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endless rewrite
05-02-2006, 06:25 PM
Thought this may be of interest to some AW members:

httpBBC Drama Series Writers Academy (vacancy no: 81588)

Close Date: 15/05/2006Job Ref: 81588Department: DECLocation: LondonGrade: N/AContract Length: 12 monthsContract Type: Freelance Job Specification

BBC DRAMA SERIES WRITERS ACADEMY

Outline Proposal

The training you receive from BBC Drama Series Writers Academy will give you the specific skills required to write for some of the BBC’s most popular format series such as Doctors, EastEnders, Holby City and Casualty.

Potential writers will have already had at least one film, television or radio drama script produced or one theatre piece performed professionally. The Writers Academy will train up to 8 writers a year, over a period of twelve months.


Course Breakdown

The course will break down as follows:


Introduction to Writing for Continuing Drama Series

This is a 3 month training course in writing for Continuing Drama Series which will consist of a number of workshops and lectures accompanied by intensive writing exercises and analysis.

At the end of this period each writer will be commissioned to write a broadcast episode of Doctors.

Contributing to the training course will be John Yorke, Controller of Continuing Drama Series, and other industry experts from all areas of drama production.


Writing for Broadcast

After you have completed the initial training and the Doctors script, your work will be assessed. If you have reached the required standard for production on Continuing Drama Series you will begin the next phase of the training.

Writers will be divided into smaller groups to be trained in the specifics of writing on Casualty, Holby and EastEnders. Rotating across each show in turn, you will spend approximately 12 weeks on each and write a broadcast episode under the mentorship of a lead writer.

At the end of the 12 months, each writer will have written for each of the four shows.


Core team & HQ

The course will be run and administered from BBC TVC in London W12 and BBC Elstree Studios. The course will be overseen by Continuing Drama Series Head of Development, and run by a Course Producer.


Contracts

The writers will be engaged by the BBC for 15 months on a non-exclusive basis, although the course will be a full time commitment.

A retainer of £400 a week will be paid during the 3 month initial training course.

Thereafter writers will be paid script fees for commissioned scripts on each of the four shows. These will be paid according to the usual payment schedule, i.e. 50% on signature and 50% on acceptance and subject to rewrites and revisions.

Script fees for this twelve month training period will be paid on a favoured nations basis.

The BBC will have the option to request that writers commit to a further 12 months (on first call to the BBC) with a number of commissioned scripts to be guaranteed.

Script fees for this second 12 month period would be paid at the writer’s individual rate.

The BBC reserves the right to cancel their agreement with the writer at any time but does not expect to recoup any monies already paid out.

Timetable


Applications to be received by May 15th 2006

Selection process and interviews Mid June/July 2006

Final selection mid July 2006

Course to begin in September 2006


Selection Criteria

It is essential that you have had a television or radio drama or a short film (not a student film) produced, or a theatre piece performed professionally.

You must be able to demonstrate a passion for television drama series like EastEnders, Holby City, Casualty and Doctors.

You must have good interpersonal and communication skills with which to establish and maintain creative working relationships.

You must have resilience and stamina to sustain writing performance when working under pressure and to tight deadlines.

Application Process

You will need to fill in an application form online and send in the post a sample of your writing with proof that it has been broadcast, produced or performed professionally.

The closing date for applications is May 15th 2006.


Please post your sample of writing to BBC Recruitment, MC2 A4, Media Centre, 201 Wood Lane, London W12 7TQ ensuring that Ref: 81588 - BBC Drama Series Writers Academy 2006 is clearly written on the envelope and work itself.

Please note that applications received without a sample of your writing and proof of its broadcast will not be considered.

You must fill in our online application form. Candidates who submit their writing sample without filling in the form will not be considered.

The sample of writing you provide us with can not be returned to you, therefore please do not send us original copies.

Due to the anticipated high level of interest in this opportunity, we can not provide feedback on the work you submit.

This is to confirm that all programme ideas submitted by you are in relation to this BBC application and any and all rights that may exist in and to such programme ideas remain vested in you. The programme ideas you submit will be discussed within the BBC only in relation to this application and with the parties necessary to consider such an application. You understand and acknowledge that from time to time the BBC may produce programmes which bear similarities to your idea and other ideas and such similarities are coincidental and usual in the course of television production and do not give rise to any claim of any type whatsoever against the BBC.

The course is a joint venture between BBC Drama, BBC Training and Development and BBC Writersroom.

s://jobs.bbc.co.uk/JobPortal/Search/vacancy.aspx?id=8298 (https://jobs.bbc.co.uk/JobPortal/Search/vacancy.aspx?id=8298)

endless rewrite
05-02-2006, 06:26 PM
whoops - don't know why it is all underlined, the link is:

https://jobs.bbc.co.uk/JobPortal/Search/vacancy.aspx?id=8298

English Dave
05-07-2006, 07:58 PM
That my friends, is an incredibly good deal. Not many UK writers get guarantees apart from the most experienced, and NONE get a salary.

Those four commissions are worth around £30K to a new writer. About $50K of your Yankee dollars.

Personally, I'm a little concerned that we'll end up with a lot of BBC writing clones. It is an incredible amout of work so you'll have little time for letting your imagination flow. Each of those shows is very different. And - can change in tone and writer expectation very quickly depending on how long the Exec producer lasts.

So it's good for a writer trying to break in as it is very difficult to get on these shows otherwise. [doctors excluded]

Long term ? I'm not so sure it's a good thing. To my mind trying to train people to write for four different shows en bloc? There's just something about it that doesn't sit right with me.

clockwork
05-07-2006, 08:42 PM
'Doctors' has long been a sort of experimental army proving ground where the BBC test out new writers, producers directors, cast and crew. The fact that it's a recurring daily drama is really just a technicality. I can totally understand why someone would want to get into writing the show if they're into the money and aren't really interested in developing their own spec work - gotta pay the bills, right? But personally I can't imagine a more bland show to write for. I just don't think I have it in me to write about an old woman who falls down the stairs after being told repeatedly to get a stair-lift, set against the background of some nothing sub-plot surrounding Mac, his mad wife and doing things a 'certain way' at the office.

Incidentally, I believe in order to get on this writers' academy you need to have a broadcast credit so it's not like it's even open to unknowns.

Flapdoodle
05-07-2006, 09:00 PM
That my friends, is an incredibly good deal. Not many UK writers get guarantees apart from the most experienced, and NONE get a salary.

Those four commissions are worth around £30K to a new writer. About $50K of your Yankee dollars.

Personally, I'm a little concerned that we'll end up with a lot of BBC writing clones. It is an incredible amout of work so you'll have little time for letting your imagination flow. Each of those shows is very different. And - can change in tone and writer expectation very quickly depending on how long the Exec producer lasts.

So it's good for a writer trying to break in as it is very difficult to get on these shows otherwise. [doctors excluded]

Long term ? I'm not so sure it's a good thing. To my mind trying to train people to write for four different shows en bloc? There's just something about it that doesn't sit right with me.

We already have BBC clones - and some of the scripts in the new Dr Who series from the BBC are so bad as to be laughable. The BBC has spent so long producing nothing but Soaps, they seem to be unable to do anything else.

English Dave
05-07-2006, 09:06 PM
We already have BBC clones - and some of the scripts in the new Dr Who series from the BBC are so bad as to be laughable. The BBC has spent so long producing nothing but Soaps, they seem to be unable to do anything else.

I hear ya.

Even Spooks and Hustle descend into soap on too many occasions. But to be honest this is the fault of the producers and script editors more than the writers. A 'more of the same' attitude is pervasive. No one ever got sacked for conforming to the stereotype.

I find much of the drama on the BBC nauseating in it's banality. And this from the broadcaster with the most ability to take risks?

Casualty and Holby are two of their biggest rating shows - Casualty is on it's 21st series!!!! It is easy for the Execs to sit back and say hey Casualty gets 9 million viewers it's a huge success.

Well....no. You have something running 21 years and you keep an audience out of habit not quality. Something actually fresh and good that got 12 million viewers, now that would be a success.

clockwork
05-07-2006, 09:24 PM
The Beeb is positively blind-sighted by ratings, as though they matter in the same way that they do to a channel that needs to attract advertisers. Their shows are desperate to appeal to the broadest audience possible which means stripping them bare of anything resembling good drama or edgy comedy. They've been doing it so long, they don't realise how good they are at it, I mean, the Beeb could water down a bottle of Evian.

Kudos productions for the BBC (Spooks, Hustle, Life on Mars) are largely the exception though the length of time the two have worked together is starting to show as storylines become deliberately controversial (without actually being controversial) or at the other end of it all, so vapid and pedestrian as to make me question why they were comissioned at all. Did anyone see Mayo? I find myself tuning into that show just to see how much worse it's going to get. Bah!

English Dave
05-07-2006, 09:32 PM
Clock you could go through the whole list :) Mayo, Murphy's Law, Mersey Beat,

and that's just the M's !

Who the hell decided we needed another pedestrian cop show with nothing much in the way of an attempt at a gimmick except he has to work with his ex wife?

John Birt introduced a climate of fear at the BBC from which it has never recovered.

John Yorke is now over them like a rash. His soap background will no doubt go down well.

clockwork
05-07-2006, 09:44 PM
My own personal theory about all these friggin' cop shows is that British broadcasters (and let's not forget ITV is as much to blame for this pandemic) assume that it's what audiences want. They get good ratings, nobody complains so let's make more. But I honestly feel that if the Beeb were to have some kind of psychotic episode and commision a British West Wing or Lost or Housewives or any other superior US show and put that on, British audiences would watch it because I truly believe that audiences over here are quite happy to watch anything. As long as it's on TV and it's fairly-well made, we'll watch it with little complaint. They need to take more chances with our money and no, that doesn't mean commissioning some bizarre sitcom and then burying it on BBC Three at one in the morning.

Whatever happened to aspirational drama? That's what makes US shows so successful (amongst other things) the characters are people we admire and would want to be like. Most of the characters on our screens are down-and-outs, working class stiffs, criminals, druggies or just plain boring. The idea being, again, my theory, that British broadcasters believe people tune into shows not to watch people they wish they could be like but to remind themselves that in comparison to the degenerates in Albert Square, their lives aren't so bad after all.

I had a meeting with Kudos just recently and they're very keen on aspirational drama - creating characters and worlds for us to look up to but they seemed to be stifled by the BBC who are terrified of offending someone. They didn't say that because they obviously have a working relationship with them but I definitely got that feeling.

Rant, rant, rant...http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/images/smilies/emoteranting.gif

English Dave
05-07-2006, 10:06 PM
I had that same meeting at Kudos!

I also had it at Shed, World Productions, Sony, Talkbalk, Freemantle, ........:D


They all seem to be preaching the same ' we want to do.....but we have to do.....' mantra.

clockwork
05-07-2006, 10:31 PM
I had that same meeting at Kudos!

I also had it at Shed, World Productions, Sony, Talkbalk, Freemantle, ........:D

They all seem to be preaching the same ' we want to do.....but we have to do.....' mantra.

And there you have it. What can I say? Been listening to a lot of music lately.

English Dave
05-07-2006, 10:34 PM
And there you have it. What can I say? Been listening to a lot of music lately.

Yup, I come home from a meeting and stick Leonard Cohen on. Strangely uplifting.

dpaterso
05-07-2006, 10:52 PM
Just asking, did you guys see Funland shown on BBC3? It's the only series I can recall in recent years that compelled me to check when the next episode was on and make sure my backside was in front of the telly from opening credits to end credits. I think my house caught fire once but damned if I was moving from the couch. The BBC sure as hell got that one wrong, totally contrary to their objectives.

-Derek
My Web Page - naked women, bestial sex, and whopping big lies. (http://hometown.aol.co.uk/DPaterson57)
Stop reading this and get some writing done instead.

clockwork
05-07-2006, 10:55 PM
Didn't see funland, dpat. What was it about?

Must say, I really liked Broken News (I think) which was put together like someone was channel-hopping between stations. Also quite enjoyed (again, I think) Don't Watch That, Watch This. Though I only saw the last episode.

Thought Look Around You was good but like most of these quite good shows, they do have that identifable BBC 'no sharp edges' stamp on them.

English Dave
05-07-2006, 11:00 PM
Got me beat on Funland too Dpat. Maybe the lack of marketing is indicative?

Liked 'Blackpool' Liked...........I got nothing.

dpaterso
05-07-2006, 11:26 PM
Sorry you both missed it! Usually BBC3 shows are repeated weeks later on BBC1 or BBC2 as you know, but this one hasn't appeared yet. Maybe they're adopting a hardline approach, go digital or else miss the entertainment?

Funland is a disturbingly funny new thriller — the result of a collaboration between BAFTA award-winning EastEnders writer, Simon Ashdown, and Jeremy Dyson, multi-award-winning writer of The League of Gentlemen.

Set in Blackpool over one long weekend, Funland plunges you into the black heart of the resort town, bringing the saucy seaside postcard screaming into the twenty-first century.

Join the characters on a mysterious journey where nothing is quite what it seems:

Carter Krantz (Daniel Mays) arrives in Blackpool to avenge the death of his mother. Without a penny to his name and carrying only a fragment of paper containing the words Ambrose Chapel, he is sucked into the most disturbing of mysteries.

More at http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcthree/tv/funland/

An EastEnders writer! Who would have thought?

First ep. script is available at BBC Writersroom if anyone's interested, http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/insight/script_archive.shtml

I liked Blackpool too, to an extent, everyone seemed to be having such a good time, but the singing/miming, shudder, bad idea, bad bad idea. Wasn't it voted worst drama of the year on the BBC website? Not entirely fair, had its moments, but, like I say...

-Derek
My Web Page - naked women, bestial sex, and whopping big lies. (http://hometown.aol.co.uk/DPaterson57)
Stop reading this and get some writing done instead.

English Dave
05-07-2006, 11:40 PM
Sorry you both missed it! Usually BBC3 shows are repeated weeks later on BBC1 or BBC2 as you know, but this one hasn't appeared yet. Maybe they're adopting a hardline approach, go digital or else miss the entertainment?



More at http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcthree/tv/funland/

An EastEnders writer! Who would have thought?


-Derek
My Web Page - naked women, bestial sex, and whopping big lies. (http://hometown.aol.co.uk/DPaterson57)
Stop reading this and get some writing done instead.

Not another writer. Because if you can survive East Enders you can survive anything.

clockwork
05-07-2006, 11:48 PM
I suppose Blackpool was worthy for its... truly bizarre approach to things. If that can get made then surely anything can. But I suppose it was comissioned because it combined two winning elements - singing and melodrama. All it was missing was some sort of public vote sponsored by 02 and they'd have owned everyone.

English Dave
05-08-2006, 01:18 AM
I suppose Blackpool was worthy for its... truly bizarre approach to things. If that can get made then surely anything can. But I suppose it was comissioned because it combined two winning elements - singing and melodrama. All it was missing was some sort of public vote sponsored by 02 and they'd have owned everyone.

I'd like to think it was a writer who had proved his bollocks, so had enough juice to counteract most of the dickhead's requirements and know how to do something good.

endless rewrite
05-08-2006, 01:51 AM
Yikes

I just thought somebody might want to enter, I don't think I do, but you never know. Now i feel like I've wandered into an extended episode of Grumpy Old Men.

clockwork
05-08-2006, 01:54 AM
Hey. Either complain about something or get out. You're killing the mood here.

English Dave
05-08-2006, 02:10 AM
Hey. Either complain about something or get out. You're killing the mood here.

:)

endless rewrite
05-08-2006, 03:34 AM
Ok, I do have a complaint:

What I don't get is why the emphasis on soaps in the BBC Writers Academy, why not encourage writers to develop original ideas? I would feel more more like applying if that was the case. I read that last year they had over 600 applicants so they won't miss mine but still unrealistic or not that's what I want to do.

dpaterso
05-08-2006, 03:48 AM
Nothing fills a schedule more easily or cheaply than a soap opera that uses the same sets over and over? As opposed to a relatively expensive one-off special. Guessing.

Oh, and I thought the Beeb made a great job of Casanova the series. Really ought to mention that. That man Tennant again, and Russell T. Davies too. Shame they're making a bollocks of Doctor Who.

-Derek
My Web Page - naked women, bestial sex, and whopping big lies. (http://hometown.aol.co.uk/DPaterson57)
Stop reading this and get some writing done instead.

English Dave
05-08-2006, 03:58 AM
Ok, I do have a complaint:

What I don't get is why the emphasis on soaps in the BBC Writers Academy, why not encourage writers to develop original ideas? I would feel more more like applying if that was the case. I read that last year they had over 600 applicants so they won't miss mine but still unrealistic or not that's what I want to do.
I totally agree with you. Dross will apply and dross will get the job. And the cycle will continue.

clockwork
05-08-2006, 05:20 AM
That man Tennant again, and Russell T. Davies too. Shame they're making a bollocks of Doctor Who.

Did you mean for that to rhyme? Because it totally does.


The BBC's soaps are their crown jewels. And I suppose it's fair enough considering the length of time they've been on air and their eduring popularity but there are plenty of people out there (me) who really aren't accommodated for by the Beeb. There's not much of anything they have on that I enjoy. Incidentally, a guy I know wanted to make the move into writing for soaps because he's not bothered about the creativity, he just wants to make a steady income and it took him a year to be accepted to write an episode of Doctors. A whole frickin year of introductions, meetings and back and forths before the glory of penning a lunchtime non-soap. It's easier to get into the security services than to write for Aunty.