"The recipe book of great television from one of the best TV makers in the world" Jamie Oliver Story structure is a huge weakness for many factual or reality filmmakers and TV producers, who often concentrate on subject areas and issues rather than dramatic and memorable narrative. Consequently programmes fail to attract the audience or win any awards. In this book Robert Thirkell, the international consultant known as 'The TV Troubleshooter' and renowned television producer, sets out a professional toolkit for developing a compelling storyline in factual and reality programmes and films. Based on his popular international C.O.N.F.L.I.C.T seminars, it lifts the lids on the making of leading series such as Kitchen Nightmares, Wife Swap, The Apprentice, Coastguards, Firefighters, Oprah's Big Give Fat March, Jamie's School Dinners and When Big Chef Met Little Chef as well as offering insight and advice from leading filmmakers and TV producers worldwide. The tips and tools go right the way through the filmmaking process from finding stories and characters, to structuring scripts and filming, editing, through to delivery, titles and getting people to watch.

"The recipe book of great television from one of the best TV makers in the world" Jamie Oliver Story structure is a huge weakness for many factual or reality filmmakers and TV producers, who often concentrate on subject areas and issues rather than dramatic and memorable narrative. Consequently programmes fail to attract the audience or win any awards. In this book Robert Thirkell, the international consultant known as 'The TV Troubleshooter' and renowned television producer, sets out a professional toolkit for developing a compelling storyline in factual and reality programmes and films. Based on his popular international C.O.N.F.L.I.C.T seminars, it lifts the lids on the making of leading series such as Kitchen Nightmares, Wife Swap, The Apprentice, Coastguards, Firefighters, Oprah's Big Give Fat March, Jamie's School Dinners and When Big Chef Met Little Chef as well as offering insight and advice from leading filmmakers and TV producers worldwide. The tips and tools go right the way through the filmmaking process from finding stories and characters, to structuring scripts and filming, editing, through to delivery, titles and getting people to watch.

Creating Reality in Factual Television analyzes the uneasy interaction between economics, culture, and professional ethics in reality and documentary television storytelling. Through the "frankenbite," an editorial tool that extracts and re-orders the salient elements or single words of a statement, interview, or exchange into a revealing confession or argument, the book explores how and why editors manipulate truth in factual television. The author considers how the editing of documentary television is increasingly following reality television’s dictate to entertain instead of inform, how the "real" and the "truth" fall victim to the demand to "tell entertaining stories," and how editors must compromise their professional ethics as a result. Drawing on interviews with 75 North American and European editors that explore their experiences and opinions of reality and documentary television practices, and their views on their responsibilities and loyalties in the field, Creating Reality in Factual Television illuminates the real and potential ethical dilemmas of editorial decision making, the context in which decisions are made, and how editors themselves validate the editing choices to themselves and others. Addressing a dramatic development in contemporary media ecology – the age of "alternative facts" – this book is a useful research tool for scholars and students of documentary film, media literacy, genre studies, media ethics, affect theory, and audience perception.

"Blows the lid on so many TV secrets" Tom Archer, Controller Factual, BBC "If every first-time producer read this before pitching a program, I guarantee a greater success rate" Gary Lico, President/CEO, CABLEready, USA In recent years there has been an explosion of broadcast and cable channels with a desperate need for original factual/reality programming to fill their schedules: -documentaries, observational series, makeover formats, reality competitions. Yet television executives receive a daily avalanche of inappropriate pitches from pushy, badly prepared producers. Only 1 in 100 proposals are considered worth a second look, and most commissioners never read past the first paragraph. Greenlit explains how to develop, research, pitch and sell your idea for any type of factual or reality television show. It gives the inside track on: * What channel executives are really looking for in a pitch, * The life stories of hit factual shows such as The Apprentice, Deadliest Catch and Strictly Come Dancing * Advice from channel commissioners, development producers and on-screen talent on both sides of the Atlantic. * Eleven steps that will increase your chance of winning a commission In a rapidly expanding TV market, Greenlit is packed with resource lists, sample proposals, case studies and exercises designed to boost your skills and develop commission-winning proposals.

Written from the writer's point of view, this is an expert guide to the process of getting published, from submitting your work and finding an agent, to working with a publishing house and understanding the book trade. Harry Bingham, author of 7 titles for a leading international publisher which include both fiction and non-fiction , is founder of the editorial services agency the Writers Workshop. From his own experience, and that of working with new authors, together with interviews from authors, agents and publishers - his book provides expert advice on the best way to find a market for your writing.Topics include:* how to find an agent or publisher * how to present your work * cover letters and synopses * contractual terms with both agent and publisher * how the book trade works * working with publishers and the editorial process * your role in helping to publicize your work. Getting Published will enable you to market your work more professionally, understand the relationship you will have with both agent and publisher and offers a contemporary inside view of the publishing industry. Along with the essential contacts in the Writers and Artists Yearbook, this is a professional tool you will not want to be without.

This revised and refreshed edition guides the contemporary screenwriter through a variety of creative and critical approaches to a deeper understanding of how to tell stories for the screen. With a renewed focus on theme and structure, the book is an essential guide for writers, script developers and teachers to help develop ideas into rich dynamic projects, and craft compelling, resonating screenplays. Combining creative tools and approaches with critical and contextual underpinnings, the book is ideal for screenwriting students who are looking to expand their skills and reflect on practices to add greater depth to their scripts. It will also inspire experienced writers and developers to find fresh ways of working and consider how new technology is affecting storytelling voices. Comprehensive and engaging, this book considers key narrative questions of today and offers a range of exercises to address them. Integrating creative guidance with rigorous scholarship, this is the perfect companion for undergraduate students taking courses in screenwriting. Encouraging and pragmatic, it will provide a wealth of inspiration for those wishing to work in the industry or deepen their study of the practice. New to this Edition: - Refreshed and revised edition to meet the demands of contemporary screenwriting - New case studies, models, tools and approaches to writing for the screen - Updated areas of industry practice, including web series, transmedia, VR and long-form storytelling - Includes practical approaches and creative exercises that can be used in the classroom

Explores the processes by which we narrate our own lives and the lives of others; our motives; and the role of media.