BBC Writers room Page 2

The readers only come in on one day a week. They go through the scripts and take the ones they like away to read. The rest get returned without feedback. That is the sift. Every two weeks they come in to discuss the scripts they've read.

Basically, you CAN get your script back unread and un-critiqued even if it's f**king marvelous. The reader has to be interested in it enough to take it away. I had a script fail the sift which was also read by a producer who said it was much better than the stuff the writersroom got. They didn't seem to think so.

What is most annoying is that they claim their remit is to nurture talent - one of the reasons they will read stage plays. This is obviously not the case.

Quote: Godot Taxis @ August 13 2009, 6:26 PM BST

The readers only come in on one day a week. They go through the scripts and take the ones they like away to read. The rest get returned without feedback. That is the sift. Every two weeks they come in to discuss the scripts they've read.

Basically, you CAN get your script back unread and un-critiqued even if it's f**king marvelous. The reader has to be interested in it enough to take it away. I had a script fail the sift which was also read by a producer who said it was much better than the stuff the writersroom got. They didn't seem to think so.

What is most annoying is that they claim their remit is to nurture talent - one of the reasons they will read stage plays. This is obviously not the case.

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So it's simply the 'idea' that gets your script read by the BBC Wrtiers room.

I've been told every script is guaranteed to get the first ten pages read. Is that the "sift"?

Quote: billwill @ August 13 2009, 5:53 PM BST

A six-nine month queue time, is actually silly, IMO, when the actual process time is at most a few days.

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It seems like there's a deliberate policy to delay returning reject scripts for a few weeks. They presumably fear more of the same.

I think it works something like:
100% have first 10 pages read (So they say!)
10% get read and returned with notes
1% get read and returned with notes and the writer asked to submit further stuff
0.1% get "nurtured" with workshops, etc.

(I got in the 10% with the only piece I've sent them!)

Quote: JohnnyD @ August 13 2009, 7:31 PM BST

(I got in the 10% with the only piece I've sent them!)

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I got in the 100%

Only 3% of scripts submitted to the Writers Room get read past the first ten pages. But hey, it's a free service (if you don't count the license fee).

Quote: billwill @ August 13 2009, 5:53 PM BST

Statistics-wise, that doesn't make a lot of sense. Queues either grow or shrink depending on whether you have less or more 'servers' (readers in this case) than are needed.

A six-nine month queue time, is actually silly, IMO, when the actual process time is at most a few days. They should employ more readers temporarily to get the queue length down to a few weeks.

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I was going to say that. Otherwise if they get 200 every week they're going to slip further and further behind and you'll hear in 20 years.

If they do a blitz to catch up then once they're on top of it and have enbough readers it should just take days.

But if they employ more readers the cost of that would have to come out of the money set aside for the performance bonus for the executive in charge of pushing pens.

3 months is their average turnaround, in my experience. Good luck, Joe! I'm going in for a meeting with them next week.

I have been informed (by someone who spoke to someone in quite a position of authority, and they should know) that Writers' Room get 1000 scripts a day!

I still find that hard to comprehend, and I'm still not sure I believe it myself, but I kid you not that's what I was told.

Dan

I heard it was 3,000,000,000 and thanks to political correctness they're only allowed to hire one blind, illiterate who doesn't read English.

All scripts are actually mulched and turned into expenses forms or toilet paper. Being turned into toilet paper was how 2 Pints actually got made.

Quote: Griff @ August 13 2009, 9:38 PM BST

I want to be in the 0% who get their scripts commissioned.

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Quote: sootyj @ August 14 2009, 11:00 AM BST

I heard it was 3,000,000,000 and thanks to political correctness they're only allowed to hire one blind, illiterate who doesn't read English.

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Quote: Jason Kindred @ August 14 2009, 10:54 AM BST

But some people do send stuff to the writers room and get opportunities on the back of it. I went to an RFTP workshop and there was girl their purely on the basis of something she'd sent to the Writers Room.

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RFTP?

Quote: Chappers @ August 14 2009, 11:08 AM BST

RFTP?

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Reading Forum Tea Party

I haven't sent anything to the BBC Writers room for 2 years. It was my first sitcom script attempt (and my first and only submission to them). The pilot I sent in was rejected without any comments. The exact same script was read by Ash Atalla that month and he invited me for a meeting. I say this not to show how obviously wrong the BBC Writers room were, but to illustrate that the system is not necessarily fool-proof and not to get too discouraged by rejection. (On the other hand, I certainly don't envy the BBC readers having to wade through piles of mostly bad sitcom pilots.)