Thursday, 14 June 2012

Write Your Way to New York with the Rocliffe Forum

A fantastic writing opportunity, courtesy of the BAFTA Rocliffe Forum:

WRITE YOUR WAY TO NEW YORK
Rocliffe and BAFTA are again inviting all comedians, sketch performers, comedy writers and producers to enter their comedy sit coms or sketches to our renowned comedy writing initiative and potentially win the chance to connect you and your script with producers, talent agents, studio executives and perhaps the grand prize a trip to New York (courtesy of British Airways) to have your work performed at an extra-special BAFTA Rocliffe New Writing Forum at the New York Television Festival in October.  Scroll down for links to Application Form, Terms and Conditions and Paypal Links.

BAFTA ROCLIFFE NEW WRITING FORUM: ESTABLISHED MAY 2000 The BAFTA Rocliffe New Writing Forum is a phenomenally successful event which has been running for over 12 years; it has had huge significance for lots of career starters in the film and TV industries. Renowned for empowering writers with exciting opportunities to bring their stories to audiences and industry leaders such as BAFTA winning and nominated directors and producers Mike Newell, David Yates, John Madden, Christine Langan, Elizabeth Karlsen, Matt Greenhalgh, Guy Hibbert and Oscar winning screenwriter Julian Fellowes, multi-award winning writer Phil Rosenthal. 


If you have tried to get commissioned but simply not been able to open those doors well now's your chance! Submit your work to this special Comedy BAFTA Rocliffe New Writing Forum and you could be writing your way all the way to the New York TV Festival.  As long as you haven't had a TV Series commissioned (although you may have broadcast writing credits) we are inviting you to submit a ten minute extract from your TV sit-com or sketch show for consideration for the scheme.

This opportunity has been created by BAFTA in partnership with Rocliffe, together with British Airways and the New York TV Festival, the first independent television festival.  The package for successful writers, who will be selected by a leading jury of industry professionals from the UK and US, will include: 

-    A special BAFTA Rocliffe New Writing Forum showcase with professional actors performing their work at a central New York venue as part of the NYTVF;
-    Feedback during the event from a top TV industry guest giving writers vital tips and encouragement;
-    Before an audience of TV heavyweights including Comedy Central, FOX, FX, VH1, MTV and IFC amongst others;
-    A New York Television Festival Official Artist pass - access to all festival premieres, hospitality events, panels, screenings and special one-on-one meetings with US TV development executives as well as submission opportunities to NYTVF Pitch;
-    Membership of NYTVF Connect, the festival’s industry programme that distributes scripts to executives and networks in advance of the festival;
-    A networking  workshop and one-to-one mentoring sessions with producers and literary agents before arriving in New York;
-    British Airways World Traveller return flights and accommodation;

The Official Artist status at the festival, allows writers comprehensive access to all festival premieres, hospitality events, panels, screenings and special one-on-one meetings with US TV development executives. This year, the three winners will also be part of NYTVF Connect, the Festival's comprehensive industry track programme serving artists and top-tier entertainment executives across the creative development spectrum. As an artist of Connect the winners can have their scripts distributed to executives and networks in advance of arriving in New York. 

The 2011 script selection panel led by Andrew Newman included Charlie Hanson (Extras, The Office), Damon Beasley (The Inbetweeners), Kevin Cecil (Black Books, Gnomeo and Juliet) and representatives of BBC and Channel 4.  All writers will receive a submission report per submission.

In additional to the prizes this year we are also offering each of the winners one to one meetings with some of the top UK literary agents currently confirmed are Casarotto, Dench Arnold and United Agents (who signed 2011 winner Anne Marie Draycott) before you fly out giving you invaluable guidance and the chance to learn some key insights.

This year @BAFTA and @Rocliffeforum will be holding several online tweetups with #scriptchat to answer any questions you may have. 

As a direct result of being featured at our event - several writers have had work optioned and produced as well been signed by agents. Recent success stories include Sitcom Trials alumni Anne Marie Draycott & Charity Trimm's PREGNANT PAUSE (signed by United Agents & Pregnant Pause was optioned by script selection panellist from Bwark (The Inbetweeners)), James Dormer's work The Holding was optioned, produced and had a theatrical release, Claire Wilson was signed by an agent and has had Rocliffe featured work optioned. Josh Appignanesi and Jack Thorne showcased their early work.  
Entries will be judged on the following criteria:
  • The originality and strength of the idea;
  • The strength of voice and potential in the writer;
  • The suitability of the extract to the theatrical nature of the event;
  • Adaptability for a US market.
Entries will be judged through the following process:
  • Stage One: All scripts will be read by an experienced script reader and each writer will receive a script report. A shortlist will be drawn up to 25 entries. 
  • Stage Two: The 25 shortlisted entrants will be reviewed by an industry selection panel and select a short list of up to 12 entrants for interview. 
  • Stage Three: The short listed entrants will be interviewed between 11 and 13  Sep by a select panel.
In 2011, Phil Rosenthal creator of multi award winning Everybody Loves Raymond joined the forum as the industry chair, providing feedback and advice to the three winning writers Anne-Marie Draycott, Greg de Roeck and Thomas Phipps.  The writers have since gone on to forge contacts in the US, secure UK agents and have their work developed and optioned in the UK.

To have your script come to life as there is time to get your script in and participate at BAFTA Rocliffe New Writing Forum ALL YOU NEED TO DO IS carefully read our terms and conditions, fill in our application form.   


Please complete our Diversity Monitoring Form as part of your application [click here]. Please write ROCLIFFE NEW YORK in the POST APPLIED FOR field.  BAFTA and Rocliffe want to ensure that we are reaching as many people as possible so that a broad range of people can benefit from this initiative. We monitor diversity to help improve our marketing reach but diversity information is not considered as part of your submission.   The form is anonymous. If you prefer not to provide this information, please still complete the form but leave the fields blank.
SCRIPTS must arrive on the day of the deadline (early bird or final) to qualify or be post-marked the day before the deadline date or emailed as per the instructions in the Terms and Conditions.

(Forwarded by The Sitcom Trials)

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