Newsjack - Series 4 Page 41

Quote: Griff @ March 4 2011, 10:41 AM GMT

No. The most important thing in this writing game is being able to write something that's so good that when a producer (or agent) sees it they will bite your hand off to work with you.

It is easy to get in touch with producers. All the ways people have talked about are good - radio credits, YouTube, live performances, staged readings of scripts, theatre plays, stand-up career, whatever. Just get out there and keep doing stuff. I'm no genius writer but I've collected a fair number of industry contacts who would be prepared to read a script of mine if I sent it to them. The thing I don't have yet - in common with 99.9% of all writers - is a script that's good enough to give them.

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Fair point Griff, but I did say to take the opportunity when it arises, which implies having material good enough. You need a foot in the door but if your work's sh@te then I agree you'll just getting broken toes.

I say contacts are vital though because for too long in my non-comedy writing 'career' I naively thought the way to do it is you write a good script and send it off to as many people as possible and hope they agree you're brilliant and make you a millionaire. So I think too many people underestimate the 'developing relationships' part of writing is all ...

How come I got the Radio 2 email but not the 'spout' one?

IT'S A CONSPIRACY!!!!!

Quote: Trabs @ March 4 2011, 10:48 AM GMT

From getting a sketch and a one-liner on the last series of Newsjack, I have been contacted from BBC Spout (part of BBC Comedy Online) and asked if I wanted to submit material. I got my first commission from them last month. I also got contacted from a new pilot show soon to be made on Radio 2 and asked if I wanted to send stuff in, which I have done. Both these opportunities came about directly from submitting to Newsjack and the team their passing on my details to other producers at the BBC.

I have also used my Radio and Online credits to pimp myself around some contacts I have in TV, and am getting taken more seriously than I have been before. Could have a shout at a new online web-drama with a decent sized indie at the end of this month off the back of it.

It's all long shot stuff, and the idea of writing for a living is still very much a pipe-dream, but my experiences so far with Newsjack, is that it can lead to other opportunities.

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That's great, Trabs. Thanks for posting this, it's really encouraging to hear.

Quote: Humberfloob @ March 4 2011, 10:55 AM GMT

So I think too many people underestimate the 'developing relationships' part of writing is all ...

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It's amazing the number of people who don't seem to understand that the word 'business' makes up part of the term 'show business'.

Quote: Griff @ March 4 2011, 11:01 AM GMT

But I think nowadays especially with it being so easy to contact people online, a lot of people rush out and bombard producers with stuff before their material is up to a decent standard.

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Very true.

I co-wrote some sketches for the Treason Show last year and having them performed on stage in front of a live audience was the equivalent, for me, of doing an A-Level in 'comedy' in three minutes! It was just so eye-opening to see the difference from how I thought things worked on the page to how they worked in reality. And very interesting to discover that a stage direction got a bigger laugh than any of the dialogue. A real lesson in just how much I have to learn.

I'm going to write entirely in stage directions from now on.

Agree with what Jinky, Griff, Matt and others are saying.

When I got my first radio credit "I was over the moon Jim" and thought that it was the start of an avalanche of work; with it being only a matter of time before armies of producers and production companies were beating a path to my door to hire me and my brilliant mind.

When other credits followed I was sure that I was on my way; but then I found out that something used on the radio is very much in the present and is soon forgotten about. Anything I've ever done or achieved can't even get the NJ robot to acknowledge my existence let alone get anything picked up for the show.

However what a credit or indeed credits on open door shows do is make you some useful contacts, and so long as you don't send them reams and reams of hastily cobbled-together stuff every other day, most will do you the courtesy of reading what you do send and give you feedback; mostly it's what you'd care not to hear, but it is almost always 100% correct.

After that it's down to personal resilience. Do you want to carry on in the knowledge that mostly you'll have rejections? If you do then my advice is hang on in there, keep working hard, keep sending in stuff to where and when it's appropriate, and then one day...who knows.

Quote: Griff @ March 4 2011, 11:01 AM GMT

Agreed, no good sitting in your ivory tower. But I think nowadays especially with it being so easy to contact people online, a lot of people rush out and bombard producers with stuff before their material is up to a decent standard. Which is why things like Newsjack, Newsrevue, Sitcom Mission etc are so good - you can get your stuff in front of an audience and really see whether what you write makes people laugh or not, or if you still have some way to go.

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Yeah, good point. Been guilty of that

Quote: Jinky @ March 4 2011, 10:56 AM GMT

How come I got the Radio 2 email but not the 'spout' one?

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Same here. Let's get 'em!

And you had to listen to him specially!

You should obviously have gone for the spout thing, cos I didn't get that either!

Dan

Quote: Griff @ March 4 2011, 11:13 AM GMT

F**k's sake, how many people got this Radio Two email?

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Well that's "Yes! I always knew I was special" shattered for several people today.

Quote: Griff @ March 4 2011, 11:13 AM GMT

F**k's sake, how many people got this Radio Two email?

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What? Another email I haven't got?

The funniest thing ever would be if your Junk email folder was just full of stuff from the BBC, including one saying 'Please reply to confirm your series commission by 11:26 on 04/03/2011'

Dan

Quote: swerytd @ March 4 2011, 11:25 AM GMT

The funniest thing ever would be if your Junk email folder was just full of stuff from the BBC, including one saying 'Please reply to confirm your series commission by 11:26 on 04/03/2011'

Dan

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Just checked and...it isn't

Another sketch falls flat on its arse...

Dan

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