From Page to Puppets - how my books became a BBC TV series

[tommydonbavand]

Following on from a comment in the welcome/introduce yourself thread, I've been encouraged to explain how my traditionally published series of children's books became a stop-motion animated TV series for CBBC (Children's BBC).  Please do ask any and all questions as we go, and I'll do my best to answer them.

The series is called Scream Street, published by Walker Books in the UK, Candlewick Press in the US and various other publishers around the world.  There are 13 books in the original series...

I first came up with the concept of a whole street/community of haunted houses in late 2006, and that helped me to get my agent.  We worked on the idea together for a year or so, and the first book in the series - Fang of the Vampire - was published in the UK in 2008.  The series continued until book 13 was published at Halloween 2011.  I then moved on to other ideas and projects, although Scream Street continued to be popular with readers and generated some amazing fan art...



However, back in 2009, I was approached by a TV production company in the UK who wanted to transfer Scream Street to TV.  Of course I was thrilled and, with the help of my agent, optioned the rights to the books to this company for 18 months, which was then extended by a further period.

They went to work, attracting investors, seeking out film-makers, etc.  They first considered a live-action TV series, then quickly switched to animation and - eventually - stop-motion after meeting the amazing folk at Factory TM - Factory TM.

Then came a loooooooonng wait while various broadcasters battled for which territories they wanted to control.  In the end, production started in early 2015 at The Factory HQ here in the UK - with the plan to make 52 x 11 minute episodes in the first series.  These were NOT to be the stories from the books, but new adventures taken during a 'slice of time' within the book series.

52 scripts were commissioned and written (I wrote ONE episode for this series!), and then a team of animators got to work on six separate stages at The Factory's UK studios.  They each get around 9 seconds of footage per day, and it takes 4 months to complete an episode from start to finish.

I had previously bought the domain names screamstreet.com and screamstreet.co.uk - which I transferred over to the producers, along with my @screamstreet Twitter account.  I kept screamstreet.net to talk about the books, and I aim to get something up there soon.

Eventually, Scream Street launched on 21st October on CBBC (the BBC's dedicated children's channel), with this new look...

So far, 13 episodes have been broadcast here in the UK, with more coming from the end of March.  The series has also been shortlisted for the category of 'Best Children's Show' at the 2016 British Animation Awards!

I'm SO thrilled with the way the concept looks on TV, and I've now written four TV tie-in novels which will be published later this year (I was novelising other writers' stories about my characters - VERY weird, but still lots of fun!)

Here's a link to footage from the series, on YouTube... www.google.co.uk/?gws_rd=ssl#safe=off&q=youtube+scream+street

If you have any questions at all, I'd be happy to answer them!

What a scream!

Tommy Donbavand

[Daniel]

Wow. Thanks for posting the story of your series. You must be over the moon. It's hard to tell just from graphics, but it looks like it will be a ton of fun for the wee ones.

[tommydonbavand]

Feb 28, 2016 15:18:12 GMT -5 Daniel said:

Wow. Thanks for posting the story of your series. You must be over the moon. It's hard to tell just from graphics, but it looks like it will be a ton of fun for the wee ones.

Thanks!  Click on the YouTube link above, and you should get to see some snippets.

Tommy x

[Becca Mills]

This is so cool, Tommy!

So, was it a strange feeling to have other writers producing most of the scripts for the episodes? Do you feel like those writers captured the feel of your books, or do you see the TV series as really a separate entity, with its own "feel."

Also, I'd be so jazzed that it's stop-action. It's my absolute favorite form of animation, and I'm sure it's not cheap, compared to CGI.

[tommydonbavand]

Feb 28, 2016 23:38:27 GMT -5 Becca Mills said:

This is so cool, Tommy!

So, was it a strange feeling to have other writers producing most of the scripts for the episodes? Do you feel like those writers captured the feel of your books, or do you see the TV series as really a separate entity, with its own "feel."

Also, I'd be so jazzed that it's stop-action. It's my absolute favorite form of animation, and I'm sure it's not cheap, compared to CGI.

It was a little strange at first - but the show runner, Giles Pilbrow, and head writer, Ben Ward, are among the best at what they do.  They assembled a great team of kids' TV writers who 'got' the idea and feel of the show.  They totally captured the feel of the books, while bringing something new to the concept.

[Suzy]

Wow! What a wonderful story, Tommy. Thank you for sharing it and many congratulations!.

Must ask the kids in my family about it. I'm sure they watch it, I recognise the title.

[Pru Freda]

Many congrats, Tommy. I'll have to look out for it on CBBC - though when you mentioned stop-motion, my first thought was Ardman. I lurve Shaun the Sheep.

[ameliasmith]

Wow, that sounds great! We will look for it on the interwebs. My daughter reads a lot, and might be ready to actually read the books, but my son isn't quite reading yet, and they both like their animated TV a little too much.

I've heard so many horror stories of TV studios destroying the spirit of books in the adaptation process that it's really nice to hear that it doesn't have to be that way. I'm sure the BBC is better about it than the typical Hollywood production company. I've seen a Hollywood production company at work (on our "reality" TV show, not on my books) and wouldn't trust them, as a general rule.

[djmills]

Tommy, another "Wow" and "Congratulations" from me. Fantastic outcome for your stories. :-)
I also love Shaun the Sheep, so would love to watch Scream Street, when it finally arrives on Australian TV. :-)

[Miss Terri Novelle]

How did I miss this thread? Congrats!