Reflection on 2012
Wednesday 23rd May 2012
The Sitcom Mission 2012 is all wrapped up, it's time for reflection...
As usual, we like to finish a round of The Sitcom Mission by looking at what we learnt, what we did right and what we can improve upon...
What We Did Right
We think we got the script reading right this time around, and have got a system in place where we can give the scripts the attention they deserve. We know how much effort you guys put into your scripts - this year's winner went through 14 re-writes by the time it was performed - and take every script entered as a serious contender until it proves itself otherwise. There are always things to improve, but the introduction of the entry fee meant that we didn't spend our time opening up, saving and starting to read hundreds of scripts that had completely and blatantly ignored the rules and guidelines. This saved us time which we could then dedicate to those who had invested their time, energy and finances into their work.
Our e-book, Your Sitcom Mission... Should You Choose To Accept It, is sitting at the top of the Amazon Kindle charts at the moment, and we're very proud of it and our association with John Vorhaus. One of the Grand Finalists, Sarah Christou, used it as the template for her sitcom and the commissioners described it as 'the best structured piece of the evening'.
And there's a pattern forming with our Introduction to Sitcom Writing workshops. This year's winner, Snez Naik, said, "The idea for Yo Valet came to me during a toilet break at a Sitcom Mission writing workshop. I want to thank my bladder for being so weak and Declan and Simon for the workshop. Without all three this would never have happened." Abigail Dooley and Emma Edwards, who won in 2011, said, "We entered The Sitcom Mission 2010, but didn't make the first cut. However, we had very helpful feedback from Declan and Simon and on the strength of that decided to sign up to their Introduction to Sitcom Writing workshop. This is a great one-day workshop, small group, lots of practical exercises and advice."
Of course, there are plenty of workshop attendees that don't win The Sitcom Mission, but we're very proud of the ones who do! And attending a workshop is no guarantee of success and we're certainly not excluding writers who don't attend them - Grand Finalists Steve Keyworth and Mark Clompus didn't - but it seems to help.
What We Can Improve
We decided to cast and direct most of the shows ourselves this year. While this was an attempt to standardise the quality of acting and direction, it proved to be a logistical nightmare as, between the two of us, we directed 13 sitcoms in four weeks, often three different sitcoms in a day. While rushing between three different casts at three different venues is great for the adrenal glands, it doesn't do much for the sanity.
But what we're doing is attracting the attention of the industry, and this year we had Arrabella Weir, Patricia Brake and Helen Lederer in our casts, along with all the other, brilliant actors who are names for the future. One agent described us as 'good people, worth doing'. We're really working hard to make sure our showcases are beneficial for actors and writers, and were very pleased when one actress was approached for development by a production company, and two actors were contacted by a casting director directly from their performances at the Semi-finals.
The live shows worked really well at the Union Tavern, a great venue in Clerkenwell, and they've already asked us back. Hiring the New Diorama for the week - a great idea in principal - but, again, we lost money on the live shows which made us wonder if they were the way forward. And again the voting system came under fire, but we did have it confirmed by a political academic from Cambridge that there was nothing we could do about that.
What Have We Learnt?
Eh? We'll get back to you on that one.