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Greenlit: Developing Factual/Reality Tv Ideas from Concept to Pitch
Book by Lees, Nicola
352 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 2010
About the author
Nicola Lees
3 books2 followersNicola has worked in the television industry – in London and New York - for more than 15 years. She has developed documentaries, docudramas, multiplatform and reality programmes for network and cable channels, including the BBC1, BBC2, BBC3, BBC4 and Channel 5 in the UK and Discovery Channel, Travel Channel, National Geographic and TLC in the USA.
Nicola originally worked as an operating room and ER nurse and spent ten years dealing with drunks and DIY victims. On the spur of the moment she accepted a job as an expedition medic in Chile and Zimbabwe where she dug latrines and almost drowned in the Zambezi River during a rafting trip that went wrong (which was awkward, as she was the only qualified medic).
Back home she spent time answering the phones for a radio gardening where her progress was hampered by her complete lack of horticultural experience and even less knowledge of Latin plant names. Later, she worked briefly as a Holiday Rep in Lanzarote, where she found herself dancing the can-can in a cabaret act and putting her medical knowledge to good use when her guests became ill (the two weren't related).
After signing on with a temping agency Nicola was sent to answer the phones at the BBC in London for one day. Ten years later, she was still working at the BBC had established herself in the newly emerging, and much misunderstood, discipline of programme development.
Nicola's first commission, The Guinea Pig Club, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kct2bJ..., was a documentary about a group of WWII airmen who were badly burnt and became the guinea pigs for a maverick plastic surgeon, Archibald McIndoe. Knowing from her time as a scrub nurse that McIndoe forceps and McIndoe scissors are standard surgical instruments, her interest was piqued when she saw a book called McIndoe's Army, and she discovered a remarkable story of resilience and camaraderie. The documentary went on to win a Royal Television Society History Award (2005). Since then, Nicola has been directly involved in researching, writing or pitching more than 80 commissioned programmes, many of which have won industry awards.
Nicola left the BBC after ten years and continued to write; her first effort was a rom-com, which a reader said reminded him of A Clockwork Orange. Sensing that rom-com perhaps wasn't her forte she turned to non-fiction and has published Greenlit: Developing Factual/Reality TV Ideas From Concept to Pitch (Methuen, 2010) and Give Me the Money and I'll Shoot! Finance Your Factual TV/Film Project (Methuen, 2012).
Nicola is the founder and editor of http://www.tvmole.com a website aimed at inspiring, informing and improving factual TV development, which attracts an international readership for its blend of commissioning news, how-to articles, funding and pitching opportunities and development tips.
Nicola is currently researching the final book of her non-fiction TV trilogy. She is also having another attempt at fiction and has three different projects on the go (including an unromantic comedy).
Nicola originally worked as an operating room and ER nurse and spent ten years dealing with drunks and DIY victims. On the spur of the moment she accepted a job as an expedition medic in Chile and Zimbabwe where she dug latrines and almost drowned in the Zambezi River during a rafting trip that went wrong (which was awkward, as she was the only qualified medic).
Back home she spent time answering the phones for a radio gardening where her progress was hampered by her complete lack of horticultural experience and even less knowledge of Latin plant names. Later, she worked briefly as a Holiday Rep in Lanzarote, where she found herself dancing the can-can in a cabaret act and putting her medical knowledge to good use when her guests became ill (the two weren't related).
After signing on with a temping agency Nicola was sent to answer the phones at the BBC in London for one day. Ten years later, she was still working at the BBC had established herself in the newly emerging, and much misunderstood, discipline of programme development.
Nicola's first commission, The Guinea Pig Club, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kct2bJ..., was a documentary about a group of WWII airmen who were badly burnt and became the guinea pigs for a maverick plastic surgeon, Archibald McIndoe. Knowing from her time as a scrub nurse that McIndoe forceps and McIndoe scissors are standard surgical instruments, her interest was piqued when she saw a book called McIndoe's Army, and she discovered a remarkable story of resilience and camaraderie. The documentary went on to win a Royal Television Society History Award (2005). Since then, Nicola has been directly involved in researching, writing or pitching more than 80 commissioned programmes, many of which have won industry awards.
Nicola left the BBC after ten years and continued to write; her first effort was a rom-com, which a reader said reminded him of A Clockwork Orange. Sensing that rom-com perhaps wasn't her forte she turned to non-fiction and has published Greenlit: Developing Factual/Reality TV Ideas From Concept to Pitch (Methuen, 2010) and Give Me the Money and I'll Shoot! Finance Your Factual TV/Film Project (Methuen, 2012).
Nicola is the founder and editor of http://www.tvmole.com a website aimed at inspiring, informing and improving factual TV development, which attracts an international readership for its blend of commissioning news, how-to articles, funding and pitching opportunities and development tips.
Nicola is currently researching the final book of her non-fiction TV trilogy. She is also having another attempt at fiction and has three different projects on the go (including an unromantic comedy).
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