Last time, I began to write about creating your own content or ‘what I call’ making your own entertainment. Over the next few weeks, that’s going to be the focus here in the run up to a webinar I’m hosting on this topic at 6pm UK Time on Thursday 10th October. It’s pay what you like. And you can book now:
There are good and bad reasons to decide to make your own content. Here’s a bad reason:
I’ll show you!
You’ve sweated and laboured over a sitcom script for months, if not years. You might even have done my comprehensive video course to help you. But it feels like no-one’s buying comedies. No-one wants to read your script. And those who do, eventually, do not appreciate it.
Your reaction: you take sufficient umbrage that you cry, “I’ll show you!” Then, you set about trying to make your half hour TV comedy yourself.
My advice: do not do this.
The reason: it will be bad. If you ever actually finish producing it. Which you probably won’t.
I can relate to this feeling. I’m theoretically a moderately successful sitcom writer. I’ve been working in this industry for 25 years. I’ve written on numerous shows (Miranda, My Family, Death in Paradise) but I’ve only successfully pitched one TV sitcom (Bluestone 42). I’ve had three sitcoms produced on BBC Radio 4 (Think the Unthinkable, Hut 33, The Pits) and one on BBC Radio Wales (Be Lucky).
So I can’t help noticing that most ideas I’ve pitched, particularly since 2012, have not been commissioned. I’ve written pilot scripts, some commissioned, some on spec. Most have been turned down, ignored or run aground. The rest have vanished.
I’ve had one idea that sat on a producer’s desk for literally a whole year only to be told that they’ve just received a very similar idea and are going with that one. (Really and truly) This business is utterly enraging, especially at the moment.
It's easy to forget that rejection is normal. Even Stephen Moffat and Russell T Davies have ideas rejected. Success is the outlier. It’s important to remember that so your reaction to bad news is proportionate.
The Key is What Happens Next
We cannot control our reactions.
But we can control our subsequent actions.
Don’t allow your understandable umbrage to cause you to make poor decisions.
There are a range of options in reacting to the rejection of your sitcoms script. Deciding to produce that sitcom script ourselves is almost certainly the wrong decision. Here’s why:
You wrote that script for television, to be produced for a particular audience on a TV budget. Unless you have £300,000 to spend on making a pilot, what makes you sure that you will be able to do that script justice? Even in a cut-down form?
You might think you can make it much more cheaply. For a few thousand pounds. You can use actors you know, and locations you can afford. But it’s still an immense amount of work, especially if you’re not paying a lot of people. It really won’t be as good. Those expensive actors off the telly are brilliant.
And it will take ages. You won’t get that time back. Is it really going to be worth the bother? You might not see your family for eighteenth months. (Although for some, that’s a plus. For them.)
Sitting Well
Here’s another factor: is this the kind of show that would sit well in a TV schedule?
If so, it probably isn’t the kind of show that’s going to ‘punch through’ on YouTube. Especially if it’s a family-friendly, mainstream idea. Is it funny within the first 15 seconds? What’s the thumbnail? What’s the appeal? Who is this for?
An excellent writer called Peter C Hayward decided to make his own audio sci-fi sitcom called Night Crew. It was funny. He raised some money through a Kickstarter so it would sound great. And it did. He got a fantastic cast. And did I mention it’s funny? There were lots of lovely jokes.
Night Crew would have done just fine on BBC Radio 4. But it wasn’t the kind of thing that does well out in the ether. It was sci-fi – but wasn’t quite sci-fi enough. It was sci-fi for a mainstream Radio 4 audience. But not geeky enough to get its own audience. I talked to him about it and he was really honest about the experience. See the link right at the bottom of the page.
Producing your own stuff, then, can be doubly frustrating. You go to all that bother and fanfare of producing your unproduced sitcom, only to hear that sound of crickets all over again.
If you decided to spend, say, £3000 and 18 months of your life on something to put on YouTube – where it will probably be ignored – would you chose this sitcom script? What else could you do with that energy, time and money?
Step Back
Take a step back and get clarity on what you’re trying to achieve when you’re spending time and treasure making your own stuff. There’s no-one there to stop you so you can rush into a poor decision and regret it, waste resources and even come away with nothing. If you’re not clear on your aim, you’re going to get frustrated all over again. That second round of frustration is, I would like to suggest, optional.
It may be that you think making your own sitcom with some funny friend will be a blast – and that’s great. Why are you making this video? To have fun. Great. We’re clear on the aim. Have fun. But don’t be cross when no-one watches it on YouTube. That was never the aim.
Are you making this sitcom because you want to prove the concept? Okay. But could you do that with a really great sketch that epitomises the central idea of the show, placing a brilliant funny character at the heart of it? Great. Do that. Or a short series on pieces to camera on Instagram. Whatever medium or platform feels right for that world.
Do you want people to notice your writing? You’re probably best advised to write something else completely. Start a blog. Tweet jokes. Make podcasts. Be clear on what you’re trying to achieve – and then work out how to get there.
But don’t make a sitcom in anger. You won’t stay angry for long enough, and when you’re over it and in too deep, you’ll be angry all over again, this time at yourself.
There’s lots more to be said on making your own stuff. And I’ll be saying it here on this blog so:
And book into that webinar I’m hosting on this topic at 6pm UK Time on Thursday 10th October. It’s pay what you like. And you can book now:
Also, I’m making my own stuff – but taking my own advice. I’m not going to get stuck halfway through. I’m part of a Kickstarter. Would you mind going to take a look? Even if you’re only curious as to how to run a Kickstarter. Here’s the video:
And here’s the video I recorded with Night Crew writer, Peter C Hayward. We can laugh about it now:
Here’s what I wrote about this last week: