03/7/06
RTE Drama – The Challenging Voice
Open Day Presentation
Over the next six months we will be developing a range of drama projects to meet the scheduling needs of RTE One and RTE Two for 2007 / 2008.
Before I go into the specifics of the schedules I’d like to outline some general ideas that I will be seeking to reflect in RTE’s drama output.
Across both channels, in clearly distinctive ways, we would like drama to stand out as the challenging voice in a time of change.
In as much as drama can, we would like to reflect common experiences and concerns of Irish people, exploring areas of life in Ireland in both new and traditional forms using a range of devices and attitudes. We would also like to see an emphasis on the development of complex characters drawn with integrity who represent the Irish experience.
Themes that will be of interest, for example, include:
· The family: relationships, fertility, the childhood and adolescent experience in contemporary times.
· The individual: the courageous person; how we interact with the state and corporate entities and the impact these entities have on our lives. The consequences of secularism for the individual and society.
· The material age: money, crime, the drug culture, gambling, banks and financial institutions, the Americanisation of Ireland.
· The Ireland of rich and poor, of privileged and deprived and how they interconnect.
· The changing face of Ireland: the influence of immigration on Ireland and of Ireland on the immigrant; the urbanisation of rural Ireland.
· Social and political events Ireland’s recent history.
We would like to see writers standing up for the audience and exploring some of these areas with their own unique perspectives, we would like writers to extrapolate from our behaviour and look into the future to where this is leading us.
We would like to see the emergence of more writers with assertive, original voices. With Ireland’s short history of contemporary drama there is an obvious dearth of developed talent in this area and we ask producers to consider how to bring more writers into television – be it from a film background, theatre or other writing disciplines – we need more mature writers who can capture and articulate the stories of our time in scripts for television.
This is not to the exclusion of new writers – quite the contrary – we will continue to seek out and cultivate new talent - in longer running series we will look in particular for strong lead writers and series producers working with people new to television writing.
So let me move on to the specifics of what we will be seeking for the schedules:
RTE ONE
RTE ONE series and serials need to appeal to a broad audience. We will seek ideas that do this in ways that can be funny, tragic, enlightening and capable of making a dynamic impact. We would like RTE ONE drama to matter to the audience.
For New Year’s day 2008 we would like to see a piece that is intelligent, funny, warm and entertaining. Family viewing with national appeal.
The available budget from RTE will be up to €1.5m
Spring / Autumn 2008
Single 75 minute dramas - genre or character driven drama that is challenging, entertaining and inspiring and suitable for event scheduling. We would like to find ideas with high profile talent attached that have the potential to attract secondary financing.
A word about these pieces as they should be quite distinctive from feature films. We specifically want ideas that are conceived for the small screen. They need to be driven by a strong, credible narrative with subject matter that has a resonance for an Irish television audience primarily.
Projects in this area can be pitched for both RTE ONE and RTE TWO but for RTE ONE they will need to have a broad audience appeal while for RTE TWO we will seek ideas that appeal to a younger demographic and can therefore be more experimental in ideas and technology.
Finance from RTE will be dictated by the channel these events are designed for and the availability of other finance. Budgets available from RTE will not exceed €1.5m for RTE ONE and €1m for RTE TWO.
Two 2 x 1 hours – Post-watershed across consecutive nights. We would like to see writers opening up the themes already outlined to different genres. We are open to considering satire and comedy, high concept drama, docu-drama, character driven ideas – we are particularly interested in the idea of returning iconic characters – male and / or female who can reappear for seasonal and event scheduling or perhaps have the making of a longer running series.
Budgets per hour won’t exceed €830,000
Precinct Series
For Autumn 2008 RTE will be asking production companies to pitch for the contract for a multi-part precinct style series. We will be seeking drama that has the capacity to hold a firm place at the heart of Irish television viewing. The commissioned series will be multi-layered, strongly rooted in contemporary Ireland and will have an emphasis on the themes, values and dilemmas of modern life.
Based on in the region of 10 episodes the budget is envisaged to be €525,000 per episode.
RTE TWO
RTE TWO particularly seeks to cater for 15-35 year old demographic with an emphasis on ideas that explore frontline attitudes and behaviour. RTE TWO drama can be irreverent, significant and funny. I would particularly like to see ideas that stand up for the outsider.
We are seeking production that stretches the boundaries of imagination and is innovative in ideas that are relevant to the target audience. RTE Two drama has greater potential to cultivate new writing, directing and performing talent while the emphasis will always be on the original and challenging.
In the development of drama for RTE TWO the exploration of new technology and methods of production as well as suitability for other platforms will also be of significant interest.
For Autumn 2007 we are seeking 6 x 1 hours series or serial Monday night at 9.30 with a budget of up to €450,000 per hour.
For Spring 2008 we are seeking 6 x ½ hour comedy drama series for Monday night at 9.30. The available budget will be up to €300,000 per episode.
Co-production
This is an essential element in the development of RTE’s drama output for coming years and one that needs a long term view to be successful. RTE would like to invite producers to discuss ideas that will forge new global opportunities in drama development and financing.
Appropriate storylines can be either historical or contemporary in nature. Ideally we would like to see co-production ideas driven by strong talent appeal: writers, directors and casting with global recognition and storylines that can carry across borders or ideas that are based on source material with strong international recognition. RTE would like to explore new opportunities with China and Southeast Asia, the United States and Canada as well as our more traditional European partners.
How to submit ideas
To facilitate improved management of the drama slate and faster decision making I have decided to cease accepting unsolicited ideas in their full original form – completed scripts, books, plays etc. From now on we will ask producers to submit their proposals on a two page format that you will find on the website. If the idea has potential for development we will then request the additional material if it exists or put the project into active development. I appreciate that this is demanding of more time and consideration on the part of the producer but it will lead to a quicker decision making procedure. We will also back this system up with more readers to ensure swifter responses to source material if requested.
We accept submissions all year around. Each of the drama team will read all submitted ideas and we expect to respond within three weeks.
For regulatory purposes we can only formally accept submissions in hard copy which should be sent in triplicate to Rose King in the IPU.
Feature Films
I’d like to take a moment to outline RTE’s position on theatrical feature films.
Feature films script will be considered at script stage when we would like to see projects at an advanced stage of development. RTE will continue to commit enhanced licence fees to the financing of suitable theatrical films and will assess according to the suitability for either the RTE ONE or RTE TWO schedule. Feature film scripts should be submitted when there is a financial plan in place and a director and lead cast attached full details of which should also be included. We will endeavour to keep this procedure as simple and accessible as possible to producers so we would appreciate if scripts are only submitted when all aspects of the project have been thought through.
With regard to short films full details of the initiatives that RTE is involved in are available on the website.
Lastly, as drama projects go into development I plan to update the website and drama requirements moving forward, as specific ideas are being addressed. I expect to be able to do this every four months.