Why is RTÉ such a massive missed opportunity?
The commission site. RTÉ used to take direct pitches from writers but in the early 2000s they switched to an online application process. Totally normal BUT the focus was shifted from the pitch and more towards two things; budget and talent. Go onto the RTE commission site and there’s little room given to for the premise/plot, while the rest of the process is given to whether or not you have co-funding (the BAI, Screen Ireland, private investment, BBC, etc) and the talent you have attached. Now again this doesn’t sound too bad, but he’s the other kicker.
Say you have a script and you pitch it from RTE back in the day. If you got a No, fine. Nothing lost. Only took a few weeks. If you get a Yes, now you’ve got producers pitching themselves to be attached since RTE’s given the go ahead. You’re spoilt for choice and get to choose the best producers for your project. That’s how it used to be.
Now you need a registered production company attached (so you can’t even pitch it as unregistered start-up). This creates another hurdle in the way, because now instead of needing to pitch something RTE can be excited about, you have to pitch to a company that’ll be looking for something profitable (and something profitable is something that’ll sell, and the surest way to sell is to do what you know has sold in the past). In the commission pitch, you need to justify “Why this and why now”. Easy; “This” because it’s sold before, and “Now” because people have shown an “interest” (i.e. it was watched by maybe a few thousand people who didn’t change the channel).
But here’s the other thing. RTE will say no for multiple reasons, not necessarily because it’s a bad idea. If you don’t have funding already in place, it could be a no. If the production company, though legitimate, is too green or just doesn’t have a long enough track-record, it’s a no. If the talent attached aren’t big yet, it’s a no. If it’s too new of an idea with no precedence, it’s a no. So now we have a situation where pitches are being turned away not because of the quality of the idea, but because of exterior factors (co-funding, name recognition, similarity).
Why not just go to one of the big players? Element, Big Mountain, Fantastic, Brown Bag, Fubar? Ah, because many of these big ones won’t even look at a script unless it’s sent by a representative, especially one of the big agencies like Lisa Richards or Curtis. So now you have to jump the agent hurdle to get over the producer hurdle, to get over the commission hurdle, and still could get a no. Then of course there’s the commission to broadcast timeline.
RTE, even by broadcaster standards, is one of the slowest commission-to-air broadcasters on the islands of Ireland and Britain. Channel 4 (and I know this from experience) have commissioned shows in May, have them shoot in the summer, and released by late September. Let’s call it a round 6 months. It can take up to 2 years for RTE. That’s why non-scripted content is much preferred; a two week shoot (say a celeb travel show), split into 6 half-hour episodes, with no need for retakes, could be turned around in (if it was a rushed job) 3 months, maybe 2.
It’s a bit like a filter. In theory, yes, the best ideas should get through agents, producers, and the application process to RTE. But with a system that places focus on what will sell rather than what will attract people, you can’t seriously argue RTE aren’t being fed what companies think they want. And because that’s the only stuff that ever reaches them, RTE have no choice but to commission what is the best out of what they have. You can say it saves time and weeds out the flakes and the confident pieces of shit, but it throws the baby out with the bathwater. It doesn’t find the diamonds in the rough. The little bits of uniqueness that just need a little guidance and polishing.
And one final thing to make you weep; it’s the same with their “entry level” commissions. Stuff like Storyland, Short Shots, etc, all require production companies, even though they talk about “discovering new and diverse talent”. So again, even this puts hurdles in the way.
I’m not saying open the flood gates. Of course you’ll get some eejits who are like “I’ve got a cool idea, but I haven’t written it and I’m not telling you because you might steal it” (yes, they exist), but it just comes across as if RTE are somewhat aware of this problem but are just happy to downsize their reader and Dev staff (which they have done) and make their job easier.
