The Reach Fund is a UK only script development and production platform, across theatre and film, created expressly to support emerging writers and artists who want to realise their script into production.

The fund has been created in response to the denigration of funding opportunities for emerging artists, particularly in theatre. The fund has been founded by producer, director, dramaturg and script developer Lou-Lou Mason, who has been a constant champion and mentor for new writers and early-career film and theatre makers, throughout their 20 year career.

The Reach Fund is
- Open to emerging writers and their production teams, with narrative projects that they intend on presenting or shooting their project within 6-12 months of the date for submissions to the Reach Fund opens
- Only for artists and teams who have prior experience of production and what it entails
- To be used exclusively for production of the project submitted
- For projects that are already in, or ready to move into, pre-production

Ideally, participants must have produced or been involved in production in some capacity previously. This could be work experience, student, crew, fringe, scratch, events, low budget indie, larger scale project, or can demonstrate they understand how production works, how to budget and plan for production and be able to use funds to best effect.

Make sure you read and understand the Terms & Conditions and full outline of what’s required, so you are prepared. All details and printable PDFs of the requirements, terms & conditions are available on melusinamedia.co.uk

You will need to prepare the following:
- Your script, with log line/synopsis and treatment.
- A project plan with approximate dates and venues for show or shoot locations
- High-level budget and plan for how you intend to fundraise the rest required
- Production team info, principal artist CV of relevant previous experience, and any cast and crew that are attached
- Your aspirations for the project and how you will include the Reach Fund core values

Awards & Prizes

The winner(s) of the Reach Fund will receive between £1000 - £2000* to support production.

Alongside the monetary prize, the winning projects will receive valuable mentorship to support production of the project they have submitted, from producer, script developer and director with over 20 years experience in creating theatre and film, alongside a team of experts in script and production.

ALL submissions will receive feedback on their entry as part of their entry fee, therefore all artists partcipating will receive some value from their entry fee.

The Reach Fund has been created as a community venture, where expertise is paid forward to Reach Fund applicants in future, therefore entrants should consider how they might participate in the community in future years.

Full requirements and the core values all described below!

Rules & Terms

*Please prepare the following for entry*

1. Project overview - max three pages with
- Log line or 50-word intro.
- Treatment or synopsis
- Outline of how you plan to include The Reach Fund Core Values
- Statement of aspiration which includes
> What you want to achieve with the script and this production.
> How you see yourself participating in the Reach Fund community in future

2. Your script - No more than 20 mins for film, or 50 mins for theatre.
- It doesn’t have to be the final version – this programme is about development. The script should be in a good enough state to start production, with a view to including final rounds of edits.

3. Production overview / Pitch deck – max two-three pages to include:
a) High level budget - if you have one
> Forecast cost for production including team, cast, location/venue etc
> What you’re planning to do to raise the rest of the funding required.
b) Production plan - very high level - include things like the following:
> Current status: where you are at for pre-production at the moment. It’s absolutely fine if you’ve not done any production so far, and you’re finalising your script first – there’s still time for everything!
> Planned/approx. dates for casting, rehearsals, performance/shoot
> Overview of collaborators: production/creative team and any cast/crew attached/confirmed
c) CV and/or statement of previous experience for the lead artist/s
> This should be relevant experience only. It doesn’t have to include your ‘money jobs’ but do include what you’ve done before creatively, including film or theatre, corporate content and/or event production.

Non-written applications
You may present any of the above as a 3–4-minute video (please include a link in your submission). However, written documents are important to production management, so please look to building a team of collaborators including those who can support you with creating and maintaining written documentation. Production is a team sport.

*The Reach Fund Core Values*
Think about how you might integrate the following values to your project- think of this not as saving the world, but the butterfly effect you might create through your work.

Integrity
Does your project and the way you plan to manage it demonstrate inclusion, fairness and equity?

Sustainability
How will you reflect sustainable principles as part of your project execution and aim to conserve the environment and/or natural world?

Impact
How does your project make waves to change the world around you, however small?

Creativity
What about this project is challenging you as an artist and expanding your creative practice?

*Terms & Conditions*

• The Reach Fund (the fund, the competition) is open to writers and production teams and projects based in the UK only. One submission per creative team/writer.
• The script must be an original work created by the writer/producer or lead artist who retains all intellectual property. Neither the script nor the submission documentation can be generated through AI or machine learning and any script that is found to be plagiarised or not work originally created by the artists submitting will be disqualified from the competition without refund.
• Entrants must not previously have worked with Lou-Lou Mason, Melusina Media or Loquitur Theatre Company, nor must they have used Lou-Lou Mason’s script service for script reading and feedback.
• The fund is to be used only to finalise script development and support onward production of the script. The fund must be used to support production and any project not produced will be liable to return competition funding.
• The competition winnings may only be used to produce the script described upon entry and using competition winnings to support other projects is strictly forbidden.
• The prize fund may be given to multiple winners across both genres between £1000-£2000. Melusina Media reserves the right to allocate funds to winners as they see fit, whether funds are allocated to multiple winners or final total of winnings for one winner.
• Melusina Media reserves the right to terminate the competition and fund for any reason during the submission window and beyond. In this case, entry fees will be refunded, other than any admin fees associated to the entry.
• The winning entrant must demonstrate how the fund will be used for onward development and/or final product and must – under all best endeavours - adhere to the plan and budget provided as part of the entry, or a more detailed version thereof.
• The winning entrant must include Melusina Media as Executive Producer or Co-Executive Producer on the developed and/or final product.
• The fund is only available for narrative projects.
• The competition is only available to entrants who have previously produced a piece or been part of a production team and understand the work involved in production and managing a production project. Previous projects can be any length or complexity across film and theatre but must be narrative projects.
• Entrants will be expected to provide high level plan and budget.
• Entrants must include consideration for alignment of project to the Reach Fund Core values: Integrity, Sustainability, Impact, Creativity.
• Entrants will be disqualified if they have not included all the components required for entry. Disqualification does not incur refund of entry fee.
• In extenuating circumstances, some entries may be permitted to provide missing requirements to their entry post-submission, if their window for entry is still open.
• The Reach Fund submission window will be open for three months on a sliding scale of administrative fee for entry: month 1 early bird £35, month 2 regular entry £50, month 3 latecomer entry £65. The entry fee is non-refundable.
• Entry fee covers the administration of feedback which will provided for all qualifying entries on announcement of deselection from the fund.
• Each of the three submission windows is open for three weeks and three days on an escalating scale of administrative fee for entry. Once the fund is closed for entries, judging and feedback will commence with three levels of listing: long list, shortlist and finalist. At each selection stage teams eliminated will receive feedback.
• All entrants that qualify are eligible for feedback. Any entrants disqualified will not be eligible for feedback other than the components missing for entry.
• All finalists will be expected to participate in onward mentorship and/or support to the next round of Reach Fund participation.
• Privacy policy: Melusina Media takes privacy and intellectual property very seriously. No data will be shared with any third party and no submission will be used within or for artificial intelligence, machine learning or large language models.