beActive, an award-winning production company, has announced this week the launch of The Digital Comedy Lab, a project that aims to uncover and develop the very best fresh comedy talent in the UK and Ireland.
The Digital Comedy Lab will be a programme for mockumentary film projects on YouTube. It will be looking for fresh comedy inspired by shows like ‘The Office’, ‘Spinal Tap’ and ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’. The show ideas must display the comedian’s original idea and feature attention-grabbing on-screen personalities.
The two winning projects, one from the UK and one from Ireland, will be announced at the Cannes Film Festival and will receive up to €50,000 in funding which will be a mixture of cash and services.
Producers, actors, writers and directors in teams with a maximum four people are invited to submit their comedy projects to The Digital Comedy Lab’s website from 21 November 2011 until 31 January 2012.
A judging panel will then select 12 projects to enter the training and mentoring programme; two of these entries will receive production financing and national and international distribution. The process will take place in four stages, the pitching competition, and the craft of mockumentary making, production and release of the films.
Co-founder and CEO Nuno Bernardo of beActive, “The Digital Comedy Lab is a talent discovery initiative unlike any other. It is a training and production programme created with the industry’s current demands, economics and audience tendencies in mind. We fully believe that the UK and Ireland have the talent to create an international digital comedy movement and we hope this will be the start of a comedy revolution!”
For more information about the competition you can visit the website here
