Working As A Writer

Commissioning for Writers and their Limitations and Obligations

 

Commissioning in the BBC:

The BBC will not take ideas and scripts from members of the public unless they are associated with an independent production company, although members of the public can get in touch with the BBC if they want to give an idea for a fictional programme. This is because programme development requires an in-depth understanding of the television process and can take a long time to realise, usually involving many people, and the BBC doesn’t have the resources to support every idea they get. Any idea submitted must be sent via the online proposal system BBC pitch. They treat all proposals as confidential. A pitch sent in will be looked at by the relevant genre and if they think it fits their current needs and priorities, they may ask the producer to develop it further. Once a pitch is sent in it will be acknowledged within a week. The initial decision to reject an idea or take it further will be made within 6 weeks of submission. If they decide to take an idea on, they will update the producer regularly ever 2 weeks or once with a clear time frame on what is happening. The final decision on whether they take the idea on and develop it will be made with 20 weeks.

Commissioning in ITV:
They seem to only take ideas that would appeal to a wide, mainstream audience, as they run ads to

make money, so the more people watching the better. If you have an idea for a unique programme, it is likely to be declined for this reason. If you want to submit an idea to ITV, you need to submit it to the specific area you would like it to be shown at. ITV refuse to take ideas from members of the public who are not affiliated with a pre-existing company. They aim to respond to all submissions within 6 weeks of receiving them. ITV make programmes for many different genres, and all of these are located on different channels, so you need to know which channel your show would be appearing on before you submit it.





Commissioning in Channel 4:

Channel 4 seem to be more unique than the BBC or ITV, specifically taking ideas that are different or

unique, and seem to be aiming their shows at young, 16-24, audience, trying to target youth culture specifically. As they don’t make the programmes they show, they don’t take ideas straight from the public, and you will need to go to an independent production company. They are more lax in the way you make the script you are submitting too, allowing you to come up with your own length and duration to help delve into the story more. They have a number of what they call core strands, different genres to think about when coming up with a new idea, these are; New Romantics, Rich Kids, Ballsy, Freaks and Uniques, Rants, Mid-Form Scripted, Leading Edge Music and Culture and Gaming & Internet Culture.





Commissioning in Channel 5:

Channel 5’s website doesn’t state whether they take ideas from the public or if you need to be linked to a production company, but they do give a list of different things you can submit ideas for. Being the smallest of the terrestrial channels means they need to work harder to get their programmes noticed, and the same goes for people giving them ideas, they need to be catchy and, more importantly, must resonate with the viewers. They won’t take ideas that are done too often, such as comedies or dramas, but love programmes that are engaging, intelligent and have a relevance to the viewer. They make show in the realms of specialist factual, documentaries and factual entertainment. When it comes to entertainment it is better if you have a proven track record in this area, as they are expensive to make and riskier to put out. They aim to provide a quick answer to your proposal and feel it right that you get to take it elsewhere if they don’t want it, but what this means is unclear.





Contractual:

A contract is a voluntary agreement between 2 or more parties, and are legal agreements that bind these parties into doing are being something. In the media industry there are different types of contracts, confidentiality and exclusivity. A confidentiality contract stops the signee from being able to openly talk about the project they are working on. On sets for TV shows, there are no cameras allowed or filming to be done of behind the scenes stuff so as to remove the chance of there being any spoilers leaked online. The contract may stipulate that the signee must pay a fee or be sacked from the project if they break the confidentiality agreement. An exclusivity contract is one that has 2 companies helping each other out by buying into each other exclusively. An example of this would be LOVEFiLM, who sign an exclusive multi-year deals with Sony, so that Sony may stream from LOVEFiLM, this means that LOVEFiLM can do the same thing again with other companies as well. A common exclusivity contract that can be seen used in film is when a film is being made about a book. In these examples a contract is signed between the author of the book and the production company making the film. An example of this would the Hunger Games movies that were based on a series of books written by Suzanne Collins, for which all the cast had to sign non-disclosure agreements and the production company and the author would sign exclusivity contracts so that only they could make a film on the book.

Employment legislation:
Employment legislation refers to all different kinds of employment rights, such as health and safety, sex, equal opportunities, trade unions and copyrights. Health and safety is arguably the most important of these, and all comes down to the employer. It is their responsibility to manage the safety of all people in their employment. In the film industry, this is the responsibility of the producer, investor or client. It was their idea to make the film, so everyone who works on it is their responsibility. The equal opportunities act is there to ensure an employer does not discriminate against someone for reasons such as; sex, pregnancy status, physical or mental health and many more. If any of these regulations are gone against, then the party that was damaged because of this can file a suit against the party that offended. They may then be forced to pay a fine or face a prison sentence in some more serious cases. There is also a set minimum wage for people who perform different tasks on set and these must be followed at all times and there must be equal pay between people of different genders. Employers are also required to give their employees certain things in exchange for their work, such as a safe, clean place of work, pay during sick leave, the right request breaks and training time. An example of an employee being treated unfairly would be Miriam O’Reilly, a former presenter of BBC show Countryfile. She was ousted from the show and replaced by a younger presenter, and she complained saying that she was replaced in ageist manner. She won damages and has changed the way TV shows operate for ever.





Ethical:

Ethical obligations are things like truth, liability, trust, privacy and serving the public interest. This can be things like guns being used in film; if someone isn’t very trustworthy then they most likely won’t be able to film with real guns, as you would need to have the police on site to deal with the guns. This is quite a tough thing to get around, as there aren’t really any ways of measuring trust or

privacy.  In Britain we use the BBFC to regulate our film certificates, they classify each new film with a rating and this shows who should and shouldn’t watch it. The ratings are U, PG, 12A, 12, 15, and 18. Any film wanting to be released in Britain will have to be looked at and classified by the BBFC (British Board of Film Classification) or it can’t be shown in cinemas, regardless of what the American rating committee, the MPAA (Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America), gave the film. Other things that must be considered are things like if someone identifies a specific gender, and whether you are treating all involved parties equally. Things like religious beliefs also need to be considered, as it can be very easy in this modern day to accidentally insult someone for their religious views, and this can cause a backlash if it is not treat appropriately.





Legal:

There are a lot of legal requirements in the media industry, not the least of which is copyright. A company needs to protect its own products, so a copyright is put in place to stop others from using it without being allowed to. Copyright can, however, also be applied to the application of an idea, rather than the idea itself. National security is another thing companies have to deal with in the industry, producers must be aware of things like The Official Secrets Act of 1911 and the Prevention of Terrorism Act, so as not to get on the bad side of the law and have their films cancelled. Trademarks are another of the many things a producer or employer must think about, if they accidentally show a trademarked name in a bad light they can get fined or lose out on deals, an example of this would be Guardians of the Galaxy 2, when they show the Microsoft Zune without permission and Microsoft had to ask for a reason why they weren’t asked first. If the director hadn’t issued an apology and a good reason why he used it, they would have most likely been fines or sued. Another legal point producers and employers must think about is the Broadcasting act of 1990, when Margaret Thatcher led to abolition of the Independent Broadcasting Authority and replaced it with the Independent Television Commission and Radio Authority, which have now both been replaced by Ofcom. The act basically changed who became the broadcasters of products on television and radio from the regulator to the actual radio and television companies. This allowed for the creation of a fifth analogue terrestrial channel, Channel 5, and the launch of 3 independent national radio stations.