BBC Writers Room has a lot of good advice. If you're totally new and you've just set out, the BBC Writers Room give a few benchmark scripts to download that give you an idea about format, pace, length, how characters work. It's a good idea in general to read as many successful sitcom scripts as possible. There is also a template called Script Smart Gold, the BBC's sitcom template, which can be installed into Microsoft Word and gives you the correct tabulations to help you to set character correctly, underline and bold in the right places. If you are serious however, I suggest you invest in one of the dedicated script software packages. One of the most recognised is Final Draft. This has a number of templates built in, including BBC's Scripted Comedy (which is the same as Script Smart Gold).
Screenplay Productions is a fairly new company. I set it up when I arrived in the UK three years ago on the back of my 25 years experience as a director and writer or predominantly feature films abroad. I produced and directed feature films in Denmark, Los Angeles and other places. I realised during that process that what you really need is a dedicated producer, a person to care about what appears on the screen. A lot of producers that I've come across don't really do that. When I moved to the UK I wanted to become the producer I never had myself. Being a producer means you give a lot of support and you have a lot of knowledge about what is necessary to make a TV programme a success. From knowing how to get it through that labyrinth of pitfalls and difficulties from just having an idea, to getting it financed, to getting people to write, to casting it - getting everything correct so that when it 'happens' it becomes a successful programme.
This is why I started Screenplay Productions. Being new to the country, it meant I had a choice - I could start looking up established talent or I could go for new talent. We are in a situation in the UK where, especially Channel 4, people are constantly on the look out for new talent. New talent in comedy is different from new talent in drama or non-scripted material in as much as either you 'have it' or you 'don't'. You can learn a lot if you study it, but there are people, like brilliant musicians, that really understand comedy via intuition. This is why the comedy genre is a lot more open to new talent - new people who can tell good jokes and understand how to build up a gag, understand how characters work, and most importantly have a good ear for dialogue.
I embarked on that route. Instead of going to established talent, who have a tendency to have their own companies or be tied in with established companies - is was a fairly easy choice. With Channel 4 always looking for new people and new companies it was a natural way for me to work.
Over the past three years at Screenplay, more so, over the last year, we have been open to everyone who wanted us to have an opinion about their sitcom script, to send it to us and we would give them personal and dedicated feedback. We read every single script from page one to the end, figured out what worked and what didn't work then gave the writers serious feedback. We've taken a number forward that have been in development, some of them successful, some of them not. We have a couple of writers who've been commissioned by BBC and Channel 4. Working together with people like Nira Park, a very established sitcom Producer, and Penny Croft, daughter of David Croft and also a very established producer we hope to take a couple of sitcoms into pilot, and hopefully after that into serious production.
However, we are continuously looking for new scripts.
Yes and no. If on page one of a script I can see this writer is unique; this writer understands how to set up characters, has a good ear for dialogue. If the dialogue makes me laugh very quickly and I can see there's a genuine understanding, then the format doesn't matter, I'll keep on reading. However, if after page one or two I still haven't seen a reason for really wanting to read on and it's not in the proper format, then the chances of me feeling surprised later in this script are very slim - it's getting the wrong impression from the beginning. You can compare it to a job interview. If you're late for a job interview and you seem unmotivated, you lower your chances for success. This is the same with format. If you understand the format and you've written it in the proper format, it sends a signal to me that at least you have prepared yourself for meeting me, or letting your script meet me in the best possible position.
I think it's worth while for people to actually learn the format because we read a lot more out of the format than just that the tabs are in the right place on the page. We can see links and timing, watching it actually spring into the eyes of an experienced producer. By simply reading the script in the proper format we can see how many sets are required, the cast, how expensive and how complicated it will be to make this sitcom.
There is a long-standing discussion about this. There are two schools - you get character or you get story.
There are a lot of sitcoms where characters carry each episode. Situation comedy is about characters coming together in a situation with opposite or different aims, or same aims but with different ways of getting them. The fun derives from the conflict between the characters done in surprising ways. Sitcoms depend on characters being who they are and the clashes between each character, then the story evolves from what the characters do. Many experienced writers talk about how the characters carry the story, so they don't really need to do anything. They bring the characters together and the story springs from that.
The other school is that you have to have a storyline. You have to have something that needs to be done each episode. This requires a different thinking, as you need to structure it - similar to as if you were writing drama and then characters and story become almost equal.
My experience currently is that the commissioning editors are looking for both story and character. It's not enough just to come with a bunch of sketches strung together - there has to be a story running through the whole episode. That said, there a lot of people also introducing the over-arcing story structure, which means that over a series of six episodes something will happen at the end. This is not necessarily a good idea, especially if you're starting out. If you're lucky and hard working and the series gets into production there will inevitably be episodes that aren't as strong as others for various reasons. This means that if you have a couple of episodes that aren't very strong you don't really want them to sit next to each other, you want to swap them around. You can't do that if you have an over-arcing storyline, so try to avoid it. Instead, keep the story arcs to the episodes only.
The pilot script is different from the rest of the scripts. This is where you establish characters, setting and the theme for the whole series. This is the script we (Screenplay Productions) want to see - not all six episodes, as I normally just read the first.
Remember just the pilot script, no over-arcing storyline, but both character and story.
Indeed it is. For a new writer, they will start at the bottom of the budget scale and generally, budgets aren't huge. You have to think 'budget' when you write. Thinking budget as a writer means do not put an enormous amount of characters in. Try to keep it as simple as possible, as few characters as possible, but don't cut down the necessary characters. If the story requires a certain amount of characters, then they should be there - try to think of a small ensemble cast. If you look at the IT Crowd, you have three characters carrying through a brilliant sitcom. It was the same for Father Ted. You don't need a vast amount of people.
The same is for sets. If we talk about a studio-based sitcom, which is what BBC, Channel 4 and ITV are currently looking for, back to the roots where we don't do single camera shoots, but multi-camera shoots in front of a live audience, you can only have so many sets available in a studio, so minimise it to three or four. Don't have vast amounts of rooms in whatever setting you're writing about, try and move the action to as few rooms as possible with the smallest cast possible - simply because it's cheaper. The cheaper it is the more feasible we can see it is, the more attention we get from commissioning editors on the back of the good script. Even if it's a good script and we can see it's vastly expensive, a period piece for instance. If it requires castles and other expensive settings, as a first time writer, don't go there. Think small, think economical, and think more about your characters and story.
