<cough!> https://www.comedy.co.uk/forums/thread/17922/
Dan
Sitcom (Com)Mission Page 84
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Quote: bushbaby @ July 22 2010, 9:08 PM BSTacting is reacting, it's the reactions of actors to a comedy line that get the most laughs and not the line
There is a mighty deal of truth in this observation. 
Here's our latest blog, on the power of rewriting:
https://www.comedy.co.uk/sitcom_mission/blog/
And we've still got a couple of places left on our What's Wrong With My Script? workshop this Saturday July 31st in London.
https://www.comedy.co.uk/sitcom_mission/workshops/1/
Cheers, Declan and Simon
Two items from that latest blog caught my eye.
1 - "We've got script editors on board and are going to spend four months developing the work - re-write, re-write, re-write"
This sounds like a jolly spiffy idea to me. Four months seems like a lot of time for re-writes and even more re-writes but I guess it helps to hone and polish the script.
2 - "We're now happy to see episode one as your initial entry, because if you're chosen for our long list we'll be asking for another two episodes to choose from and develop."
Three episodes in total? I'd best get writing. If only I didn't have that pesky real-life 'job' getting in the way of my manic scribblings!
well, I must have rewritten/redrafted mine about 70 times at least and I can't think of any other alterations but I guess someone along the way can see some improvements!
It all sounds a great idea to me too
How could I write something about the need for several drafts and forget to include Hemingway's famous dictum: 'the first draft of everything is shit.'?
Answer? I didn't rewrite it enough.
Doh!
If you rewrite something too much you risk losing the essence of what made it funny in the first place. I think Stephen King likens it to whittling. And if you whittle too much you're left with a pile of woodshavings.
Chipolata's sitcom: First Time Perfection hits DVD bins next Monday.
Dan
Quote: swerytd @ July 26 2010, 4:19 PM BSTChipolata's sitcom: First Time Perfection hits DVD bins next Monday. Dan
I didn't say don't rewrite, just don't get silly. Don't rewrite it 800,000 times. That's daft.
I'm pretty sure First Time: Perfection is already in his DVD collection.
On the matter of Sitcom Trials/Mission rewrites: of the three sitcoms I've had in, one director was happy to allow me to do rewrites between performances; one director was only prepared to include the specific rewrites that he requested; and one director never spoke to me at all throughout the whole process.
So the issue of "why don't writers rewrite between heats" raised in the blog is not always the writer's fault.
Quote: Griff @ July 26 2010, 4:24 PM BSTI'm pretty sure First Time: Perfection is already in his DVD collection.
I suppose I should be greatful you haven't posted a picture of you face to cruelly goad me with!
Quote: chipolata @ July 26 2010, 4:29 PM BSTI suppose I should be greatful you haven't posted a picture of you face to cruelly goad me with!
*grateful
As for the new system, good luck to Simon and Declan and everyone involved, but ah'm oot. The overhead of writing three episodes, and then extensive rewrites, weighed against the odds of getting to the Grand Final vs getting knocked out in an early heat resulting in no personal benefit at all, doesn't seem a viable proposition given it would probably consume all of my writing time for half a year. I reckon this is one for the full-time writers among us.
Also I'd be interested to hear more about these script editors. Who are they? Would they want a co-writing credit if the sitcom got picked up? And is there a danger of finding yourself presenting a script in the finals that has been completely rewritten to someone else's vision?
By the way, did anybody get commissioned or optioned or taken to dinner as a result of the last Sitcom Mission? Or is From Riga To Rotherham still the main success story to date?
Quote: Griff @ July 26 2010, 4:31 PM BST*grateful
Ironically, in the first draft of my post I spelled it correctly. Then I rewrote and changed the spelling. As so often in writing, go with your first instincts.
Sorry Griff had a bad experience with two of his directors.
Next time we'll keep a closer eye on our directors and writers and make sure that we pair those who can work together. Essentially the blog was saying 'given the chance to make your script better, why not take it?' That applies to directors as much as writers. If a director's any good then s/he should be able to spot sections that need tightening, so a writer who wants to make changes should be pushing at an open door.
There's not much point us getting high-powered, influential judges in if we're not showing them material that is as good as it possibly can be.
The point about putting a script through lots of drafts came not from me, but a very successful comedy producer. Someone who was puzzled and frankly disappointed to be watching exactly the same script twice.
Hi Simon
If you could explain the timetable - and I know I'm probably asking you something you haven't figured out yet - it might become clearer to me.
Because my worry is that by the time you've written the original script (two months to dream up and execute something decent?), then written two follow up episodes (another month minimum), had something picked, and then gone through four further months of rewrites, you've committed a big chunk of time to the Sitcom Mission, and at that pace, not had time to work on anything else.
And then if you get knocked out on heat one, with nothing to show for it, you're left with three fifteen minute episodes on your hands, which then still need a couple of months more work to turn into 30-minute scripts you could actually send out. (And having done it a few times, it's not that easy to 'scale up' a 15-minute 'taster' script to a full-length episode, as the initial story wasn't devised with a full-length plot in mind.)
There's some writers on here who could have published a trilogy in that time.
As it's far from clear that success in the Sitcom Mission is any real career boost once the excitement of the final is passed (although you guys are certainly more serious about trying to promote writers than Kev's Trials), the effort/risk/reward no longer stacks up for me.
If it was just 'develop one fifteen-minute episode and then if you get picked, rewrite for a couple of months with script eds before staging', it would probably be worth a punt, you'd still end up with a good script on show, and it'd be worth doing just for the fun of it.
Others will of course disagree. That's just the way it looks to me. Clearly I don't want "it" bad enough!