callforwriters

About Us

Catsnake have been making short films, online videos and TVC for the third sector for over a decade, with the aim of creating a social impact for our charity clients. We are now looking to tell our stories on a larger canvas and are looking for talented screenwriters/writers/dreamers to collaborate with.

Our focus is on telling stories that change beliefs and behaviour. We believe deeply in the power of narratives to engage, entertain, and lead to positive change for our communities, our environment and our collective future.

We have a highly collaborative, relaxed culture, driven by laughter and creativity and fuelled by many cups of tea.

For examples of our past work visit catsnake.com.

What we’re looking for

We are looking for exceptional writers, passionate about the idea of creating societal change/shifting mindsets through story to work with us to develop feature film scripts.

Although the stories we want to tell should have some kind of social impact/quest for societal change at their hearts, they first and foremost should be entertaining - be it comedy, horror, a coming of age buddy movie or high stakes drama, we believe we can only truly engage audiences with rethinking their long held beliefs/ideas if we engage and entertain them first.

Our aim is to work closely with writers to develop their ideas/scripts. If we think an idea/treatment/script is something we would like to work on then we will apply for development funding to develop it to a point where we believe we can raise finance for the film.

We are really excited to meet new writers and to start developing exciting, meaningful work with you. We would like the writers we work with to have at least one produced piece of work (short film, TVC, theatre etc).

Process

We will endeavour to read all submissions within one month of the closing date.

We will then shortlist and invite writers for a chemistry meeting to chat through the idea, our plans, ethos and to see if we think collaborating would be a good fit.

From there we will select 1 - 3 projects to take forward into the next stage of development (we reserve the right not to progress any of the proposed projects if we do not think they are the right fit). 

We will engage writers initially through a shopping agreement whilst we look to win funding to develop the project.

Once funding is secured we will draw up an option with payment terms etc for the development and writing period.

We are particularly interested in hearing from/meeting writers with lived experience/from the community affected by a certain issue(s). We believe to be representative and inclusive. It is important that the voice telling the story is authentic.

How to apply

If you are interested in collaborating with us, please apply by emailing us a treatment and script sample for your feature film(s)/long form TV series to scripts@catsnake.com. The sample script does not have to be from the same project as the treatment.

Deadline for submissions: Monday 28th March Midnight

It is said that sometimes words get in the way of a good story.

If that is the case, let’s write a story with as few words as possible. In fact, tell us a story in 12 words exactly.

The ABC’s of our Keep It Short and Simple 12-word contest can be explained in, well, 12-words: 

Articulate a story or concept with
Brevity in an interesting
Creative way.

Even small words count (we believe in the power of the little guys) and contractions count as one word (because working together makes us better).

This is a chance to challenge yourself to try something a little different and have some fun doing it!