Writing drama for young audiences Articles / Film Fund News Posted by Admin on Jul 20, 2005 - 09:13 AM Cornwall Media Focus held a great event recently - read on for more information and speaker's contacts. CORNWALL MEDIA FOCUS 2nd MARCH 2005 WRITING AND DEVELOPING DRAMA FOR YOUNG AUDIENCES SPEAKERS Grainne Marmion ? Development Executive, Children?s Film and TV Foundation. Brian Thompson ? Scriptwriter currently working in Radio and TV. Brian has written many episodes for the children?s tv programme ?BYKER GROVE?. Bernard Krichefski ? Producer, Granada Kids ? Currently producing ?MY PARENTS ARE ALIENS?. Interviewed by Pippa Best, and taking questions from the audience. Grainne, what do you look for in scripts for young audiences? GM - We aren?t looking for a particular genre or type of story. We?re looking for films which don?t only appeal to children, but to the rest of the family too. It might be more useful to note what to exclude really - films which contain anything that is too violent or sexual. Generally, we are looking for films that tell a good story and where the child plays the central character. Something like Harry Potter is a good example of this, and is certainly one of the driving forces behind the new interest in British films for young audiences ? although of course it?s virtually a US film. Stories which are adapted from books are still popular. Generally films which star children appeal to children. However one film which is a favourite of mine ? Princess Bride? completely breaks the rules and doesn?t contain any children ? but it still works, so there are the exceptions to the rule. Do you offer production funding for feature films? GM: No, we just provide development funding at the moment. It?s still very difficult to put a film finance package together. My quickest film as a producer took 3 years to get made. However, on average it normally takes at least 5. There are fewer and fewer British features being made. In 2003 there were 47, in 2004, 27 and this year only 19 are expected to be made. It?s a frightening statistic. You can?t just say that you are going to finance a film yourself because nobody will want to be part of it. But once you have convinced someone to provide you with a percentage of the money, others will follow. In order to succeed as a producer, you need to be able to talk about recoupment positions and you need to show that you know about film production. Although we only give development money. I spend time with sales agents and distributors in order to keep in tune with what they are looking for. I keep these people interested in what?s happening on projects in the hope that this will help the projects to access production funding further along the line. They know that if I do send them something in particular, it is going to be of a high standard. Do you work with treatments? GM - I find it hard to see from a treatment whether or not a script is any good. The UK Film Council require a 25 word outline for one of their schemes and I can?t see how they can identify a good script from this. I think it?s sometimes useful, but I much prefer to read a full screenplay. What if you like an idea but there is no producer attached? GM - If I like it, I will still go with it. We only invest in about 5 projects a year. We?ve made some strong investments now with bigger established companies, and I?m looking for some more independent projects, possibly quite low budget. So, can people send you their scripts? GM - Yes, I read everything that comes in. I?m here because I?m interested in finding new voices and projects. Contact: Grainne Marmion Development Executive, Children?s Film and Television Foundation, Elstree Film and Television Studios, Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, WD6 1JG Tel: 0208 953 0844 Brian, how did you start writing for Byker Grove? BT - I used to write plays and from there became interested in writing for TV. Although I have an agent, I don?t think that it?s absolutely necessary to have one to succeed as a writer.? but I did already have an agent and had started to write for the Bill when I went for the Byker Grove job. Although I didn?t know a lot about the show then, I was asked to write a trial storyline and it was successful. To get in to your first series, you often have to write ideas or even an episode for free, they won?t use it but from that you eventually get commissioned to write a real episode ? and get paid for that. Sometimes you can ?click? with programmers and get on well with them. Your certain style of writing can suit specific shows, but might not suit others. There are still opportunities in TV out there, you just have to find the one that fits you. There are shows like DOCTORS where you can still get that first foot on the ladder. People are very cautious about taking risks on long running shows because once you are commissioned that episode has to be made within a certain time (usually about four months) and there isn?t time to spend teaching the basics. Even experienced writers get re-written or sacked all the time, so it?s not a great atmosphere to nurture talent. A show like DOCTORS (or in the old days THE BILL) has a large proportion of self contained story in the episode which can be developed for as long as it takes before it is slotted into the production schedule. To really learn to write for TV you need to go through the real experience, get rid of all the stuff you don?t need in a script, but but at the same time you have to keep hold of your excitement, ideas and voice. It?s a very tough thing to do. It is a bit like being back at school and in many ways writers on long running shows (unless they are creators or leading them) are treated like kids! GM: People like BBC New Talent also offer opportunities to get your first broadcast slot. Opportunities exist to start in radio more easily, and these can then get you seen by people looking for new TV writers. It?s worth keeping up to date with what BBC New Talent are doing. Bernard, how did you get to where you are? BK- I was assistant director at the National Theatre and I have worked in radio and now mainly drama, TAGGART, NANNY, and now MY PARENT?S ARE ALIENS. Producers work in different ways- and having been a theatre director and writer probably affects the kind of producer I am. If producers come up through production management, then they have a different relationship with and story, and this can have an effect on the development process. How would you define your role as a producer on MY PARENTS ARE ALIENS? BK - For those of you that are not familiar with the programme MY PARENTS ARE ALIENS, is about two aliens that crash into earth and have a computerised guide book to human life which dates from the 1950s, giving their home a whacky, but dated 1950s look. They see other families with children and decide that in order to become a convincing conventional family, they need children. So they foster three children, who go on to teach them about human society. When I first began working on it, I was told that it was comedy drama, rather than a straightforward sitcom. Over the years, we have tended to move further and further towards a sitcom format. Within each year?s series of MY PARENTS ARE ALIENS there are 20 episodes, so the development process is pretty arduous. When I first joined the show, I walked into a script session which was already underway and sat and listened to a writer being briefed in extraordinary detail. The writing process is incredibly structured and demanding. Each episode must have three story strands. The 1st strand is expected to have 7 or 8 story beats and the 2nd has 6 or 7 story beats and so on. Writers are expected to come up with batches of 40 three word ideas for stories ? a bit like tabloid headlines. In fact a daily tabloid is a good source of possible storylines. I?ve known writers being asked to submit 3 or 4 of these batches of 40 one-sentence ideas before one is accepted. We?re now developing the seventh series and to date 270 stories have been used ? nowadays it?s rare not to have to turn down a large percentage of story ideas submitted on the basis that they?ve already been done. Once the core story ideas have been agreed, each writer attends a full day?s story-lining meeting with the producer and script editor to hammer out the story beats. After this meeting the writer comes up with a non-integrated outline, (where the stories are mapped out separately). It may also be necessary subsequently for us to have an integrated outline to see how the storylines will blend together within a single episode. Then each episode will typically go through a minimum of 2 or 3 drafts before it is ready for production. The process entails a good deal of collaboration between writer, script editor and producer. How many writers are used per episode and how did you find them? BK ? There?s a team of five or six regular writers, who have written for the show over the past three or four years. This year five of the regulars are writing two scripts each, the creator of the show is writing 4 episodes and we?ve brought in six writers new to the show to write one episode each (a couple of these are pairs of writers who write as a team). We found these new writers by approaching agents, which led to over 50 scripts being submitted ? all from writers with experience in drama, comedy or children?s. Comedy talent is really probably more important in a series like ours than specific credits in children?s television. We met about 21 of the candidates and discussed what they felt the show was all about, how the structure works in each episode etc. But you can?t tell just by meeting someone whether or not he or she is going to be right for the series. So we devised a reasonably straight-forward exercise to enable each to demonstrate how well they?d grasped the structure, the voices of the characters etc. I read each exercise blind i.e. without knowing who?d written it. The six new writers we eventually chose are very varied, some have theatre, but no television credits, some are stand-up comics etc. Brian, what?s the development process like for BYKER GROVE? BT ? It?s similar but not quite as arduous. We sit around a big table and throw ideas around at the beginning of a series. We then sit around a smaller table at each ?block? (four episodes) commissioning meeting. And then write a scene by scene breakdown of each episodes, followed by three drafts of the full script. Is the Children?s Film Fund looking for new ideas? GM: In principle we?re constantly looking for new ideas ? but we don?t fund TV, just feature films. It?s tough in TV at the moment too - there will be a time when broadcasters will not be able to fund the whole production, that?s happening to a certain extent already ? so producers will have to look for funding from elsewhere. However I do believe that programmes still making money in the future will be children?s programmes. What has worked in the past in particular are children?s programmes that have become long running series. In features, comedy is still popular, but it?s interesting to note that there are a lot of scary films coming into development at the moment. And that?s a trend that may move into children?s features and TV series too. Generally, to get an idea about what kind of ideas might have a chance of being commissioned ? before you do lots of work on them - it?s a good idea to thoroughly research what each of the channels is currently scheduling and what they?ve done in the past. By taking a look at the channel?s websites you can get an idea about what programmes are being broadcast and their length. Armed with that knowledge, you?re not going to go to the BBC with an idea similar to SPOOKS, because that has already been done. Preferably the idea needs to be something fresh, inexpensive to make, and possibly something where the format can be sold to other countries. BBC ? www.bbc.co.uk / Four ? www.chanel4.com / ITV ? www.itv.com Five ? www.five.tv Why don?t broadcasters simply advertise what material is needed? GM ? The BBC hold annual open days, where they announce what sort of material they will be looking for from producers and writers. This is a great opportunity to keep in touch with what is going on. Being in tune with what is popular at a point in time is important. But it?s important to be able to think outside of the box too. BK ? Not only is it important for the work to fit in with what?s wanted by broadcasters at that point in time, It?s important to believe in your work. If an idea is different enough, I believe that it will break through and be noticed. People within the industry want to be surprised by new work. GM ? Sometimes people say that they can see when a trend is developing in film and TV. But you can?t just follow a trend, any project has to start with the originality of the writer and their passion. The people working with the writer want to be able to sense their excitement for their ideas. But the other side of the story is that there are also less development funds available, and consequently people are less likely to finance anything they perceive as risky. BK ? I can remember when there were new dramas on the screen almost every night of the week. This has now changed. Why are there less and less slots ? more emphasis on repeats and longer series? GM - There are now less commissions in general. In order to get two projects broadcast, ten will have to be developed. It?s expensive. Years ago a certain amount would have been allocated to the different departments, like drama. That?s now changed and programmes like reality tv formats, which are relatively inexpensive to make, are taking over. Commissioners are still interested in developing classics as drama series. Of course these will eventually run out ? although there?s a definite trend at the moment of producers wanting to make books they read and enjoyed as a child ? all the kids books from the 70s are coming into vogue, ripe for adaptation. It has become more difficult for broadcasters to fund something which doesn?t obviously fit within the channel?s structures ? especially original ideas. But there are situations where it?s worth targeting other departments ? like the education and documentary departments - these have been funding interesting drama and docu-drama projects recently. If you come up with an idea, you need to be persistent, and keep working on it. Keep coming forward with ideas - eventually one of them will be successful. Where do you see the best opportunities for new writers wanting to write for young audiences at the moment? BK - I think I?ve probably clarified the story structure and writing process above. I guess that the best opportunities for new writers wanting to write for young audiences are to be found at the BBC, given that they develop and make a wider range of programmes for a bigger variety of target audiences and they have dedicated children?s channel. The output of CITV is more limited, but it is possible that the recently announced joint venture between CITV and Nickelodeon for a new kids? channel will open up new opportunities. Granada Kids is at present the biggest supplier to CITV and will hopefully continue to make programmes both for the new channel and for an increasingly diverse range of broadcasters. Of course, there are also a good many independent production companies developing and making children?s programmes and I?m afraid I can?t claim to be particularly knowledgeable as to which are currently the most active in the field. And more established writers ? where are the most interesting challenges? BK - I?m not sure I fully understand the meaning of the question. Certainly one is apprehensive as to the decreasing market for original drama both on terrestrial and satellite and cable television. It is more and more true that to earn a living writers need to be prepared to write for long-running series and soaps. We do certainly look for original projects in Granada Kids, but our output is limited and it would be over-optimistic to claim that we can develop more than a handful of original ideas in any single year. Which current series are the ones that new writers can cut their teeth on now? DOCTORS seems to be working with new- to-TV writers, Hollyoaks used to, Family Affairs might, all the soaps have schemes to do trial scripts although I think EastEnders is the most formalised of these. There?s all the New Talent stuff although I?m not sure that helps the ?nearly there? writer because it pits you against anyone off the street and mathematically puts you into a lottery sized game of chance. BBC Radio Drama has a development unit and is a really good choice if you don?t think you?ll fit soaps etc. because EVERY DAY they do original drama, I think without it I?d have gone mad because it is so difficult to get one-offs made on TV especially if it?s idiosyncratic You shouldn?t expect to get onto a TV show if you haven?t already written something that?s pretty good? tells a story, good characters, economical, funny, modern?. TV is fashion conscious, mainstream, not middle class and very much led from the top (on long running series)? you have to adapt, be mentally agile and slightly shameless! The best way to get into TV writing is to have a script that people enjoy reading. That will open all the doors. Mine was a totally non naturalistic theatre play- with talking horses and a re-enactment of The Derby using four actors - done by a tiny touring company in Yorkshire. It got me onto The Bill because the script editor laughed at the jokes and wasn?t used to getting sent stuff like that. It also had a story and that is the other thing about TV Drama; it?s mainly story. Things HAVE to happen, and you don?t tend to learn story unless you?ve got someone making you, because it does terrible things to your carefully cherished idea; it shreds them, transfigures them and still it wants to be fed! I think when TV people go on about the writing business they make it sound so boring, ?you do this step outline, you do that many drafts?? most TV is about entertainment, emotion, shock, humour?. It?s often very very clever but it never shows that, it makes you think it?s just happening without anyone saying I AM A WRITER. Can writer?s access these opportunities without an agent ? any advice on how to do that? BK - Yes all of them. I think nowadays agents are much more useful once you?ve made the breakthrough and want to move on, meet people, open more doors. On the other hand you?re never going to get an agent unless you?ve done something pretty good anyway. If you have a good script agents will get it read by the right person quicker. How do you keep going when someone is getting you to rewrite your story for the fifteenth time? BK - If they?re broadly happy with the script, so it?s fine tuning or adapting to a change in circumstances. (e.g. an actor sick), I actually enjoy it. It?s good to be able to fix problems like that. The depressing thing is when you aren?t doing what they want and you can?t quite see what they do want. It?s really frustrating because they think you?re being lazy or dumb and you start thinking you?re a crap writer/they?re all idiots. If you?re new to the show it usually means you haven?t grasped/don?t suit the way they do things. If you?re experienced on the show it usually means the story that?s been agreed/given to you doesn?t work but producers/story editors don?t always want to admit it or change it and so you can get stuck. Either way it is an awful feeling and it is very difficult to keep going. On the ?positive? side, it usually means you?re about to get sacked so you won?t have to put up with it much longer! Brian, do your experiences of working with young people impact on your writing for a young audience ? if so, how? BT - I should explain that in the last year or so, as well as writing for TV and radio, I?ve been working for Creative Partnerships, funded by DCMS to work with young people on writing projects. It?s been everything from doing script writing workshops in schools to setting up small film projects and creating our own soap opera. I found it hard at first as I lacked experience and I?m used to doing my own thing pretty much on my own. However as time went on I started to prove my idea that the methods of long running serials worked really well in schools and youth clubs! Communal story conferences, breaking story down into scenes and allocating scenes to be written was a really good way of giving loads of kids things to do and giving confidence to ones who didn?t see themselves as great at writing but were full of ideas. I also noticed that a lot of creative writing in schools seemed to be overly ?writerly?, all set in enchanted woods with twenty adjectives in each sentence. I tried to get them thinking about themselves. I also realised how great school was as a setting? full of characters, rivals, endless story possibilities. And if you want to film it or perform it when you?ve finished then all the set and costume you can handle is at your fingertips! The other thing is how naturally and easily they write when they know what they?re doing, comfortable with the characters and setting. It?s opened my eyes in lots of way? not just the more obvious ones; providing good material, phrases, characters but also broadening my view about what is worthwhile? there?s a very strong tendency in TV to only value things which millions might watch and fit a very tight and prescribed box. The truth is that it?s only by looking out of that box that we?re going to find the next generation of things to watch. Having said that Childrens TV Drama exists in a very strange place in this country. It?s relatively well funded because of the BBCs public service remit, but that also kills it because, by being overly sensitive about offending/challenging anyone, plus some misguided idea that they have to be very commercial as well, means no one over the age of eight wants to watch their output, so instead older kids go where the fun and excitement is... Bad Girls, Eastenders, Holby City?. some public service! But, hey, don?t get me started on that one??. Contact Details: ? Grainne Marmion - Address: Development Executive, Children?s Film and Television Foundation, Elstree Film and Television Studios, Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, WD6 1JG Tel: 0208 953 0844 Email: annahome@cftf.onyxnet.co.uk ? Brian Thomson ? Address: 33 Lansdown Road, Bristol, BS6 6NR Email: brianbthompson@blueyonder.co.uk ? Bernard Krichefski ? Email: bernard.krichefski@granadamedia.com This article is from Cornwall Film   http://www.cornwallfilm.com/ The URL for this story is:   http://www.cornwallfilm.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=15