2011 - 622 Down, 622 To Go
Monday 7th March 2011
So, we're half way through reading this year's entries, and what have we learned so far?
Well, there's a lot of them. We're really proud to be in partnership with Hat Trick Productions, and their first prize of a £5000 contract more than doubled our entries compared to last year. But this means twice as many scripts for us to read. Fair enough, we can do that.
There's certain themes that have appeared as people write about what they're interested in, what they're feeling and what they find absurd and worthy of ridicule. A common thread this year is the whole redundancy and economic downturn issue, which manifests itself in sitcoms about people having to move back in with parents/elder siblings/younger siblings. Something that's commonplace, too, is the role-reversal emasculated-male sitcom, with the woman in the relationship the breadwinner and the man staying at home to do the chores, or not, with hysterical results.
These sitcoms may be great therapy for the writer, and I would always encourage writers to put down in words what they think and feel, as it can be a great problem solver and indicator of possibilities to help a situation. The problem with presenting topical material for a possible sitcom is that it takes about two years for an initial script to make it to broadcast, whether on screen or radio, and what's topical now won't be in two years time.
People often ask us why their script was rejected. While we can't comment on individual scripts after the entry (unless you bring it along to one of our Help! I've Written A Script workshops), some of the reasons are:
1) Not interesting.
2) Not funny.
3) Incomprehensible (some writers think they're being clever by being deliberately opaque. Good for them, we don't have time to figure their work out. We want our audiences coming away with smiles on their faces, not frowns).
4) It's a sketch.
5) The characters are generic and interchangeable with no distinct voice or individuality.
6) It's a stand-up routine (a great idea or setting can be ruined by having the characters just sit around talking about how their underpants chafe or squeezing the toothpaste in the middle of the tube).
7) It can't be staged (please, please, please read our rules, guidelines and FAQs)
Every time we pick a script up, we're hoping it might be a gem. We're optimists - if we weren't, we wouldn't be doing this. And with 40 scripts rejected for every one of the 32 we're going to long list, we'll often move quickly through those which reject themselves for any of the above reasons and we know we're not going to present at showcase. Make sure we're turning the page because we want to know what happens next, not because we're trying to get to where the story starts or find the good bit.
Guys, we know how much hard work you put into these, and sometimes it breaks our heart to reject something that has potential, and it can be just as frustrating for us if a great idea isn't executed as well as it could be. Have fun, we're off to read the next 622 potential winners.