What are the chances of this happening? Page 2

Quote: Lee Henman @ November 20 2010, 12:21 AM GMT

It's dead easy really. You have absolutely zero chance if you give up. If you don't give up, the probability of success is slightly higher than zero. If you manage to make contacts and get to know people within the industry, the odds of success increase in your favour. And if your writing improves as your journey continues, you'll eventually beat 99% of all the other potential writers who fell at earlier hurdles. Unfortunately you then find yourself in a position where you're up against serious competition. But it can be done.

Of course some people fall lucky and jump the queue early, but I always see comedy writing as a sort of apprenticeship. It takes no time at all to learn the basics but it's mastering the details and making them your own that's the tricky bit. Once you've done that you should be home free. (Technically)

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Lee's spot on
Those 10,000 hours are work not wait as far I can see.

Well said Lee.

All good advice on offer here.

I'd like to add (if the point hasn't been made already and I missed it owing to imbecility, poor eyesight and distracting porn) that you should go for everything*.

Every comp or opportunity that arises (and there are a staggering amount), you should consider having a go at.

Short stories, sketches, plays - if there's an opportunity open to you, take it. It'll mean you're always writing (and therefore improving), always putting you work out there to be read and judged by total strangers (who sometimes offer vital feedback), and it gives you a routine. Finish one submission, move on to the next, and so on.

And at some point you'll get something through. A winning story, a sketch on the BBC, and this will encourage and reward you.

*Of course you can't enter *every* competition or opportunity - there aren't enough hours in the day for one thing, and for another, some might not hold any appeal. But two or three a month is a steady work rate that should see you have some success.

There was an interview on chortle with Andrew O'Conner - producer of Peepshow and former saturday morning kids TV show comic - where he basically said he doesn't read any of the unsolicited scripts that came in. Quite a high figure I seem to recall.

I've had one radio production made to date.

After the Edinburgh Fringe in 2006 and I met with a producer at the BBC in Manchester and we basically sat in the Coffee shop and I told him about my show from that year's fringe and we talked about how it might work on the radio. We came up with a format during that meeting and from that point on we did a treatment (10 different versions of that). First we put in for commission to write a script, then we got the money for a regional pilot.

At that point I'd been on the circuit for 4 years. I was runner up in the City Life Comedian Of the Year competition in 2004, that was my first show in Edinburgh which got some decent press reviews.

The meeting with a producer came about because a friend of mine also a comedy writer and someone who had been commissioned by the BBC for numerous projects, knew what my idea was for a show and thought it was a good one, and he knew I'd put the work in if I got commissioned for a script. I'd spent a year writing the Edinburgh show. Originally I met my friend years before at a gig in Manchester - I'd been on. Then I repeatedly bumped into him at comedy shows not always ones I was in. I used to go and watch guys like Dom Irrera and other American comics when they came over. Evidently we shared the same appreciation comedy.

The process of going from those meetings to finished pilot was 6 months. There were quite few times when I didn't think it was going to happen. I did seven different drafts of the script before they laid out the recording script.

Things I picked up in conversation in those six months:-

1) Writers without some kind of pedigree aren't taken that seriously. The idea of reading a full length non-commissioned script from someone with no history of putting stuff actually in front of an audience fills the average producer with dread.

2) The whole process of is one of scale. If you've written and actually had a play performed on stage, for example, at the fringe and your play has picked up positive press reviews, and you go into the BBC asking about writing the afternoon play on Radio 4 based on your critically acclaimed play. That's not an unreasonable goal. If you've written an afternoon play for Radio 4 and you go in with an idea for writing a short series for evening listening - that's quite reasonable. If you've written an evening radio series which was recommissioned because audiences like it, and you go in to talk to a producer from the TV side of the business because you're at looking switching to TV from radio. That's not an unreasonable goal.

If you've never had anything published, produced, broadcast or even SEEN by anybody before and you send an unsolicited script to a BBC producer . . . if he likes it, you might get it commissioned.

If you're a schoolboy and a BBC producer comes to visit your school and 'likes' you, you might get a sitcom series commissioned.

If you walk into a TV production company for reasons totally unconnected with TV or writing, you might get chatting to a producer who tells you he wants material for a comedy show - and you might send him some and he might buy it.

I know people ALL these things have happened to.

Quote: Veronica Vestibule @ November 24 2010, 10:26 PM GMT

I know people ALL these things have happened to.

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A friend of mine told me that he knows a producer who takes the top half of his unsolicited scripts pile and puts them in the bin unread. His rationale is that the writers are obviously unlucky people and he does not wish to be associated with them.

I don't know if he was pulling my leg but if true then this could impact on your chances by ... 50%...before you even get started.

Although the odds of getting that particular producer is another factor and I'm not sure how you would work that out so I think in answer to your question I would guesstimate about 16 - 1. Hope this helps.

TV producers are not governed by a universal code of conduct. Some will read every unsolicited script that falls onto their desks and some, for all we know, may burn every such script.

It's a bit like us receiving junk mail in our inboxes or through our letterboxes. Some of us bin it immediately, others read everything and others read things that grab their attention and bin the rest. Producers behave similarly. They're people and they behave like people.

The one thing we can be sure of is that TV comedy producers want funny scripts from reliable writers. The chances against a new writer's success, however, are huge - simply because there are so many other writers and so few hours of comedy on TV.

As we all know, there are some very moderate talents 'succeeding' with their writing so it's clear you don't have to be 'good' in order to succeed (although it certainly helps): you just have to be 'reasonably good' and lucky.

If you're less than reasonably good, your chances are pretty much non-existent but, if you ARE reasonably good (or better), you at least have a ticket in the lottery.

And it is very very MUCH a lottery.

Good luck.

Quote: Mr Fancypants @ November 25 2010, 12:45 AM GMT

A friend of mine told me that he knows a producer who takes the top half of his unsolicited scripts pile and puts them in the bin unread. His rationale is that the writers are obviously unlucky people and he does not wish to be associated with them.

I don't know if he was pulling my leg but if true then this could impact on your chances by ... 50%...before you even get started.

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I think your friend might be having you on - that was actually a Viz Top Tip from a few years ago. "Company Managers - avoid employing unlucky people by taking the top half of a pile of CVs and putting them in the bin without reading them".

It's also a quote from The Office.

Producers don't have an unsolicited scripts pile. But as to the original question. Yes it absolutely does happen. Inspiration and perspiration.

Quote: Lee Henman @ November 25 2010, 11:00 AM GMT

a Viz Top Tip from a few years ago. "Company Managers - avoid employing unlucky people by taking the top half of a pile of CVs and putting them in the bin without reading them".

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That's one of the funniest lines ever written.

Wonderful.

Quote: Lord Meldrum @ November 18 2010, 4:03 PM GMT

I often wonder what the chances actually are of me writing a sitcom script, sending it to a production company and them actually liking it enough to give me a chance. Not necessarily to make my sitcom, but write something for someone etc etc.

I have found it increasingly hard to believe that me sitting in my bedroom writing scipts then sending it by e-mail to a production company in london will actually get me anywhere. It hasn;t yet in seven years of trying. Granted I was churning out shite for 5/6 of those seven years.

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Yes, by all means, fire off some emails but, ultimately, you need to get out there - into London!

I'm a storyboard artist by trade, and it's the way I got started. Instead of sending emails, I began knocking on doors. And using my charm.

It was a real chore and heartbreaking at times but, 2 months after my journey began, I found myself involved in (what turned out to be) a very successful ad campaign for Birds Eye Potato Waffles.

My biggest obstacle is that I won't even get close to all those other obstacles due to my own sodding inertia.

I hope it's okay to post links here because this is spot on.... and funny.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9EsgPB5tFP0&feature=related

Quote: don rushmore @ November 25 2010, 8:00 PM GMT

Yes, by all means, fire off some emails but, ultimately, you need to get out there - into London!

I'm a storyboard artist by trade, and it's the way I got started. Instead of sending emails, I began knocking on doors. And using my charm.

It was a real chore and heartbreaking at times but, 2 months after my journey began, I found myself involved in (what turned out to be) a very successful ad campaign for Birds Eye Potato Waffles.

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What does a storyboard artist do Don? When you say it is how you got started what do you do now. I mean I know generally what a storyboard artist does, but do you work on commercials or features?

Began my career in TV advertising 12 years ago. And have worked in the industry ever since: storyboarding for commercials and stings.

I've also been involved in a number of print campaigns and music promos.

Feature films, not so much.