can say that the workshop was very useful. One of the reasons it was useful was to see what my potential 'customers' made of my work. To take up the theme of fairness from earlier, this may give me an advantage over people who don't know anything about what their 'customers' want before they start - provided I listen and respond. This is not bias if the finished article better suits the Sitcommission requirements, only if it doesn't and still gets selected anyway.
It is also wrong to suggest (as someone did) that the competition needs to have 'no possibility of bias'. What it needs to have is minimum actual bias, which in any evaluation system will always be more about the people running it than about any processes or procedures. This is why everyone has jumped to Simon and Declan's defence, as they are the reason most of us trust this process, rather than the process itself. Let's face it, all the evidence most of us need of bias is the inability of the system to see that our stuff is the best ('positive attribution error' it's called).
Simon and Declan's priority has to be is to get the best sitcoms they can onto the stage. This is not only in their interests and the interests of the 16 selected, but also in the interests of everyone who doesn't make it as this will ensure that a) there is a sitcommission next year b) the industry will keep coming back to see what they have missed, and c) commissions from the process are more likely.
Quote: Johnny26 @ January 25 2010, 6:24 PM GMTi hope this post dosen't mean you have finished with the crits I'm still waitng for mine, I don't know ifthat's good or bad, mind you I sent mine in november so a couple more days won't hurt
Based on this post, I bet I can guess what at least one part of the crit will say 
I got fairly damning feedback but it's all to the good!
I've been away for two weeks so it will take a while to catch up on all the arguments, I mean discussions, on here but a belated Woo Hoo to all those who got through (yes, including me) this time round. I was really pleased to see so many of my favourite people are involved but also disappointed for those who aren't.
Good luck to all those in the next stage. 
I'm off to write more stuff now - yes it's this kind of eloquence that got me through in the first place...
Is there much scope for a more drama based comedy or do gag heavy sitcoms tend to be selected for the final 32? It's just I was thinking of maybe submitting something for 2010 and I'm not really a 'gagster', yet, if ever. So would a kind of drama/dark/surreal sitcom stand a chance in the comp?
Just wondering what tends to get through, really.
Quote: The Giggle-o @ January 29 2010, 1:47 PM GMTSo would a kind of drama/dark/surreal sitcom stand a chance in the comp?
My guess would be no. "Make it funny" is one of the guidelines.
Quote: The Giggle-o @ January 29 2010, 1:47 PM GMTIs there much scope for a more drama based comedy or do gag heavy sitcoms tend to be selected for the final 32? It's just I was thinking of maybe submitting something for 2010 and I'm not really a 'gagster', yet, if ever. So would a kind of drama/dark/surreal sitcom stand a chance in the comp?
Just wondering what tends to get through, really.
If you take into account that it's going to be staged then larger-than-life comedy tends to work better than something more subtle. I guess scripts that would make studio audience sitcoms might appeal more than say a mockumentary. As for the style of the actual gags I would say that all types - dark, silly, etc stand an equal chance depending if the producers find them funny or not.
Quote: Kevin Murphy @ January 29 2010, 1:49 PM GMTMy guess would be no. "Make it funny" is one of the guidelines.
True, true.
Quote: Dolly Dagger @ January 29 2010, 1:53 PM GMTIf you take into account that it's going to be staged then larger-than-life comedy tends to work better than something more subtle. I guess scripts that would make studio audience sitcoms might appeal more than say a mockumentary. As for the style of the actual gags I would say that all types - dark, silly, etc stand an equal chance depending if the producers find them funny or not.
True, true.
Do they perform radio scripts? So if something wildly unimaginable were meant to be happening they could just whack some SFX(TECHNICAL SPEAK)on top? Or are SFX not available?
Quote: Griff @ January 29 2010, 1:59 PM GMTWell, you'd need to be the one providing the SFX audio clips, there won't be a sound technician to find/create them for you. But they can certainly play a few sound clips during the show.
Hmm, my lion impression isn't up to much, but my penguin might be ok.