Need to Make a Pitch Tape on a Shoestring?

Think you need to spend a load of cash making that pitch tape? Think again. This short film was made, edited and scored using an iPhone:

Jane Root on Where Good Ideas Come From

The Browser has a really interesting interview with Jane Root (CEO Nutopia, ex-Controller, BBC2 and ex-General Manager, Discovery Channel), in which she uses a series of books to talk about creativity, and why some ideas – like The Office and The Simpsons – make it onto TV and why others don’t. Read the interview here. [...]

Can You Spot a Story?

Television is all about telling stories, as is pitching TV ideas to commissioners. But do you know what a story actually looks like? Test yourself by taking this short test in which you are asked to decide whether a short piece of text constitutes a story or not. After ten examples you get your score. [...]

Reality Bites Documentary Shorts Funding Scheme Call for Applications – Deadline Friday 10th June, 2011

The Irish Film Board is looking filmmakers with an idea for an innovative short documentary film (up to 12′) – “journalistic or creative, observational or aesthetic, objective or personal”. Up to three films will be selected to receive up to €15,000 (the maximum budget allowed per film).

Films must have a significant Irish element – subject matter, location, crew – and may be made in Irish or English.

Deadline for applications: Friday 10th June 2011

(Photo by janticom CC BY 2.0)

How Many Narcissists Do You Need to Sell an Idea?

Ever wonder why the person with the biggest ego on the team manages to win the most pitches – even though you know (and they would never admit) that their ideas are no better than yours? Scientists at Cornell University have run a series of studies and found that narcissists were generally more enthusiastic and [...]

Development Hell or Ideas Heaven?

Freelance development consultant Sean Kirkegaard is running an unusual creative experiment on his website Development Hell. Approximately every other day he uploads a new TV programme idea to his website. Once he’s got a slate of about 50 ideas he’s going to ask the public to vote on their favourite. He will then attempt to [...]

Why You Need a Vacation… or Not

It’s been suggested that getting away from it all is good for boosting creativity; it allows the mind to wander and make new and unexpected connections. However, experiments seem to prove that just pretending to be somewhere else can help spark new ideas. Read more in Wired

TV Development Tips From Business Books

Sign up to The Start Up Daily for bite-sized tips culled from books on business, management and entrepreneurship. Although aimed at an audience of start-up business owners, there are tips that can equally apply to developing TV ideas, eg: “Surround yourself with sunrise people” “If you can’t be the best in your class, you should [...]

Seven Wishful Thinking Ways to Improve Creativity

Mark McGuinness’s creativity blog, Wishful Thinking, has a number of tips to help you raise your game as you develop and pitch your non-scripted TV ideas. Here are some of the best for TV developers: Presentation Zen 6 Tips for Dealing With Feedback on Your Creative Work 10 Tips For Overcoming Writer’s Block Can the [...]

Why Are You Like a Great Novelist?

How is the development producer like a great novelist? Oh, let me count the ways… “procrastination, writer’s block, the terror of failure that looms over a new project and the attention-sucking power of the Internet”, so says the Wall Street Journal. They asked successful novelists about the way they write their books. Nobel laureate Orhan [...]