In Ireland, anti-competition laws prevent screenwriters from negotiating minimum terms because they are independent contractors. According to Chief Executive of the Irish Playwrights and Screenwriters Guild David Kavanagh it’s a difficult problem to solve. So the IPSG is developing best practice standards to help guide writers in negotiating their deals.
The TV writing market in Ireland is small but stable. There are some soaps (including one in the Irish language) and several miniseries get made every year. The order for a half series is likely to be 12 episodes while an hour long series order will be 8 or 10 episodes.
Audrey O’Reilly, President of IPSG, mentioned a couple of series to me, neither of which could I find on YouTube. Prosperity ran on RTE which has the shooting scripts available for download here and a preview here.
Lower budget and a little more fun is the four part mini-series Running Mate which ran on TG4 and is bilingual (English and Irish language.) Unfortunately I can’t find a way to show you a clip, but the reviews are brilliant.
2 Comments
Hi Jill
I’m an aspiring TV writer, and lecturer at IADT Dun Laoghaire (National Film School). Until recently I was a member of the British Society of Comedy Writers (BSCW), and I co-organised a Dublin Comedy Writers event last summer at which I had confirmed, Graham Linehan, Mary Richmond (Shortt TV), Jackie Hamilton (BBC NI Comedy Unit), and we also had Neil Bass (ShinAwil), Jennie Stacey or colleagues(RTE IPU), agent from Lisa Richards, support from David Collins (Accomplice TV) and others. I publicised it with everybody you could think of (IFTN, Irish Writers Centre, Irish Screenwriters, SIPTU, Attic Theatre, Screenwriters Ireland etc), but it was the wrong time of the year to hold such events.
Due to lack of funds I couldn’t renew membership of BSCW, but at some point in the future (when my PhD is well and truly finished! )I’d like to use my organisational experiences to set up/assist in setting up or join an Irish Television Writers group if one exists already. I’d be interested to know if such a society exists, or is in the process of being set up.
I have several TV pilot script drafts in abeyance, having been Script Doctored and given the thumbs up. Hopefully I’ll get a bit of time at Christmas to work on one of them.
Best Wishes
Mr Sivakumar Ramachandran (known as Ganesh)
Hi there,
I’m an aspiring writer with two well developed TV Series still in progress. I haven’t made any moves to get either of them produced but they are both approaching readiness. Should i get in contact with an agent and can you recommend anyone.
Regards
Colm
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