The Commissioning Process - Question 3

Question 3

How the BBC accept proposals from others

Any proposal for TV and online content ideas from a registered supplier must be submitted online via the BBC Commissioning for BBC network content.

The BBC's process of responding to proposals is set in the BBC Code of Practice (below).

 

Queries 

At any time during this period, an external possible supplier may write to the Comissioning Editor, in which they may request a progress report and may be guaranteed a response within 10 working days of receipt.

Confidentiality

The BBC make it their duty to treat any proposal they may recieve as confidential information. The BBC are signed up to the updated Alliance for the Protection of Copyright (APC) Code of Practice. This provides guidance around submission and how proposals for all types of broadcast and online content are handled. This cann be found on the BBC's website. Thie code is just one of the elements that form their e-comissioning terms and conditions and anyone intending to provide a proposal should read the information before registering to the system.

What should proposals include?

Diversity - The BBC is commited to embracing and promoting diversity, so proposals shoould include about a paragraph explaining how the programme would fullfill this commitment to fully reflect the public, of whom are required to pay license fees. 

Disability Discrimination Act - If a proposal includes contributors or working before a live audience then it should include an explanation of how you will abide by the requirements under the Disability Discrimination Act 1995. The production handbook and the BBC's guide to the disability act 1995 lays out how the BBC approach the DDA programme making terms. 

Health and Safety -  Every production team have the responsibility to implement all necessary health and safety measures required during the period of ANY project, If any issues or concerns have occured on previous projects commisioned by the BBC from your company, you are required to include details of how these issues or concerns were addressed, as part of any subsequent proposal for a programme submitted by your company. 

Cross-genre ideas 

The BBC are aware that some ideas may not just fall into one of the genr categories but may straddle two, or even more genres. They positively welcom any "genre-busting" ideas and fully understand that theire structure has to deal with a complex multi-genre multi-media world where programmes don't sit in neat categories. They suggest you select the genre you think is the most appropriate. However, if you submit the idea to more than one genre, you must indicate this on each and every submission. For example, if I had a Factual Entertainment idea....these programmes, by their nature, are a mixture of the 2 genres - so some overlaps between the genres is a definite thing to expect.

Payment for programmes

When appropriate, the BBC will either be prepared to provide a financial contribution to the programme by a method of staged, individual payments made at specified points in the production process or to provide a bankable letter, but only when practicable.

At the moment I am producing a drama, of which would be played in the evening, and would consist of a series rather than a one-off. This would fall into the "Drama 3" category. The screenshot below demonstrates the financial support I could potentially recieve if I was to submit this is a proposal. 

The Comissioning Process

Who are the audience for each of the channels for the chosen genre?

CBBC is for primary school children aged 6-12 years. They want to give there audience multi-platform content which is innovative, challenging and infectious as well as reflecting their lives.
Cbeebies is for both boys and girls aged 0-6 years. This is a diverse and complex audience: 2 & 3 year olds are very different to 5 & 6 year olds. They are aware of the fact that the Cbeebies audience does not automatically migrae up to CBBC and they think there is an oppurtunity to develop ingenious ideas that would help them make the transition.

LOTR Role of the Writer

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The role of the writer of The Lord of the Rings was to convert the happenings of the three Lord of the Rings books into three films. When this was done, the treatment covered 90 pages! 

One of the differences between the novels themselves and the films is that, in the films, females had larger, more significant roles. The decision was made by the writer to make this change, as it was felt that strong female roles would appeal to a wider audience. This is also because contemporary audiences may expect a more representative cast. This is just one of the many significant challenges within bringing Tolkien’s work to the big screen, although I feel that, after the hard work, they did well, as the novels were of a level of complexity that would be very difficult to apprehend in a screenplay. 

In The Big Bang theory, women have more of a leading Role.  In part this is a reflection of it being a besboke sit-com although initially it was about four 'geeks' and the female roles have been introduced gradually.  I think this is very benficial for the show as it adds another dimension to the show and creates additional comic possibilities between the male female relationships, the male characters' girlfriends, each have an entertaining quality, like Amy, the socially awkward and difficult character within the group of main characters.  However, the character of Penny is there as an independant role as the person who lives opposite.   

• Tom Bombadil was omitted from the film as it was felt that his role did not advance the story and it would take too long to explain it.  The dialogue that was kept was givent o Treebeard.
• In the process of adapting the novel into a film, some features were adapted. For example, the elvish character Glorfindel's role was given to Arwen, a female character and Legolas.  However, his main action role was given to Arwen. Tom Bombadil were absent. This is because the writer felt that these were not required in the film. Also, a susbstantial amount of segments of the story were altered to make the story just as easy to follow as it would have been before the deletion of the two characters from the novel.  
• Writing an exposition (what has happened before the film starts) scene for the beginning of the film.
•  

Big BANG

How does writing a scene for a series filmed in front of a live audience change how you write or re-write dialogue?

think about 

• Fans role in wanting certain outcomes for their favourite characters
• discussions had with the actors about dialogue
• re-writing when an audience does not laugh

Big Bang Theory Notes

The Big Bang Theory is an american sitcom (short for the term "situation comedy"), created by Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady.

The creators of the programme mentioned that, what makes the production of The Big bang Theory easier, is the fact that when the characters are created, the script almost writes itself, especially with Sheldon, played by Jim Parsons, due to his distinct use of vocabulary.

After a few series were aired, both in the UK, and the US, the creators received a lot of fan mail, pressuring their own ideas towards the creators.

Funnily enough, the creators of the show have not yet planned or written how