FEATURE: 29 MAY 2007
Script to Screens May Writers Room invited four top television drama writers to share their experiences getting ideas up onto New Zealands small screens. Guest MC Te Radar (B and B) and panelists Stephen Campbell (Amazing Extraordinary Friends, Secret Agent Men), James Griffin (Serial Killers, Outrageous Fortune, City Life) and David Brechin-Smith (Hot House, The Indsider’s Guide to Happiness / The Insider’s Guide to Love) offered their advice on chasing those elusive chances of turning ideas into television drama.
The pitching document is the primary selling tool for an idea. All agreed the pitch must be concise and exciting to achieve any success. James Griffin said, ‘There is a difference between having your idea and selling it. The worst thing you can do is write your idea in long paragraphs over several pages and send it to someone who receives 40 or more pitches a day. Remember what excited you about that idea and get that on the page’. Stephen Campbell agreed, saying Greenstone try to keep all pitches to one page. ‘It’s the essence of the idea, the emotion of it that needs to be captured’. David Brechin-Smith emphasized that the pitch must be able to make others visualise the idea on screen, allow them to see more stories, sense the potential of where this characters could go, without telling them where its going.
Writing with passion is also vital. ‘Be a little self-indulgent and write about things that excite you’,
said Campbell. ‘You need to have a love, a passion. I try to make the sort of television that I’d like to watch’. Brechin-Smith noted that ‘viewers can tell when a writer has invested in their characters. As a writer one of the most important things you need to do is get the audience to care about your characters’.
Campbell felt shows like Outrageous Fortune and Insiders Guide to Love both have a strong sense of voice, or of being authored and that this is showing the growing maturity of our local drama. Griffin agreed, and added that writers also have to step up and be accountable for their work, ‘this means being executive producer on your work; it means being in the cutting room and having a say in the decisions of what goes in and what doesnt’.
Whilst a writer with a good track record may be approached by production companies or the
networks, new writers must be prepared to take their ideas to production companies themselves.
Production companies are the stepping stone between writers and networks and it is vital to research a company first to ensure the genre of the idea fits the type of programmes made. Rejection is an inevitable part of this process, even for the most successful writers. Campbell suggested some anguish may be avoided by trying to develop a slate of drama concepts to take to production companies, instead of putting all your emotional investment in any one idea alone. However, if you do strike it lucky, you must prepare for the ensuing collaborative process. ‘The moment you hand it over, other people direct and shape it’, said Campbell. ‘Be prepared for that’.
The four writers agreed the road from idea to TV drama is not an easy one. There is no right way of pitching and no guarantee an idea will come to fruition. However, all encouraged writers to keep developing ideas and sending them to production companies. ‘The industry needs your ideas, ideas are the bloodstone’, said Brechin-Smith. Campbell agreed that writers should feel the fear and do it anyway. Take a risk; its important to put it out there.
