May 2008

Monday's session this week was taken by BBC Drama Producer and Script Editor, Nicky Richardson. Having worked initially as a script reader for a natural history documentary channel, Nicky applied for and was offered a job as a script reader on Eastenders. Whilst on this show she progressed through the ranks to script editor, producer and finally senior producer.

This session was infinitely slower paced than the sessions so far and was more of a lecture on the process from script to screen for a TV Drama, specifically soap opera. She talked us through the process of developing a script, which is much more rigid than in film development as the executives decide everything from the story line, to which characters are available for which episodes and which sets can be used when, and even sometimes providing a step sheet for the episode, before the writer even begins a first draft. This process from script to screen takes three months. She spoke to us about the structure of working on a soap opera. On Eastenders, for example, they operate in blocks of four episodes, with several blocks being made simultaneously. Each block has its own writer, director, producer and above the line crew, whereas below the line crew are shared. Each block has a budget of £265,000, which is approximately £65,000 per episode. This goes someway to explaining why soaps are so popular with channels, because although they have high start up costs, they are in reality very cheap to make and bring in consistently high viewing figures.

It was for a while interesting to hear about this process, but unfortunately this was all we discussed so the session became a bit dull and fragmented. It felt as though we went off on so many tangents, I struggled to make sense of the overall structure of the process. It would have been more interesting and useful to look at one specific episode of Eastenders from story board, through development and drafts, into the shooting script and director's vision, into production and any problems with budget or filming, then through post production and perhaps finish by watching the final screened episode. This would have been a much clearer way to give a comprehensive view of the role of a producer in making TV Soap drama. In general, I didn't feel the session was overly useful, and not just because my interests lie more specifically in film than TV, but also because it was so limited to soap. It would have been interesting to hear from someone on the variety of TV Drama, perhaps from someone who had a greater range of experience or who used knowledge from other people to talk on the development of ‘one-off' TV drama and mini-serials such as Waking The Dead etc. It would have also been good to have more advice of how to approach TV producers with a script idea and how to get commissioned for TV, but again this was not something that was covered. I got the impression that most of the group felt the same way and weren't at all motivated by this session. It was to be honest, a bit of a disappointment.

Session 2: Pitching

Wow, well, this session couldn't have been more different! It was high energy, challenging, inspiring, and somewhat terrifying...it was all about pitching and throughout the evening we not only had to pitch our projects but also ourselves!

The leader of this session was Neil Peplow, an independent producer who has worked on a number of critically acclaimed feature films including last years My Summer Of Love. Neil arrived and was raring to get going so launched straight into his slick PowerPoint presentation on how to pitch.

I can't go into details as there was simply too much information to relay, but the core message he emphasized was that you aren't pitching just the script, but the whole package. He stressed that when you go into a pitch you are presenting yourself as well as the project and you should know how to present both honestly and thoroughly. For the project, you should know everything; you should have a budget breakdown, preferably have some key cast and crew attached and be able to defend your choices, know your market and the distributors that may be interested, and be ready to answer any question they may throw at you. He finally spoke about how to present yourself and the importance of body language, timing, knowing who you are pitching too, your linguistics and voice.

After racing through the presentation, my pen was burning on the page and my mind spinning with all the things to remember and think about when pitching. But Neil was keen for us to put his methods into practice and set us the challenge of pitching ourselves. This was a terrifying prospect and I had no idea where to begin. We had five minutes to prepare so I tried to jot down some thoughts about myself and why I want to be a producer, and why film and some more personal information on myself, but once I stood up, what came out of my mouth surprised me as it was nothing like what I had prepared. I found myself being honest and the more I relaxed I became the more honest I was able to be and ended speaking about my life ambitions and desires as well as my specific interest in film and my background. Everyone's pitch was different and at the end we discussed whose had been most effective. I think we all agreed that it was the pitch which had been the most intimate, passionate and personal. Neil stressed that this was the art of pitching; being able to engage your audience in the artistic essence of a project rather than boring them with inane facts.

We then moved straight on to pitching out projects. By the time it was my turn my mind was spinning with all the reams of information and I was completely unable to focus on my project and although I have spent lots of time on it over the last few weeks, I really struggled to put into words the essence of the story and pitch it at all really! This was somewhat frustrating but I think it was, in a backwards way, the best thing that could have happened. I realised that I haven't yet consolidated in my head what my project is really about at its core and whilst I am pretty good at writing summaries and loglines and playing with words on the page, I struggle much more to speak about the project. Aware that I was struggling to get to the what the story was really about, the group and Neil gave me some advice on how to pin down its essence and we agreed that I am going to email the group the synopsis later today for them to send some feedback on what comes across to them as the essence of the story. I also went home last night and sat up for hours thinking about the story and talking through in my head what it is really about, and I feel already this morning that I am beginning to have a clearer idea of where the heart of the story is.

This was a 5* session and definitely one of the most challenging so far! I am now looking forward to meeting Neil again in a few weeks and pitching my idea to him...once I have practiced and practiced and practiced on everyone I know!

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May 2008

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September 2008

Week 3: TV Industry and Pitching

Christos Constantakopoulos