Congrats to everyone for their participation in this heinous process and their tolerance of the results. Galling as it might be, I'm hoping everyone's benefitted from it and will want to do it again.
Can't wait to see the new show, and to see how things progress with the Bristol Sitcom Trials group. And can I say again how high I thought the standard of this round's writing has been. I hope we can keep all these writers and their work on board as part of the Trials.
Kev F
One point! One point. Damn you WhiteCoats, may your white coats be stained with
something unsightly for beating my script by one point.
Congratulations to the five deserving winners, but in a way, aren't we all
winners? The answer of course, is 'No,' just the top five.
Thanks to everyone who had kind words to say about 'Cooper' and 'The Offy.'
Balls to everyone who didn't.
In seriousness. Well done to organisers. I think that for beginners like me,
this sort of compo is invaluable. I've found the consensus critiquing to be
really useful. Sometimes, you get positive/negative criticism from one person,
you're never sure if it's just one odd opinion. When you've got that same
opinion re-enforced over and over again, you can be pretty sure that it's on the
money.
So thanks to everyone who commented on everything. It's going to make us better
writers in the long run.
I've really enjoyed this process, and will return for the next one and bring a
plot with me.
Oh, and to whoever it was who said that swearing isn't particularly clever?
Course it f*cking is.
love
Neil
Congrats to the other finalists and a big thanks to all the reviewers, however they voted. I stand in awe of those who succeeded in reviewing all of the scripts.
One thing occurs to me that we used to do with The Sitcom Trials online script selection, which I didn't remember to suggest this time, is we would use the online vote to draw up a shortlist of 10 or so scripts, and then we'd have a round table script reading from which to choose the scripts for the actual performance.
This gave more pieces a chance of a hearing and also demonstrated very often the difference between a script that reads well on paper and one that plays well. In future I'd recommend giving more scripts a round table reading if possible, for those reasons.
I'm looking forward to getting back to the Bristol group to be part of things, it all sounds more exciting than it has for years. I'm hoping to hear news of the Manchester team's plans soon. And would you believe, here in Adelaide, I've spoken to one or two people about plans to revive The Sitcom Trials in London. As ever, you'll hear the news here first.
Kev F
http://sitcomtrials.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/sitcom-trials-bristol-march-30th.html
The next Sitcom Trials takes place in Bristol on Friday March 30th at The Wardrobe Theatre, Above The White Bear, 133 St Michael's Hill, Bristol BS2 8BS from 8pm, tickets are only £3.
The five sitcoms in competition are:
"Whitecoats" by Katie Boyles
"Shock Treatment" by Richard Dowling
"Games Night" by Ed Campbell
"The Tragic Life of Roger Bulwark" by Luke Cedar
"Making Heavy Weather" by Eddie Robson & Julie Bower
Reserve tickets by emailing: tickets@thewardrobetheatre.com and turn up 25mins before the show to pay for your tickets. Or... risk it, turn up and get your tickets on the door.
Anyone who would like to spread the word to their friends are free to use the flyer artwork (below) to print out or post online. And of course this is only the start for The Sitcom Trials Bristol team, led by Vince Stadon, who already have plans for their subsequent productions. If you'd like to get involved as a writer, actor, comedian or supporter, join the Facebook group, and keep up to date on the SitsVac egroup and/or the British Comedy Guide Forum. All important updates can be found on the Sitcom Trials website, sitcomtrials.co.uk
Have we found the new Red Dwarf? The new Green Wing? The new White Van Man? Only you can decide.
And we have a date for the next Manchester Sitcom Trials - Friday July 20th. It will be at The Lass O'Gowrie and will be part of the Manchester Comedy Festival. Further details about script selection etc will follow shortly. For now, stick that in your diary.
How are the Bristol Trials coming along? Tomorrow's the big night, right?
Have a great show tonight everyone, and well done Vince for his first Trials as producer.
Yes, well done Vince. Best of luck to all contestants - have a great show!
Any vids or recordings don't forget to post them.
And the winner is....
Congratulations to Vince and the cast for an absolutely excellent Sitcom Trials in Bristol tonight. I hesitate to say it but it's the funniest Sitcom Trials I can remember in a long time. The scripts were good, the cast were excellent, and the audience responded beautifully, and it was a joy to present. When the video is edited and up you'll get a feeling of the fun that was there to be had, hopefully.
In the meantime, here are the results. The running order was:
Shock Treatment by Richard Dowling
The Tragic Life of Roger Bulwark by Luke Cedar
White Coats by Katie Boyles
Games Night by Ed Campbell
Making Heavy Weather by Eddie Robson and Julie Bower
And the winner was:
The Tragic Life of Roger Bulwark by Luke Cedar
Congratulations Luke, and all of the cast, and of course Vince for producing a fab show. The next Bristol Sitcom Trials is officially taking place in "June-ish" - Vince will announce the date when he knows it - and before that we have the Eurovision Sitcom Contest in London to look forward to. Stay tuned here for details.
Kev F Sutherland
Host
The Sitcom Trials
Good luck to all involved! Have fun!
Dan
Well done, Luke! And congrats and commiserations to the other fellow finalists. Can't wait to see the video! Big thanks to Vince, Kev and the cast for all their hard work.
Thank you, Hollywood, and good night!
Quote: swerytd @ March 30 2012, 11:39 PM BSTGood luck to all involved! Have fun!
Dan
Er, Dan, do you fancy a bet on who is going to win? 100 quid on Luke Cedar is my choice.
And here's how it all went...
Excellent. What a cracking cast! They really got their teeth into the scripts and weren't just reading aloud. You can hear the audience reaction and it sounds like a really great night was had by all.
We want full versions of the sitcoms dammit!!!!
Last night I had the pleasure of being in the audience of the Bristol Sitcom Trials. A project that takes script submissions and whittles down the five best to be performed live on stage. The scripts had to be 10 minutes long with a cliff hanger and a five minute resolution. We saw the ten minute scenes and then voted on which sitcom got to show its final scene.
It was a really fun evening and not just a great opportunity for people to amuse me but for writers to get peer feedback on their work. There are so many writing competitions out there offering fantastic development deals or fabulous cash prizes but very rarely do they bother to give feedback on why your script didn't make it. Unfortunately I only found out about the competition the day before it closed when I was two thirds of the way into writing my pilot script.
So the five sitcoms -
"Shock Treatment" by Richard Dowling
Dr S. Lime is a Bond quoting therapist who takes on an apprentice who questions his working practices. It's always hard to be the first out the gate and the cast did a good job some great moments like the doctor flicking fag ash on a patient wanting to give up smoking.
"The Tragic Life of Roger Bulwark" by Luke Cedar
This started out terribly clichéd with the titular Roger wanting to ask a girl out but manage to rise above it when he suspects the girl may be behind a robbery being investigated. Oh and he has an imaginary friend.
"Whitecoats" by Katie Boyles
Two pharmacy workers bicker about how much pride to take in their work. Probably the most 'SitCom' of the lot with it being very character and dialogue focused.
"Games Night" by Ed Campbell
A women gets very competitive when her brother comes over to play monopoly and her husband realises he knows the brothers date. I couldn't help feeling it was a set up I'd seen before with competitive siblings and would have liked to have seen more time given to the secondary characters.
"Making Heavy Weather" by Eddie Robson & Julie Bower
A scientist and a repair woman are assigned to a space station that controls earths weather have to deal with a religious fanatic who thinks it should be left to God alone. I have to say this was my personal favourite by a country mile. The two women in the leads had instantly defined characters the snooty scientist with delusions of grandeur and the IT girl who has to put up with her constant bitching. The grounded characters allowed the over the top story and setting to really work.