Independent sitcom pilots

I'm in pre-production stages of making a sitcom set in Manchester. My plan of action is to release it via the internet and take it on a festival run.

Was just wondering, particularly UK, if anyone has successfully made a decent looking pilot and it ending up somewhere? Did see there was something at this year's London Comedy Writers Festival but I can't track it down.

And if anyone is curious about my pilot...

http://www.sponsume.com/project/another-mans-treasure

(Yeah I may have the same post in Chortle word for word.)

Famously, Gervais and Merchant made the original The Office mini-pilot/teaser tape almost independently. Or rather, without any kind of formal commission.

You may want to read up on Meet The Adebanjos.

Not a sitcom, but Peter Serafinowicz made some sketches himself and put them on YouTube and got a series out of it.

Though obviously he wasn't an unknown.

Did Gervais and Merchant not make a sketch at the BBC whilst Steven was on work experience?

I read about Meet The Adebanjos when it came out. But a little brush up wouldn't hurt cheers.

Well I have attracted some decent names to my pilot as a sketch so I reckon they would make a big hit on YouTube. Just surprised the internet has not been as exploited as it could, except for Red Vs Blue of course.

Quote: confusedcommunist @ August 28 2011, 8:56 PM BST

Did Gervais and Merchant not make a sketch at the BBC whilst Steven was on work experience?

View original

Merchant was on a training course at the time, and made the original teaser tape as part of his final (?) project. But the point was, as said, there was no formal commission behind it, nor any particular outside involvement - or that's how they spin it anyway.

Are you planning to release just a pilot, and how long will it be?

There are a growing number of UK Comedy webseries and connecting with them is an idea. You might want to release your pilot as a webseries (if it can be divided up easily). There are shows like Those Video Guys who review webseries if you want to get an idea about what's out there. Their show is on Ustream and YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/user/ThoseVideoGuysTV) and they broadcast live today at 8 PM (shows are archived after on their channel)

Quote: confusedcommunist @ August 28 2011, 8:56 PM BST

Did Gervais and Merchant not make a sketch at the BBC whilst Steven was on work experience?

I read about Meet The Adebanjos when it came out. But a little brush up wouldn't hurt cheers.

Well I have attracted some decent names to my pilot as a sketch so I reckon they would make a big hit on YouTube. Just surprised the internet has not been as exploited as it could, except for Red Vs Blue of course.

View original

The internet IS exploited, perhaps more in America. However it's tricky to get noticed as there's so much content being produced. Red V Blue is successful as its entertaining and caters to a specific audience. But it's only one example: there's hundreds of 'successful' and funded web series. The trick is to make something genuinely laugh out loud funny, with a good premise, and try, if you can, to target to a specific audience: gamers, football fans, horror fans, whatever. That will define your marketing strategy. And like it or not, you will need to think just as hard/ creatively about that. Have a look at the excellent http://news.tubefilter.tv/about/ for web content related stuff.

Cheers for the YouTube link and Tubefilter.

Yeah need to figure out a marketing strategy, things keep changing. It is possible to make a little web series out of the several characters, but somethings interlink so tricky. Will be 30 minutes long.