Shoulder exercises suck. But as you can probably tell from the title, the competitions keep coming thick and fast.
Click here for all the relevant details.
Deadline is Monday 2nd July
Good luck
Showing posts with label Coming Up. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Coming Up. Show all posts
Thursday, 3 May 2012
Thursday, 16 June 2011
Coming Up 2012 - Deadline Extended!
Just in case you thought you missed it - the deadline is now Tuesday 28th June
Full details can be found here
Full details can be found here
Wednesday, 18 May 2011
Coming Up 2012
It's that time of year again:
Coming Up 2012
COMING UP is currently the only talent scheme in the UK where emerging filmmakers have the opportunity to make an authored drama with a guaranteed network broadcast. Now in its tenth year, Channel 4 and Touchpaper Television continue their commitment to innovation, experimentation and new voices.
Commissioned by Channel 4 and produced by Touchpaper Television, part of the Zodiak Media Group, the aim of the series is to create eye-catching, innovative, challenging films.
APPLICATIONS ARE NOW OPEN FOR COMING UP 2012
We will make 7 films for a half-hour Channel 4 slot.
What do we look for?
Bold, original and surprising ideas with strong voices – unafraid of ambition, wit, urgency and fearless entertainment. Films that can be shot in four days on a limited budget.
Who can apply?
We are looking for the best fresh and talented filmmakers out there.
- Writers who have not had an original single, series or serial broadcast on UK television. Writers who have contributed episodes or series and serials (eg a long-running soap) are now eligible to apply.
- Directors without a primetime TV drama credit.
- Writer/Directors: We will accept submissions from writer/directors who meet the criteria for writers and directors as per above, but excellence in both disciplines must be shown to be considered in this category.
Submissions from multi-cultural and regionally-based filmmakers are encouraged.
How to apply:
Application forms are available here.
Submissions accepted by POST ONLY to:
COMING UP 2012
Touchpaper Television
3-6 Kenrick Place
London W1U 6HD
Deadline for Applications: 1pm on Thursday 9th June 2011
Friday, 30 April 2010
Competitions
Coming Up 2011 is now accepting applications. Deadline is 9th June 2010. All the information you need can be found here
I wrote about the scheme in the build up to last years comp, which you can read here if you so wish.
It's also worth mentioning now that The Sir Peter Ustinov Scriptwriting Award deadline is 1st July 2010. All the information you need can be found here.
I've written about this award in various rambling blogs over the last couple of years - most of which can be found here if you are interested.
Last year UK bloggers Michelle Goode and Scott Payne both made the final 10. (The last four winners have gone Brit, Aussie, Brit, Aussie - so come on people, let's lay down a marker for The Ashes and bring this back home too.)
As with last year, I will be on the jury. I will also once again happily send my script The Storyteller to anyone who wants to read it - for their own personal use. Just email me at the usual address.
My experience reading entries last year was that a badly formatted script almost certainly meant a badly written one. There's no intrinsic reason why this should be the case, I'm just telling you how I found it. So it's rather timely that Lucy has produced a pretty definitive guide to formatting issues. If you're unsure about anything, check it out. If you are sure about everything, check it out anyway. And if you still have questions feel free to email me.
Other frequently asked questions involved the 'family audience' stipulation and the length of script. In terms of the family audience, don't get too obsessed with it. My script has swearing, bit of sex, alcohol and pain killing drug abuse! Both Felicity and Claire's scripts had adult themes and bit of swearing (if I remember right.) But don't go overboard either. The script will be performed in front of a live audience - and no one wants to hear a script with swear words every other word and over the top sex or violence. I'm not saying you can't write what you want to write - but just think about whether that script is right for this competition.
In terms of the length, anything in standard screenplay format between 30-60 pages (approx) is absolutely fine.
I would also try and tell a complete story - beginning, middle and end. That doesn't mean it has to be a one off story. Pilots are accepted too. But think about the vast majority of pilots you've seen. Most have a story of the day of sorts that begins and ends, even if the wider story involving the main characters is left open.
And of course, this post can hardly end without a shameful plug for Script Reading On The Blog. If you do want me to read your entries, just please don't leave it to the last minute. For one thing, it's a nightmare for me. But for another, what's the point in paying for my feedback if you haven't got enough time to rewrite on the basis of it.
Good luck everyone!
I wrote about the scheme in the build up to last years comp, which you can read here if you so wish.
It's also worth mentioning now that The Sir Peter Ustinov Scriptwriting Award deadline is 1st July 2010. All the information you need can be found here.
I've written about this award in various rambling blogs over the last couple of years - most of which can be found here if you are interested.
Last year UK bloggers Michelle Goode and Scott Payne both made the final 10. (The last four winners have gone Brit, Aussie, Brit, Aussie - so come on people, let's lay down a marker for The Ashes and bring this back home too.)
As with last year, I will be on the jury. I will also once again happily send my script The Storyteller to anyone who wants to read it - for their own personal use. Just email me at the usual address.
My experience reading entries last year was that a badly formatted script almost certainly meant a badly written one. There's no intrinsic reason why this should be the case, I'm just telling you how I found it. So it's rather timely that Lucy has produced a pretty definitive guide to formatting issues. If you're unsure about anything, check it out. If you are sure about everything, check it out anyway. And if you still have questions feel free to email me.
Other frequently asked questions involved the 'family audience' stipulation and the length of script. In terms of the family audience, don't get too obsessed with it. My script has swearing, bit of sex, alcohol and pain killing drug abuse! Both Felicity and Claire's scripts had adult themes and bit of swearing (if I remember right.) But don't go overboard either. The script will be performed in front of a live audience - and no one wants to hear a script with swear words every other word and over the top sex or violence. I'm not saying you can't write what you want to write - but just think about whether that script is right for this competition.
In terms of the length, anything in standard screenplay format between 30-60 pages (approx) is absolutely fine.
I would also try and tell a complete story - beginning, middle and end. That doesn't mean it has to be a one off story. Pilots are accepted too. But think about the vast majority of pilots you've seen. Most have a story of the day of sorts that begins and ends, even if the wider story involving the main characters is left open.
And of course, this post can hardly end without a shameful plug for Script Reading On The Blog. If you do want me to read your entries, just please don't leave it to the last minute. For one thing, it's a nightmare for me. But for another, what's the point in paying for my feedback if you haven't got enough time to rewrite on the basis of it.
Good luck everyone!
Tuesday, 7 April 2009
It was the night before Passover and all was quiet
Or not. It is the night before the Jewish festival of Passover, which kicks off tomorrow evening, but it's been anything but quiet. Passover commemorates when God took the Jewish people out of slavery in Egypt (basically see Prince of Egypt, with a few creative liberties thrown in.) And like most Jewish festivals, this one involves a lot of food. So it was an inauspicious moment for the fridge freezer to break last night. This meant running stuff round to my parents and ordering another fridge freezer that had to arrive Wednesday. Kudos to Comet then for being the only ones we could find who would guarantee next day delivery. They just better turn up now.
On to today and I wake up with a horrible head cold. But I couldn't stay in bed because I had an ultra sound to get to - which then revealed I have the makings of a hernia that will probably require surgery before it becomes a bigger problem. Well that's bloody fantastic. Really looking forward to going under the knife, but for now just gotta wait until I speak to my doctor.
Didn't think the day would get worse than that, and I suppose it didn't. But not being in the best of moods as it is, it didn't help to then find out I've been knocked out of the Kaos Feature Comp at the 2nd Round (which I naturally thought was an outrage) and would not be receiving any money from the Jewish Film Fund to make a short (another outrage.) But, through not too gritted teeth, good luck to those left in the comp and whoever gets the funding - your movie better be better than mine or I'll be after you.
So with all that going on, posting has been a little slow. I was going to write some TV reviews, but have not got round to it. I'm enjoying Channel Five's new show The Mentalist though, and just caught up on the daytime drama Missing, stripped across the BBC a few weeks ago. So I may return to talk about them at some point. And as I'm the only one on the planet who has never watched The Wire, the DVR machine has been working overtime to store them up (did BBC2 really have to show them every night!?) so I will let you know if I think it's worth the fuss when I can. I'm sure you can hardly contain yourselves.
But for now I think I am going to take some time off. Hopefully recover from the cold, sort out some other stuff, and enjoy Passover. However writers are never 'off' though really, are they? So it almost goes without saying that my Coming Up entry is done and will be in the post tomorrow, with focus now switching to the cluster**** to the Writers' Academy.
But the blog might be a bit quiet for the next couple of weeks or so. However I'm still available if any scripts need reading - just email at the usual address.
For now, keep reading scripts, keep writing them well, have a Happy Passover, and Happy Easter too!
(And I don't wanna hear about any typos in this post - cos my head is all messed up!)
On to today and I wake up with a horrible head cold. But I couldn't stay in bed because I had an ultra sound to get to - which then revealed I have the makings of a hernia that will probably require surgery before it becomes a bigger problem. Well that's bloody fantastic. Really looking forward to going under the knife, but for now just gotta wait until I speak to my doctor.
Didn't think the day would get worse than that, and I suppose it didn't. But not being in the best of moods as it is, it didn't help to then find out I've been knocked out of the Kaos Feature Comp at the 2nd Round (which I naturally thought was an outrage) and would not be receiving any money from the Jewish Film Fund to make a short (another outrage.) But, through not too gritted teeth, good luck to those left in the comp and whoever gets the funding - your movie better be better than mine or I'll be after you.
So with all that going on, posting has been a little slow. I was going to write some TV reviews, but have not got round to it. I'm enjoying Channel Five's new show The Mentalist though, and just caught up on the daytime drama Missing, stripped across the BBC a few weeks ago. So I may return to talk about them at some point. And as I'm the only one on the planet who has never watched The Wire, the DVR machine has been working overtime to store them up (did BBC2 really have to show them every night!?) so I will let you know if I think it's worth the fuss when I can. I'm sure you can hardly contain yourselves.
But for now I think I am going to take some time off. Hopefully recover from the cold, sort out some other stuff, and enjoy Passover. However writers are never 'off' though really, are they? So it almost goes without saying that my Coming Up entry is done and will be in the post tomorrow, with focus now switching to the cluster**** to the Writers' Academy.
But the blog might be a bit quiet for the next couple of weeks or so. However I'm still available if any scripts need reading - just email at the usual address.
For now, keep reading scripts, keep writing them well, have a Happy Passover, and Happy Easter too!
(And I don't wanna hear about any typos in this post - cos my head is all messed up!)
Friday, 3 April 2009
Coming Up: And Kill Them
By kind permission of writer Seamus Hilley, I'm delighted to be able to post the And Kill Them treatment.
AND KILL THEM is set in the living quarters of an Army training regiment, where rooms are spartan, first names are never used and nineteen is middle-aged. Hundreds of young men have passed through this room but one thing has remained constant: a poster of KELLY, naked, a Poundstretcher vision of glamour. Many have dreamed that she might just step out of the poster and become flesh and blood but nobody has ever seen her before. Then EVANS came along.
He’s scared to admit it but Evans can see her sometimes. Half glimpsed, from the corner of his eye, he watches her walk among them. And she really does. In return, Kelly can see something special in him. If he does well and finishes his training, she knows an IED in Iraq will kill him. She’d tell him if she could but, luckily, Evans is a fuck-up and seems unlikely to stay in the Army for long. When the recruits are at attention outside the room all he has to do is remember his number in the sequence and shout it out. But the words won’t come. It’s as if he can’t throw off who he used to be and become like the others.
This has serious consequences for him. Not just from his training NCO whom we hear, but never see. Authority may be vested in the shouting voices which lurk outside their room but direct retribution will come from those who must suffer for Evan’s failures alongside him; the three recruits who share his room. The Army relies on peer pressure to cull the weaklings from the herd. One of them, CAMPBELL, is determined to drive Evans out. He’s a classic bully, able to sniff out any weakness and prey on it. In the long run he’s doing Evan’s a favour, but CLARKE and KING, the other roommates, are less keen. They are repelled by Campbell’s persecution of Evans and try to stick up for him.
Evans blossoms when these two show him a little friendship. All of them are looking to the Army to supply something lacking in their lives, direction, education or simply the sense of belonging. Kelly is dismayed as she watches him begin to fit in and lose himself in the comforting embrace of service life.
When Evans screws up his number sequence once more Campbell is prevented from hurting him. He goes to bed that night with a sense of the job undone. In his dreams Kelly encourages him to sabotage Evans’ locker for inspection the following day. He does this, the Corporal throws everyone’s kit out the window, and finally Clarke and King begin to turn against Evans. Kelly sees the shadow of death is lifting from round his shoulders.
But like all bullies Campbell goes too far. He and another recruit dangle Evans upside down from a third storey window. This encourages Evans to remember his number but his naked terror brings out the protector in Clarke and King. They realise that Campbell was only a heartbeat away from murder and give him a hiding. They will help and protect Evans for the rest of his training.
Evans no longer sees Kelly. But she watches with mixed emotions as Evans rejoices in the comforts of the first real family he has known and sets out happily on the long road toward Iraq.
TREATMENT
AND KILL THEM by SEAMUS HILLEY
AND KILL THEM by SEAMUS HILLEY
AND KILL THEM is set in the living quarters of an Army training regiment, where rooms are spartan, first names are never used and nineteen is middle-aged. Hundreds of young men have passed through this room but one thing has remained constant: a poster of KELLY, naked, a Poundstretcher vision of glamour. Many have dreamed that she might just step out of the poster and become flesh and blood but nobody has ever seen her before. Then EVANS came along.
He’s scared to admit it but Evans can see her sometimes. Half glimpsed, from the corner of his eye, he watches her walk among them. And she really does. In return, Kelly can see something special in him. If he does well and finishes his training, she knows an IED in Iraq will kill him. She’d tell him if she could but, luckily, Evans is a fuck-up and seems unlikely to stay in the Army for long. When the recruits are at attention outside the room all he has to do is remember his number in the sequence and shout it out. But the words won’t come. It’s as if he can’t throw off who he used to be and become like the others.
This has serious consequences for him. Not just from his training NCO whom we hear, but never see. Authority may be vested in the shouting voices which lurk outside their room but direct retribution will come from those who must suffer for Evan’s failures alongside him; the three recruits who share his room. The Army relies on peer pressure to cull the weaklings from the herd. One of them, CAMPBELL, is determined to drive Evans out. He’s a classic bully, able to sniff out any weakness and prey on it. In the long run he’s doing Evan’s a favour, but CLARKE and KING, the other roommates, are less keen. They are repelled by Campbell’s persecution of Evans and try to stick up for him.
Evans blossoms when these two show him a little friendship. All of them are looking to the Army to supply something lacking in their lives, direction, education or simply the sense of belonging. Kelly is dismayed as she watches him begin to fit in and lose himself in the comforting embrace of service life.
When Evans screws up his number sequence once more Campbell is prevented from hurting him. He goes to bed that night with a sense of the job undone. In his dreams Kelly encourages him to sabotage Evans’ locker for inspection the following day. He does this, the Corporal throws everyone’s kit out the window, and finally Clarke and King begin to turn against Evans. Kelly sees the shadow of death is lifting from round his shoulders.
But like all bullies Campbell goes too far. He and another recruit dangle Evans upside down from a third storey window. This encourages Evans to remember his number but his naked terror brings out the protector in Clarke and King. They realise that Campbell was only a heartbeat away from murder and give him a hiding. They will help and protect Evans for the rest of his training.
Evans no longer sees Kelly. But she watches with mixed emotions as Evans rejoices in the comforts of the first real family he has known and sets out happily on the long road toward Iraq.
***********************************
Two more examples of previously successful treatments can be found on the Touchaper Television website.
Thanks again to Seamus. It's really useful to look at these treatments and watch the films. As I mentioned yesterday, the more you do this, the more you get a sense of what the scheme is looking for. Although the stories and tones vary, there are aspects, even just technical details, that come up time and again. It certainly proved very useful as I rewrite my script, and I'm sure it will make my application stronger.
Thanks again to Seamus. It's really useful to look at these treatments and watch the films. As I mentioned yesterday, the more you do this, the more you get a sense of what the scheme is looking for. Although the stories and tones vary, there are aspects, even just technical details, that come up time and again. It certainly proved very useful as I rewrite my script, and I'm sure it will make my application stronger.
Thursday, 2 April 2009
Coming Up: Paradise Adventure
The next one is on just after 2am tonight!
Coming Up: Paradise Adventure (2006)
Surreal black comedy about a man who learns he has everything to live for, just when he's paid a company to kill him.
Written by Dan Hine, Chris Sussman
Directed by Dan Hine
The more you watch these films, the more you really can see what the scheme is looking for. I think my script, for example, has too many locations and possibly characters. So it's been a good exercise in low budget thinking and writing to really analyze each scene and character, ask yourself what you need and want out of it, and then see if you can combine things without damaging the story and losing integrity.
Coming Up: Paradise Adventure (2006)
Surreal black comedy about a man who learns he has everything to live for, just when he's paid a company to kill him.
Written by Dan Hine, Chris Sussman
Directed by Dan Hine
The more you watch these films, the more you really can see what the scheme is looking for. I think my script, for example, has too many locations and possibly characters. So it's been a good exercise in low budget thinking and writing to really analyze each scene and character, ask yourself what you need and want out of it, and then see if you can combine things without damaging the story and losing integrity.
Wednesday, 1 April 2009
Coming Up: Stir it Up
Well they may not be prime time, but to be fair to Channel 4 they are showing a few of the films. The next one is 1:30am tonight.
Coming Up: Stir it Up (2006)
Stir it Up: Romantic drama about love, loss and liberation, as a shy teenager falls for her mother's toy boy.
Written by Elizabeth Heery
Directed by Colin Hutton
I'm becoming increasingly worried, when checking out IMDB, about what these successful writers go on to do. Not a lot, it would appear. But I am enjoying watching these series of films.
Coming Up: Stir it Up (2006)
Stir it Up: Romantic drama about love, loss and liberation, as a shy teenager falls for her mother's toy boy.
Written by Elizabeth Heery
Directed by Colin Hutton
I'm becoming increasingly worried, when checking out IMDB, about what these successful writers go on to do. Not a lot, it would appear. But I am enjoying watching these series of films.
Saturday, 28 March 2009
Coming Up: The Window
For all those entering Coming Up this year, here is a chance to see another film from a previously successful application.
Channel 4 - at the prime time slot of 2:40 am early hours of Monday morning. So set your Videos, DVR's or alarm clocks!
COMING UP: THE WINDOW (2006)
Wives are doing it for themselves in this comedy drama about two women trapped by marriage to a Nigerian chief.
Written by Funke Oyebanjo
Directed by Paloma Baeza
Channel 4 - at the prime time slot of 2:40 am early hours of Monday morning. So set your Videos, DVR's or alarm clocks!
COMING UP: THE WINDOW (2006)
Wives are doing it for themselves in this comedy drama about two women trapped by marriage to a Nigerian chief.
Written by Funke Oyebanjo
Directed by Paloma Baeza
Monday, 16 March 2009
Coming Up: Kings of London
As I start to think seriously about my Coming Up submission it felt like a good time to watch previously successful application, Sean Conway's Kings of London. It was on Channel 4 Sunday week ago but if you missed it, I think you can catch up here.
The film is about two brothers, both named Aristotle, with the same father but different mothers (who are sisters.) The younger brother witnessed his mother being decapitated in a road accident and has not spoken in ten years. The older brother, known as Totes, owes money to a pint size, gun wielding, pre-teen gangster. Aristotle is the champion ghetto rider, a group of young black men from rough neighborhoods who hold their own private horse races for money. Totes asks his brother to throw a race so he can pay off his debt. But all Aristotle has in the world is winning these races, and he cannot bring himself to do it. Totes is killed, bringing some sort of tragic catharsis for Aristotle.
The film is highly stylised, well shot and makes good use of its low budget. As writer/director, (which I always suspect is sneakily favoured by these schemes), Conway obviously had a fair degree of control over his material and he is building a reputation of making offbeat movies. Personally, from a subjective point of view, it wasn't really my cup of tea. In fact to be perfectly honest I often find short films annoying and pretentious. They are often used as a medium for director experimentation - and are frequently be a bit short of narrative story telling, something that I think is tacitly encouraged by the industry as a result of the films that it rewards. But as a writer, whenever I have written shorts my first aim has always been to tell a good story.
From looking at Kings Of London, Coming Up are certainly not kidding when they say they are looking for "bold ideas, strong voices, originality and films that push boundaries in a way that wouldn't / couldn't be done in mainstream drama." So this is not a competition to be holding back with. But, and again this is only my own opinion, I think that even within the remit they have given, you have to stay true to your own voice and preferred style. If you write more traditional stuff, that focuses more on plot and character substance over directorial style, I think it's best to stick to that and submit something that shows off your talent and what you're best at - and don't try and mimic someone else's style or what you think the scheme wants. I will always argue that stories can still be original and push boundaries with their subject matter and characters without having to abandon conventional story telling techniques.
That's what I'll be doing anyway... which will probably end in complete failure! But hey, I am a man of principal... and limited ability. I do hope though that at least a couple of the proposed 7 films Coming Up decides to make reflect, shall we say, more traditional forms of story telling. Good luck to everyone who is entering. You have one month to go.
The film is about two brothers, both named Aristotle, with the same father but different mothers (who are sisters.) The younger brother witnessed his mother being decapitated in a road accident and has not spoken in ten years. The older brother, known as Totes, owes money to a pint size, gun wielding, pre-teen gangster. Aristotle is the champion ghetto rider, a group of young black men from rough neighborhoods who hold their own private horse races for money. Totes asks his brother to throw a race so he can pay off his debt. But all Aristotle has in the world is winning these races, and he cannot bring himself to do it. Totes is killed, bringing some sort of tragic catharsis for Aristotle.
The film is highly stylised, well shot and makes good use of its low budget. As writer/director, (which I always suspect is sneakily favoured by these schemes), Conway obviously had a fair degree of control over his material and he is building a reputation of making offbeat movies. Personally, from a subjective point of view, it wasn't really my cup of tea. In fact to be perfectly honest I often find short films annoying and pretentious. They are often used as a medium for director experimentation - and are frequently be a bit short of narrative story telling, something that I think is tacitly encouraged by the industry as a result of the films that it rewards. But as a writer, whenever I have written shorts my first aim has always been to tell a good story.
From looking at Kings Of London, Coming Up are certainly not kidding when they say they are looking for "bold ideas, strong voices, originality and films that push boundaries in a way that wouldn't / couldn't be done in mainstream drama." So this is not a competition to be holding back with. But, and again this is only my own opinion, I think that even within the remit they have given, you have to stay true to your own voice and preferred style. If you write more traditional stuff, that focuses more on plot and character substance over directorial style, I think it's best to stick to that and submit something that shows off your talent and what you're best at - and don't try and mimic someone else's style or what you think the scheme wants. I will always argue that stories can still be original and push boundaries with their subject matter and characters without having to abandon conventional story telling techniques.
That's what I'll be doing anyway... which will probably end in complete failure! But hey, I am a man of principal... and limited ability. I do hope though that at least a couple of the proposed 7 films Coming Up decides to make reflect, shall we say, more traditional forms of story telling. Good luck to everyone who is entering. You have one month to go.
Sunday, 8 March 2009
Coming Up
Channel 4 and Touchpaper TV are making up to eight eye-catching, innovative, and challenging films from the best fresh talent in the UK for a guaranteed broadcast.
Each film will be for a half-hour slot on Channel 4. They are particularly looking for:
- Bold ideas
- Strong voices
- Originality
- Ambition
- Wit
- Urgency
- Films that push boundaries in a way that wouldn't or couldn't be done in mainstream drama
- Films that can be shot in four days on a limited budget
This is not an entry level scheme - it's for writers and directors building a track record and a career in film and television drama.
Submissions from multi-cultural and regionally-based filmmakers are encouraged.
This scheme is open to all writers who have not had an original single, series or serial broadcast on UK television. Writers who have contributed episodes to series and serials (e.g. a long-running soap) are now eligible to apply.
Deadline: Friday 17 April 2009
To find out more and apply visit the Channel 4 website.
****************************************************************************
This opportunity has popped up on a couple of other blogs and I pinched it from the Writersroom. But I just wanted to add that Sean Conway's Kings of London, which was selected as part of the Coming Up scheme in 2008, is on Channel 4 tonight at 1:20am. So if you wanna know what a winning submission looks like, best check it out...
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