One of my favourite parts of this job is meeting a new group of writers as they join us at the start of one of our development groups. Earlier this week it was the turn of the Scripted 24/25 group (the group formerly known as Drama Room). These 12 talented writers were selected following our Open Call, which closed last December. It must feel like a long wait for the group before they finally arrive at the doors of 大象传媒 Broadcasting House, but in that Open Call we received a record-breaking number of submissions (just shy of 5000) and it takes us several months to get through the reading process.
The first ten pages of every script we receive through the Open Call are read by one of our team of freelance script readers, with the most promising moving through various stages until we鈥檝e narrowed the submissions down to around 30, with the writers invited to an interview with us in June/July for a potential place in Scripted. These interviews are an opportunity for us to find out more about each writer, their work so far, their passion for television, and what type of stories they are burning to tell. So, as you can see it鈥檚 a pretty exhaustive process and the writers who eventually make it into the Scripted group should be very proud of their achievement.
This group will stay with us for a year. The first six months involve taking part in a programme of webinars and workshops exploring the craft of screenwriting and the industry as a whole. They are then paired up with a Script Editor to develop and write a new original television 鈥榮pec鈥� script which they can use as a calling card to the industry at the conclusion of the programme. We鈥檒l announce this group at the end of their year on Scripted. Keep your eyes open for the announcement of the previous 23/24 Scripted group, who will be finishing with us soon. We can鈥檛 wait to tell you about them!
Once the writers who will be part of Scripted have been selected, we then move on to choosing the next cohort of around 70 Voices writers. Again, the vast majority are found via our Open Call, with a few coming from our scouting activities in theatre, including at the . We鈥檙e currently in the midst of interviewing potential Voices writers, who will join one of our six Voices hubs (Scotland, Belfast, Wales, North and Midlands, South, London) and work with us for six months, including developing a series outline document which can form the basis of a potential new script. The next group of Voices will begin with us towards the end of January and be announced in the summer. You can meet the last group here.
So, if you鈥檙e interested to become a member of one of these two groups it鈥檚 crucial that you submit a script to our Open Call opportunity. That鈥檚 opening up again for submissions from noon on 5th November (next Tuesday) until noon on Tuesday 3rd December. Full details are available here. If you鈥檝e got any questions, then we ran a webinar yesterday which you can . We鈥檙e also running a series of drop-ins via zoom; full details are on the Open Call webpage. There鈥檚 no need to register in advance.
In other news since my last update back in June, we鈥檝e recently reached the conclusion of the latest iteration of our regionally focussed development group, Write Across. Write Across was open for submissions from writers in the Birmingham and Black Country region in February, with the ten selected writers working with us through the summer. Write Across Birmingham and the Black Country concluded at the end of September with an event at the 大象传媒鈥檚 Mailbox office in Birmingham where the writers heard from guests including Sir Lenny Henry and pitched their ideas to an invited industry audience. Following this they have now been partnered with mentors with the aim that they will go on to write their scripts. You can find out who took part and get a full update on the Write Across experience from two of the writers, over on our blog. We hope to roll out the next Write Across in the latter part of 2025, so watch out for news about that.
Pilot is our scheme for writers who already have some professional experience under their belt. To apply, writers must already have a credit and/or agent representation. Applications for Pilot are open every two years, most recently in September 2023. We were thrilled to be able to recently announce the 14 writers (including two writing pairs) who are taking part in the current group, together with the production companies they have been partnered with. For the first time the group includes two additional Scotland-based writers who are taking part in the Pilot scheme and have been partnered with Scottish indies, with support from Screen Scotland Find out full details here.
And talking of Pilot, 大象传媒 One and iPlayer drama Lost Boys and Fairies, which was developed through the scheme, was broadcast over the summer. You can still watch on 大象传媒 iPlayer. Lost Boys and Fairies is written by the brilliant Daf James, who is also an alumni of our Wales Voices. Daf talks about his writing journey with the 大象传媒 here.
New additions to our website include video interviews with Lauren Sequeira, the writer of Domino Day (watch on 大象传媒 iPlayer), Nick Leather (Nightsleeper 鈥� watch here) and Matthew Barry (Men Up - watch here 鈥� and 鈥� currently shooting in Wales). You can also read the award-winning script for Men Up in our online library together with other recent additions including a batch of short film scripts provided by our friends at 大象传媒 Film. These were made available partly to support an exciting new short film opportunity for our recent alumni writers which we鈥檒l be talking about a lot more next year.
AI is a really hot topic in the creative industries at the moment. We took the opportunity to ask one of our Voices alumni, Alexis Kirke (who works as an academic in the field) to tell us about his perspective on some potential impacts of AI on the scripted entertainment industry. Check out his piece here ,which includes some interesting suggestions (for example, that it may not be writers so much as development execs who need to be thinking about its impact.) It鈥檚 part of a series of guest blog posts under the umbrella of Writing Today, which have also included the actor on the importance of writing great roles for women over 50 and Chris Foxon from on the realities of keeping a new playwriting competition going.
Also new on the blog is a great new post which tackles one of our most frequently asked questions 鈥�So How Do I Get My Script Made鈥�?鈥� and is well worth a look as it hopefully demystifies some of the often-confusing process of taking a script to screen.
Out in the real world we鈥檝e been out and about at events and festivals speaking to writers and other creatives about our work and how to get involved. Recent trips have included the , the and 大象传媒 Comes to Town events across Northern Ireland. Hopefully we鈥檒l get the chance to meet you at a future event or if you鈥檙e studying screenwriting then there鈥檚 still time to sign up for our Digital Sessions for Screenwriting Students which are taking place over the next few weeks. In the meantime, good luck with the Open Call if you鈥檙e entering your script and we look forward to reading your work.