My friend has recently suggested to me that his film student friends may be interested in filming a cheap version of a sitcom pilot i wrote. I was just wondering if anyone else has had this done and if you know of any producers who prefer footage rather than scripts? I know Ricky Gervais and Steven Merchant got The Office commissioned because they filmed it themselves and a producer saw it.
So if anyone wants to comment please do so.
I'm not sure of any specific producers or companies who actively advertise for footage over words (although I'm sure that someone will come and list some...), but from what I've read and heard (not just here), there seems to be a general consensus that nowadays it may very well be beneficial. I can't count the number of times recently that I've seen stories about people having been spotted on YouTube and now signed up for x, y and z.
Either way, whether there are people actively asking for filmed examples or not, I don't see how it can hurt. If nothing else, it might give you some inspiration for extra bits and pieces you could write in - or indeed need to take out - to improve it.
Just remember that old phrase, as cliché as it may be - "a picture is worth a thousand words."
Hope that helps! 
A few companies (Baby Cow etc) suggest that if you have video support for your proposal then submit it with the script. I would say that the feedback I've had is pointing to the idea that producers find it easier to watch a 30 min DVD than spend 45 mins reading a script. Someone told me that the readers / producers of today are from the 'Instant Now' generation and want a quick hit rather than invest their time reading a carefully packaged script.
It has several advantages:
At the moment it is a novel approach so will stand out
If you have good actors it can convey character faster than script
It will convey physical humour and reactions better than script.
It isn't surprising that The Office pilot was filmed first, if you think about it the scripts are terrible reads because a lot of the humour is in reaction to audience and between actors. Even the written jokes come across as flat on the page. The Office script as a paper product alone would have died on an exec's desk, no one could have conjured the final product in their minds from the words alone. (In some way this is more an indictment on the writers and the readers rather than a commentary on the paper versus dvd debate.)
Disadvantages:
If it looks grainy so that it begins to irritate, if the acting is so poor that it obscures the script / characters, if you play it to no laughs (the dilemma: do I add a laugh track and come across as pretentious and unsure of my own product's merit or do I leave it out and risk a flat veiwers' response?), if you produce something that looks like the product of a D grade in Media Studies then DVD will be a poor choice.
At the moment, the Slagg Brothers are planning to film our own pilot, for the reasons given above. All our video sketches are poor efforts but they are a stepping stone in training for that moment. We're trying to develop acting / wardrobe / character / editing etc) to eventually produce something we hope will 'wow' a viewer. To this goal, I spend free time watching vids on YouTube analysing techniques and style.
Anything that can give you the edge is fair game so I'd say try it.
Agree that filiming something is bound to help your script stand out a bit, and I plan to try and have something, either video or audio, to go along with most scripts I send out from now on. In fact, there is one thing Im working on at the moment, a series of ten minute scripts, where I plan to film a version of the first script myself to go along with the script. As long as you produce something reasonable and not so awful that it might put them off, its got to help your chances and, as I say, make you stand out a bit from the hundreds of faceless scripts littering a producers desk.
A friend of mine who works in local radio is producing a pilot of my radio script as a bit of a project. I think he just wants to noodle about and use the equipment differently, and for me it will be interesting to hear it with all the fx and what-have-you. Gives me a chance to hear it rather than read it too, which may be informative for me as a writer.