I've been submitting a selection of my sketches to various production companies this week with no problem, but one of them has asked me for something puzzling.
All the companies so far have just asked for me to send my sketches in, but one has asked me to send my sketches in AND a synopsis.
I understand how to write a synopsis for a sitcom, but how on earth do you do a synopsis for a series of sketches?? Any help is much appreciated.
Maybe it's a standard reply.
Yeah, maybe. I'll just send the sketches in. There's no point in me trying to create a synopsis for something that can't be....... synopped.
I suppose if your characters are recurring, they may want an 'end-point' for those characters (or the general theme of the show) to get to. Think last episode of Little Britain.
The last episode of a sketch show does seem, in general, to 'finish' some characters stories in some way. Occasionally the third sketch of a recurring character (even if it's in just a single episode) tends to have an unexpected ending, rather than flogging the premise to death.
Or maybe I'm over-complicating it and it's a standard reply!
Dan
In my experience, production companies don't tend to want to look at sketch material unless they have specifically requested it from a writer.
I don't tend to write sketches without somewhere for them to go. Off the back of a sitcom pilot I submitted to a production company, I was then asked to submit sketch material for a specific (new) sketch show that's in development. (This material is under consideration at the moment.)
Unless you're an established comedy performer, writer or double act (Lucas/Walliams, Mitchell/Webb etc.) it's unlikely that you'll be commissioned to write a sketch show based on your own format. The trend these days is for a comedy producer to produce a brief for a themed sketch-show. (Radio is probably a bit more flexible, but TV seems to want more control over the content and style of any sketch-show... money ultimately being the reason.)
I wrote all my submitted sketches working to a particular brief for the series. Not allowed to reveal the brief because it's copyrighted, but all the sketch characters had to be 'returning' characters, which is the trend at the moment.
Only established writers and performers tend to get the lee-way to have sketches that run for only one episode.
If you want to try and get a sketch show commissioned, then try and come up with a unifying theme for your show. If you're writing a sketch show featuring regular characters, try and come up with 8-10 strongly identifiable characters who are linked by a common theme.
If you're writing one-off sketches, then come up with an overall theme for the series.
If you look at the writing credits for most sketch shows thesedays there are many writers. The trend is for a producer to identify a pool of talented writers, set them a themed task, and then select from a large number of sketches the ones they want to take forward. The producer's vision for the show tends to ultimately dictate the content and who performs it.
So, when you submit your sketches, you need to enclose your own brief for the show, covering how you see the format, style and overall unifying theme of the show.
You've made some very good points there Tim, so thanks for your help.
Most of the sketches I've been writing recently, haven't really had a unifying theme. They've simply been conventional sketches. However, I do have quite a talent for writing dark and absurd sketches, so perhaps that's something to concentrate on.
Cheers, I would say that, overall, is you want to write a sketch series, history suggests that you'll have to get your stuff on someone's else's show first. I suspect there's more flexibility with radio, but even then they like to see a unifying theme to the show.
All the best.