No brushing myself down, and onwards and upwards! I will be checking out all
writing opportunities!
THE SITCOM TRIALS - October 21st 2011 Manchester Page 24
who is the girl with the black hair in the video? I am sure I have seen her before?
Quote: WeeMan @ October 26 2011, 2:08 PM BSTwho is the girl with the black hair in the video? I am sure I have seen her before?
If you mean the actress with the darker hair of the two (though hardly black) that's Michelle Ashton who was in the previous Manchester Trials too. If you mean the woman with dark hair who sits down in the audience, that's Sarah a friend of Debbie the winner, a fellow writer who's written an episode of Shameless I believe.
Kev F
How many of the other writers went to the performance?
Quote: cedardude @ October 26 2011, 5:01 PM BSTHow many of the other writers went to the performance?
I didn't go. Nor did any of my friends. I always rely on the kindness of strangers.
Quote: evan rubivellian @ October 26 2011, 6:11 PM BSTI didn't go. Nor did any of my friends. I always rely on the kindness of strangers.
First rule of writing sitcoms: Never rely on the kindness of strangers...
If Debbie and friend or friends were in the audience and voted for her script and still only won by a single vote that would explain why Kev felt he had to discuss the winner with others before announcing the official winner. I genuinely hope that this was not the case as even though the winning script was good I do feel if the voting did happen like that it does devalue the overall competition.
I think the final was always going to be a case of getting as many of your mates there as possible to vote for your script...
cedardude: Did you have friends in the audience? Yours was the second place script, right?
Quote: evan rubivellian @ October 26 2011, 10:42 PM BSTcedardude: Did you have friends in the audience? Yours was the second place script, right?
Yeah I did come second and no I didn't go nor did any of my friends. Although I'm waiting for Kev to confirm if Debbie and friends voted for the winning script, I accept the decision stands but I would like to know.
Quote: cedardude @ October 27 2011, 12:16 AM BSTI'm waiting for Kev to confirm if Debbie and friends voted for the winning script,
He had no way of knowing. The vote slips were handed forward from the audience, to Kev, who gave them immediately to the cast of performers on the stage. It was they who counted the votes. Further, when I arrived in the room and introduced myself to him, he said writers should not vote for their own scripts.
It would be unfair if Kev ended up 'piggy in the middle' here, he was off his feet compere-ing and video-ing the show all night.
Quote: cedardude @ October 27 2011, 12:16 AM BSTYeah I did come second and no I didn't go nor did any of my friends. Although I'm waiting for Kev to confirm if Debbie and friends voted for the winning script, I accept the decision stands but I would like to know.
Of course they did. That is the whole idea of the voting business to get people to bring their mates along and buy tickets to fill the place up and earn some cash. It's always been the case. I have never liked this voting system but it is certainly not something new. Even the Sitcom Mission did it last time too when they found they weren't selling enough tickets apparently. A new twist was to have a debate afterwards and throw the democratic process out entirely - which was interesting.
Quote: Marc P @ October 27 2011, 8:51 AM BSTOf course they did. That is the whole idea of the voting business to get people to bring their mates along and buy tickets to fill the place up and earn some cash. It's always been the case. I have never liked this voting system but it is certainly not something new. Even the Sitcom Mission did it last time too when they found they weren't selling enough tickets apparently. A new twist was to have a debate afterwards and throw the democratic process out entirely - which was interesting.
To put this old problem to rest, The Sitcom Trials works beautifully when there is a large audience, but runs into this problem when there is a small audience as there was on Saturday. There were only 13 audience members and three of the sitcoms had at least one representative there, and there were only two votes separating the 1st, 2nd and 3rd places which made voting far too tight to rely on alone. This is why, having used the audience vote to determine the ending of the show, I then consulted the team to make a final adjudication and they decided the script that won the audience vote was a worthy winner on the night.
As for who voted for whom I don't know because the votes were handed in unseen and counted by the cast while I was reading out the Pitch Fest entries, but I would expect a writer's friends to have voted for that script.
This problem first became a cause for concern when Declan & Simon began running the Sitcom Trials in 2007 and organised it as a tournament with an ultimate prize. They were finding that the less well-attended heats could have their results swayed by a writer bringing a number of friends, so they introduced a Judging Panel to prevent this being an issue. My Sitcom Trials (99-06) had had no prize, so every night's winner was simply a fun hook of the show. When, in 09, my Trials (produced by James Parker) ran as a tournament, we had a judging panel to choose the ultimate winners and used the audience vote to provide the ending of the show. As I've said before, if no prize had been offered for this Manchester show, the vote would have just been a bit of fun and all finalists - indeed all entrants - could have felt to be equal participants in an evening's entertainment.
From now on, I think, if there is to be a prize in The Sitcom Trials, and there is a danger of a small audience (remember this format was dreamt up as a format for television which just happens to work well in a comedy club or theatre too) then we should have a panel of judges and make that clear from the start. As it is, this time we had a panel of judges, but only after the fact.
As for the allegation that The Sitcom Mission started audience voting so they could sell more tickets, that is arse-about-face bollocks and you can expect a reply on that subject from Declan and Simon!
Kev F
Quote: Kev F @ October 27 2011, 9:37 AM BSTTo put this old problem to rest...
<HarryHill>Mmm. (sniff) Good luck with that.</HarryHill>
Quote: evertsen @ October 27 2011, 7:27 AM BST...when I arrived in the room and introduced myself to him, he said writers should not vote for their own scripts.
To further complicate matters, when evertsen arrived - and it was a pleasure to meet him - I did suggest that I might "publicly" ask the writers not to vote for their own scripts. I then didn't do this (I quite simply forgot) which by the sound of it led evertsen to vote for someone else's script. Of course the other writers might also have done this. I don't propose to ask them by the way, and a secret ballot should remain that way, even if it's "just a bit of fun" as I wish it had been.
We have a winner, chosen both by an audience vote too small to be reliable and a panel vote which stands.