Old is the new black

One of the predictable surprises (ie you could predict it but you should appear to be surprised by it) that came out of the Edinburgh TV Festival was the comment from BBC1 controller Danny Cohen, that he believed that the BBC should show more programmes for older people.

He seems to have discovered that the average age of the BBC audience is 50+.  I am not sure how that correlates with the average age of the British public. According to a DirectGov website, “In mid-2003 the UK was home to 59.6 million people. The average age was 38.4 years, an increase on 1971 when it was 34.1 years. There are more people in the UK aged over 60 (12.4 million), than there are children under 16 (11.7 million).” That was 10 years ago so it has probably crept up to 40 by now.

So the BBC is attracting a higher number of oldies than it’s fair share. Is that because of the programmes it already shows? In which case do they really need to make more On Golden Ponds?

Not much is said these days about the proportion of all telly that is repeats: in the drama and serial and series categories I am sure it is also creeping up. After all, the oldies seem to love the repeats: if their memories are good enough they enjoy the nostaligic feeling of being younger as they remember how they felt 30 years ago when they first saw that episode of Dads’ Army or Only Fools and Horses.

And if they are suffering from memory problems it is like seeing the episode for the first time. So the broadcasters can’t lose by showing repeats, as a look at the ratings confirms.

The reality is that younger people are connected 24/7 to smaller devices than TV sets: I watch nearly as much on the iPad as on the TV screen – sport live and mainstream channels on the repeat services like the BBC iPlayer.

Like the frequent cries for more roles for women, for non-English characters, for the disabled, we all want drama and soaps to do a job over and above being entertaining. Looking through the wrong end of the telescope (from the pov of those wanting to break into writing) I can’t help but wonder if the BBC and the other broadcasters couldn’t make a wider range of niche television that perhaps included programmes for the older viewer but also encouraging the very young (school age) to think about the power that the written and spoken word has and encouraging articulateness throughout the population.

The alternative is that they might end up patronizing the elderly with programmes that remind us of the creeping decrepitude of old age and of our mortality. How much better to make us forget our age, forget the recession and the shortening days, by engaging us to engage in dialogue with the young ones. Being a grandparent certainly makes you feel younger even if you feel exhausted when the kids leave. But it is great fun.

Write, produce and be damned

There is a seismic change beginning to take place for scriptwriters, novelists and their agents. They are beginning to say no to option offers from producers.

 In television we have for many years had the example of writer-producers: all the big US shows are led by showrunners and increasingly broadcasters in the UK are demanding showrunners before they will greenlight a television series.

 In film development money is so scarce many producers need properties from writers before they can go and raise funds to pay decent option fees, and frequently they fail to raise any more than the option money.

 Or they have a large slate of properties that they have optioned and when they raise the money for one of them they ignore the others, which lie gathering dust until the option expires.

 Over the last couple of years at Blake Friedmann we have begun to do more joint-ventures and fewer option deals.

 These include Peter James, a No 1 best-seller we had optioned it to two A-list production companies who over nearly three years didn’t manage to get a greenlight from ITV; we decided we wanted more control, chose another A-list production company, offered them a JV and we have serious interest from the BBC and have also attached a double A-list actor as the lead.

 At the other extreme there is GIRL MADE OF DUST, a beautiful first novel by Nathalie Abi Ezzi, set in Lebanon in 1982, showing us the war through the eyes of an innocent nine-year-old living on the edge of the killing fields. We have assembled a team of writers, director and producer while keeping control, with me as Executive Producer. There is great camaraderie and no contracts at this stage, while we attach French and Brazilian co-producers.

 We have also started doing JVs with some original scripts.  To me the notion of writers and agents producing is not that they actually get involved in the minutiae of production, but are able to do two key things

1. be involved in all the discussions about important creative choices and business deals, eg who the coproducers are, and

It is not possible to do this in the same way when you sell an option to a producer. They – in effect – own it.

 So a joint-venture ensures that the producer does bring something to the table (or they get pushed out), and I, as an agent, am better able to protect and develop my clients’ careers.

 Over the last couple of years there has been another interesting and important development: the mainstay script-writer/producer contract – that between PACT – the Producers’ Union – and the Writers Guild – has sort of fallen into a ditch. It is still used but it ceased to reflect the realities of the industry so the Guild’s Film Committee, led by distinguished scriptwriter Olivia Hetreed (Girl with a Pearl Earring and the new Wuthering Heights) devised new guidelines for a partnership between writers and producers, rather than the old-fashioned option which gave the producer total control subject only to them paying some money.

 I am not advocating than a writer or agent, with no experience of the film or television industry, should announce themselves as a producer or co-producer, although that is how many producers start. Like Estate Agents you just need a business card.

 But the relationship between writers and producers is changing and I think that smart producers should embrace the change.

 [This article appeared in MovieScope]

Proposed cover of writing for TV book

This is a cover rough. Do covers sell vocational books? I look at covers of other writing books and apart from those showing stills from movies or TV shows, there is no obvious best practice. At least this is strikingly bright.

E-books - the writing on the wall

E-books - the writing on the wall

Video didn't seem to kill the radio star, nor did it seem fatal to reading or the movies, as some feared. DVDs may have put an end to video cassettes but increased revenue for the film industry and the boxed sets gave uplift to many old and not-so-old television series.

So what do we expect from e-books. Music is the analogy often suggested as an indicator. CD sales did drop, music publishing companies suffered, perhaps because they could not forsee the impact of the changes in the delivery of music to consumers afforded by handheld devices and the always on world wide web. Musicians took to the road and concerts have increased as has the revenue from live performances. Top of the Pops might come back sooner than feared.

Publishers have no excuse. There are models like the music industry that they can extrapolate from. Movie downloads are part of the future of the film industry. 

For every example of an author self-publishing an e-book at 99 pence or cents and selling 100,000 there are 100,000 examples of authors selling one or two copies.

Transmedia is seen as part of the solution. What that really means is utilising all available and appropriate platforms to draw attention to your book (or game or poetry or bot sale).

SEO and a well-designed website are also important, but if what you are offering is badly written and uninteresting it will not gain the WOM (word of mouth) momentum it needs.

To do this you need followers on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter at the very least. Getting those requires work and nurturing. I estimate that web-savvy self-published writers should be spending at least 20% of their working time promoting themselves online.

If commercially published there will be festivals and readings organised by their publishers. Every genre has a society, whether the CWA for crime or the RNA for romance. Membership and a pro-active engagement with peers is desirable.

Those who fail to learn from history fail. So embracing the web and it's constituent parts is one way of making sure that more people hear about your book and not your competitors'. The web offers book writers an opportunity to become the video stars of the future.

Writing a new book

THE INSIDER'S GUIDE TO WRITING FOR TELEVISION
By Julian Friedmann and Christopher Walker

Do you want to write for TV?

Want advice from TV industry experts on how to sell a script?

Whether you understand beats and through lines or are still trying to figure out your A
story from your B story, The Insider’s Guide to Writing for TV supports you through the whole process of writing a television script - from working out a premise to getting your script on screen.

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Inside The Insider’s Guide to Writing for TV, you’ll find out:

What sort of scripts producers are looking for – and which they aren’t

What practical things - such as production costs - need to be considered

What you can – and can’t - do on television.

Beginning with the basics of scriptwriting and how to develop your script premise and generate story ideas, The Insider’s Guide to Writing for TV gives tips from television industry experts on understanding the structure of a television script, creating believable characters and ensuring your script has a compelling storyline. Once you’re happy with your television screenplay, there’s essential advice on pitching your script and approaching agencies or production companies.

Whether you want to write soaps, a TV drama or a sitcom, The Insider’s Guide to Writing for TV is your toolkit to making sure your dream of writing for TV becomes a reality.

Insider’s Guides are comprehensive handbooks written by industry experts with many years of practical experience – so you can be sure you’re getting unrivalled advice on how to break into the profession. Also available in the series: The Insider’s Guide to Getting Your Book Published.