CBBC: New Stories for the Next Generation

Don't know if anyone's interested in this one, but still...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/opportunity/cbbc_writing_competition.shtml http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/opportunity/cbbc_faq.shtml

Do you have stories to tell that we've never seen before?

Can you create characters the audience will fall in love with?

We want to find the next generation of CBBC writers with fresh perspectives, original voices, and the ability to create unforgettable characters.

This opportunity is open to any writer who wants to write Children's drama. We are looking for 30-minute original TV scripts of unmissable and infectious storytelling, offering fresh cultural perspectives, tales combining authenticity with hope and joy, stories from a child's point of view, characters that will engage and surprise the audience, scripts that are powerful, emotional, and contemporary, shows that will work for the CBBC audience and channel but can dare to take risks.

They might be action-adventures, comedy-dramas, modern takes on age-old morality, tales shot through with fantasy, magic and wonder, real stories with substance and edge, animated ideas or a combination of animation and live-action - but they must be new stories that will get under the skin of a new generation, the kind of stories they will still talk about in years to come.

Process

A shortlist of 15-20 writers will be invited to a masterclass in July 2009. The final 8-10 shortlisted writers will then be selected and spend an intensive residential week developing their work, improving their craft and pitching to CBBC in September/October 2009. The final shortlist will receive CBBC mentoring from the development team and a £300 bursary.

Deadline: 5pm, Wednesday 1 July 2009

Shortlist notified: Friday 10 July 2009
Masterclass: Tuesday 28 July 2009
Final selection: Writers notified Friday 4 September 2009
Residential: 28 September - 2 October 2009

Selection

The selection panel will include Anne Gilchrist (Controller, CBBC), Steven Andrew (Head of CBBC Drama, Acquisitions, and Animation), Kate Rowland (BBC Creative Director, New Writing),

To Enter

Make sure you read the Rules of Entry below. To enter, you must complete an online application form. Once you have completed the form and it has been emailed back to you, print out a copy of the email and make sure you include it with your script when sending it to:

CBBC New Writers
BBC writersroom
Grafton House
379-381 Euston Road
London NW1 3AU

Thanks for posting this up.

Might be worth going for.
I've had an idea for a children's drama rattling loose somewhere in the back of my head for a while now. (or it could be a screw)

Thanks for posting. Might have a go at that.

I've already started mine.

The idea rattling around is now beginning to blossom on paper... well, a computer screen, at least.

And it's finished!

Pilot episode written/polished.
£100 bribe included in the envelope.

Will be sending it off today.

Quote: Mikey Jackson @ May 22 2009, 1:06 PM BST

Pilot episode written/polished.
Will be sending it off today.

View original

You started, finished and polished a new script in the space of two days? Sorry, but that seems a bit too fast and hasty to me for it to be as good a finished product as you can make it. Doesn't it day the deadline is July? Why rush it? Sit it in a drawer for a few weeks then polish again!

Just sent my one in about two amazing 10 year-old violinists. Its called the Kiddie Fiddlers.

Quote: Mikey Jackson @ May 22 2009, 1:06 PM BST

And it's finished!

Pilot episode written/polished.
£100 bribe included in the envelope.

Will be sending it off today.

View original

Wow. You finished that fast.

I've got what I think is a really cool idea for a kids show that would fit nicely on CBBC. Still in the process of planning it though and getting all the details just right, before I even begin the actual script!

Finish my exams next week so will spend most of June getting this as perfect as I can.

I'd put your script away for a few days Mikey and then go back to it and see if it still seems as good. There is no rush to send it out, the earlier you send doesn't mean the more likely it is to be accepted. I sent my script in for Northern Laughs like a day before the deadline and I made it through to the next stage. So you can be as last minute as possible, better to make sure what you are sending out is quality stuff.

Then again maybe you're a fast writer and I'm just a slow bastard.

ok ok I'll wait

If anyone is stuck for ideas or is still searching for 'something different' I suggest including disability. If anyone has seen Desperados, about a wheelchair basketball team, the writer and producer of that programme say they don't get enough quality scripts on this theme.

I'd love to write something about a young person with Tourettes, but I can't think of a way around the swearing. Bleeps maybe? 'Soft' swearing?

Quote: Dolly Dagger @ May 22 2009, 7:22 PM BST

I'd love to write something about a young person with Tourettes, but I can't think of a way around the swearing. Bleeps maybe? 'Soft' swearing?

View original

That sounds very interesting and challenging!
I think bleeps might be too much and be a bit annoying. Depends how much that character featured and how the T manifests. Not all sufferers swear and some just swear a little. Also, sometimes, when they are young, the swear words are just rude words that they know. Some make strange noises and twitch and barely swear at all. It manifests in all sorts of ways so some research might come up with a character you could write about without offending or having watershed problems.
You might know that already but just thinking it through and thought it might help.

Yeah, I like the idea of a character that's extremely impulsive and just says anything that comes into their head, and can't keep quiet during assembly, church, etc. My brother was a bit like that and just got into trouble all the time.

Yes, it covers the whole physical tic thing, I think. I like the idea though Dolly. You could keep it to the 'knickers' variety? Mind you, if it caught on, there's the possibility of it spawning a nationwide Cartman-like reaction during assemblies... 'I've got Tourettes, Miss...' Maybe not.

Finished and Sending today mwhaha!