There was quite a lot of tweeting about this topic and the session today (which I missed). Writers often ask what the market is looking for, which immediately indicates that they don’t know.
It also indicates that there is an assumption that other people will or might know, as if this nugget of knowledge will give writers an advantage if only they knew what it was.
You can check TwelvePoint’s Buzz, you can check the Commissioning Index on Broadcast’s website, you can read Screen International, surf the web for articles and chat. You can check the box office and the ratings and the best seller lists.
You will learn what was chosen 1, 2 or even 4 or 5 years ago. You won’t know what the market wants now or in the near future.
I think that grasping at straws like this is completely understandable. It is obvious. But the bandwagon that went by is too late for you.
On the other hand there are the perennials: certain genres and formats that are always in demand only if the script and story is good enough. Which reminds me of an article Tom Williams did in TwelvePoint some time ago, when he went over to LA to work in development in Hollywood, to see how different it was from the UK (check out his articles: put his name into the search box in TwelvePoint): one conclusion was that in LA ‘good enough wasn’t good enough’.
What is far more valuable for writers is to know what they are good at. Interrogate your strengths and weaknesses. Work on the weaknesses; build up your strengths. And write what you are best at because all genres are viable, even apparently unpopular ones. As soon as someone with talent gets a hit in a genre no-one seems to be looking for it becomes hot again, and by then it is too late to chase the bandwagon.
Worry about your own writing, not what others are doing. That does not mean you must only write the kind of movies you like watching, though it does help to enjoy what you like writing. What you enjoy as a punter is not necessarily the same as what you may be good at.
If you do choose to cross genres, then beware: you have half the time to develop the storyline of each genre and expect the script to be on the long side and to take longer to write. Putting Dolly Parton and Sylvester Stallone into the same picture is like crossing genres: it doesn’t always work if her fans don’t like his movies, and vice versa.
Since most spec scripts do not sell, but the good specs get their authors work, focus on whatever it is you do best.
Tags: bandwagon, Broadcast, genre, Screen International, The Buzz, trends, TwelvePoint
BBC1 asked me (and my then partner) to write up a sitcom treatment and pilot a couple of years ago, based on an idea we’d developed in our live sketch show. They loved the concept and we had a whole department championing it. It went to offers and breezed through the various departments, but foundered at the desk of the then Controller. He concluded that, although it was extremely funny, a failing drama – a drama, mind – with which our sitcom vaguely shared a theme, rendered it a non-starter. Hmm.
I subsequently submitted a sitcom proposal about the insignificant lives of a pair of middle-aged Welsh twins who’d had a lone hit in the 70’s, completely faded from view and were now on the comeback trail. I was told that as Gavin and Stacey was set in Wales, it couldn’t even be considered!
At the SWF, an agent told me to write about what inspired me, but maybe it’s best to at least try and pinpoint the likely flavour-of-the-month genre and write something up quickly before those on high change their minds! I hope I know what my strengths are by now – I’ve been writing and performing comedy for 15 years and have numerous TV and radio credits – but pursuing a career as a scriptwriter feels like a terribly thankless task at times!