Give me Direction II

After the success of last year's event, Bord Scannán na hÉireann/the Irish Film Board announced yesterday the return of the screenwriting event Give Me Direction, which will be run in association with the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival.

This year the focus of the conference will be on interrogating the topic of comedy in filmmaking. The two day event will be held on Thursday 17th and Friday 18th June in Dublin.

Further details of the event and the release date for tickets will be announced shortly.

Big 5 Comedy Award

Northern Ireland Screen reports that the The John Brabourne Big 5 Comedy Award is a new comedy writing award to write a comedy short film script funded by the Cinema and TV Benevolent Fund, The UK Film Council and Working Title Films.

You can apply under three criteria - under-represented groups, disadvantaged individuals or transitional talent. This is to encourage new voices in cinema and to help those in need of opportunity.

Five short-listed scripts will be judged by a panel made up of:

* Kenton Allen, Big Talk Productions
* Dan Mazer, Oscar nominated writer of Borat and Bruno
* Sarah Farrell, Comedy Central
* Amelia Granger, Working Title
* Sally Caplan, the UK Film Council

The winning script will receive £1,000 as a cash prize from Working Title Films and will be made into a 35mm film directed by a well known director.

The first criteria applies to all new writers who are women, ethnic minorities, writers from the regions or any other under-represented group.

The second refers to new writers with a personal disadvantage such as long term sickness or financial disadvantage.

Transitional talent refers to writers who have worked in other disciplines such as stand up, theatre or radio who have not yet had the opportunity to work in cinema. TV writers with shared credits also qualify under this criteria, but not those who have been sole commissioned writers on shows.

All scripts must be received by Monday 22nd March 2010.

Advice for Radio Comedy

Anyone interested in writing for radio comedy will find it useful to read The Stage's article, "Waves of Thought: Harry Venning on writing radio comedy".

Harry Venning has written Clare in the Community a radio sitcom for the BBC, and his new show, Sneakiepeeks has just launched on BBC Radio 4.

My friend Anil Gupta, an award-winning writer and producer in both mediums, and a man who has shamelessly stolen lines from Clare in the Community for his own scripts, once gave me the best definition of sitcom - telling a story through jokes. With more naturalistic comedy in vogue, the joke is currently regarded as something of a debased currency, but I personally feel that nothing beats a good punchline. Character, plot, atmosphere and story arcs can all be revealed through jokes. The trick is finding the right balance, so that they complement rather than dominate each other. It’s also labour intensive, but ultimately more satisfying.

At which point it is worth mentioning the conventional wisdom prevalent amongst Radio 4's light entertainment department regarding the scheduling of comedy shows. The 11.30am slot has what they call a "lean to" audience, which imagines a listener with his/her ear to the radio, attention fully engaged, apart from the quilt he/she is darning. Such listeners can cope with more complicated, plot-driven comedies. At 6.30pm, the listener is besieged by a multitude of domestic chores and distractions, which limits their concentration to the occasional quick-fire joke, funny voice or impersonation. Which means sketch shows.

Before embarking upon a radio comedy script, it is worth considering this distinction and then ignoring it completely, as it is bollocks. Funny is funny at any time of the day.

The BBC Writersroom has a script online of Venning's series five episode, "Name Calling", from Clare in the Community.

Dialogue Writing

FÁS Screen Training Ireland is running a one and a half day Dialogue Writing course starting on December 17th in Galway. The tutors are Bobette Buster and Iain Morris.

Participant Profile:
This course is designed for professional television scriptwriters, screenwriters, script editors and development executives working in the Irish film and television industry.

Course Profile:
The purpose of this course is to explore the craft of dialogue writing across all genres in film and television.

Day One:
Tutor Bobette Buster will give participants an overview of the dialogue writing and editing process, and provide participants with tips and techniques that will hone their dialogue writing skills. The course will cover the following:

• Dialogue where, when, how, why, what for?
• Writing to reveal subtext
• Writing to reveal character
• Tone
• Dialogue to advance plot
• Combining dialogue with visuals

Day Two (morning session):
Iain Morris will speak about his approach to dialogue writing for comedy. This will include capturing the voice of the character, timing in comedy writing and working with a co-writer. This course is in association with the Galway Film Centre.

The course costs €100, and details on how to apply are on the web site.

Don't Make Me Laugh

The Irish Film Board has announced that it is organising a panel discussion at the Dingle Film Festival called Don't Make Me Laugh, which will explore the art of writing comedy for the screen

Don't Make Me Laugh will be chaired by IFB Development Executive Andrew Meehan and panelists will include Emmy Award winning screenwriter Marc Flanagan; stage, radio, screen and TV writer Pearse Elliot, (Man About Dog); and producer Ned Dowd. The seminar will explore the challenges of writing comedy for the screen, different ways of developing character, the role of TV in developing talent as well as looking at what makes comedy travel.

Marc Flanagan is a two-time Emmy award-winner, writer and producer of the very funny Tracy Ullman Show while Pearse Elliot wrote and directed the Irish comedy box office success Man About Dog as well as The Mighty Celt. Ned Dowd is producer of a number of comedies including Shanghai Noon and The Wonderboys. The panel will take place in the Festival Marquee, Garden Café on Friday 10th September.

Following on the theme of comedies there will be a special screening of award winning Irish short comedies on Sunday 13th September at 11am in The Phoenix Cinema. The mix of animated and live action shorts include Granny O'Grimm's Sleeping Beauty, Whatever Turns You On and The Wednesdays.

Newsjack Seeks Writers

BBC Radio 7 has launched a new topical sketch show called Newsjack which seeks to scrutinise the news, views and issues of the day via comedy.

It is seeking new writers for material for the show.

The pilot aired last Thursday 4 June at 11pm, and has been commissioned for an initial six-week run. Each episode can be replayed for a week after broadcast via iPlayer.

Sketch submissions for the show must arrive each Monday by midday.

Further information on the programme and its submission process is available from the web site.

Comedy Busary Win

The Irish Times reports that the first annual Dermot Morgan Foundation Bursary has been awarded to Diarmuid O'Brien - an IPSG member - for his comedy script about the workings of the Irish secret service.

The €5,000 award, in honour of the late Scrap Saturday and Father Ted comedian, was presented to its inaugural recipient, Diarmuid O'Brien, from Co Cork, in Dublin at the weekend.

The bursary is intended to encourage and support Irish comedy writing talent. A script and series proposal, based on his application, will be developed over the coming months. "He's a bit of a dark comic, and is clearly talented, so it's great to be able to give him the bursary to allow him take time off to develop the idea," said Don Morgan, Dermot's son.

Linehan Bags BAFTA

Irish screenwriter Graham Linehan last night won the BAFTA Television Award for Situation Comedy for The IT Crowd series, which he created and wrote.

Irish Comedy Wins Jury Prize

The Irish Film Board reports that the Irish dark comedy A Film With Me In It, which was written by and starred Mark Doherty, and was directed by Ian Fitzgibbon, has won the Special Jury Prize at the 28th International Istanbul Film Festival at the weekend. Fitzgibbon was in Istanbul to accept the award on behalf of the producers, cast and crew.

BBC College of Comedy

The BBC is looking for comedy writers to apply for a place in its College of Comedy.

The scheme will run for 12 months, and six successful applicants (writing pairs will be treated as a single applicant) will be attached to an existing production, and will also be mentored in the creation of original work.

The scheme is open to writers of half hour narrative comedy, and to sketch writers from the United Kingdom or the Republic of Ireland.

Applicants will have had their work broadcast; had work commissioned for development by a broadcaster or production company; or had their work performed professionally, either as a writer or a writer/performer. Applications which do not meet these criteria will not be considered.

Writers applying to the College should submit the first ten pages of a narrative comedy script, or a portfolio of no more than six sketches, together with a CV.

Applicants may indicate in their application whether a DVD or CD of their work is available, which may be requested during the selection process. They should not be sent unless requested. Links to online examples of work should be included in the CV.

Only one entry per applicant will be considered, and the deadline for submissions is noon on 24 April.

A short-list of no more than 12 writers will be invited for interview in the week of May 25. Applicants will be notified as to whether or not they have been successful by the end of the week.

The successful writers will attend a residential workshop in the course of the programme, be attached to a production (with expenses paid), and be mentored in the development of an original script, which will be showcased at the end of the scheme, and for which a fee will be paid.

As a condition of the scheme, original work by the writers must be submitted to the BBC under a 'first-look' deal, which will run for 12 months from the scheme's end in April 2010. The BBC undertakes to decide within three months of submission whether or not it wishes to commission the work.

Submissions should be sent to CollegeofComedy@bbc.co.uk, which will be acknowledged by e-mail. If candidates have not heard from the college by 18 May 2009, then they will not have been shortlisted. It will not be possible to enter into correspondence in relation to individual entries.

Linehan up for BAFTA

The full list of nominees for the 2009 British Academy Television Awards has been posted. The ceremony will take place in London on Sunday 26 April.

Irish screenwriter Graham Linehan's show The IT Crowd has received a nomination in the Best Situation Comedy category. This year Linehan has already won the IFTA for Best Television Script and an International Emmy Award for Best Comedy for his Channel 4 series.

7 on 7

The BBC Writersroom is looking for writers for a new topical sketch show, called 7 on 7, that will be transmitted on BBC Radio 7 in May 2009.

The show gets comic mileage from the news on each of the last seven days - political, cultural, sports, and trivia. We'll take one day at a time and examine what happened on that day. Or we might use the events on a particular day to talk about a related topic. If a story develops over the week then we can revisit it in the show.

We'll have a regular host and a cast of performers who can recreate the names who've made the news in the last week and play the ones that we invent.

The tone will be lively, satirical, and distinctly irreverent.

The show will be thirty minutes long and initially have a run of ten weeks. We want an array of writers who can extract the maximum comic potential out of what's happened in the news and put some satirical spin on events. We'll use some established writers but we're particularly interested in introducing new writers to radio comedy.

Deadline: 10am, Friday 27 February 2009

Successful applicants will be invited to a masterclass with David Mitchell on Monday 9th March 2009.

Information on how to apply is on the web site.

IT up for Emmy

The Stage reports that the short-list for the International Emmy nominations has been released.

The International Emmys acknowledge excellence in international television programming outside of the USA.

The IT Crowd, created and written by Irish screenwriter Graham Linehan, has been nominated for best comedy.

4Talent 2008

Channel 4 is once again on the hunt for new talent with its 4Talent Awards 2008. There are 20 categories, and applicants have to pitch for one slot. Of specific interest to our members are:

• Dramatic Writing (Required: up to 3 scripts + 50 word synopses)
• Comedy Writing (Required: up to 3 scripts + 50 word synopses)
• Off-Air Radio (Required: audio showreel (up to 10min); Optional: up to 3 scripts + 50-word synopses)

The main restriction is that all entrants must be 30 years old or under on 31/12/2008, and resident in the UK.

Further information and entry forms can be downloaded from the web site. The closing date for applications is August 29, 2008.

New Irish Comedy Sought

IFTN reports that Irish producer Adrian Devane of 2000AD Productions is looking for new Irish comedy scripts.

"What we are looking for are commercial, funny, character driven scripts," says Devane. "We have been approached by a well known studio in Los Angeles to find and co-produce a great comedy script by an Irish based writer. I have read over sixty scripts in the last four years from Irish based writers, three were good, and none of them are writing good comedy."

The new comedy scripts should be copyright protected by the writer, written in the proper script format and be between 90 and 100 pages. The films should be funny, commercial and aimed towards a production budget between $6-8million. Devane suggests titles like 'Juno', 'Little Miss Sunshine', 'The Wedding Crashers', 'American Pie' and 'The Wedding Singer' as a guide to the type of films he is looking to produce.

"If anyone feels that they can't write a script but have a good idea then put a synopsis or treatment together and send that in but we are more looking for scripts that are fairly close to shooting," states Devane. "The best advice I can give is to ask yourself three questions; 'Will your script or idea make money to cover the cost of its production? Would you go and see it? Does it make you laugh when you read it? If you are unsure of any of those three answers then forget it, you are in the wrong business."

More Edinburgh Fringe

The Stage reports that four of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe's venues (Assembly, Gilded Balloon, Pleasance, and Underbelly) are going to establish the Edinburgh Comedy Festival to run alongside the larger Fringe programme.

Anthony Alderson, director of Pleasance Theatre explained: "The four venues have always worked very closely together in Edinburgh. The Edinburgh Comedy Festival is the next logical step forward for us - we believe that we are stronger together than we are apart, that we can market our programmes more effectively and help attract new audiences to Edinburgh."

The Edinburgh Comedy Festival as a new brand will present more than 250 comedy shows at this year's festival, playing to an estimated audience of around 550,000 people. The event, which organisers claim will be the largest comedy festival in the world, will have its own brochure, with a print run of 400,000 copies, although shows will still be listed as part of the wider Fringe programme.

William Burdett-Coutts, director of Assembly said: "This is my 30th year on the Fringe and in that time I have seen comedy grow from a few shows to become a major part of what takes place in Edinburgh. I think this is a welcome development that will give comedy the platform it deserves whilst also being a magnificent way of improving marketing for our collective programmes and the festival as a whole."

College of Comedy

The Stage reports that the BBC is establishing a new college of comedy in which six writers will be mentored by established comedy writers: Peep Show creators Jesse Armstrong and Sam Bain, I'm Alan Partridge producer and writer Armando Iannucci, comedy duo David Mitchell and Robert Webb, and Men Behaving Badly creator Simon Nye.

Other established comedy writers set to take part in the project, which has been funded by BBC Worldwide, include Porridge creators Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais, The League of Gentlemen's Jeremy Dyson and Ian Brown and James Hendrie, who have worked on five series of My Family.

Former BBC creative head of mainstream comedy Micheal Jacob is running the scheme and said: "We hope to find people who are going to make our team-written shows better, and also writers with original voices who can develop their own shows. We also hope that people will like the BBC enough to bring us their work in the future."

The BBC said the scheme is designed for people who "have already begun their careers, and can demonstrate some achievement", such as broadcast material, a script commission or performance of their work.

Applicants are now being invited to submit the first ten pages of a half-hour script, or six sketches by the closing date of April 14.

Twelve writers will be interviewed, and the successful six will be announced on May 16. They will then be matched with productions, and guaranteed a script commission.

Applicants should email their submission and a writing CV to CollegeofComedy@bbc.co.uk

Mobile Comedy

The Stage reports that ITV has created 50 two-minute episodes of a new comedy series called The Gym specifically for mobile phone platforms.

The Gym is being made by multi-platform production company Hub TV and is designed to be watched on all mobile phone networks through ITV Mobile, the broadcaster's mobile portal that can be accessed on all WAP-enabled phones.

The new series will be available for download to mobile phones daily from Monday, and a week later it will appear on ITV's website.

dumbFUNDED Comedy

The dumbFUNDED Theatre in the UK is running a comedy sketch writing competition on the theme of "Town & Country".

Comedy writing star James Henry (writer - Green Wing, Smack The Pony, ManStrokeWoman) is judging entries. Actors will then perform winning sketches as part of THE DUMBFUNDED COMEDY SHOWCASE!, a live comedy extravaganza, in Falmouth, Cornwall in early March 2008. Sketch writers for shows like this have gone on to win international competitions and worldwide acclaim!

Winning writers have the chance to direct and workshop their scripts with local actors. Bring the best of your vision from script to stage. Winners will also receive a free DVD of the show.

The deadline for receipt of entries is the 4th of January, 2008.