Juvenilia

One of the best pieces of advice I’ve been given about screenwriting was when a writer on a panel, at some event or other many years ago, advised all the budding scribes in attendance to “go on an editing course”. It was such good advice that one day I’ll perhaps get round to doing it. For instead, you see, I thought “I won’t go on a course, I’ll actually edit something instead”. And I did.

I armed myself with a mini-DV home camcorder, and a copy of Adobe Premiere, and some like-minded friends, and over the course of five years or so, I proceeded to write, direct, edit, and (eep!) co-star in a series of shorts. Some were office-based things at my day job, which we’d then show at Christmas parties. Another was a ten-minuter that my wife and I made together, which was shown on a big screen at my wedding (I got married in a cinema – doesn’t everyone?!).

It was a great learning experience, and I recommend trying it. You learn all sorts of things about in and out points of scenes, structure, working to deadlines, seeing material enjoyed - or not – by an audience. Of course - as they were learning experiences - I would never dream of exhibiting them as examples of my work. That would be foolish.

This is where I wish, fleetingly, that I wrote novels: for film is a collaborative medium, and one of my collaborators – Andrew Hunt, also known as Uncle Hunty – has put some of them up on youtube in all their bad sound, wobbly cam, in-jokey glory. I’m not going to link to them from here, but a quick search should give you access if you’re interested / bored / masochistic. No apologies, and since they’re free – no refunds either.

Displaced Activities

If you write films for a living, or if you aspire to, then how many hours of films should you be watching a week?

It's a question that I'm always asking myself, as I am a terrible procrastinator (well, actually, I'm a very good procrastinator - see, I'm even putting off the end of this sentence), and ploughing through a stack of DVDs is a good way of avoiding proper work. But it is nonetheless vital to be aware of new films, analyse their structure, read their screenplays, keep up to date with trends and commercial and critical performance, and so on.

I'm almost reluctant to tell you this, as it is so uncool, and because once upon a time I was Mister Cinema (it was a little embarrassing, I had to change it by deed poll in the end). I would have seen and had an opinion on every release within days of it opening, or I'd have seen it months before at some festival or other. But, since I became a rookie parent, I've found myself going to the flicks less and less. I'm on a six to twelve month delay on all new releases - that's how long before they filter through from my lovefilm.com list, and I finally find a moment to watch them. And I'm more than ever aware of this around the Oscars ceremony: five best film contenders - know of them all, read the reviews, seen their box office reported on in Screen International. Seen 'em? Nah.

But if I have spare time, I feel I ought to be using it for writing, and if the opportunity of a baby-sitter comes up, my wife objects if I suggest "ten films" as what we should do with our evening.

Should I worry? What's the right balance to have? I don't know, but I'm trying my best to find it. That's another reason why it was so nice to have attended the 'Look at Me' premiere this week. It was great to see a film in a darkened theatre, and it was not just any old film but the first produced work of fellow screenwriter/blogger, and my good mate, Jason Arnopp. Read all about it here (I'm the fellow with a beard and specs in the second picture down - fame at last!).

And if you come back here in six months time, I'll give you my views on which is better 'There will Be Blood' or 'No Country for Old Men'.

Hiatus

Funny old time at the moment: everything has reached a natural pause after my completion of the first draft of the Full On Pictures feature earlier this year. We have received even more positive feedback from various readers, and are keeping our fingers crossed that we’ll hear back from a potential production partner in the next few weeks. Screen South, who are supporting the script development, are also organising a feedback report, and we’ll have a meeting with them soon. After that, I’m going to resume work with the second draft, but when exactly that will be is still up in the air.

So, I’m trying to fit in as much work on other projects into this downtime as I can, always aware that I might have to get stuck into a feature screenplay at any moment. I am continuing to push forward with two short projects that are in development. And, of course, there’s ‘Lent’, the digital short that I wrote which was produced last year. Had a conversation with the producer Ricci-Lee Berry yesterday, and we’ve been awarded some funding (yay!) but it won’t be enough to send our baby off to all the glitzy festivals we intended for it (boo!). We’ve got a lot of work to do getting it out there, and I'm sure I'll soon have some war stories from the crazy adventurous world of short film distribution to share with you. Watch this space.

Six degrees of Kevin Bacon. Mmm.. Bacon.

Not much to post about currently. I'm just working away on various things: mapping out the storyline for the Lou Birks short; got a meeting about draft 2 of the feature this week with producer-director Mark Jay (Mark just had a sell-out Cineworld screening/Q&A of his film 'Dolphins', which he wrote and directed. Kudos to him!); and, another director wants to option one of my screenplays - fingers crossed for that.

Idle musings meanwhile: I caught up the other week with the Extras Christmas special from my newly-purchased replacement PVR, and noticed in the credits that the make-up and hair was done by the wonderful Lisa Cavalli-Green, who also worked in the same capacity on the short film what I wrote, 'Lent'.

This means, trivia fans, that I am only two degrees of separation from Ricky Gervais. And therefore three degrees of separation from anyone he's ever worked with in Celebrity 'I'm not like this really, or am I?' cameo-stylee. Imagine - me and Samuel L Jackson, we're like that. And David Tennant too. Ooh!

Now, if only there was some way to turn this to my advantage. But, dear reader, I fear there is not.

Scratch

Writing is an odd profession/obsession, isn't it? I met with a director, the fabulous Lou Birks, last week to discuss a project we are developing together. It's a ten minute long dramatic short, which I've done three drafts of, over the last few months. And it's not quite working.


Lou and I discussed the issues we both had with how the short was shaping up. Luckily, we both had come to exactly the same conclusions. We decide not only shall I do a page one rewrite, but also that length might be counting against us. The material fits nicer within 30 minutes, rather than 10. More running time gives it a chance to breathe, the backstory can be delivered at a better pace that doesn't feel like overload, and the tension can really be ratcheted up.


And I leave the meeting really energised and happy. Despite the fact that I've just agreed to three times as much work, and I'm starting from scratch. There really is no business like this, is there?!

Obviously, my New Year's resolution is...

... to not neglect my blog. Bad timing has resulted in intense periods of work (both writing and day job) interspersed with intense periods of Christmas holidays (where I had a much needed break), which have both combined to keep me from these pages. No more, dear reader (singular)... er, if you're still there. Hello!


Exciting developments have occurred in the first week of the year. My short film 'Lent', which has been in the can for some months, but needed a sound problem to be fixed, is finally on it's journey toward the screen. The producer, the wonderful Ricci-Lee Berry, is completing the distribution funding application for Screen South, and preparing the submissions to five international festivals to start with. I'm very excited, and hoping that we get into all of them!! Time will tell.

I've had a meeting in the last week about the feature project, with the director-producer Mark Jay of Full On Pictures. We discussed directions for the second draft. We're still awaiting feedback from the interested parties that were sent the script at the end of last year, but we weren't expecting much yet because of Christmas holidays. The responses that we have got are overwhelmingly positive, which is great, obviously. And Mark and I, having got some distance from the material after an intensive period of development, are still really loving this draft. More details on this anon.

Tonight, I have a meet with another director to discuss a new draft of a short screenplay we're working on, which we're hoping to be filming early this year. Again, I'll keep you posted.

It's great to be busy. Hope you are too. Happy New Year!

Where did that month go?!

Never fear - I'm back in the blogosphere! I've completed all revisions to the the screenplay for Full On Pictures, and have moved house. It's been a tiring month. The script is currently with some trusted contacts of director-producer Mark Jay, and some potential backers. We're awaiting feedback, and I'm pretty excited about what the reaction will be. I think it's a great draft, and working with Mark was fantastic

Now, I'm trying to plan a family Christmas and squeeze in some other writing projects before embarking on draft 2. And there's the small matter of catching up with what the rest of the Scribosphere's been up to without me. I'm off to read some blogs. Will post again soon!