Quote: Judgement Dave @ 28th February 2014, 11:33 AM GMT

Note that this may also explain why, in the BCG forums, one person (Matt) said that it looked like they could fit a lot more on a page, and so mentioned considering reformatting their Show What You Wrote sketches to the NewsJack template. It's probably because their view of the template was FUBAR'd.

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I only use Windows and MS Word. Checking the templates in both documents reveals that the font size in both my template (made from the old NJ blog post measurements) and the new NJ template is Arial 12pt.

The only reason why I can see that I can now enter more in the new template is because when I was writing in earlier shows, I would hit carriage return twice between each line of dialogue to give a full blank line. With the new template (and the instructions within it) seems that they are just happy with line padding as the space between FX/dialogue, so now I can write more.

I'll write in the template they provided because those are the rules, but I'm not too fussed if the formatting looks weird on their machines as it's their template and their issue.

And in the end, I sent my TSWYW sketches off as .doc files using the template that I use for 4am Cab, and the last series of NJ.

Can't work out whether this new format is good or bad.

But given that the only things I've ever got on have been intros and Jackapps it's probably bad...

The "new" format is standard radio format. The numbers are cue numbers. They do this so, if one line of dialogue doesn't sound right for example, they can say "re-record page 1, cue number 7," and the actor will know which line to redo.

I'm guessing in previous series', they retyped all chosen sketches into this format ahead of recording the show, but now they are figuring out ways to lessen the workload.

I can only come up with two liners with this giant margin format on their templates!

Anybody still writing/going to write intros for their sketches?

Quote: RobJ @ 28th February 2014, 8:18 PM GMT

Anybody still writing/going to write intros for their sketches?

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Probably not, at least for the first episode. After 2 or 3 we may have a better idea how they're being introduced or be starting to get a handle on the new anchor's style, so be able to start writing somewhere near his 'voice'...

BTW Anyone feel comfortable with the new 1-liners yet? Or is everyone else in a similar position to me, having no idea whether to go with what I'd consider topical (old-NJ style) 1-liners or to go with non-topical oddness as the examples may suggest?

The 'new' one-liners have a flavour of NewsBullet about it, if anyone's been around long enough to remember that NJ feature. There was a series of quickfire soundbites during the 'youth' feature. Can't think of any now but there was an example like:

Newsbullet: Fighting for the right to bear arms and the right to arm bears

And I've been writing TV/Radio bits to go at the end of 'And Finally' for a while (none of them used) so perhaps this is my moment!

Quote: StephenM @ 28th February 2014, 9:59 PM GMT

The 'new' one-liners have a flavour of NewsBullet about it, if anyone's been around long enough to remember that NJ feature. There was a series of quickfire soundbites during the 'youth' feature. Can't think of any now but there was an example like:

Newsbullet: Fighting for the right to bear arms and the right to arm bears

And I've been writing TV/Radio bits to go at the end of 'And Finally' for a while (none of them used) so perhaps this is my moment!

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That musta been before my time, but Newsfox's soundbites from series 5(?) weren't dissimilar.

[quote name="Judgement Dave" post="1057467" date="28th February 2014, 11:33 AM GMT"]Hmmm - I'm currently writing an email to the producers querying the RTF templates - there may be quite an important issue with using RTFs regarding what software the user uses.

Dave, I'm having the same problem (Macbook). No headers and when I press tab everything goes mental. Did you hear back from producers?

Quote: V Riddoch @ 1st March 2014, 11:35 AM GMT

Quote: Judgement Dave @ 28th February 2014, 11:33 AM GMT

Hmmm - I'm currently writing an email to the producers querying the RTF templates - there may be quite an important issue with using RTFs regarding what software the user uses.

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Dave, I'm having the same problem (Macbook). No headers and when I press tab everything goes mental. Did you hear back from producers?

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Yes.

Oh - you want more details on what they said...

More or less a "don't worry" try to get as close as you can, but that doesn't really help you if you can't see the headers (I'm guessing you're using TextEdit).

Do you have OpenOffice or Libre Office (both are free Java-based office suites, so work on Mac/Windows/Linux) or some other word-processing program?

It took quite a while trying to mimic the template they'd done, but last night I created an open document file that seems fine. If you want a copy, PM me your email.

BTW - I think for at least the 1st week I'll probably send an RTF for each sketch/1-liners with a word format backup in case they open the RTF and go 'yuck'...

Thanks, Dave - have PMd you.

I'm going on Wednesday: anyone else?

Quote: V Riddoch @ 1st March 2014, 5:24 PM GMT

Thanks, Dave - have PMd you.

I'm going on Wednesday: anyone else?

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Sent some templates back, Viv - I edited the header for your contact details - hope they help.

Wish I was going on Wed, but rail costs from Manchester (and the prospect of a hotel) probably prohibit it...

I think that perhaps for the 1st time ever I'll be submitting the upper limit amount of material for an episode. Got another sketch to write and a couple of one liners to do then, presto sendo.

Hope everyone else is doing ok.

So far one finished sketch, one idea sketch and a few 'coming up' oneliners. Night night.

Quote: Bonzo @ 2nd March 2014, 12:28 AM GMT

So far one finished sketch, one idea sketch and a few 'coming up' oneliners. Night night.

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Cor, you had a late one, Bonzo. Perhaps we should start a Mums-trying-to-squeeze-writing-into-the-wee-small-hours-when-nobody-wants-feeding thread...

I'm just off to my 'office', ie the M&S cafe, for a couple of hours. Don't tell my kids.