Newsjack - Series 8 Page 5

I agree to an extent but I have no access to a video camera and live on £67 per week at present as I lost my job through ill health.

Out of my meager allowance I am obliged to have a TV licence and if I don't I have to stop watching TV or pay a fine that is imposed by Bailiffs who can enter my home and take goods to pay it.

Yet the Writers Room won't even accept emails, it demands everything to be printed and posted to its headquarters regardless of cost.

It is also operating a screening process to establish who is who? before what is what? 10,000 scripts a year go in and nothing comes out.

Despite all these writers posting in all these ideas the next thing I see is Jenifer Saunders and Timothy Spall on telly murdering a book from the 1920's.

I don't want preferential treatment I just want a level playing field, we all put in stuff to the BBC Writersroom that with guidance could be better without losing its original essence or direction as most on here could producer fresh and funny capers set in realistic backdrops.

Sadly we are given titbits that still face the scrutiny of those we are trying to supersede due to their lack of originality or relevance.
Take Clare in the Community it is a f**king disgrace designed to pander to people in Hampstead as they feed the chickens and dress for dinner!

Quote: Teddy Paddalack @ February 7 2013, 10:46 AM GMT

Out of my meager allowance I am obliged to have a TV licence

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There are several websites dedicated to informing people how not to pay this fee

Yet the Writers Room won't even accept emails, it demands everything to be printed and posted to its headquarters regardless of cost.

Yes, it's not so much that the poor are deliberately frozen out, just that those in authority don't really consider their needs.

Having said that, aren't the BBC still using Windows95? They seem to hate .docx

The websites you refer to about avoiding payments fail to take into account the actions of ex squaddie bailiffs with a penchant for violence.
I don't want someone trying to get into my house who suddenly starts suffering from flashbacks just because I have a towel on my head because I've washed my hair.
Have you ever tried fighting three men in black clothing who are doing Army Rolls around the living room because they think they're back in downtown Baghdad?

The sad thing is that the actions of the bailiffs in that instance would make a great sketch but would the BBC let it on, no f**king chance as the reality would expose them.

As for Docx I have no idea what that is sorry Jinky.

Before you'll be given a free rein to write whatever you want you need to show that you're a good writer. Several of the Pythons cut their teeth on the Frost Report before being given their own, groundbreaking show. Richard Herring wrote for Armando Iannucci before getting his own show with Stewart Lee. (To cite a couple of examples used previously) None of us are going to walk in the door at Broadcasting House, with our script under our arm, and be told to do whatever we want.

There may not be as many opportunities as you like at the BBC but they are offering one thing that no-one else does, that opportunity for absolutely anyone to submit. And the only way you can change things is to show them you can write genuinely funny stuff and impress them.

And as has been mentioned earlier we live in an age where there are lots of opportunities to make your own stuff. Your local library will probably have some basic recording gear and software, or at least be able to point you in the right direction. We can e-mail a lot of submissions in to the BBC (e.g. Newsjack, TSWYW) rather than the old days when you had to courier it. There are opportunities on here that only require an e-mail to enter. And most open-mic nights are free, although the dutch courage may cost upwards of £3 a pint.

I say this as someone who would consider themselves as working class and don't particularly think that's hindered me. The only thing holding me back is my talent.

Newsjack is a fantastic opportunity for anyone who harbours, however optimistic, the desire to have something they wrote professionally produced and performed.

I for one am grateful for the opportunity to be given the level playing field of an open submission show where the end product is the only thing being critiqued.

Long may it last.

Quote: StephenM @ February 7 2013, 12:05 PM GMT

I say this as someone who would consider themselves as working class...

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You've confused 'common' with 'working class'.

Again.

You're missing my point, as a licence payer I am referring to the BBC alone as an entity.

The BBC has access to a compulsory revenue system, which in return for this it sets out clearly its Mission Statement.

My gripe is that the corporation fails to do what it should do, in that it appears to be far too aloof and as such amateurs like me stand no chance of grabbing their attention.

It has such limited access for a giant corporation and even that is sifted before it is considered up the chain.

The BBC's commissioners are often not privy to the wide range of scripts available to them as they are choosing from scripts that have had to pass through other peoples scrutiny.

As such a script needs to appeal to a very broad church of age range, tastes and expectations before a commissioner even sees it.

And that is were things are being diluted as all that will pass will be middle of the road material that is mildly amusing to many but not hilarious to anyone.

I understand the logistics of sifting through thousand of ideas and scripts may at first be a daunting but it should be staffed and completed in order to meet the Corporations own Mission Statement.

There is no way on gods green earth that the Writers Room should fail to produce at least six scripts of better quality than Amanda every week! Yet its hit rate is what?

On Saturday nights The BBC serve up bile, it's either a jazzed up version of Come Dancing, or Amanda in her old school mack and glasses bombing down the cobbles on a bike.

Yet there is so much that the BBC could get from its Writersroom if they took he time to consider the efforts being made by thousands of writers.

Scripts should have an audience age range on the top of them, if I was reading the spec script of the In Betweeners I would have dismissed it out of hand , yet kids find it hilarious because it is to them.
If someone writes a script aimed at middle aged people and its read by an intern it would be lost on them. If they know in advance the target audience then they could assign the relevant reader.

Writer like us across this country are working long into the night writing from experience or pure imagination and posting it off to the BBC.
Stuff that would make more entertaining Saturday nights. Yet how many people on these boards who have used the Writers Room think that they got a fair reading?

Limited access is creating limited output and it burns my head out.,

Sorry to be a killjoy Teddy but do you really believe you are a good enough writer to get something on the BBC?

You may think you can write a better sitcom than "Amanda" (erm...it's "Miranda" by the way, sorry to be pedantic but one of the aspects of being a good writer is accuracy) but can you prove that to the people who matter?

What history of writing do you have? Have you written for podcasts, greetings cards, community radio stations, hospital radio, stand ups, blogs, twitter, etc, etc?

Being a successful comedy writer is a long slog for 99.99999% of the people who do it, you gain success one step at a time, you write for one thing and it might open a door for another thing, most of the success comes from being prolific, proving that you can write to deadlines and constantly generating material and ideas.

One of my friends who wanted to be a comedy writer started a blog which he would update every single day with funny topical news stories, after a year of posting his blog EVERY SINGLE DAY, he came to the attention of the people behind "The Daily Mash" and now he's one of their staff writers and has written several comedy books as well as for their website. Also through this he's written for the News Quiz on Radio 4.

It's all very well moaning about this, that and the other but what are YOU doing to get your work out there and in front of the right people?

You might complain that you don't like writing topical material, well tough titties, topical material is what most producers want at the moment, so learn to write topical jokes. Open up the BBC news website and write 20 topical jokes every day, do this instead of posting on this forum, it'll be time much better spent, especially if you can the best one's you write to Newjack or the News Revue.

The best writers write a LOT, they are constantly writing, a lot of the time it's a numbers game, you write and write and write until eventually you hit on something that is great OR something which captures the zeitgeist and is the right material/sitcom/sketch at the right time.

Sorry to be so blunt, but stop whinging about everyone else and concentrate on your own writing, apologies to slightly paraphrase your favourite sitcom but "what have you done today to make yourself a better, more successful writer?".

I have posted more than my fair share of sketches on this and other sites and have posted entire pilots.
I don't do gags I don't do blogs I just do the odd sketch as I am a sitcom writer.
I am not whinging I am highlighting a genuine grievance that I have and in doing so offering alternatives that could be used for the greater good of all writers.
As for spelling mistakes I do make them and work hard at correcting them as I am self educated and obviously a worse tutor than pupil.

Quote: Teddy Paddalack @ February 7 2013, 2:15 PM GMT

I have posted more than my fair share of sketches on this and other sites and have posted entire pilots.
I don't do gags I don't do blogs I just do the odd sketch as I am a sitcom writer.
I am not whinging I am highlighting a genuine grievance that I have and in doing so offering alternatives that could be used for the greater good of all writers.
As for spelling mistakes I do make them and work hard at correcting them as I am self educated and obviously a worse tutor than pupil.

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With all due respect to this forum, posting sketches in "Critique" or "Showcase" is not going to achieve anything other than criticism or praise from other people in exactly the same boat as you, do you think that someone at the BBC or a production company is going to be trawling the forum and then suddenly offer you a writing commission?

How many production companies have you contacted? How many sitcom recordings have you been to and introduced yourself to the people there? Asked for advice? Emailed? Sent scripts to?

Also, you say you want to write a sitcom but don't want to write blogs, jokes, etc, well to give you an analogy, you might want to join the Navy so that you can command an aircraft carrier but, guess what, no-one is going to put you at the helm of an aircraft carrier until you've sailed a dingy, then a motor boat, a minesweeper, a corvette and then after years of proving that you can command those, then, maybe, just maybe with years of experience you might get to command an aircraft carrier.

Wanting to write a sitcom is like wanting to command HMS Invincible, to do it you're going to have to learn how to do all the little things, like learning how to write jokes, blogs, sketches, stories and whatever else it takes to prove to people that you can write.

Also, the BBC is just one platform for getting your work out there, a while back I wrote some sketches for, of all companies, TalkSPORT, a radio station not exactly known for it's comedy output, there are opportunities out there if you look hard enough and work hard enough for them.

(Pretty much) Everything on TV and radio is written, someone writes the adverts, the links, the speeches, etc, etc, why can't that someone be you?

Get the contacts (google is your friend here), be slightly pushy and ask them what you need to do to write for them?

Fair point I'll stop moaning and crack on, but I still f**king hate Amanda.

How to write comedy sketches by Gwynn, Howarth and Roberts http://www.bbc.co.uk/academy/collegeofproduction/podcast/radio/sketch_writing_podcast

Dan

Quote: Teddy Paddalack @ February 7 2013, 2:42 PM GMT

Fair point I'll stop moaning and crack on, but I still f**king hate Amanda.

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Quote: StephenM @ February 7 2013, 12:05 PM GMT

I say this as someone who would consider themselves as working class and don't particularly think that's hindered me. The only thing holding me back is my talent.

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Being working class as well, I'd echo that. The chances are out there, it's a matter of putting in the effort and being able to write (I can flounder at both)
One thing I've learned in the shortish time I've been trying to write is you have to hone in on what the brief is and come up with the goods accordingly.
A good carpenter should be able to turn out more than one type of table...

Quote: Tony Cowards @ February 7 2013, 2:06 PM GMT

One of my friends who wanted to be a comedy writer started a blog which he would update every single day with funny topical news stories, after a year of posting his blog EVERY SINGLE DAY, he came to the attention of the people behind "The Daily Mash" and now he's one of their staff writers and has written several comedy books as well as for their website.

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That's fantastic. The Mash is excellent, really funny and well-written.