RTS Futures

How to take your idea from script to screen

The panellists (l-r) Tom Davis, James de Frond, Lara Singer and Andrew Brereton (Credit: RTS/Paul Hampartsoumian)

A packed RTS Futures event, Pitching Script to Screen, offered tips on how aspiring writers and producers should sell and hone their ideas.

Leading the expert panel of comedy and entertainment practitioners was Tom Davis, the star of the Bafta-award winning BBC Three sitcom, Murder in Successville.

Throughout the session he stressed there was no substitute for hard work and that even experienced TV actors and writers like himself never stopped learning.

Davis said that it was important to be “passionate” regarding the ideas you are trying to sell.

Pitching Script to Screen

Sharing their experiences and insights into developing and pitching scripted content with be actor, stand-up and writer Tom Davis, development producer Lara Singer and MDs of Shiny Button Productions Andy Brereton and James De Frond.

Meet the panel:

​Andy Brereton

Creators reveal the magic behind Game Of Thrones artwork

Helen Thompson (Credit: Cilleán Campbell)

Supervising art director Paul Ghirardani – who brought one of his Emmy Awards with him – was joined by artist Daniel Blackmore and draughtsman Owen Black at the session, which was jointly hosted by Belfast Design Week.

The trio gave presentations about their roles in the art department, before the session host, Film Hub NI project manager Hugh Odling-Smee, led a panel discussion and Q&A with the 80-strong audience.

Belfast’s Titanic Studios has been the main studio and post-production facility for all eight series of Game of Thrones.

So you want to work in observational documentaries?

Havana Marking, Peter Beard, Lizzie Kempton and Peter Dale (Credit: Paul Hampartsoumian)
At an RTS Futures event in early November, National Film and Television School head of documentaries  Peter Dale chaired a debate on what it takes to be a great observational documentary film-maker. 

One of the panel, Lizzie Kempton, was the assistant producer on the Grierson Award-winning BBC Two film, How to Die: Simon’s Choice, which tells the story of a man with an aggressive form of motor neurone disease who chooses to end his life.

The One Show: RTS Futures event

Audience researcher Emmey Little, who landed a job at the BBC One show after applying for a runner position posted on the Facebook group “People looking for TV work”, fielded questions from RTS Futures members before they joined the audience for the live show.

“There’s no shortcut,” she explained, and advised those with no TV experience to show their transferable skills from jobs in customer service or student ventures such as TV societies at university.

What advertisers want: how audience measurement is changing

Kate Bulkley, John Litster, Matt Hill, Rich Astley, Sarah Rose and Justin Sampson (Credit: Paul Hampartsoumain)

With the rapid increase in video-on-demand (VoD) viewing, over-the-top services such as Netflix and mobile TV, working out who watches TV – and when and where – has become a complicated business.

This is the data that advertisers want – and which ratings body Barb is doing its utmost to provide, according to chief executive Justin Sampson.

SO YOU WANT TO WORK IN OBSERVATIONAL DOCUMENTARIES...?

He’ll be joined by some of the top filmmakers in the country including Peter Beard of Story Films whose 2015 film My Son The Jihadi  won a Bafta for best Documentary and whose other work includes landmark series 24 Hours in A&E, 24 Hours in Police Custody, and Kids on The Edge and  Havana Marking, Sundance winning director of Smash and Grab and Afghan Star and Executive Producer of O

The One Show

The One Show is opening its doors to RTS Futures, where you are invited to watch a live episode at BBC Studios, with Martine McCutcheon on the couch and musical guest Paloma Faith set to perform!

Before the show, RTS Futures attendees will be invited to an exclusive Q&A with Emmey Little, who knows everything there is to know about The One Show, having worked her way up the team from assistant to the executive producer to Audience Researcher. 

RTS Futures tour of Pinewood Studios

Credit: Phil Lewis

The sold-out tour featured the complex’s world-famous Underwater Stage, post facilities and the TV studios where many of the UK’s top TV sitcoms and panel shows are shot.

Head of television Sarah McGettigan, who hosted the tour, offered advice to the RTS Futures visitors starting out on a career in telly: “Make yourself useful, and be interested; you can never ask too many questions.”