On Tuesday 12th October, I attended the Comedy Conference 2011.<\/p>\n
The venue was the Lowry, Salford Quays, at the heart of the new, and very impressive, MediaCentre UK.<\/p>\n
The day was organised around a series of workshop sessions, with Q&A opportunities during the pieces, and the opportunity for informal discussions with session folk in the breaks.<\/p>\n
At registration we were given impressive swag-bags which included various boxed-sets of branded TV comedy productions.<\/p>\n
I haven’t yet opened any of the DVDs, but the Gavin & Stacy boxed-set will probably be the first to get watched.<\/p>\n
The formal ‘welcome’ was delivered by Peter Salmon (BBC, Director of the North) and Maureen Walker (Vision+Media, the host organisation).<\/p>\n
The first session was titled ‘I have a cunning plan’ (and was backed by examples and excerpts of Blackadder in pre-production and post-production video clips).<\/p>\n
This session was called ‘the commissioner session’. It was chaired by comedian John Bishop who put searching questions (of his own, and taken from the floor) to a panel that consisted of Shane Allen (head of comedy, C4\/E4), Elaine Bedell (head of comedy ITV1), Lucy Lumsden (head of comedy Sky) and Cheryl Taylor (head of comedy BBC TV).<\/p>\n
It was worth travelling up to Salford for this session alone. Whilst C4\/E4, BBC and Sky all showed great appetite for new comedy, Elaine (ITV) repeated the word ‘Benidorm’ so many times that it seemed to be the *only* thing she could utter. ITV are a comedy wilderness and, judging by Elaine’s arguably short-sighted comments, they will continue to be a comedy wilderness for the next five years.<\/p>\n
Sky showed surprising appetite for new comedy. BBC seemed to be slightly conservative in their outlook, but C4\/E4 kept pace with Sky’s positive outlook for the future.<\/p>\n
However, as a writer, I was disappointed that none of these TV companies are interested in receiving scripts and\/or pitches directly.<\/p>\n
‘Go to a producer first’, seemed to be the common mantra. It really seemed as if the TV companies are using producers to filter their incoming post.<\/p>\n
This, to me, seems highly unethical. Imagine publishing companies refusing to receive submissions from authors!<\/p>\n
There is already a strong relationship between TV production companies and TV stations. I appreciate the perceived need to filter incoming proposals, but to have a TV production company perform this function on behalf of TV stations?<\/p>\n
No, this seems just plain wrong.<\/p>\n
The other, subliminal, message that this position sends out, is that the TV companies seem to be backing away from producing their own work.<\/p>\n
It almost seems as though producers (Aspect, Hat Trick, Biteback, Talkback, Boomerang, etc) will be the sole producers of comedy, whilst the TV companies will become nothing more than commissioning agents.<\/p>\n
This was a lively, yet friendly session. John Bishop was the perfect foil against the defensively-bullshitting of ITV1, and managed to get even the friendly C4\/E4 in to a defensive position a few times.<\/p>\n
The unbeatable surprise was to hear John pitch ‘Shelved’ to the panel, and angle the pitch firmly towards the head of comedy for C4\/E4.<\/p>\n
(I had submitted the first three episodes of ‘Shelved’ as an example of my writing at the time of applying for a ticket)<\/p>\n
Talking to John afterwards, he came across as genuine and as nice as he appears during his comedy routine.<\/p>\n
He said flatteringly\u00a0embarrassing\u00a0things about ‘Shelved’ and the head of comedy at C4\/E4 gave me his direct dial phone number.<\/p>\n
A brief coffee break followed.<\/p>\n
The second session was equally awesome, but from a very different perspective.<\/p>\n
Danny Cohen (Controller of BBC1) interviewed Jimmy Mulville (owner of Hat Trick productions) on his life and experience in TV.<\/p>\n
This session had massive potential to be\u00a0excruciatingly\u00a0dull, yet it was lively, sparky, funny and inspiring.<\/p>\n
It didn’t hold much value for writers of TV comedy, but it was a crackingly entertaining hour.<\/p>\n
Lunch followed.<\/p>\n
The third session was a technofeast of geekery; how comedy content might be consumed in the future. It also considered models of monetising comedy content.<\/p>\n
Yawn.<\/p>\n
Oh, it was lively, Nigel Walley from Decipher (a London-based media strategy consultancy) was full of energy and shit. And that’s the problem. He was London-based and therefore totally full of shit. Digital this. Tivo That. Multi-platform Other. Clearly, not a clue about the digital infrastructure that the rest of the UK has to put up with.<\/p>\n
Yawn.<\/p>\n
There was another break.<\/p>\n
The next session was a discussion between delegates from Tiger Aspect, C4 and the BBC about nurturing new and up-and-coming production talent. It was, unfortunately, production-focussed and, again, held sparse value for writers or aspiring writers. There were one or two nuggets of gold. And a couple of silver. But overall this session missed the writing target by a fair old distance.<\/p>\n
The fourth session was a discussion between ‘comedian’ James Corden, and the production companies Big Talk, Rough Cut and Bwark.<\/p>\n
James Corden?<\/p>\n
I left early.<\/p>\n
Overall the day was excellent.<\/p>\n
The first session was awesome and it helped me understand the pool – and how to cross it – with fresh insight.<\/p>\n
Having my piece pitched for me, was fantastic.<\/p>\n
I would like to thank everyone for their time and effort in organising what was, frankly, a brilliant day out.<\/p>\n
I would also like to thank Vision+Media for putting the whole thing on, and for letting me network and pitch This Reality Podcast with a\u00a0ferocious, erm,\u00a0ferocity, to such a high-ranking audience.<\/p>\n
So ferocious, in fact, that the show’s listening figures seem to have climbed to the 200k level, but I’m going to keep an eye on that, to see where things stabilise.<\/p>\n
And that’s it.<\/p>\n
Comedy Conference 2011.<\/p>\n
A good day out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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