Hi There,
CHANNEL 4 SCREENWRITING COURSE 2025
I hope you have had an enjoyable and productive summer. I’m delighted to be able to announce that we will again be running the CHANNEL 4 SCREENWRITING COURSE in 2025.
Entries will open on Monday September 23rd and close on Friday October 4th.
All the details are on the CHANNEL 4 SCREENWRITING COURSE page on my website –
https://script-consultant.co.uk/channel-4-screenwriting-course/
But here is a bit more information and a few tips –
You will need to send us your script, a logline and a CV.
Your logline needs to be a description / pitch of the script you’re submitting in one or two clear, punchy sentences, A strong, striking logline really stands out and is a helpful guide for the reader as to what sort of story they’re about to read.
The CV – don’t worry if you don’t have a lot of writing credits to put on your CV. Obviously we would like to know about the extent of your writing up to now, any particularly noteworthy credits or achievements. But we are also interested in finding out about you as a person – your background, interests, passions, life experience and other work and training. Because we are looking for as broad and diverse a range of writers on the course as we can get – as many different perspectives and types of stories. Diverse in terms of gender, sexual orientation, class, regionality, age, ethnicity, ability / disability and more generally in the unique perspective you bring to your writing.
One of the things the course prides itself on is bringing fresh, distinctive, original and provocative voices into the UK TV drama industry.
While this course is run from the Channel 4 Drama department, we are also interested in and enjoy reading comedy drama and comedy scripts.
It’s important that applicants have an interest in UK-produced television drama in general and Channel 4’s specific brand of drama in particular. This shouldn’t be restrictive or limiting – think of the broad range of drama C4 has produced most recently – from Charlie Covell and Iain Weatherby’s Truelove, the outstanding recent series of On The Edge original films, Russell T Davies’s brilliant It’s A Sin, Somewhere Boy by Pete Jackson.
You should only enter if you’re firmly committed to working as a TV drama screenwriter. While we hope the 6 months of the course is a fun, creative experience (please read the testimonials on the web page), it’s also unquestionably demanding. We ask you to go from one sentence pitch to polished second-draft pilot episode script in 5 months – and the more work you put into this, the more you will get from the course and the better the script will be. Having said this, the course is designed so that you should be able to do other full-time work concurrently.
And then at the end of the course there will be a lot of industry interest in that script and in you as a writer. In other words, being on the course is only the start of the professional journey. So make sure this is something you are serious about, that you are really committed to, before submitting your entry. If you don’t feel quite ready, next year’s opportunity will come round sooner than you expect!
You also need to remember that that however brilliant your script is, however ready and well-qualified you feel you are – we only have places for 12 writers. With so many entries (2000+ last year), your odds of getting on the course are not good – you need to factor this in and be philosophical about your chances.
One common theme you will see from the testimonials is that a lot of the successful applicants only get onto the course at their 4th or 5th attempt. There is nothing more compelling than reading 4 or 5 different but equally interesting scripts over several years – to give us a sense of both your versatility and persistence. And you will need a lot of this sort of persistence once you are working inside the industry.
However, I am a firm believer that if you have written a genuinely outstanding script and are reasonably well-organised in finding ways to get this script in front of the right people – that you will succeed (whether it’s via the 2025 Channel 4 screenwriting course or not).
For me and the team of readers, the task of covering all the scripts is intense, challenging but also delightful and incredibly educational. Reading so many scripts over such a short period of time is a crash-course in analysing dramatic storytelling and how it works – also in getting a sense of the preoccupations and passions of the UK writing community – the task of reading the submitted scripts is a real privilege.
So – if you’re planning on entering – thank you and good luck.
NB There is much fuller information / FAQs about the course and entry requirements on the web page. Please read all of this before submitting your entry. Once you have entered, you won’t be able to revise / improve or resubmit – so make sure you understand everything about the course and its requirements before submitting.
Please help yourself by avoiding the stress of submitting your entry on the last day (Friday October 4th) and particularly in the last hour. Entries close at 5pm.
The full entry form won’t be accessible until 9am on Monday September 23rd.
https://script-consultant.co.uk/channel-4-screenwriting-course/
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One more course that is worth entering – this year’s Studio21 Script Competition – https://www.studio21.com/script
Unlike the Channel 4 course, this course / competition charges an entry fee. While this is an obvious downside compared to 4screenwriting, the upside is this means that there will be significantly fewer entries so your chances of success are greater. And this is a very reputable course that will also undoubtedly raise your profile and help on your writing journey.
NB You only have until September 18th to enter for the Studio21 scheme.
The next newsletter will be with you on Friday September 20th,
Best wishes
Phil
PHILIP SHELLEY
Twitter: PhilipShelley1
Friday September 6th 2024
