There are many job roles when It comes to the commissioning process such as commissioning editors, producers, directs script editors, agents and writers. A commissioning editor is the person who will filter through the ideas that come in and decides whether an idea is professional or relevant enough to be aired on television. Usually commissioning editors work within a specific style or genre allowing them to gain experience in that area and over time knowing what ideas have potential and which are ridiculous. They will usually supervise a production after they have given the go ahead for funding to make sure that the money isn’t going to waste. The producers also work alongside the commissioning editor and administrate areas such as finance, health and safety and legal issues. We then come to the director. It’s the director’s job to put across his vision to the rest of the crew to recreate the image in his head, they supervise everything practical that’s going on such as the camera crew, the talent, the props department, everything and anything that will be included in filming the director has a say in and its his job to take a majority of the responsibly when on site. There are also script editors. They will search through the script and make any changes that they feel would help the story appeal to the audience more depending on the genre. You also absolutely need an agent if you want to be commissioned because if you don’t have an agent it is unlikely you will become known and your work will not be recognised. An agent represents you and everything that you stand for; he will advertise you to the major companies and hopefully get them interested in your production. Finally there is the writer, he is the source of the idea, without the writer there would be no production. Sometimes the writer will sell his script straight off for money but other times he will stick around and oversee the project to make sure it goes according to his plan. They write the script and include all the characters, the locations and spill their ideas into the pages of the script.
Getting commissioned is the single most difficult for a writer. Many famous writers have admittedly failed when trying to get commissioned multiple times and have only been successful because of a “lucky break through in one of their ideas”. Corporations such as the BBC have set up websites specifically for new and upcoming writers such as “the BBC Writers Room”. This scheme helps new writers by telling them how they improve on their scripts and also if they like the script enough possibly pass it onto a corporation that might be interested or maybe recommend it to the BBC itself.
The BBC is commissioned by Ofcom a regulating body that enforces rules such as no swearing before 9pm on television and decides what would be and what won’t be suitable for television. Commissioning bodies are something writers need to keep in mind when creating a script or screenplay because if, for example, it contains too much bad language or in fact too strong bad language because if it does then Ofcom may decide to take it off the air or not even give it a chance at all. You could also pitch your idea to and independent production company. These companies are usually hired by bigger corporations, such as the BBC, to create a television series that would be suitable for an allocated time slot. A good example of this would be the hit T.V series Sherlock. Writers often sell their ideas to production companies straight away, take the money but then lose all power over what happens to the final product. Although some writers do work in calibration with television series directors to attempt to recreate the writers intended vision it almost never happens with screenplay writers when it comes to films.
The writer takes on a big responsibility if they are commissioned and allowed to work on the film. They will have a say in everything that happens from when the script leaves their hand from when they see it on the television. However, being able to work on our own screenplay is usually not an option for writers. After they have spent hours polishing their script they are put under enormous pressure to write new episodes or instalments of the production. They also get put under the pressure knowing that their idea will inevitably be warped or changed depending on the directors vision because most film companies see it as a waste of time and feel the writer will get in the way.
As a writer copyright is a big issue. I’m sure that everyone has seen a movie that resembles another movie that they had seen some time ago but sometimes screenplays and films become to similar and they begin to cross the line of plagiarism and copyright. This can be dangerous for writer because not only can it result in court, being fined or jail it can also give the writer a bad reputation within the film community and due to the fact that it’s already hard enough to get screenplays noticed it would be a tremendous fall-back.
In conclusion working as a writer is immensely difficult to break into. Even if you’re the best writer in the world it will still take some time to become noticed. An agent is probably the best way that you can break into working as a writer as he will help you gain contacts and possibly put you in touch with some of his contacts with commissioning bodies and independent production companies. As a freelance writer, which is 89% of all writers, usually you will sell your script to a production company and collect a payment for your script and this happens a majority of the time. An advantage to this though would be that after the production company has brought the rights to your script they can only use it for the allotted time that they brought it for. So even if the company brought your script for 2 years unfortunately you would not be able to sell those rights to anyone else within those 2 years, but once that time is up, you can begin looking for another company that may be interested. Becoming a writer is a very time consuming, stressful and rewarding feat but once accomplished gives a very high sense of achievement. Most writers, even famous writers now admit that it is a very difficult industry to break into. You have to have the right amount of luck, skill and determinedness to succeed and to make a living from it is even harder.
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