Screenwriting competition winners to be broadcast on C4

The 20 shortlisted scripts from Channel 4’s new talent finding initiative in the West Midlands, 'ideasfactory live: screenplay', are now online at channel4.com/ideasfactory.
Channel 4 are to produce, develop and broadcast the four winning screenplays selected from the shortlisted scripts. Voting to narrow the entries down to the final eight is now open online and closes at 12pm on Thursday October 24.
The competition is a pilot which has been running across the West Midlands for anyone between 14 and 34 who is interested in writing for film and television. The eight finalists will go on to take part in a series of masterclasses and tasks, which will be shown online at channel4.com/ideasfactory. . The overall winners will be chosen in November.
Heather Rabbatts, Managing Director of 4Learning, said: "Ideasfactory live: screenplay is the first of our regional ideasfactory events and it has been a huge success. We’ve had hundreds of high quality entries, from people of all ages, from across the West Midlands. The ideasfactory initiative is all about bringing real-life opportunities to people, and you can’t get much more of an exciting opportunity than seeing your idea broadcast to a national audience. We want people in the West Midlands to go back online now, vote and support their local talent."
The project is being supported by Advantage West Midlands (AWM) as part of their business development programme for the creative and screen industries.
Pat Laughlin, AWM's Director of Business Growth, said: “It’s great that the West Midlands is leading the way with the first live project on the ideasfactory site. The originality of ideas is evidence of the rich vein of creative talent within the region.”
Two local production companies, Maverick Television and Hi8us Projects, have worked closely together to produce ideasfactory live: screenplay.
The West Midlands is the first in a series of regional productions in what is expected to be a Channel 4 national initiative, which aims to opens up the creative industries to enterprising talent amongst 14-34 year olds.
(GB)