Subjects

Following on from our finalist announcement for Radio HaHa, here are some short biogs of the chosen 9. Many thanks to all those who took the time to submit their moments of comic genius.

Daniel Jamieson
Daniel is a 17-year-old film student from Edinburgh. His submission, AJ and Finnegan, is a spoof American cop show following partners AJ, a young hot-shot rookie, and Finnegan, a gritty old-hand maverick as they fight back threats to national security while constantly arguing about it. It was created in his college’s recording studio, and Daniel directs, storylines, edits and adds sounds to each episode, while allowing actors to improvise some real comedy gold.

Jenni Armstrong
Jenni is a stand-up comedian who writes sitcoms for radio and television, and makes comedy shorts. She uses a DIY aesthetic to enhance the surreal comedy of her work, and has filmed a mini-series called Jenni Shows and Tells which can be viewed on YouTube. In May, Jenni did a comedy review in the style of this show for 4Laughs. Jenni’s submissions for Radio HaHa include Lebacuppacoffee, a mock promo for a Lebanese coffee shop, and the surreal skit The Adventures of Gok Wan.

Lauren O’Reilly
Lauren is a 22-year-old postgraduate student in scriptwriting and drama school graduate who aims to write scripts for radio. Her idea for Radio HaHa, The Race, is an inner space-style comedy skit following sperm as they compete to fertilise an egg following a drunken encounter. Lauren’s inspiration for the piece struck following a night out where Lauren found herself watching a group of drunken men dance terribly and asked herself, “You were the one that reached the egg first?”

Madeleine Brettingham
Madeleine is a radio and television comedy writer whose work has featured on several Radio 4 programmes, including Recorded for Training Purposes, Fordham and Lipson and The News Quiz. She’s interested in comedy that provides a new take on the world, and her submission, Goth Town, poses questions such as ‘What’s it like having to exude satanic majesty while you’re buying bogroll from CostCutter, or visiting your nan?’ Goth Town follows the story of a misfit brother and sister who live in a grimy townhouse near Morrisons, and their struggle to stand out in a grey world.

Richard Cray
Richard is a former radio commercial producer who, in his words, “Left the industry to get a proper job.” He’s been a regular on the London comedy circuit, produces podcasts for Comedy 365 and is co-producing a show at the Edinburgh Fringe. Richard’s submission is a compilation of spoof radio ads and promos: The Dogs Must Be Carried, Top 50, and Liar News.

Nicola Depuis
After studying Radio & Theatre Production, Nicola worked as a journalist for seven years, during which time she hosted a weekly radio show. A finalist in the Galway Film Fleadh pitching competition this year, her first screenplay was recently optioned and she’s currently working on a studio assignment. Tubescent is a radio sitcom that gives a comic insight into the lives, worries and conversations of teenage friends aimlessly riding the public transport systems of their city.

Richard Kelly
Richard is a former teacher who is now focusing on a writing career. His sit-com, The Good Defenders, is a comical take on the traditional superhero story following a team of B-list heroes that protect Earth from rogue celebrities, with some hilarious consequences.

Andy Ward
A recent Keele University graduate, Andy Ward presented, produced and wrote several popular university radio shows while studying there and has recently been trying his hand at stand-up comedy. His submission, Spooky Times, is a surreal ghost story that follows a man who encounters particularly bad problems whilst attempting to prepare a barbecue, juxtaposing the presentation style and atmosphere of a serious ghost story with a comic writing style.

Stephen Yorke & Ben Harris
Stephen and Ben are a duo who write TV radio and press ads at separate advertising agencies in London. The pair recently decided to collaborate on their own comedy pieces. and came up with the idea of creating podcasts to bring their comedy to the world. Their programme, Funpot, is recorded at home on their computer and comprises 5-minute slots of the pair ‘trying to make each other laugh’ by creating comic situations and playing off one another.

As you may have noticed, over the last few months we’ve been calling for up-and-coming comics to fling their funny bits in our direction for a unique competition with E4 Radio, called Radio HaHa. The response was incredible: we had literally thousands of audio clips and scripts snippets piling into our inbox.

It took us a little while, but we have our 9 finalists. They’ll be wending their wily ways to the Edinburgh Comedy Festival next week for a day of intensive workshops, followed by a nerve-racking pitch to a panel of E4 Radio commissioners, who have pledged to match at least one of them with an independent production company to take the idea to broadcast.

So here they are:

Daniel Jamieson for his shrewd spoof of US police drama
Jenni Armstrong for her delightfully surreal Gok Wan adventures
Lauren O’Reilly for her sticky sperm sketch The Race
Nicola Depuis for teen-public-transport-com Tubescent
Madeleine Brettingham for Goth Town’s dark humour
Richard Kelly for his off-the-wall take on the superhero genre
Stephen Yorke for some witty on-air banter
Andy Ward for his dryly hilarious Spooky Times
Richard Cray for taking off local radio cliches with tongue firmly in cheek

You can also read more detailed biogs of all of the above.

More to come from the finalists: watch this space. We’ll be following the ideas through the development process in the next issue of 4Talent magazine, and they’ll even be featuring in a special episode of The Fix podcast, which launched with the first episode yesterday.

After pitching a behind-the-scenes film about the workings of Channel 4 to a panel of big wigs, Summer School placement Catherine Madden reflects on how it felt.

So you’ve worked on an idea that you feel passionate about. You know it has potential, and the thought of anyone ripping it to shreds and making you feel stupid is terrifying. But realistically, how many commissioners ever say, “Wonderful, I love everything about that idea, here’s £10k to develop it?” I went into the boardroom knowing that it wouldn’t be perfect, but prepared to learn something so that next time, I’d be better.

Each of the four ideas we were pitching was very different, but hopefully shared the following characteristics: challenging, insightful, funny, visual, intimate, and the list goes on. You’d almost think I really knew what I was talking about.

I felt confident that we’d come up with great ideas, but that’s what everyone thinks before going into a pitch. But more than anything else, this experience taught me that while there’s no such thing as the perfect idea, presenting your pitch perfectly is a good start.

I was given several tips, all of which are simple to follow. Make things as visual as possible when you describe them: a commissioner wants to visualise the story. But definitely don’t hand out paper before you start: they’ll spend their time reading that rather than paying attention to you. And to introduce your pitch, sum up your idea in one line.

But the best bit of advice was to be yourself. Commissioners are only human; they’re not waiting for you to slip up. If you’re not quite sure about a certain aspect, ask for advice. Don’t try to sound like you know what you’re talking about when you don’t: they’ll see right through you. But providing you’re passionate about the idea and you prepare well, all you can do is learn - even if you don’t get the commission.

Watch this space for updates on how the Summer School placements get on.

We’ve taken our sweet time, but we can now proudly announce our top-level judges for this year’s 4Talent Awards - our showcase of the UK’s hottest young creative talent.

Our latest scoop is legendary trance DJ Paul Oakenfold, co-creator of that notoriously infectious Big Brother theme, for the Production Music category.

Victoria Pile, creator of Green Wing and Smack the Pony, is on hand to judge your Comedy Writing skills.

Charlie Pattinson, who exec-produces multi-award-winning hit series Skins and Shameless at Company Pictures, will be casting his eye over the hotly-contested Dramatic Performance category.

Double Bafta-winning This is England producer Mark Herbert at Warp Films will rate the Directing entries, while T4’s exec producer Richard Cook at Eyeworks is hungry for new Presenting talent.

Exciting animators: get your painstakingly-crafted work on the desk of Helen Brunsdon at Aardman. And for innovative cross-platform producers: who better to see if you have what it takes than digital marketing guru James Kirkham at Holler, the agency behind the groundbreaking Skins campaign.

Not to mention senior Channel 4 commissioners across the board: Comedy, Documentary, Drama, Film4, Radio, T4, Music, New Media, 4Creative and Current Affairs.

For those in the know, these include Shane Allen, Caroline Leddy, Sarah Mulvey, Kate Vogel, Liza Marshall, Peter Carlton, Sam Steele, Debbie David, Cath Lovesey, Neil McCallum, Matt Locke, Adam Gee, Alice Tonge and Dorothy Byrne. Oh yes: we’ve been busy.

So if you’re under 30 and hungry to get your finest work under the noses of some of the best in the business, you have until 5pm on 29th August 2008.

The first masterclass of the day was on interview technique. It was hosted by BBC’s Kate Adie with a panel including a police interrogator, a forensic investigator and a QC: the subject in discussion was how to get the ‘real truth’ out of someone, an invaluable technique for the would-be documentarian.

Rapport and mutuality are both very important. make it absolutely clear who you are and what you are doing because if there is any confusion, then you won’t be able to get open or honest answers from them.

It’s kind of an obvious one, but background research is also essential. That way if you do know they are lying then you can have something up the sleeve to get the truth out of them. If dealing with a hostile or defensive contributor, lack of research will often lead to them outsmarting you, after which you lose the upper hand.

A nifty trick from the QC: when approaching the killer question with a defensive individual: rock out the negative to catch them out, i.e. instead of asking, ‘did you push her off the balcony?’ ask, ‘are you saying you didn’t push her off the balcony?’ Sneaky stuff.

After that I attended the screening of Heavy Load, a film about a punk band of the same name, made up of people with learning difficulties and their support workers. Director Jerry Rothwell followed them for two years, and the film depicts a portrait of their double lives: rehearsals, gigs and local fame on one side; group cooking, day-centres and lack of freedom on the other. I strongly urge you to see it when it’s released in October. It was a real Horlicks-for-the-soul experience, which had the audience screaming and laughing all the way through.

Following in the comedy vein was the final session of the festival, ‘Larry Charles in Conversation’. Larry has in the past produced and directed films and series including Seinfeld, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and Borat. He certainly knows how to bring the funny. A packed house was treated to clips from his new documentary Religulous, starring Bill Maher, due for release this autumn. It’s incredible that people can now dismiss all religion as a silly, groundless pursuit and do it so succinctly, logically and thoroughly. You want controversial? Go and see this film.

“We are the last gasp of monotheism”, says Charles. This coming from a man who at one point wanted to be a Rabbi, so he’s obviously given it a lot of thought.

At the awards ceremony later, Heavy Load wins the Audience Prize, and to round the whole thing off the band play to a packed Keble College bar. Their rendition of I See You Baby, Shaking that Arsehole was simply top notch. I’ve learned a veritable shedload at this, my first Britdoc. I have a lot to be getting busy with, and fully intend to return next year, hopefully several completed films better off.

Fellow documentary-maker? Commissioner? Write to Chris at: chrisgbates@gmail.com

Film-maker Chris Bates blogs about his second day at Britdoc festival, pitching his film to commissioners.

A big day today. My first time pitching face-to-face to an actual commissioner.

Current TV is a great platform for first time filmmakers, and if I can get a few pieces on their channel, then that could provide some serious opportunities further on down the line. We met at 10, and informal as it may have been – sat on the grass outside the café – I was nervous. Had I prepared enough for this? It was a simple idea, but had I fully thought it through?

My fears were confirmed when I ran out of things to say. Current TV liked the concept – it was modern, linked to youth culture and urban social conflict – but it needed more development. Obviously being a documentary we do not know exactly what will happen during filming, but it is essential to have some knowledge of the film’s structure beyond the original concept, and this was my stumbling point. ‘Go away, think about it and come up with some structural ideas, then get back to us.’ Ok, let’s chalk that one down to experience.

So I had lost my pitching cherry, and it was all over rather quickly. But hey, it’s never that good first time round anyway, right?

Before arriving at Britdoc, I had arranged through the online delegate messaging system to meet with Brian Woods – 3-time BAFTA and 7-time Emmy award-winning documentary director and producer. He had been involved with films in Eastern Europe before, and if I could get his interest with my Bosnia project, then possibly he would act as my mentor, maybe even come in as executive producer.

Brian was fantastically helpful, but unfortunately here was more of the same: my story needed more character-based development: conversations, arguments, convincing, desperation to achieve the goal; and specific knowledge of how this was to be filmed.

Brian also said that the reason the pitch and proposal are so important to get right (which seemed obvious once he’d explained it), was that these things were all the commissioners had to make the decision whether to fund the film or not. If some details of the pitch end up different in the film, or even if the main character changes for example, that is generally fine, but you need the pitch to be good enough for the funders to agree in the first place, otherwise there’s no film.

I watched several screenings after this, all excellent documentaries. But for the most part I was distracted, thinking about what my next steps were for my Bosnia project. New pitch, proposal and trailer; character struggle, secondary narratives, arguments, build-up to a final event… I really have my work cut out.

Film-maker Chris Bates writes a blog from Britdoc documentary film festival.

Billed as ‘the most productive 3 days of the year’ for UK documentary, Britdoc festival in Oxford was an event that as a freelance film-maker I just had to visit.

I have several doco projects of my own that I am trying to take to the next level, and it seemed the hours of masterclasses, screenings, pitching sessions, debates and surgeries that were organised and hosted by the industry’s finest, would be invaluable to me.

The beautiful quads and sharply-mown lawns of Keble College, Oxford provided the location where over 900 doco-heads were to congregate for Britdoc’s third year. I had an agenda to keep - pitch my documentary ideas to as many potential funders as I could, and set up meetings with as many relevant people as possible to get advice on where to go next with my documentary set in Bosnia. I was looking for a mentor, who could possibly even become an exec-producer.

So with my game face on and clutching my newly-printed business cards, I arrived at Keble 9am sharp on Wednesday morning. First up was a masterclass with US-based Documentary Doctor Fernanda Rossi: how to make a Killer Trailer.

In recent years, as distribution of film funds has become ever tighter, the need for a trailer as a principal fund-raising tool has become paramount.

The ideal pitch comprises three ‘tools of persuasion’ - the Holy Trinity, as Fernanda put it, which are trailer, proposal, and pitch. These are the audio-visual form of the pitch, the written form, and the verbal form respectively, and they must work together seamlessly.

The trailer should be five to ten minutes long, and needs to have full scenes to show the story, how things will unfold, and to identify with the main character. It should answer questions in the commissioner’s head.

It should say something about you, too. What’s the style of the film? Is there a voice-over or not? And who are you to be telling this story?

Essentially, the trailer should be like a short without an ending. If it has an ending, the commissioner will probably congratulate you on a lovely short film and walk out the door. Having a hook makes them want to know what happens next.

Oh dear. So my trailer for a film about Bosnia which was shot before the project developed into a character doc, and thus contains none of him whatsoever, will probably be re-evaluated… One lesson learned, two days of the festival still to go.

Another week, another festival microblog. The weekend just gone saw 4Talent head to Birmingham’s Custard Factory to bring you Twitter updates from the small but noisily formed Supersonic, featuring a dream line-up of sludgey, grungey, kraut-rocking noise for those who like their music uncompromisingly large of sound and eclectic of source. For those who couldn’t make it, we’ll be rolling out our interviews with teen screamers Rolo Tomassi, local lads Einstellung and the ever popular Fuck Buttons on 4Talent Central over the coming week.

But forget Supersonic for a moment and cast your mind back all of three weeks to grande dame of festivals Glastonbury, where amidst the excitement of secret gigs from Franz Ferdinand, being roped in at the last minute to interview James Blunt for Oxfam, and doing our bit for the planet by taking tea to Oxfam volunteers in a battered jeep, we just about found the time to run a live Twitter competition from the festival site.

We’re now pleased to be able to announce the winner of said competition, who with the best answer to our Oxfam-sponsored question “What gets your knickers in a twist?” will be joining us at sold-out Bestival in September to interview an artist for a 4Talent podcast. The winner, 19 year old Frankie Ward, persuaded us with an answer we couldn’t agree with more. So what, exactly, gets Frankie’s knickers in a twist? That would be: “Interviewers asking bands who they’re doing, not what they’re doing.”

Currently on a work experience placement with BBC Kent, Frankie is an aspiring journalist whose festival experiences this summer have already included standing in for teen folk sensation Laura Marling (pictured below) on stage with the Mystery Jets at Lounge on the Farm. Watch this space for her 4Talent Bestival podcast in September…

Laura Marling at Glastonbury getting her knickers in a twist.

Six young directing talents journeyed up to the Edinburgh International Film Festival as part of 4Talent and Film4’s Directors’ Lab. We asked a couple of them to give us a potted glimpse at what they’re up to.

“We started off the day with Mia Bays, the independent producer and Microwave head don,” begins Charles-Henri Belleville. “Mia talked passionately and insightfully for 90 minutes on exactly how the food chain in the film industry works. Very revealing.”

“We then had an interactive session with JJ Lousberg (UKFC), Danny Perkins from Optimum Releasing and Sam Horley, a sales agent. This was superb - we split into teams, each were given a distribution company and their budgets. We had to purchase two films from Sam that made the most money, with Danny supporting us. Sam is tough and Danny is a great negotiator. Very educational, but also had everyone in the room in stitches as us directors pitched our hearts out!”

“Amy and I rocked,” adds Hope Dickson Leach [Day 1]. “We got This Is England and Ratcatcher - I like to think it was because of the photo-shoots we had planned for Shane Meadows in ID magazine…”

“We had an amazing meal at Howies - great fun meeting producers over the best soup I have ever had. Honey and parsnip: sensational,” Charlie continues. “Our fireside chat was with Caroline Cooper-Charles from Warp X and Donkey Punch director Olly Blackburn. It’s clear Warp X has something very special going on, and Olly is destined for great things - he really inspired us all with his humility. If you ever meet him, ask to hear his story about Wild Turkey at sunset…”

Charles-Henri has directed promos for Ashley Walters, MTV and Pathé. His first micro budget feature The Inheritance (2007) was nominated for Best British Feature at Raindance Film Festival 2007 and subsequently won the inaugural Raindance Award at the British Independent Film Awards 2007. Charles-Henri was nominated for Best New Director at the BAFTA Scotland New Talent Awards 2008 and for the 4Talent Awards 2007. He is currently in post-production on his next feature Midnight Madness, a basketball documentary.

Six young directing talents journeyed up to the Edinburgh International Film Festival as part of 4Talent and Film4’s Directors’ Lab. We asked a couple of them to give us a potted glimpse at what they’re up to.

“Day one and we’re off with a bang,” begins Hope Dickson Leach. “We began the day meeting all those people it would take months to see you in their office, and it was great to hear them talk. I’m not going to tell you what they said, as that’s classified and I’d have to find you and kill you all, but believe me, I wasn’t the only one taking notes and raising my hand to ask the questions.”

“We’re all here with a mission, and that mission is to make movies. Despite the fact everyone is doing their best to convince us that making a first feature is impossible, we all know it happens, so why can’t it be us?”

“All six of us are writer-directors and we were lucky enough to meet talented and busy screenwriter David Nicholls (Starter for Ten, And When Did You Last See Your Father?) who filled us with inspiration about how receptive the industry is becoming to involving writers in more than just the opening stages of the film-making process.”

“And then off to the beautiful castle-side apartment for a ‘fireside chat’ with Isabelle Coixet (Elegy) who told us, like your favourite pair of trainers that just keeps on giving, to just do it. With that in mind we were off to the premiere of the Warp X produced (debut film) Donkey Punch, and then their kick-ass party. Which leaves me feeling quite warped myself as I dash off to today’s fantastic lineup. More from us tomorrow.”

Hope made her short film The Dawn Chorus (2006) as part of her MFA program at Columbia University. Her film was selected for Sundance Film Festival 2007, Edinburgh International Film Festival 2006, London International Film Festival 2006, and won Best Narrative Student Short at Austin Film Festival 2006. In 2007 Hope was named as a Star of Tomorrow by Screen International and as one of the 25 New Faces of Independent Film by Filmmaker magazine. She is currently developing her first feature film English Rose, about a teenage girl who hates Princess Diana, which was featured in the Berlinale Project Talent Market 2008.

Update: 9 finalists revealed

We’ve just launched our fantastic new competition with E4 Radio: Radio HaHa. Submit short audio clips or comic scribblings: the best 9 will go through intensive workshops at the Edinburgh Comedy Festival, then pitch to get their idea developed into a fully-fledged radio show on the new station when it launches.

But what’s E4 Radio actually about? No doubt any radio producers among you will be drooling with anticipation at the thought of a new door being chiselled in the rock-face of British radio, so we asked the team to pitch it to us in 300 words. So from the horse’s mouth:

“E4 Radio will be a new kind of station. One that’s up for a bit of fun and mischief and for doing things differently. Like the TV channel and its website, E4 Radio will provide mainstream entertainment targeted at 16-34s. The schedule will focus on the E4 staples of great music, comedy and entertainment and will pride itself on being the first to bring its audience new stuff and new talent from these worlds.

We’re going to give the audience more access to the airwaves than ever before, providing new levels of interactivity and an active role in shaping the sound of the station, from music to the news agenda. We’re making a radio station for an audience that likes to listen to radio content when they want to, on-demand as well as live, and we’ll be commissioning different programmes tailored to these listening modes.

In terms of comedy, our door is open to every kind of comedy there is - we want our schedule to be flexible enough to accommodate to accommodate bite-sized short programmes, more traditional built blocks, and we hope to pioneer new comedy formats that don’t even exist yet. We think there’s tonnes of scope to innovate with format and we want to trial lots of things. As with all our output we want to create programming from a much more diverse set of voices, stimulate new areas of independent production and create new cross platform collaborations.”

This post is the last in a series. Read the first installment.

Words: Pete Ashton
Illustration: Raymond Weekes

Okay, I’ve rambled and covered a hell of a lot of ground. To be honest it’s hard to give a proper masterclass or How To for blogging because the beauty of the form is there are no rules. I know what works for me but it’s unlikely to work for you and some of the best blogs I’ve seen have been approaching the medium in ways I hadn’t ever considered before. You should use blogging (and other similar web services like Flickr and Last.FM) in the same way you use other forms of communication like the telephone or your local pub - in ways that work for you and the community you’re part of.

And while this might be scary be assured that underlying it all is the magic that makes the internet work, the reason that you can find stuff on Google, how an American became a fan of you band on MySpace or how you got that commission because someone blogged a photo of your work with a link to your site.

Blogging might be as easy as writing an email but its the structured metadata that takes your message and makes available to the right people across the world. And the beauty of it all is you don’t have to think about it, unless you want to (and it’s not that hard really - hell, I can’t write programming code and I get it). You just need to go to wordpress.com (4talentmagazine.com is built with Wordpress), blogger.com, typepad.com or some other blogging service and get posting and linking. The internet looks after the rest.

< Week 7: plugging into the system

< Read the series from the start

“We are thrilled by the success of our two very British films currently in the cinemas – Mike Leigh’s charming Happy-Go-Lucky and Martin McDonagh’s irreverent In Bruges. Martin, famous for his playwriting, initially made a short film with Film4 so we were delighted to work with him on his first feature. Each year we strive for a mix of first-timers and experienced film-makers returning to Film4.

I am desperate to find a brilliant, ambitious and yet low-budget British sci-fi. It’s also really hard to find incredibly taut British thrillers that are not just aping US films – we would love to find one not set in the usual environs: perhaps an NHS hospital, or a boarding school?

Film4 is all about innovation, supporting the film-maker’s voice, coming at British stories from new perspectives, finding stories that resonate strongly with our contemporary British audience. We’ll continue to be driven by these principles, building on our already strong focus on new talent and film-makers from diverse and regional backgrounds.

We offer many of the best opportunities for new talent in the country, in terms of the films we produce – both short films (through the Cinema Extreme scheme), low-budget first features (via Warp X), and other first-time film-makers we support outside these schemes. We also run projects with new theatre writers via Paines Plough and the Traverse theatre; have a new writers’ lab for writers from diverse backgrounds with B3 Media, and back one or two projects in development from film-makers at the NFTS every year. We’ll continue to concentrate on our new talent initiatives for both directors and writers to secure our position as the home of new film talent in the UK.

There’s already an increasing awareness that British films telling contemporary British stories can work for British audiences in the cinema – look at This Is England – and it would be great to see more contemporary-set films taking risks coming from the industry as a whole. Certainly the US is more than aware of the huge talent pool in the UK film industry right now, so our job is to keep supporting new voices whilst trying to entice our successful British film-makers home now and again!”

Katherine Butler: Head of Development, Film4

“I’ve commissioned something called The Great Sperm Race, which demonstrates the science of conception using thousands of extras shot from helicopters.

C4 science is distinctive in that it’s a breeding ground for completely new forms of television. For years the science output has been groundbreaking and controversial, from Jump London to Autopsy, The Human Footprint to Animal Farm. C4 science rarely feels like a school science lesson.

The environment is very hard – it often feels too worthy – but it’s something we should tackle more than we do, and I’d love to find a C4 way of doing it. I’d also like to find a way of doing medicine.”

David Glover: Commissioning Editor, Science, Channel 4

“We’ve produced a week of programmes on Islam, including a two-hour documentary exploring the Quran and its impact on the world, and a lavish series called The Seven Wonders of the Muslim World – which takes in incredible places such as Jerusalem, Mali, Istanbul and Mecca and explores the basic beliefs of a faith we know so little about.

Our latest challenge is to get multicultural commissions that are not religious, and that can work at 9 and 10pm. The bar will be high, and the projects will have to compete with what’s already in the schedule. Look at the schedule, think about how you can compete story-wise and casting-wise and we can talk.

Channel 4 Religion is more inquisitive, more diverse, and we keep religion at the core of our output rather than try to hide it. We don’t wallow in historical nostalgia nor do we shy away from tough areas. Priest Idol, Cult of the Suicide Bomber and Make Me a Muslim sound obvious commissions when they’re a success, but were all major risks. The output has to stay in primetime or it will die in the long run: we have to market it and make it accessible. This is real risk: it’s not just the subject matter; it’s also about sending out the signal that we care enough to get behind the output.

Being in primetime makes working with new talent more difficult, but it doesn’t stop me trying. We have to be prepared to fail. We’ve given young directors a break, and Robert Beckford and Tazeen Ahmed are two on-screen successes I’ve broken on the channel – but they had to be given a chance to flourish. To anyone who thinks they’re the next talent, on or off-screen, get in touch: my door is open to any suggestions.”

Aaquil Ahmed: Commissioning Editor, Religion, Channel 4

“I have an upcoming project, codename Sam I Am [update 27/06/08]. I’m busting to tell you about it but I can’t yet; it’s necessarily under wraps. It’s a very entertaining concept and interactive experience which still manages to convey a substantial meaning – in this case about the diversity of Islamic culture, and the narrowness of most of our experience and understanding of it.

The commission I’m most proud of: The Big Art Mob. It applies new technology and media behaviours to a worthwhile public task: mapping the best of Public Art (from bronze geezers on horses to Banksys) across the UK. Interested people from all around the country and beyond (we’re big in Brazil) are photographing artworks on their mobiles and uploading them to the map, having a good online natter about arty stuff along the way. You can interact wherever you are – I’m particularly proud of the WAP (mobile) site at bigartmob.com/mobile. It’s been nominated for 3 Baftas alongside the likes of the iPlayer and Dr Who, so it’s punching above its weight in true C4 stylee.

In the way that Big Art Mob finds a worthwhile purpose for moblogging (mobile blogging) I want to find missions and purposes for other emerging interactive tools and technologies like, say, Twitter – in itself geek masturbation and possibly the end of civilisation as we know it, with a creatively conceived context perhaps something exceedingly good.

I’ve spent the last 5 years at Channel 4 exploring what public service means in a digital world – from Big Dig to Big Art Project, and one or two projects that don’t even have ‘Big’ in the title like Picture This and Empire’s Children. But Big is important: ambition, scale and impact are all vital.

Cross-platform and interactive media is what’s pumping the nads of the telly industry right now, and it’s vital to its future. All the creative and entrepreneurial energy is welling up in these areas and Channel 4 is ready for action.”

Adam Gee: Commissioning Editor, New Media Factual, Channel 4

“I’m looking for a commission for older children: drama that genuinely appeals to 11-16-year olds. This is a completely unserved audience.

Drama on C4 should continue to help define the channel as provocative, original and genre-busting. Our successful long running series – Shameless, Skins and Hollyoaks – are the perfect training ground and springboard for new talent, on and off-screen.”

Camilla Campbell: Commissioning Editor, Drama, Channel 4

“China’s Stolen Children just won a Bafta, but Undercover Mosque runs it close because of the way it fended off so many attacks on its journalism to come through as the stand-out investigation of last year.

We dare to say difficult and sometimes unfashionable things. Channel 4 is fearless in its support of investigative journalism: we’ve led on multicultural issues, for one example – Iraq is another – and have produced a body of work that has confronted some of the key issues affecting the country over the past five years.

I’m always on the look-out for stories and new areas to investigate – the bigger the subject the better – and always looking to meet new producers and journalists. Good producer-directors with a hard journalism background are hard to come by.”

Kevin Sutcliffe: Deputy Head, News & Current Affairs, Channel 4

“Channel 4 has a rich heritage in representing on-screen those voices rarely heard before on mainstream television. Spooling forward to 2008 we are renewing our commitment to reflecting the diversity and richness of modern Britain, both on and off-screen.

So what does this mean for our programming? A £2m budget will be ring-fenced for multicultural programmes at 9 and 10pm, and a dedicated Commissioning Editor will be appointed. We’ll be looking for programmes that inform, excite, surprise and examine what contemporary British society looks like. But in the same way that Coronation Street appeals beyond a working class audience from Manchester, these programmes will have universal themes that appeal to a wider audience.

Off-screen we will be expanding our existing schemes, including the Researcher Trainee Programme and Deputy Commissioning Editor attachments, and introducing exciting new initiatives to better reflect all kinds of social diversity including ethnicity, disability, nationality, regionality, age, gender and beyond.”

Ade Rawcliffe: Diversity & Talent Manager, Channel 4

“I want more disabled people on screen across all genres and channels, from Vanity Lair to Hollyoaks, Grand Designs to Shipwrecked. And more disabled talent behind the camera – via new talent strands (3MW, Comedy Lab, Coming Up) and targeted series like New Shoots (2007) which gave 12 disabled directors their first half-hour documentary credit. This year The Shooting Party brought together a group of nine disabled directors to make short films, and follows their progress as they carve out a place in the demanding world of film-making. What’s next year’s challenge?”

Alison Walsh: Editorial Manager, Disability, Channel 4

“Routes is our first ARG, or Alternate Reality Game. It’s ambitious, and we’re going to make something wonderful that captures the imagination of our audience, taking them on a huge treasure hunt via themes like medical ethics, junk science and genetics.

Our educational messages are often covert, and exist within wonderfully entertaining products that engage our audience in their spaces – social networks, games, on the web and on phones. What the British public think of education programming in relation to our public service responsibility is important, but the benefit that young people gain from our commissions is much more valuable. That should be how we measure our successes.”

Jo Roach: Commissioning Editor, Education, Channel 4

“I’m excited about everything – we’re trying so many experiments this year. But to pick a few, The Insiders is an online comedy about the world of work; YearDot is a huge, innovative experiment to follow a group of teens for a year across various media; Phantasmagoria is a collection of widgets for social networks and Slabovia.tv just makes me laugh out loud.

The key topic for me is transitions. We’re focused on the transitions that 14 to 19-year-olds go through, how they find the information and the people who help them through this critical time in their lives. When you start talking to teens, you realise how many really huge decisions there are to make – about work, university, your identity, your relationship with your family – when you’ve had very little real experience of life.

Making the right decisions is really down to the networks you have around you: family, friends, teachers and work colleagues. I’m very interested in how teens are using new media platforms to build these networks, and how these networks influence the decisions they make about their lives.

At C4 we’re all about getting you to ask questions about your life, whereas the BBC is more about giving you the ‘answers’. The BBC is homogeneous – it tries to talk with the same ‘voice’ in all its programming. C4 is really just a collection of voices, a lot of which can be very contradictory at times, and this isn’t a problem. We show people different ways of looking at the world around them, and challenge their assumptions and prejudices. I’m interested in getting people to ask questions and participate, rather than just presenting ‘knowledge’ in a didactic way.

The barriers for new creative talent to get their projects out there aren’t the same as they were in 1982, but there are still some big problems to sort out. If anything, its a more level playing field in cross-platform commissioning, as it’s much newer – you’re not pitching against a grizzled industry veteran as you would be in, say, docs or features. If you understand what people are doing online, and think you’ve got an idea that can be a real success, then you’ve got as much chance of getting commissioned as anyone.”

Matt Locke: Commissioning Editor, Education, Channel 4

“Many of the most familiar faces on TV got their break on Channel 4. I’m really looking forward to the return of The Charlotte Church Show this summer: Charlotte has proved herself to be a TV natural, with the rare talent of being able to turn her hand to comedy, presenting, interviewing and, of course, music.

I commission all types of entertainment, from star-studded studio shows to high-concept reality shows. Nothing is ruled in or out: it’s about the originality of the idea and the talent (on and off-screen) behind it. Other channels would certainly regard many of our shows as too risky from a commercial point of view – new sitcom in particular is very expensive and rarely pays its way in terms of viewing figures.

But we’re also after shows that might be considered too risky because of their irreverent, edgy and occasionally shocking content. Overall we’re aiming to make television that feels distinctive, young and talked-about.”

Andy Auerbach: Commissioning Editor, Entertainment, Channel 4

“We’ve started filming on a new thriller written by Charlie Brooker, which is unlike anything that’s been done before. Can’t say too much, but it’s really original with an amazing cast.

We need a healthy varied mix of ideas all the time, so are open to anything that’s different to what we’ve already got. Besides sitcom, most other ideas are usually quite talent dependent – if someone discovers an amazing new talent we can always work with them on the vehicle.

We take risks and try to find fresh new ways of making shows. Chris Morris embodies the kind of pioneering spirit of doing challenging work that other broadcasters might shy away from. Something like Fonejacker has a dynamic inventiveness that makes it feel perfect for us.

We still run Comedy Lab (6 x 30’) on C4, and now have Funny Cuts (10 x 10’) on E4 as entry-level shows for people to cut their teeth. The more opportunities we have to create stars and production talent of the future, the healthier our TV industry will be. Bring it on.”

Shane Allen: Commissioning Editor, Comedy, Channel 4

“We’ve always taken huge risks in arts, and will continue to do so with series and one-offs, commissioning new work that will last beyond the screen. I’m most excited about The Big Art Project. It’s the craziest and most ambitious project we’ve ever done, and has with it an amazing website – Big Art Mob – C4’s first real arts community online.

Over the next two years we’re going for more volume in programming, focusing on single docs: 60-minute and 90-minute. Because we’ll have more volume, I hope this will also create more opportunities to bring on new talent.”

Jan Younghusband: Commissioning Editor, Arts & Performance, C4

“I’m very excited about ideas that exploit both broadcast and online opportunities. I’m working with multiplatform company Somethin’ Else to create a really new and exciting raft of programmes for August in 3MW – a bit too secret to talk about yet. There’s also a week of films around Domestic Violence from the very talented director Ruth Carslaw.

It really tickles me when 3MW spills into the real world. I was delighted with our collaboration with the Saatchi Gallery last year: a competition called New Sensations, which launched the careers of four young graduate artists.

Part of 3MW’s charm (I hope!) is its eclecticism. It should feel diverse and ever-changing, socially relevant to a broad audience but attuned to subcultures and movements outside the mainstream. 3MWs should be provocative, filmic – and the trajectory and narrative should feel absolutely unique to those three minutes. It’s about short-cutting the 40-minute preamble and getting to the heart of a subject.

The connection between 3MW and FourDocs will continue to get stronger, and I’m continuing my commitment to commission films directly from there. In June we’ll transmit the best four films that have been uploaded in response to the theme My Family and Other Animals – and there will be another theme posted up during the summer which I hope will inspire and encourage people to make shorts.”

Kate Vogel: Editor, 3 Minute Wonder, Channel 4

“I’m very interested in a film coming from Joe Bullman. He made last year’s film The Seven Sins of England, and this time he’s going to use his innovative technique of connecting history with present tense documentary to look at the Muslims in Britain. He’s found out that over a hundred years ago there was a plot to blow up the London Underground by foreign radicals, and that obviously throws up interesting parallels.

It’s always a challenge to find new territories – or re-invent old ones – but I do feel that our documentary output should be political and angry at times. I think we should be looking at the wealth divide in Britain; we should be looking at the way in which our public institutions are now overwhelmed by demand; the way in which we’ve been seduced into becoming a nation of debtors.

I feel that while good films can be made about extraordinary individuals, the greatest power that television has is to make us think again about how ordinary lives are lived. I think the public has a hunger for real world, uncomplicated stories having been served up so much constructed television. Meet the Natives, The Seven Sins of England, The Secret Millionaire and The Doctor Who Hears Voices are all strong powerful films about the real world that use simple but exciting devices to bring life to their subject.

Channel 4 is on the way to being the place where film-makers know they’ll get encouraged to be bold and ambitious; where they might get backing for their most innovative work. I’m desperate to find more young and new voices to make our films. I’m going out of my way to use young directors on Cutting Edge, and to make sure we spot the best people making First Cuts and 3 Minute Wonders. We have a talent ladder and it’s vital it works – and the rungs reach to the top.

Meredith Chambers: Commissioning Editor, Documentaries, Channel 4

“I’m most excited about The Family – it’s big, it’s original, and it’s absolutely what Channel 4 is all about. Our docs are confident; authored; unafraid. They seldom look like your dad dancing. Will they continue to develop? They had better: or I will be in trouble.

I’m very comfortable with the idea of my department being recognised as the ‘home’ of British documentary. If we continue to come up with the best ideas, and attract the best up-and-coming talent, I see no reason why we can’t continue to punch above our weight, creatively and in terms of audience ratings.

Will we take more risks? Yes, where the subject requires it. The audience is less shockable than ever before. We need to surprise them by making programmes that inform and inspire. In an age of dull, predictable ‘me-too’ factual television, that really would be controversial.”

Simon Dickson: Deputy Head, Documentaries, Channel 4

“I have a one-off film coming up called Working Britney, where young up-and-coming comedian Buddy Dolphin (I suspect that’s not his real name) will live as a paparazzi photographer, working to get a photo of Britney Spears. As Britney faces custody battles and a drink-driving hearing, Buddy will experience the crazy LA scene that‘s worth millions. Hopefully this film will provide an intelligent and honest account of an infamous subject and her even more infamous press entourage.

I’m most proud of I’m Spasticus. Wittily entitled after an Ian Drury song (he had polio, you know), this was a little half-hour Comedy Lab – a hidden-camera stunts show starring disabled comedy actors, poking fun at the able community. Like an amputee running out of the Brighton seafront screaming ‘Shark!’ or a blind man asking a delivery woman to read out an embarrassingly pornographic letter. It was silly and fun, but more importantly it created a bit of a ripple in the comedy world, and a huge splash in the world of disability.

Non-derivative formats are a must; presenters who have opinion (and the authority to possess valid opinion); a sense of social purpose; and a dash of attitude. It’s hard to find suitable slots, but I’m committed to trying out new people in all areas. I’m always interested in presenters that don’t necessarily come from the perfectly-preened presenter’s mould, or are famous for being famous.”

Ruby Kuraishe: Editor, Factual Entertainment / E4, Channel 4