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New ABC sketch comedy, The Elegant Gentleman’s Guide to Knife Fighting.

Cameras roll on a new sketch comedy from the team behind A Moody Christmas and Review with Myles Barlow.

TEGGTKF racist_mateABC TV and Jungleboys (A Moody Christmas, Review with Myles Barlow) starts production on a new sketch series today, The Elegant Gentleman’s Guide to Knife Fighting.

The 6 part series will be shot in Sydney and Melbourne, with an ensemble cast including Patrick Brammall, Brendan Cowell, Phil Lloyd, Jane Harber, Georgina Hai, Craig Anderson, Helen Dalimore, Janis McGavin and Dave Eastgate.

In December last year, Jungleboys sent out a call for submissions for sketches and were inundated by over 2400 scripts, from both first-time and experienced writers. It will also feature additional material written by the team.

 

ABC TV’s Head of Entertainment, Jennifer Collins says; “The Elegant Gentleman’s Guide to Knife Fighting is a unique incubator for some of Australia’s best comedic talent. This series goes to the heart of what ABC TV Entertainment should be doing – creating and nurturing the next wave of comedy writers, directors and performers. It’s a thrill to be working alongside the innovative creative team at Jungleboys.”

Jason Burrows, Executive Producer, says, “The show will provide a really exciting platform to showcase the work of some really original comic writers, great actors, and talented top class directors. It is a fantastic original and collaborative show that could only be made with ABC TV.”

Directors include Wayne Blair, Trent O’Donnell, Christiaan and Connor Van Vuuren, Abe Forsythe, Craig Melville and Alethea Jones.

Created by Trent O’Donnell, Phil Lloyd and Jason Burrows, the series will be Executive Produced by Sophia Zachariou (ABC TV) and Burrows (Jungleboys), and produced by Chloe Richard and Nicola Patterson.

27 Responses

  1. Hi Stan, writers were asked to write the script and and then we have either given the writer feedback or had the head writers do the next pass. Having just gone through the list, I can see 3 scripts where we’ve written the first draft (same payment). Not ideal always but sometimes necessary because of the extremely tight timeframe on this show. It’s the most logistically challenging production job we’ve been involved in because of the number of writers, directors, cast, locations etc I am going to check in with all successful writers today to make sure all are happy with the process. All can choose not be involved. Developing these writer relationships needs to be a priority.

  2. Knowing somebody that has had two of his sketch ideas accepted, what they do is take the idea on board & further develop it themselves – as in write the actual script.

  3. omg99 I apologise for the confusion on it. I don’t think writers are given enough in many respects in this country, and I hope that we can help to address this going forward…..I always enjoy a good debate so thank you!

  4. @Jasonburrows – that’s a very fair decision.

    That change hadn’t been made clear since your initial public callout for ideas and scripts which wouldn’t be paid for until broadcast – I apologise.

    Next time, maybe just find new creatives, and hire them to write for you? Then some d*ck on the internet won’t get the wrong end of the things and defame you on the internet.

    Sorry @Jasonburrows. @OMG99 thinks you’re probably a good guy, now that you’ve made yourself clear.

  5. @Jason, I had not read your posting about paying people to write sketches when you liked their topline concepts.

    I wholeheartedly apologise, and take my comments relating to that phase of your process back. I’ve done you wrong there.

    Sorry. – Omg99.

    P.S. I standby everything else, though.

  6. To clarify, it doesn’t matter if their sketch makes it to air or not, if they were asked to write one up, they are being paid for it. We were initially going to go with the “broadcast only” model but decided that was not fair.

  7. Sorry @JasonBurrows, I did not see your second line.

    Yes, I have an idea (and one which you get from me for free. I see you, you cunning bugger – you’ve done it again!):

    Go to every revue you can, every open mic night, every RAW comedy contest, every story-reading show. Talk to artists about what you’re making. Then pay the ones you like to brainstorm original ideas for you.

    Find talent, foster them and let everybody win, don’t make other people do work for you without any guarantee of payment.

    If you someone to build you a house, you don’t only pay them when the building is done and everybody thinks it’s fabulous, do you? Nothing would be made if that were the case.

    Through naivety, ignorance, or nefarious ineptitude you’ve created a race to the bottom. Unfortunately, given your tv production experience (and I’m a fan of everything you’ve made until now) I suspect it cannot be the first 2 possibilities.

  8. omg99 Again, anyone who was asked to write a sketch was paid for that sketch. And again, if you agree on the objective but think the execution is terrible, please suggest the alternative. It has been a huge learning process and I am genuinely interested in your solution to giving unknown talent a chance.

  9. @David: I’m 100% with you, except that they didn’t call for expressions of interest. I’ve found a copy of their callout email which a friend received:

    “Initially, we are inviting comedy writers to send us one paragraph sketch outlines..sketch writers are paid by screen time, rather than writing time. Unfortunately, this means writers are unpaid if a sketch does not go into production.”

    @Jasonburrows: Your objectives are the highest, and I wholly support that. It’s your execution which is terrible.
    You have ended up treating your writers as discardable line items, rather than the people who create a show for you. You’ve been given 2400 ideas: I presume this means you will be crediting all of the submitters as ‘contributors’ on the show, as you would do on any other production with a writers room – seeing as that’s essentially what you’ve created, albeit a national and virtual one, and at no expense to yourself?
    When Family Guy credits 7 writers, I’m sure all 7 do not necessarily contribute equally to the one episode, however their ideas are submitted (and they’re paid for their time) and it is in the ignoring of these submitted ideas that a show is created. It’s inescapable that you’ve created a lot of choice, and you’ve done it to your own profit.

  10. omg99 did you read my posting that those who were asked to write sketches were paid to write them?. We were not obliged to pay them but we did. Also, do you have a better idea for giving emerging talent a chance?

  11. omg99 The whole purpose of the exercise was to discover emerging talent that we can use on this series, on subsequent series and other shows, most of whom have never had the opportunity to prove themselves to a production company.

  12. 1. Absolutely.

    2. “Secondly, there was no guarantee of acceptance so anybody submitting did so on the express understanding of this.”

    That’s a race to the bottom, isn’t it? If everybody did this, there’d be no professional writers in the country. Producers who have shows commissioned in the past have always paid writers to brainstorm and write for them, not skipped that step of the process taking away jobs and income from professionals and hopefuls, pocketing the budget line. That’s all I’m saying.

    3. “Professionals know this was an open call and know they are paid for material used, not for showing a bit of their skill in the hope of a gig.”

    Sorry – but that’s exactly the opposite of what JB asked for? They asked for ideas, not finished sketches, and would only pay for final sketches which made it to air.
    So, surely that’s a contradictory argument?

    Person A: Do you have any ideas?
    Person B: I do, here’s one.
    Person A: That’s really funny.
    Person B: Thanks. That enough? Got some budget for me?
    Person A: Have you written it up? I’ll only pay you if that idea makes it to air, and to get it there I have to have a script.
    Person B: But I just gave you the idea, didn’t you say you’d pay now?
    Person A: Shifting sands, my friend. The landscape’s changing. It’s YouTube’s fault.

    1. Omg99: “Seeking expressions of interest from writers” does not require one word to be written creatively. How you present your submission is up to you. Should ABC pay you for sending in your CV and a link to your other YouTube work?

  13. The difference between asking writers to create original concepts for free, from scratch, for a show which has been given a budget by the national broadcaster to fund such creation, and saying “what have you written before? Okay, can you please make something for us for a liveable wage” is the ethical problem.

    The issue is that the JungleBoys haven’t done anything to create these sketches: there’s 0 risk for them, and a presumably large profit (either in money or creative cache which will be translated into commercial work).

    The vast vast majority of the people who wrote did so using their expertise time, and effort, and did so with no return.

    Writing is not a hobby, it’s a profession – treat the people who do it with some regard and pay them for their time and their experience.

    P.S. I realise this comes across as someone bitter about their work being rejected. I’m not – I don’t write comedy (as you can tell by my words here), and did not participate in this process.

    1. Firstly, there was no compunction to enter, it was voluntary. Secondly, there was no guarantee of acceptance so anybody submitting did so on the express understanding of this. Thirdly, it was an expression of interest, not a call for finished sketches. Fourthly, it was happy for people to empty their bottom drawers, meaning the material could have been written for other shows / mediums / etc. I concur with your call for professionals to be reimbursed. Professionals know this was an open call and know they are paid for material used, not for showing a bit of their skill in the hope of a gig.

  14. David – what’s the difference between a ‘commission’ and asking people to write original ideas for a specific, commissioned, show?

    So it was just an unpaid brainstorming session? Future of Tele, I guess.

    Send us your stuff! If we like it, then we’ll pay you minimums! If we don’t, then you wasted your time, bad luck, better not try to be a professional writer! That’s not really how fostering writing talent really works, @jasonburrows – that’s exploiting emerging talent.

    Jungle Boys is a commercial enterprise, right? They’ll make profit off this show? They should pay for the ideas. Ask for submissions to demonstrate writing talent, sure – then at that point pay those people whose talent they like to come up with sketch ideas. Otherwise, you’re just exploiting hopeful creatives who will spend time coming up with ideas for you for free.

    It’s rather unethical behaviour – surely the national broadcaster has/should have more stringent requirements.

  15. 2400 responses!

    I hope as a production company making a show for the ABC they followed MEAA& AWG rules and paid all of the writers for their time, not just for the scripts they end up putting to air.

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