Quote: Seefacts @ January 7, 2008, 5:37 PMAll very amusing - but it's really not the reason people on here aren't getting anywhere.
No, I'm sure it's not. Funny though.
Scripts versus performance Page 4
Seefacts, at the time I met the beeb script editor I hadn't sent the beeb anything. As a virtual new writer ten years ago, I only ever sent out the sitcom 'Too Much of Nothin' and that went to Ch4 and ITV only!! I was too busy acting to be concerned with writing.
I am not griping about my own work, I'm saying it as it is.
You've just said a lot of people don't like the Royle family and I would say that it's because it's Lancs humour and not universal. It didn't work in Australia.
I've not seen a sample of your work, is there any on here or are you just the resident critic of other posters?
Yeah, there must be millions of Asian comedians/writers/actors in the UK eh, and I'm sure particularly the women would go a bundle on a sitcom situated in a massage parlour.....just their thing for their women is it?
Quote: bushbaby @ January 7, 2008, 5:59 PMSeefacts, at the time I met the beeb script editor I hadn't sent the beeb anything. As a virtual new writer ten years ago, I only ever sent out the sitcom 'Too Much of Nothin' and that went to Ch4 and ITV only!! I was too busy acting to be concerned with writing.
I am not griping about my own work, I'm saying it as it is.
You've just said a lot of people don't like the Royle family and I would say that it's because it's Lancs humour and not universal. It didn't work in Australia.
I've not seen a sample of your work, is there any on here or are you just the resident critic of other posters?
It's not a humour thing, it's an overall style. It didn't work in Oz - that's country to country, which as I said CAN be a problem in terms of translating comedy.
I've not posted any of my work and don't intend to, I myself don't think it's helpful.
I'm merely voicing my opinions on a topic - the problem is in this forum it can get a bit too cliquey and if someone dares to challenge that, people don't like it. I thought you were too busy suggesting that if people didn't like your work it's because 'they didn't get it' when I don't think that's the case.
I can't imagine that a Vietnamese who is in an editors position selecting scripts and couldn't speak English eight years previously would understand a sitcom set in a massage parlour. The Asian surely wouldn't get it either, so do these companies have no intention of accepting work so it doesn't matter who the hell reads 'em?
Quote: bushbaby @ January 7, 2008, 6:10 PMI can't imagine that a Vietnamese who is in an editors position selecting scripts and couldn't speak English eight years previously would understand a sitcom set in a massage parlour. The Asian surely wouldn't get it either, so do these companies have no intention of accepting work so it doesn't matter who the hell reads 'em?
It's mostly Vietnamese people who WORK in those parlous, isn't it? (SATIRE!!!)
I believe the BBC will never accept work via the writer's room.
Quote: Seefacts @ January 7, 2008, 6:25 PMI believe the BBC will never accept work via the writer's room.
Why?
You reckon it's just a sop to keep amateurs at bay?
I have a BBC guide book, unfortunately I've mislaid it at present. It was issued along with their comp of writing the last ten pages of a sitcom (the beginnings were in the book) It said in the book that they wanted six laughs a page but not jokes, it had to come from character.
I'll have a search for it when I get around to it and quote verbatim on here.
Quote: James Williams @ January 7, 2008, 6:30 PMWhy?
You reckon it's just a sop to keep amateurs at bay?
I think it's virtually accepted as fact that the Writer's rooms is a waste of time.
You can get through to Beeb producers without it.
Quote: Seefacts @ January 7, 2008, 6:33 PMI think it's virtually accepted as fact that the Writer's rooms is a waste of time.
You can get through to Beeb producers without it.
How?
I want names, addresses, 'phone numbers, and blackmail material.
you just watch who's produced the programme you like and then write to him/her at the Beeb etc
And what's all this 'six gags a page'? Fortunately, using the smallest font available, I've managed to cram the whole episode of my sitcom onto one page to meet this criterion...
I'm guessing it doesn't apply if you're using double spacing and wide margins?! (As I am.) A typical page of my sitcom contains about 140 words of dialogue; one gag every 23/24 words seems a bloody tall order to me.
Quote: bushbaby @ January 7, 2008, 6:31 PMI have a BBC guide book, unfortunately I've mislaid it at present. It was issued along with their comp of writing the last ten pages of a sitcom (the beginnings were in the book) It said in the book that they wanted six laughs a page but not jokes, it had to come from character.
I'll have a search for it when I get around to it and quote verbatim on here.
That would be good if you could find it.
But like you and I have discussed on another thread, things they will read in a script may not come across as you intend...something you know is very, very funny may not work the way they picture it - so your 6 jokes may appear as 2 in their eyes.
I always put 12 rip roaring gags on every page and any Producer worth his/her/it's salt would give their right arm for my stuff!
As well as that I'm offering them 'any hole' sex..
*waits for phone to ring*
*still waiting* 
Exactly charisma, cue Vietnamese
at Frankie's comments.
SeeFacts is dead right about the Writers' Doom (sorry ... Room). But there are ways around the fortress walls: agents, production companies, direct contacts via contacts, self-produced DVDs or vids on user-generated sites, live shows, competitions etc. All these are valid routes to get inside.
The key is multi-thread strategies. Use every possible route, spurn no opportunity, be totally relentless, and research where the opportunities are.
Totally agree with Bushbaby that the problem comes in finding a producer with the same sense of humour as yourselves, however agree with SeeFacts re: gags are less subtle and therefore more likely to be recognised and flagged by a script-reader as a (potential) laugh on the page. Take a lame off-the-top-of-my-head example of "Gervais stares comically at the camera." In cinematic terms, Gervais will invoke the laugh that isn't there on paper but it wouldn't get flagged by a reader as a joke.
Your task should you decide to accept it is to get 3-6 moments of recognisable laughs on each page ... This post will now self-destruct in five seconds.