On Monday morning there are forty ideas on the board. Some came from writers, some from a newspaper article, one from a researcher's holiday. By the end of the month the head of development will have picked four, paid for a treatment on two, and booked a meeting with a broadcaster for one. Most of the rest will never be made. The head of development decides what a production company makes next.
What a head of development does
Development is the stage before a production exists, when an idea is turned into something that someone will pay for. See how a film is made for where it fits. The head of development runs that stage for the whole company. They manage the slate, the list of projects the company is working on, and decide where development time and money go.
The team usually includes development producers and researchers, plus freelance writers who are paid per project. The head of development reads everything, gives notes, and shapes each idea into a pitch. That might be a one-page outline, a treatment of a few pages, a pilot script, or a short taster tape for a TV format. Then they take it to buyers, such as a commissioning editor at a broadcaster or a streaming platform.
Responsibilities
- Find and assess new ideas, books, formats and talent
- Keep the development slate and decide which projects move forward
- Commission treatments, scripts and taster tapes from writers and producers
- Write and polish pitch documents
- Build relationships with commissioners, financiers and agents
- Pitch projects and follow up on feedback
- Hand over a commissioned project to the production team
How the role touches the budget
The head of development usually holds a yearly development budget for the company. It pays for option fees (the right to adapt a book or story for a period of time), writers, research and taster tapes. Most of that money is spent on projects that never get made, so choosing where to put it is the real skill. When a project is commissioned, part of the development cost is often charged back into the production budget, which the head of development agrees with business affairs and the production team.
How people get into the role
Many start as researchers or development assistants, move on to development producer, and get the senior job after a run of successful pitches. In scripted drama and film, some come from script editing or from working at a literary agency or broadcaster.
In film and TV
In unscripted TV (factual, entertainment, reality) the head of development works fast and pitches many formats each year, often to specific slots a broadcaster wants to fill. In scripted TV and film the projects take years, depend heavily on the screenwriter, and need financing from several sources before they can go ahead.