Little Things

A few opportunities for short bits have come to my attention over the last few days:

Two competitions (each with entry fees) came courtesy of Lucy, one of which she is reading for: Prequel to Cannes and Vibe TV.

For the sketch-writers out there, Recorded For Training Purposes Series 4 is accepting unsolicited contributions. The full details are on the BBC Writers' Room website here. And thanks to Christine and Robin for drawing my attention to that one.

Finally, there's a Lighthouse competition for 30-second videos for an exhibition, 30 seconds of Fortune. I'm working on something for this one for two reasons: first, I haven't shot anything for quite a while and so I can warm up my film-making muscles before starting on a (slightly longer) short of my own that I aim to make next year. Second, I like the challenge of doing a narrative in 30 seconds (though entries don't have to be narrative).

If you enter any of them, good luck to you.

I can finally talk about it

I am officially a professional feature film writer! After a few weeks of meetings, negotiations, and intensive writing, I finally signed the contract yesterday. I’m working with producer/director Mark Jay of Full On Pictures, with some development support from Screen South. Thanks - and another beer onto the massive tab I already owe her - to Miranda Robinson, who initially put Mark in touch with me.

The project is a 1970s based coming-of-age story, and is proving to be a joy to write, and Mark a joy to work with. In fact, the only difficulty so far was finding someone in Brighton’s Jubilee library yesterday to witness the signing. We needed a person not known to either of us, and Mark’s lawyer advised trying the library; but, most of the staff there looked at us like we wanted their John Hancock on some kind of devil/soul-extraction type agreement.

Mark had to be on a plane to the U.S. mere hours after this, and I didn’t want to delay any longer either ‘cos I’ve been bursting to post about it for weeks. What would happen if we couldn’t get anyone to sign? Can I get a witness?! Luckily, the fourth or fifth person we asked agreed: we promised the library a copy of the eventual DVD as a thank-you!

As I said, Mark is now off to the States to pitch this project, and I have to have the first draft completed by October 31st before the AFM. The day job is horribly hectic, though, and can’t give me any time off. So, I am working every minute of every day, and haven’t got time to swing a cat (which as anyone who’s tried it will know takes quite a long time – you’ve got to find a pet shop that doesn’t ask questions, and all sorts).

At the time of writing, I’m up to page 85 of a 95-minute script, and today’s pages have included the words “applause”, “prison”, and “falafels”. Woo - and after having given it a certain amount of calm reflection – hoo!

On the IPod today: podcasts of Radio 4 shows. Hooray! Never normally being in a room with a radio at the right time, these new podcasts are a positive boon. And, after only a few days, I’m already addicted to The Archers. You can also get Start The Week, highlights of The Today Programme, The News Quiz… As soon as the Afternoon play is available, my listening will be complete.

Paul Ashton Q & A

Over the next couple of days I’m going to complete the write-ups of all the recent screenwriting events I’ve been to, including the Writers’ Guild ‘Meet the Agents’ event, where I got to meet many lovely bloggers. Yay! But first, I thought I’d post on this as it’s probably the most useful to my reader(s) - Paul Ashton, development manager of the BBC Writers’ Room, had a brief slot for questions and answers at the Screen South Information day last month. Here’s a summary:

Paul first talked briefly about BBC Films, as it was a film agency gig. The bottom line is that BBC Films do not accept unsolicited scripts. If you don’t have an agent, or if you haven’t a producer or production company (with a track record) attached, then send your script to the Writers’ Room in the first instance. If you do have these attachments, still don’t send the script to BBC Films, but contact them to arrange a meeting. [NB: Since Paul made this statement, there has been a shake up in BBC Films instigated, so the situation may change.]

Moving on, Paul urged new writers not to overlook radio as a medium for new writers. In his opinion it is closer to film than, say, TV. Radio has lots of slots for one-off dramas, and so writers don’t need to fit in with an existing format, and can realise an original vision. Strands like the Friday, and Saturday Plays, and the Wire on Radio 3 are home to some more challenging and extreme pieces.

For radio there are two other routes aside from sending material to the Writers' Room: an in-house producer, or an independent producer or production company. When I asked Paul later about sending material through these routes, he repeated the standard BBC policy of not sending material to in-house producers, as they will only redirect it to the Writers’ room. But many other sources have told me that an introductory letter to a BBC producer doesn’t hurt at all, and having a producer champion your work will obviously mean it stands a greater chance of a commission that sending a script in cold. As for independent producers, Paul said it was fine to try that route. But he added that independent radio producers only have a certain amount of slots that they can bid to fill, so you may find that they are less receptive to new writers.

Paul was asked an audience question about what percentage of submissions are successful. About 20% of all submissions to the Writers’ Room are given a full read, and the remainder are rejected based on the first ten pages (they call this ‘sifting’). Of those, it is hard to say how many go on to be made, as it differs depending on what is being applied for. Radio wins out again here, though: 25% of Radio 4's afternoon plays must come from a first or second-time writer.

Another audience member asked what material the Writers’ Room will consider, particularly in regard to short scripts? They will read them, but only as an example of the writer’s work; and they would need to see more material than just one short script: a minimum of 30 pages/minutes as a guide. There are no shorts being shown on the BBC currently, but this could change depending of the tastes of the commissioning heads.

Are spec scripts for existing TV shows accepted? No. Paul wants to see something original from a new writer. But if you want to write for Doctors, say, send in an original piece that’s roughly similar in tone – don’t send in a wacky sci-fi plot, for instance. The BBC Writers’ Academy will mean that it is a little more difficult for untested writers, who aren't in the academy, to get scripts on continuing drama shows, but the Writers’ room will always support writers that they think are producing good enough material.

Do one-off dramas by new writers get shown on TV? No, this doesn’t happen. But there are ways and means that a new writer’s vision can get to the screen. Recently, two different writers’ scripts that started off as original pieces were adapted for the last Silent Witness series. Other new writers have got to write for shows such as Inspector Lynley or Daziel and Pascoe. The only BBC show that Paul feels is invitation only for writers is – you guessed it – Doctor Who.

Finally, Paul was asked if he could define good writing, and what he is looking for in a script. Here’s his thoughts:

• Knowing the medium (Tv, film, radio) and knowing the genre
• A good hook in the first 10 minutes
• Bold and vivid characters that you want to spend time with
• A lot of story packed into every minute, so that your script isn’t slow
• Original thoughts: don’t just serve up what you think the market wants
• Good dialogue
• A story that starts in the right place
• Focussed storytelling

Paul was full of useful information, and stayed long after the lunch break had started answering personal questions from eager writers. If you have the chance, I would recommend attending an event where he speaks.

List of Independent Radio Producers

As mentioned by Paul Campbell in the comments to this post, here is the page with a link to a list of independent radio producers, as well as some information about writing for Radio 4:

Do you want to write for Radio Four?

Last I heard, the commission rounds are in May and September, so it might not be too late to pitch to a producer and get in for the next opportunity.