The role of the writer

Knowing about commissioning process for writing. 

 Knowing the job roles within the commissioning process

- Editors

- Producers

- Directors  

- Script editors 

- Agents 

- Writers 

- Commissioning bodies 

- Independent production companies

-  Independent directors and organizations

- Competitions 

 -The role of the writer throughout production which include planning, script editing, director or producer involvement, shooting script production, page lock-down, adjustment during shooting stage.

Job roles within the commissioning process

- Commissioning editors - The role that commissioning editors working for a publishing house or magazines, a commissioning editor commissions authors or journalists to write books or articles. This job can also involve developing ideas for new books and articles before identifying suitable authors and journalists to write them. To become a commissioning editor you  will need some college degrees, most editors have at least a bachelor's degree, usually in English, communications, or journalism. Some have graduate degrees but it is not a requirement. It is mostly important that you have a passion for reading and enjoy editing. 

- Independent production companies - A production company is usually run by a producer or director but can also be run by a career executive. A production company relies highly on talent or a well known entertainment franchise to raise the value of an entertainment project and draw out larger audience. The difference between an independent production company and a studio producers films to the general public whereas an independent production company works for other companies to help them produce their desired content. 

- Independent directors - This refers to a member of a board of directors, every public company is required to install a board of directors, who does not have a material relationship with a company and is neither part of its executive teams or involved in the day-to-day operations of the company. 

- Producers - A producer is the person who is responsible for finding and launching a project, arranging financing, hiring writers, a director and key members of the creative team, they over see all elements of pre-production, production and post-production, they do this all the way until the release date. 

- Competitions - competitions is a great way to get your work noticed, contributing to competitions will be allow you to get your work across and recognized. Some competitions will not take work that you have used for something before and may ask you to create something different and may have a specific genre that they would like you to focus on. 

Working as a writer 

When working as a writer there is a lot of things that have to be considered here are some examples and why its important...

- Agent representations -  

- Optioning and payments -

- Professional presentation - When you are presenting a presentation it is important for it to be profession for example, not having childish images, no slang, it would have to be well said English this is because if you go unprofessional then others may not take you seriously and in the film and TV industry it is import to be taken seriously for your work 

- Time management - It is important be good at managing your time this is because you wouldn't like to go behind when your working because it will set you back and once you have lost some time it will be hard to get back to it so it is important for you to be able to keep up with everything and not full behind 

There are many different legal and ethical considerations for example:

"copyright" - The exclusive and assignable legal right given to the originator for a fixed number of years, to print, publish, perform, film or record literary, artistic or musical material. So in other words if the work that has been realized hasn't been realized by the person who created it they can claim for copywriter which means they will be able to get some money from the person who realized it.  

-"bias" - this means that the person has a strong opinion on a specific thing and they are showing that, they will lean more towards one side than the other and in the case for tv and film you have to be biased and you have to be able to pick more than one side and they have to be able to show what opinion/ option they like better and sometimes they have to be open minded and see everything from all sides. 

-"censorship" - the genera; censorship occurs in a variety of different medias including speech, books, music, films and other artists, the radio, tv and the internet for a variety of claimed reasons including national security, to control obscenity, child pornography etc.. 

-watersheds" - This is the timings of what goes on what, for example in the mornings and throughout the day they will have child friendly programs and after 9 that's when they start to get inappropriate for children for example sexual, horror and over 18 films.

-"libel"- A published false statement that is damaging to a persons reputation. 

-"plagiarism" - presenting someone else's work or ideas as your own, with or without their consent. 

 

 The role of the writer 

screenwriters write and develop screenplays for film or TV drama. They do this either based on an original idea by adapting an existing story into a screenplay or by joining an existing project. Television writers develop stories, write scripts, make edits and revisions and help determine what an episode looks like in the world of TV. Writers are able to influence everything from the series that are told to how the sets are built.

The screenplay guide for the producers, director, actors, crew of exactly what will appear on screen. It is the common ground that everybody on the film will work with from start to finish of production. It tells the complete story, contains all action in the film and all dialogue for each character. 

One example for a screen writing competition is Bluecat. If your a winner living outside the USA, your script is automatically eligible to win the Fellini award, given annually to the best internal script and that is $1 000. They have a rule that all entries must be in English, the feature screenplay must be between 65-125 pages in length. The pilot scripts must be between 20-75 pages and the short screenplays must be between 1-29 pages in length. Everything that is submitted must be your own work, you are not allowed to copy or use anyone else's work, or previous work. The script that you send in must be completely new and its not allowed to have been previously won at any contests, competition or award of any kind. In this event there is a number of prices for example the grand prize winner will receive $5,000, the feature screenplay award winner will receive $2,000, the pilot award winner will receive $2,000 also and so will the short script award. Some of the things that they accept are features, episodic pilots and short film scripts, each submission with receive one complimentary written analysis, script must be in PDF must have a properly formatted by file name (name of script by author by Author First Last Name.pdf) they don't have any title page requirements and all entries must also be in English. 

 

When going through the process they have to commission content, when doing this they have a number of things to look out for some of their strategic priorities include;

*To support the supply of distinctive, British ideas to the BBC from across the UK

*To maintain  a range of supply in the UK enabling smaller producers to survive and grow

*To strengthen production ecologies, talent and the creative pipeline outside London 

*To strengthen progress on diversity and representation both on and off screen

*To strengthen progress towards environmentally sustainable production to the UK.

 

As part of the commitment to creative diversity they are prioritizing £100m of their existing TV commissioning budget over three years. They aim to make the decisions as fast as possible: entering into a dynamic, creative dialogue with producers and managed by the relevant commissioning genre. Every idea has different considerations but generally BBC television aims to work to following timescales.