First Cut Pitch Application

1. A personalised YouTube Video

We’re asking all applicants to create a YouTube video as part of their application, answering the following three questions.

• Describe your TV career to date
• What has been your favourite documentary/documentaries of the past 3 years?
• Which documentary directors have inspired you with their work and why?

Once you have uploaded your YouTube clip it is important that you mark the video as 'unlisted' in your privacy settings and paste the link to the application portal.

Please note that we do not expect high production values regarding your clip; we don't care what camera you use (it can be recorded on your mobile phone), we are only interested in your answers to the three questions above - Your YouTube video must be no more than 3 minutes long (approx. 1 min per question)

2. One-page treatment

Please submit a one-page treatment for a First Cut, 1 x 60’ post-22:00 documentary. The idea should respond to the specific needs of the strand and be realistic for the £120k budget – you don’t need to have negotiated access to an organisation or cast contributors, just seek inspiration from the world around you and demonstrate that you know what a great First Cut would look like. Make sure you read the First Cut brief in the link below.

Please note that this is NOT what you will be pitching at Sheffield DocFest at the pitch event and should not be an idea generated by an independent production company or already have been pitched to C4 or any other broadcaster.

We want to ensure that applicants understand the editorial needs of this specific slot and can demonstrate how they would approach it – please consider things such as narrative arc, potential casting, story structure, tone and visual style. 

PDF is the preferred format.

Information on the First Cut strand can be found here.

3. Latest CV

Please submit your latest CV in the applications portal. PDF is the preferred format.

Apply here

The deadline to apply was midnight Sunday 1st May 2022 and we are now closed for applications.