Taking opportunities

“Sometimes opportunities float right past your nose. Work hard, apply yourself, and be ready. When an opportunity comes you can grab it.”
Julie Andrews

So you’ve now validated your comedy creation. You’ve written and maybe performed jokes, sketches or short scenes and they’ve been positively received.  Now it’s time to show off.

This stage is about making a real impact, and there are a number of ways to do it.  Here we’re going to look at:

1. Opportunities
2. Production Companies
3. Doing it Yourself

Opportunities

It says a lot about the world of comedy at this moment that there are so many organisations offering opportunities for comedy creators who have created something to move on to the next stage.  They usually come in the form of competitions, open submissions and festivals.

Our advice is to make the comedy YOU want to.  If one of these opportunities suits that, then perfect, but don’t base your creative decisions around entering a competition. There are other ways to make an impact, and if you’re compromising what you want to create to make it fit with a particular opportunity, then you are getting distracted from the main aim.

What opportunities are out there?

Some channels are actively looking for submissions of scripts or videos.  Or more accurately – they are looking for creators to show off their skills.

This approach is used both by traditional channels e.g. BBC (BBC Writersroom), Channel 4 (C4 Blaps), and new online channels e.g. Amazon Studios. They are looking for a submission that gives them a sense of your style and ability so they can identify people who they want to work with. They are unlikely to develop your specific project, though it’s not impossible.

These opportunities are fiercely competitive, but the prospect of working for one of these channels is a real draw because they are offering to invest in you as a creator – and if you follow the steps in this guide, you’ve got a huge jump on the competition.

We’ve spent time speaking to former winners and to the organisers of these opportunities, and there are subtle differences in what channels are looking for. Make sure you do a bit of research if you’re going to enter.  Stick with us, we can help with that.

Don’t I just have to send my script to production companies now?

This is a waste of time.  With one very notable exception…

Most production companies do not accept unsolicited submissions.  No matter what your approach to delivering it to their desk (concealing it in a box of doughnuts or wrapping it round a brick and hurling it through the reception window) you aren’t going to get the result you want.

Nb. Surely the next logical step is to try and find an agent? We don’t think so. Agents are looking for creators with a portfolio of completed projects. Concentrate on building that up first… or you could just type out some very polite rejection letters, address them to yourself and still save a lot of time.

Quite simply, the majority of production companies have decided that it’s not worth their time reading unsolicited scripts – so it’s not worth your time sending them.

Now for the exception…

Wildseed Studios want your submissions.  They have obtained funding to make a substantial number of £10,000 investments into comedy ideas, developing them for the right format and channel.

You bring the ideas, they help you develop them.

If you have an idea that has received positive feedback and you want to take it on, we strongly recommend contacting Wildseed.  Here’s why:

1. They accept submissions in any format.  Idea outlines, scripts, monologues, short videos… pretty much anything that demonstrates what you want to create
2. They look at and give feedback to EVERY submission.
3. They take the financial risk involved in development, and then share the profits fairly (rather than the traditional model where you might get paid up front, and then see little of the fruits of success).

Wildseed is a company built to help new creators.  As we keep stressing, you don’t need all the skills, you need creativity and a willingness to learn.

To hear more about Wildseed, check out this podcast with co-founder Jesse Cleverly.

So what about other production companies who accept scripts?

There are some companies who say they will take your script, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you should be sending it their way.

If you want to go down the route of reaching out to a production company, know why you are doing it.  A good reason would be that you have created something that is in the style of a show they have done in the past.  If you think there’s a perfect fit, then it could be worth trying to get their attention. That can be a far more fruitful approach than a blunderbuss firing of your script towards anything resembling a producer.

It involves a bit of homework.

1. Look at the company’s previous shows and dig up as much information as you can on how they came to pick it up and who was involved. This will give you clues as to who you should try to make contact with, and how you should approach it.

2. Demonstrate appeal.  A production company has limited resources and has to choose projects that it can execute well and will be commercially viable. If your project is in the style they’ve done before then you’re halfway there, but if you can also prove that your idea has already been well received, then you have a chance of getting their attention. If you’re following this guide then you’ve already put it in front of people and got some feedback – use that to your advantage. Remember that the most compelling information to a production company is audience feedback.

3. Choose the right format. Recognise where you are as an inexperienced creator. Production companies are not looking for people who are adept at structuring comedy shows. They have people with the skills to do that. They are looking for creative people who can bring new ideas and characters to them. So don’t delay yourself by sending in a full pilot script. You need to demonstrate your characters and premise in the most effective way you can. We return to the example of People Just Do Nothing, a show that existed first as friends filming themselves playing characters they created. Jon Petrie, the producer at Roughcut, didn’t need any other persuasion to take it from there. Roughcut provided the technical experience to turn it into a sitcom. So be a creator, not a scriptwriter.

There’s a lot of work here, that could still yield diddle – squat, so make sure you’re approaching a production company for the right reasons.

Open Submissions

This is where existing shows, channels or publications invite creators to send them material.  These come in various forms but are particularly good for creators looking to write short form topical content.

You won’t make a career solely from submitting your content in this way, but at this stage it’s a great way to learn, get some credits to your name and get paid for creating. Here are a few examples:

Newsthump – a spoof online newspaper looking for articles

Newsjack – a satirical radio show looking for sketches and one-liners

Sketch, Please – a monthly sketch podcast that performs submitted material

To make the most of these you need to be submitting regularly and paying close attention to the sort of submissions that are successful. For an insight into what it’s like entering, check out this excellent post by Simon Miller – Confessions of a Newsjack addict.

There are also open submission opportunities for comedy videos such as Funny or Die (check out your previous email) and Whohaha.com, which focuses on showcasing female talent. You don’t necessarily have to display superb production values to get your work on these channels, so if you are inexperienced in creating videos don’t be put off.

Other sites like Short of the Week, an online channel that showcases the best short film submissions, are not specifically comedy focussed. These are great avenues for your video, but will expect a higher quality of production.

Competitions/Festivals

Sketch writing contests, Sitcom pilot competitions, comedy film award, new comedy performer prizes…

Just a few of the options available to creators and they are increasing in number. Competitions are extremely alluring because the prize is usually something big – financial reward, access to industry contacts or even a route straight to production.

But if you are one of the 99.9% who don’t win… nothing.

(Ok well, not strictly true, some of these competitions will provide feedback for your entry, but you normally have to pay a premium on top of your entry fee)

Would we encourage you to enter these competitions?

Only when it involves creating something you would be working on anyway.

You just have to ensure that the carrot being dangled doesn’t distract you from the process of creating, getting feedback and exposure, learning, and creating again.  If the competition offers something that fits into your cycle, then take advantage! Otherwise it’s going to be a time-consuming distraction.

And remember if you are early in your creator journey, you won’t have reached your peak, yet you will be competing against others who have. That’s why your focus should be on our creator journey – it is the quickest route to making an impact.

The short form competitions are likely to be more useful because that is the content you should be creating at this stage. Sketchwriting competitions are particularly good. London Sketchfest run a Sketch scribe competition each year whereby you can write sketches to be performed by a super troupe of performers (incidentally 6 of the 14 scripts on the longlist came from our community this year). Similarly Dan Tambling ran 2 series of 12 Sketches in a House where creators could submit scripts to be performed and get a cash prize.

Sitcom Trials is a very interesting UK competition (won this year by Comedy Crowd member Vanessa-Faye Stanley). The idea is that creators submit a 10 minute script, concluding with a cliff-hanger, and then a 2-3 minute ‘pay-off. Winning scripts are performed live in regional heats, and the winners are chosen by the audience.  This format is an ideal step for creators who have developed their skills writing short-form and now want to move towards writing longer content.

In summary…

There are lots of exciting opportunities. Identify the ones that help you with the stage you’re at. Don’t be tempted to change course because of a big prize.

And keep an eye out for various other opportunities that pop-up with a focus on development – mentorships, intern roles, free coaching sessions. Stick with the Comedy Crowd and we make sure you won’t miss a thing.

Doing it Yourself

As we said in the “create & collaborate” section, collaboration is key to creating comedy. This is especially true if you are taking the route of making comedy yourself rather than approaching an established channel or production company.

The obvious advantages of doing it yourself are that you have greater control and you learn new creative skills. It’s going to be hard work, but incredibly rewarding. To get an insight into what it’s like, check out this post from Comedy Crowd members Amelia Comedy on making their web series.

This is made possible by the wealth of information and training available online to enable you to learn the basics of filming, recording and editing (check out ‘This Guy Edits’ Youtube channel as a fantastic example).

More and more creators are making their own comedy and building an audience themselves, taking advantage of digital media channels that allow you to put your stuff out in the world. There’s so much we could say about this, but here’s 2 key things to bear in mind:

1. Know your audience

The biggest mistake creators make, apart from not getting feedback early enough, is not really understanding their audience. You’re target audience won’t just find you because you happened to make something they should like and put it on YouTube.

You need to understand where your audience hangs out and what they search for, listen to, read, and watch. Then make sure you go to that place and give them what they want. 

2. Build a catalogue of tested material

When fans do find your video or podcast they need the chance to get hooked and get to know you straight away, without having to wait weeks for the next episode. Give them this chance.

After you have gone through the process of testing your characters and concept, build up a catalogue of material for fans to consume, being sure to keep testing each time with an experimental target audience. Then, when you have enough content that you have tested and are confident is good, that’s when you start promoting it.

And that’s it! So many opportunities just waiting for you to take them.

That was our overview of the creator journey and how you should approach each stage to develop your comedy skills. There’s a lot of information, and much to think about. That’s why we developed the 4 stage journey to help you piece it all together in a simple way, and focus on the most important stage to you at any point in time.