Thursday 15 January 2009

SWF 09 Launch

Lots and lots of lovely people made it to the launch party for the 2009 Screenwriters' Festival at the Channel 4 building on Horseferry Road on Tuesday.

As I stumbled along a dark road near St. James Park tube, squinting at my google-map print-out, who should loom out of the shadows like zombies but Messrs Arnopp, Barron and Clague. It was a mite scary, I can tell you, but also wonderful: it seems no longer possible for me to turn up to any kind of writing do and have to network alone. How good is that?

And as we arrived at the venue, ho - isn't that Mister Beckley, and with him, the Stackster? And Ms Lipton? Oh yes. I hadn't got in there yet, and already I was part of a veritable posse.

Inside, I met up again with Tony Keetch and Elena Fuller, non-bloggers but pitchers extraordinaire. They were both involved in the onstage pitching competition at last year's festival. Indeed most of the ten 2008 pitching finalists made it, including the fellow that later on in the evening won the raffle for a free ticket to SWF '09 (that's two years' running he hasn't had to pay, the lucky thing).

During the pre-talk convivials, I also met David Turner who's pitching this year, and bumped into (and yet again failed, alas, to have a proper conversation with) the wonderful David Lemon and Rachel (next time, I will talk to them, properly and find out Rachel's surname so I don't have to introduce them like a magic act).

Also - as far as I remember, someone correct me if I'm wrong - there was free wine.

After that, were the official talks: Mister Arnopp and David L have both summarised that stuff, so I don't have to strain to remember the details. The message boiled down to this: SWF 09 needs everyone's support to keep going in these difficult economic times, so buy a ticket as soon as you can to help their cash flow, if you want to go ,and if you care about the thing continuing. Fair enough. Sadly, because of a new production I'm involved with - which at the moment is top secret, but I shall post about it when the time comes - it is very unlikely that I'm going to be able to go to Cheltenham this year. There is only one way now open to me that I can see: become swiftly and prominently interesting and important enough to be invited onto a panel. Hey! It could happen...

Anyway, after the talks there were more opportunities for nibbles and a bit of networking and a soupcon of celeb spotting. Most exciting for me was that Michael Wearing was in the house - but I didn't get to talk to him. I'd spotted the tanned, white-haired fellow earlier on and had almost gone up to speak to him. Good thing I didn't, as at that point I thought he was Andrew Davies.

And - I may be mistaken, but I think I'm right on this - there was free wine again.

8 comments:

Yehudah Jez Freedman said...

good to meet you there Stuart. I don't feel I get out enough to discuss what has gone wrong with Postman Pat

Lee said...

No Perry at SWF? I demand a refund!

David Turner said...

Good to see you there, young man, in all your 3D loveliness.

Was there wine there?

martin said...

Won't be the same without you Buddy. We'd have no one to stroke! ;)

Stuart Perry said...

Jez - apologies: as I cut my narrative off at the point in the evening where I was getting a bit too tipsy, I neglected to mention the pub after, and meeting your good self, and the discussions that ensued. I will post separately about my feelings on Postman Pat, as it is clearly a very important subject!

Lee, Martin: I'm sorry - circumstances out of my control. I'll miss you all too. Please add your positive thoughts to my cosmic ordering plan for getting onto a panel and attending for free ;-)

David, good to meet you in 3D too. As for the wine: well, it was rumoured to be present, but I couldn't possibly comment...

David Lemon said...

Hi Stuart

a proper chat (y'know wiv words n' dat) will happen at some point, but lovely to see you.
The Good Lady Rachel's (who I may shorten to TGLR) surname is 'Garlick'.
Yep. Lemon and Garlick.

Stuart Perry said...

David,

Definitely re: chat. And you and Rachel should demand your own investigative drama series on ITV!

David Lemon said...

Don't think we haven't tried. Unfortunately they already have the adventures of maverick cops Jack Cheese and Mike Onion in pre-production...