This is a diary of the continuing struggle of trying to get a script accepted by the British Broadcasting Corporation.
First of all, let me take you through the first few mind blowing dull steps of creating a suitable project or script for them.
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How hard do you imagine it is to get a script from the idea in the back of your mind to the television screen?
I know it looks easy enough. Buy a PC and then type out a script, send
it off to the television company and wait for the check and awards to
arrive.
The trouble is that, it is not quite that easy.
First of all you have to write the script.
Now
there are lots of easy to download software packages and helpful books
on how to write the script and they all have their uses and have
positive things going for them but there is one thing that it can not
do for you and that is to write the script.
We have all seen scripts before at least once in our lives. They tend to resemble the following.
Peter What?
Owen Who?
Sally With which one?
However there are many different styles out there, some more suitable
for stage, some for television and others for radio. Put a script on
the wrong one and you might as well not have bothered in the first
place.
Before the first finger hits the keyboard or clicks
on the mouse, you have to make sure there is a market for your finished
product. You need to be sure that the company you are sending it to is
able to do it justice.
So begins our intrepid story of hope and despair.
June 2003
I had come up with an idea, it was amazingly simple.
Noone was writing drama series anymore. Noone was doing intrigue and
back stabbing relatives like JR in Dallas anymore, therefore a script
about a warring family would work.
All I needed to do was write
it in less than a month and send it off before I had to return to
University. I needed information and I needed it fast. Thankfully all I
had to do was ask.
To do this, I sent a stamped, self addressed
envelope to the Writers Room at the BBC. A few days later I got my
first useful bit of information. I had discovered what they were
Script softwarelooking for in the way of script and what style of production I, as an untried writer, could hope to get into.
The
first bit of good news was that Drama Series was open to the
unsolicited scripts of people with great ideas. However I would be
competing against over 200 other clambering geniuses who all felt that
they were as entitled to success and glory as I was.
This was not going to be easy.
Armed with my trusty PC, the BBCs writers guidelines and a dictionary, I set to work.
To be continued...Next Time, writing the script and dealing with waiting.
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