I just wanted to follow up and clarify a few key points after announcing changes to the Scriptroom submission system in the Christmas blog. We’ve had lots of comments posted, so thanks, it’s always good to hear your thoughts.
The unsolicited system has never been fixed and is always responding to changes in the broadcast landscape and also to BBC Writersroom priorities. At the end of the year it’s important for us to review what we‘ve done and explore whether we have made the best use of our resources and more importantly created the most effective system for all the writers we don’t know across the UK. The BBC Writersroom is a small team and as you are aware, like all areas of the BBC and public services, it faces a tough financial climate, so we are constantly having to examine our practices. However the other thing to stress is that alongside any internal BBC opportunities we continue to host those from across the industry and provide a unique service to all writers by posting such a rich diversity of content and opportunity.
The e-submission system is new and the 2013-14 year was a pilot one for us as we tried a new approach, breaking the year down to genre based opportunities. In retrospect this was too much, alongside all the other targeted opportunities (Alfred Bradley Bursary Award, The Tony Doyle, The Wales Drama Award, The Writer’s Prize, Craic Off and Writersroom10). It gave us very little time, and you the writer little time to spend on your script. We wanted to create a system with more time for us to follow up on the really good scripts we receive, and look at how best we can support the writers who obviously demonstrate a real talent.
The simplest option was to break the year into two key windows Drama and Comedy and allow you the freedom to submit your script whether it’s for film or TV, Children’s TV or Radio to the appropriate window.
For those of you concerned about comedy drama we have very clear guidelines on this. No-one is going to be penalised for submitting the work into the wrong opportunity, but a clear rule of thumb is that a Comedy Drama in the Comedy window will be a 30 minute script- think Rev, The Wrong Mans (Series 1) a script going into the Drama window will be either 45 minutes (Radio) or 60 minutes (TV) in length. But really the debate in the industry is it’s either a great drama with funny moments in it or a great comedy proposition with a dramatic arc. There is no department in the BBC for comedy drama, the bottom line is if the script is good we are not going to ignore it, we will seek it out.
Read Kate's previous blog, including lots of useful advice on submitting to our Script Room
Find out the Script Room dates for 2015
Read the Terms & Conditions for Script Room
Medium & Format Guidelines
