Beggars Vs. Choosers - Contacting production companies

I have spent my morning contacting some more TV production companies. It’s a necessary but not particularly fruitful task. Back in March of this year (when my enthusiasm was bursting at the seams) I contacted just over 30 television production companies. And do you know how many responses I got? Go on, guess. One. That’s right – one. Thankfully it was from the fantastic Gub Neal at the Artists Studio, who has been keen to share his knowledge and has hopefully got something in return. Well, if my BBC pitch document works out well he will certainly have got his money’s worth! Remember: when I say money’s worth I mean the price of a bottled water at the Century member’s club.

Maybe I’m being a little harsh on the rest of them. I did have meeting with Laurence Bowen at Feelgood Fiction (though no response yet on a recent follow-up email I sent) who was hugely encouraging. I also had a lovely polite decline from a lady called Michelle at Wall to Wall. I received the below one-liner with some rather cryptic acronyms from Noel Gay television:

Hi
We actually stick to synopsis only unless it is a writer I know about
BW
CA

If that’s not a brush off I don’t know what is.

Now for a list of some companies I heard NOTHING from. Not even an automated response thanking me for my interest:

Baby Cow,
Ecosse Films,
Festival Films,
Avalon,
Coastal Productions,
Hat Trick Productions,
HBO,
Mentorn,
Oxford Film & Television,
Red Planet Pictures,
Shine Entertainment (also registered on their website),
SMG/ Ginger Productions,
Slate Films,
Spellbound Productions,
Talkback Thames,
Tiger Aspect Productions,
World Productions
…and so on.

This isn’t just an exercise in naming and shaming, nor is it more wallowing in my own failures (see posts ‘Dejection & rejection’ parts I and II). I want to remind myself of who I contact and their responses. After all, that’s what this blog is for: charting my journey and keeping track of learnings along the way. It seems in this business rejection is something you have to learn very quickly; to be perfected over time.

I am awaiting responses from Kudos films, Mammoth Screen and Left Bank Pictures, who are all three that I would REALLY like to hear back from.

Maybe this is karma after the number of sales calls I bat back on a daily basis during my day job at a media agency. Or maybe the TV production companies can tell they’re just another name on my hit-list, that of course there’s some companies that take preference – for example I’d give my left pinkie fingertip for a job at the BBC, Tiger Aspect, Kudos et al - but that at this stage in my career I’d take pretty much anything.