Crowdsourced sitcom

Hi - I'm new to the forum so please excuse me if you've heard this one before. I'm working on a couple of scripts that the BBC have shown an interest in, (which I know usually means it will probably never happen but you gotta dream)

I was thinking of turning this very small opportunity into an interesting experiment by trying to create a crowdsourced sitcom.

The rules of engagement are up for discussion but I was thinking that the crowd would decide which way the plot should thicken, and how the characters might develop, before getting into the nitty gritty of writing the funny. We'd vote for our favourite lines/ scenes etc

Not sure what the incentive for this might be, apart from it being fun. If it was comissionined of course there's cash and credits

Does anyone have any advice...

Welcome to the forums Gary M!

It's a lovely idea; the main complication that occurs to me would be how many people would it be plausible to have on board, to actually get it done; if you wanted to write it on forum then it would be unfair to stop people contributing as you go along, but if people aren't committed, either through enthusiasm or time or computer constraints, then I'm not sure how you'd go about feeling like you'd got a deciding or effective vote.

I agree I don't think it would work in a forum space. I was thinking about creating a separate blog which those who were interested in having "a go" could join. I could then put in some simple voting apparatus mechanism to make it easier and quicker to make group decisions

When is your deadline to submit? How much time/how often would people need to contribute?

No real deadline. They like two ideas and want me to go away and write them. I'm working with a bunch of people who basically want me to try and approach things in a different way, so this just seemed like a good excuse to see if this kind of thing was possible. I know in the UK sitcom writing is traditionally seen as a solitary art, but recently I've done a few crowdsourcing projects (mainly in design) and the results have been good.

A friend of mine did this with a film. He did the structure and then invited submissions for particular scenes within that structure, he kept on top of things as director/producer but got a tonne of script input. It was a really fun thing to work on as well.

Also, because of the nature of the project, he got funding for it.

Nice idea. Fair play to you.

Never mind a crowdsourced sitcom - why don't we just chip-in a few quid each, hire an office-load of cheap young semi-literate kids in Mumbai, send them box sets of OFAH, Fawlty Towers and Peep Show - and tell them to write something vaguely similar? Hey presto - we've got our very own outsourced sitcom! Then it's just a matter of sitting back and watching the money and the Baftas roll in.

(Was going to try a variant of the above using an alternative pay-off "locally-sourced sitcom"... something to do with free range chickens pecking at keyboards, etc, I don't know... but couldn't be f**ked... just as well really...)

Hello Gary M.
If the Beeb have expressed an interest in them enough to say "Go and write them," why don't you just write them yourself?

And I assume "expressed an interest" means you bagged yourself a meeting with them.

So here's the full story. A couple of years ago I was commisioned by the BBC to write a pilot script for an idea of my mine. I did that and it was liked. Then the commisioner left. The new commisioner liked the "area" I was in, but wanted a full re-write. This sounds like a quick process, but it wasn't

I'm a TV exec not a fulltime writer so I just never got around to doing the re-write. Luckily I'm now working with a company who want me to try out some different ways of doing stuff. Creative crowdsourcing is an area that I think is really interesting, so I figured, why not try something out and see what happens?

I know it's not everybodies cup of tea, but if I can find enough curious people willing to give it a go, I have the resources to be able to make it happen

Read more: Crowdsourced Sitcom | Writers and Readers | Cracked.com Forums http://www.cracked.com/forums/index.php?topic=99185.new#new#ixzz1g2g46zVc

It does indeed sound interesting; how much time or how often or how much would you expect people to contribute?

I think it is all up for grabs. Depending upon how into it you want to get. So you could occasionally "chip in" or be a regular "chipper". I'd like to give it a deadline though... what do you think would be a good time frame... 2/3 months?

Gary

Really interesting idea.

Thought I'd share my experiences of (a little while ago now) writing for the Aberdeen Student Show.

For those of you who haven't heard of the Aberdeen Student Show (ie everyone not from Aberdeen, and didn't go to Uni there) it is a quite a big deal up there, it sells out the main theatre (I know, I know, not much else on...) and it is written and performed in the local dialect (Doric) which I learned on the job. As you might expect it's performed by students and written by students as well as quite a few ex-students who keep coming back each year.

Now for the relevant bit: how it's written.

There is an editor in overall charge (eg you Gary). The writing team then spends a couple of months thrashing out the plot based on an idea from the editor.

Once that's nailed down into a series of scenes, each week each writer produces his/her (usually his to be honest, we're talking about comedy writers) version of the scene. Then we'd get together and read them all out, see what got laughs and what didn't (although that's dangerous in a room of comedy writers) and then the editor would take them all away and bash them into one, which would get a read through the week after.

Perhaps that kind of idea (but online on a closed blog) might work for you?

The only difficulty is the allocation of any future credits/profits if you use this method, you might need to track how much of each person's contibution you use. We didn't have this problem at the student show as it was all done for the love of it.

It sounds an interesting idea in principal but what if it gets commissioned? Who gets paid and how? I'm guessing it'd have to be a final count of how many minutes each writer contributed but I could see that getting messy.

And what system would you use to plan the story? You'd need to have a story in place first before the writers started work on it. So you (or another writer) comes up with a plot outline and then everyone else follows this by writing scenes around it. But then you're going to have maybe 10 writers or whatever all writing for the same scene and all coming up with different dialogue / ideas, so the decision would have to be made who'd written the best one. Or maybe there'd be three people who'd written great lines and you want to cherry pick from all of them.

Sounds a nightmare to me. Admittedly quite a fun nightmare though!

Since you're a TV exec, Gary, have you consulted your company lawyer and rights people? I think that would be a sensible first step.

Yeah, I'll have a go. Sounds like a laugh.

Dan