I think your sketch is excellent Yielding. It should be performed. I see Mel Gibson playing me.......
Brian the can

I still think frankie won!

From Chris...

"we appreciate that improvisational comedy is pretty difficult to translate to script.

We have a set theme that's applied to all our competitions, so improvising works on video and audio, but not on script. I'd recommend that you peeps just write a script set around an office party and let the humour follow."

I hope that helps somebody, i must be thick as i'm none the wiser.

I know how you feel. I live in a contant state of confusion on a daily basis.

Yeah, but I'm quite good at Quick Sudoku

When our man Yielding has got his prize at the end of the 8 week series of comps (he must be the front-runner) he'll be having a meeting with the professionals who'll be telling him how he can improve his script writing, etc. and because Yielding is such a nice guy, he'll come on here and tell us all about it! So I'm looking forward to reading more Yielding! More power to yer elbow, Scott mate!

Yes Missy let's go for a pint, bring Brian too (he doesn't get out much since the accident...) and we three can get slaughtered while Yielding does all the work! Hope Brian doesn't smoke anymore of that St Bruno though... yeuk!

Frankie

quote:

Originally posted by Gr0uch0:
I still think frankie won!

I like the word "won" following the word "Frankie", dat nice!

Hi Frankie! Thanks for the kind words, but if i've learned one thing about 4laughs, it's that you can never predict a winner.... and aren't nice guys supposed to finish last?!

If I do get a chance for professional feedback though I'll definitely be sharing it here (and I don't mind doing all the work while you're out drinking - as long as you pop a kebab in the post for me!).

Drinks on Frankie.

Babycham or Appletiser and vodka for me. Am drinking light.

quote:

Originally posted by Frankie Rage:
When our man Yielding has got his prize at the end of the 8 week series of comps (he must be the front-runner) he'll be having a meeting with the professionals who'll be telling him how he can improve his script writing, etc. and because Yielding is such a nice guy, he'll come on here and tell us all about it! So I'm looking forward to reading more Yielding! More power to yer elbow, Scott mate!

Yes Missy let's go for a pint, bring Brian too (he doesn't get out much since the accident...) and we three can get slaughtered while Yielding does all the work! Hope Brian doesn't smoke anymore of that St Bruno though... yeuk!

Frankie

It's looking less and less likely that I'll be getting the prize of professional feedback now. My entry once again didn't manage to place, despite managing to stick to an almost impossible brief.

Well, me neither, I just read the winners - some good ideas there but none had followed the improvisational brief.

I did, but I'm not saying my ideas were better than the winners though. In fact my stuff was pretty crap probably, although it made me laugh writing it!

I must laugh at the strangest things!

Frankie

quote:

Originally posted by The Glamourous Snowdrop:
Drinks on Frankie.
Babycham or Appletiser and vodka for me. Am drinking light.

It's water all round then Rube as I'm flat broke... I had hoped to win the £250 for the time travel comp as I put in what I thought were some great entries but wrong I was as I didn't even get a mention!!! !
Another baked beans Christmas at Frankies...
F

I'm having a hard time figuring out what the 4laughs team are looking for in their comedy. So far I've not been able to find any discernable pattern in their choice of winners, one week it's funny-ha-ha, the next it's funny he-hee; which makes it very difficult for anybody to learn from.

Henry Normal's first blog advised us to get to know our target audience, but so far the 4laughs team has me stumped.



I'd guess that for the christmas sketch they'd be looking for funny-ho-ho... but I've been wrong before!

At No. 1 on the Comedy Ladder with 66 points you must have tickled a few funny bones!!!

The 4laughs House Style is one of my old chestnuts.... so far I have it thus:

young
modern
light hearted
a little bit political (let's keep it light hearted though...)

And given the site is sponsored by Nintendo, I guess that I've got it about right?

That's about it.

Frankie

Of course I'm chuffed with the whole points thing, who wouldn't be, and to some extent it does give me an advantage, but the thing is this... if any of the people who post content were already up to a standard that's worthy of some form of commissioning - they'd have already been contacted. I mean, it's doubtful that a comedy commissioner checking out 4laughs would be saying 'well, they're good - but unless they reach the top of the ladder we're going to have nothing to do with them'.

Most of those who post to the site have entered more than enough scripts/audio/video/images to give a good example of their abilities, and so far there's been no real success stories. Which can only mean that so far, the standard required by comedy executives hasn't yet been reached.

Which therefore means that in order for any of us to find some form of success in the field of comedy writing, we're going to have to learn. And although the 4laughs team are doing an excellent job in maintaining what must be a very complex site to manage, I just think that a little more specific feedback and more clearly defined briefs would be more helpful.

One of my video's was reviewed by Henry Normal, and the feedback from it was encouraging and very helpul in pointing out why certain aspects of it worked. I learned from that, but I would have learned just as much if it were made on somebody elses work.

What I mean to say (in my usual long-winded way), is that if 4laughs were to give a clearer definition of why those who won the competitions were deemed the funniest, then we might actually all start improving our game.

First of all, I'm very grateful for what 4Laughs are doing but I hear what you are saying Yielding. I'm not actually sure whether the 4Laughs team are in a position to give such feedback. From the about us section it says they are a media company, with a few guest editors from Baby Cow.

I hope they do have experience of commissioned comedy otherwise the feedback is pretty irrelevant. Obviously, the guest editors are pros but they don't seem to be reviewing most the comps.

I have also noticed the randomness of winners. Somedays they applaud people who stick to the theme, the next they'll award someone who barely mentions it.

I've been fortunate enough to get really good feedback to sketches in the test bed, even mentioned in the blog, but not placed at all when entering them. But i guess they aren't good enough. Its subjective, I guess its the same at all levels. I mean someone said 'yes, we'll commission Jam and Jerusalem'. Not that I'm saying 4Laughs are wrong, its probably me, but it highlights that different people see it different ways.

Some consistency would be nice and clarity. I think 4Laughs might have realised their mistake with the impro thing. I don't know what happened to my Comedy Collective poem though!

I'd like to see a wise from Sabriel here....<cue>

the missing word was... "word"

...a wise word from Sabriel...

Not sure many people are going to get picked up purely based on this site. Obviously Im hoping someone might spot my scripts and get in touch, but im really not expecting it, my main way of trying to get noticed is still sending my stuff directly to producers. As for asking exactly what this site wants, I think that would be pretty hard for them to say, beyond an obvious 'something funny'! Which is obviously no help, my advice would just be to write what you think is funny, rather than trying to write what you think might be their preference as this will probably have a detrimental affect on the work you produce. I have no secret insight into what they like, despite doing well in script comps at the moment, other than (Hopefully) funny material.

Yeah, i use the site to get a collection for a portfolio as well as feedback. My intention is to go to the companies after.

I've already had more out of this site than I ever expected - I was a failed song writer - now I'm a failed song writer in a comedy group! Early days yet but it sho is fun!

I do think that something will get lifted off this site sooner or later by someone wanting to produce something for Radio or TV but who, how, what, when, etc. is debatable.

I do it for the giggles. Also, I have to put all the random stuff in my head somewhere.

Frankie, you get me the water, I'll get the peanuts. I have skills at smugging my own booze strapped to my body into bars. I'm a walking pub.

Yielding, my theory on picking the winners is they blindfold Chris, spin him in the chair, and they judge the winners on how much vomit splatter there is, hence the need for the end of most comps after lunchtime.

I'm not suggesting that the purpose of the site is to be magically discovered and whisked towards fame, but there are commisioners and producers looking over the content, and I don't think that they'd hold back on approaching a writer they like simply because they're not in the top five positions on the ladder.

And in all honesty I think that the 4laughs team are as equally qualified to judge what is and isn't funny as anybody else, since all it takes is a sense of humour - and even media companies have a giggle now and then.

What I'm suggesting is that a little more feedback given to winning entries would benifit anybody looking to improve their writing.

With entries that are voted for, the star rating itself serves as some kind of feedback - similar to TV ratings, but the script entries are more like submissions; and when submitting work to production companies and TV channels we're often advised to research what that particular company or channel are looking for.

I just figured that a little more feedback from the team on winning scripts would allow us a better insight into the current target audience, that's all.

quote:

Originally posted by The Glamourous Snowdrop:


Yielding, my theory on picking the winners is they blindfold Chris, spin him in the chair, and they judge the winners on how much vomit splatter there is, hence the need for the end of most comps after lunchtime.

That's how my ex-girlfriend got lumbered with me! Of course, once she took off the blindfold she scarpered - but it was a good 5 years.

Now, every tim