I went to see ‘Tactical Questioning’ at the Tricycle Theatre, Kilburn, London on Friday night – a play contructuted from editing the transcripts of the inquiry into the death of Iraqi Baha Mousa in British army captivity in Basra in 2003. This was fascinating and gripping. And an extraordinary illustration of the power of dramatic dialogue. Watching this play was like attending a masterclass in how to write dialogue. Although, ironically, none of it was ‘written’ as such.

Six men were shown being questioned by the inquiry for their recollections of the events that led to Baha Mousa’s death. What was most striking was how each of the ‘characters’ spoke with a completely distinctive voice and pattern of speech. And all had their own unique, highly idiosyncratic verbal ‘tics’ – in the case of one squaddie talking much too fast; in the case of armed forces minster Adam Ingram continuous repetition of the same meaningless, evasive platitudes; in the case of one of the corporals, sullen, monosyllabic responses.
What each of them said, but more particularly how each of them spoke, expressed so eloquently their level of anxiety, their contrasting conviction or lack of it. With the more slippery, their lies were painfully obvious. Conversely, with the most junior squaddie, wracked by guilt and now determined to come clean about his role in Mousa’s death, his passion and honesty shone through.

Sadly the production has now finished but, for an insight into the correlation between character, dialogue and subtext, I urge you to get hold of a copy of the text. Here’s a link from where to buy it -

http://oberonbooks.com/catalogsearch/result/?q=tactical+questioning

Happy Writing,

All the best

Philip

PHILIP SHELLEY

www.script-consultant.co.uk

July 4th 2011

http://t.co/r7aklFD

Very good news for comedy writers. Michael Jacob worked at the BBC for years, has been involved in high level comedy for years and knws his stuff.

Philip Shelley

script-consultant

June 16th 2011

A  bit late in the day to report back about this but better late than never. On Thursday May 27^th I was part of a panel discussion, along with Ceri Meyrick from the BBC Writers Academy and literary agent Rob Kraitt (AP Watt Ltd.), organised by Euroscript, to discuss ‘How To Get Into The Industry as a Screenwriter’.

The event was fantastically well-attended and strong evidence (if any were needed!) of how many enthusiastic screenwriters there are out there.

The general consensus seemed to be that things are undoubtedly a bit tough at the moment, particularly in the world with which I’m most familiar – TV drama. As you probably will have noticed, there just isn’t nearly as much being shown or commissioned as there was a couple of years ago. The world of feature films is always difficult but probably not that much more difficult now than it ever has been!

Some thoughts and strategies from the panel – in these straitened times, it’s a good idea to think about who does have access to money for writers – and this tends to be the publicly-funded bodies like the BBC and the UK Film Council. This certainly is borne out by my personal experience – my two most recent paid development projects (as producer) were for BBC Comedy and the UKFC!

So think about other sources of public funding eg the regional film agencies,  different areas of the BBC. For instance, radio drama was mentioned a couple of times in the evening as a good way-in for dramatic writers. Writing radio drama is obviously different to writing screen drama – but there are similarities; and there is a demand for radio drama. This is an area that is definitely worth looking at. There is some quality drama on BBC Radio, and a BBC radio drama credit will give you increased writing credibility as a screenwriter.

Literary agents are important but even the literary agent on the panel (Rob Kraitt) emphasised how much could be done, how much of the initiative for getting your foot in the door then kicking it open, is down to the writer themselves and not necessarily their agent. This was interesting but certainly accords with my experience. Don’t think getting a good literary agent is the Holy Grail in itself. And once you have (got an agent) don’t sit back and rely on them to open all the doors for you.

The general conclusion seemed to be that the combination of good spec scripts, professionalism and persistence would still get the job done. But persistence is probably particularly important at the moment.

From personal experience though, I know how script editors and producers are constantly on the lookout for good writers to write their shows. And Ceri confirmed this is very much the case at the BBC. Get those spec scripts in as good a shape as they can possibly be. If you have a really cracking script to show people, it will open doors for you.

Good luck!

Philip Shelley

Script-consultant

June 9^th 2010

Here is information from Ceri Meyrick about how to apply for this year’s BBC Writer’s Academy. Good Luck!

The next generation of TV writers are being sought by the BBC for its prestigious Drama Writers Academy, a unique course that equips writers with the skills to work on BBC flagship continuing drama programmes.

Now in its sixth year, the Academy is the only course in the world that guarantees writers the opportunity to work on prime time television.  Established by BBC Controller of Drama Production John Yorke, its aim is to create a pool of writing talent to work on some of BBC One’s best-loved and most popular shows – EastEnders, Casualty, Holby City and Doctors.

John Yorke, BBC Controller of Drama Production and Course Tutor says: ““Over the last five years, with the help of some of the best people in the industry; Richard Curtis, Jimmy McGovern, Russell T Davies, to name a few, we’ve been able to give new writers the space, time and tools to allow them to develop strong, individual work. The success of Academy graduates such as Mark Catley, Daisy Coulam and Justin Young proves what an incredible and unique opportunity this is.”

Alongside training on all aspects of drama production from casting to scheduling, students will also receive direct writing experience on continuing dramas, with commissions on the shows once they successfully complete the course.  Master classes will be led by the best writers in the business including: Richard Curtis (Notting Hill), Russell T Davies (Doctors Who), Tony Jordan (EastEnders, Life on Mars), Jimmy McGovern (The Street), Barbara Machin (Casualty, Waking The Dead), Peter Bowker (Occupation) and leading directors such Dearbhla Walsh (Shameless, The Tudors, Little Dorrit) 

Since its inauguration, 34 out of 40 graduates have gone on to gain full time work writing for TV –  with 14 now established as core writers on continuing dramas.  These include Mark Catley, graduate of the 2005 course who is now Consultant Producer/Lead Writer on Casualty, and Justin Young who was made Consultant Producer on Holby City this year. In addition many writers have graduated onto other shows – Daisy Coulam has just had a comedy pilot green lit and Ian Kershaw is a core writer for Shameless.

Creativity, talent and a passion for telling stories are essential criteria for those applying.  Applicants must have had at least one professional commission in television, theatre, radio or film.

The deadline for applications is Wednesday 5th May.

Click here for online application form:

http://jobs.bbc.co.uk/fe/tpl_bbc01.asp?newms=jj&id=32750&aid=69426

Or for further infomation, call Ceri.

CERI MEYRICK

DEVELOPMENT PRODUCER, NEW TALENT

BBC Drama Production

Rm 265 Drama Building, Television Centre

Wood Lane, London W12 7RJ

Tel: 0208 5764044

See our new Continuing Drama page on the BBC Writersroom website:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/writing/continuingdrama.shtml

Philip Shelley

script-consultant.co.uk

London Film Festival – Studies in Narrative Structure

Last week I went to 4 very different films at this year’s LFF, and they proved very inspiring and creatively energising. They all made me think about different aspects of film drama and screenwriting.
For instance:-

Lo Spazio Bianco ‘The White Space’. An Italian film about a woman in her late thirties who, after a brief fling, becomes pregnant for the first time. The baby is born three months prematurely and the heart of the film covers the three month period in which the woman lives in a horrible limbo, visiting her tiny baby daughter in her hospital incubator every day, unable to touch her, the baby’s life in the balance. Viewed objectively the story is quite slight. There are few twists and turns but it’s a beautiful character study of a woman of a certain age at a huge moment in her life. The performances and script are excellent but what really grabbed me about this film was the way it was structured. Whether this was something that was done in post-production, or whether it was an original and integral part of the script, I don’t know. But what raised it above the ordinary were the bold cuts, the huge leaps back and forth across time in the story. So for instance, the film cut from the moment when the woman discovers she is pregnant to a scene in a hospital room where she is being gowned up, surrounded by medical staff (and as an audience at this point we’re asking – where are we now?) before she is led into the incubator room to see her baby for the first time, after the birth. Only later does the film go back and fill in the gaps in our knowledge of her birth. The effect of this juxtaposition of scenes is at first unsettling but ultimately hugely effective.
And then right near the end of the film, as the story reaches its climax, and the woman is walking back through the streets of Naples (and the city of Naples is a powerful element in the story) to the hospital to witness the moment when the breathing tubes are removed from the baby to see if she can breathe on her own, we cut from these shots of the woman walking alone in the present, to scenes of her walking alone in the streets in the past – and for the first time, right near the end of the film, we see her collapse, the moment when she went into premature labour and is then wheeled into hospital and told her baby has only a slim chance of survival. Cutting these two sequences together adds huge power to the story-telling and makes us want to know even more badly whether the baby survives or not.
There were so many examples like this in the film of non-linear story-telling adding hugely to the effectiveness of what might otherwise have been quite a simple story.

Blessed – an Australian film about a group of troubled youths in working-class Melbourne. Again this was a really interesting, enjoyable if bleak film made even more interesting by its structural originality. The story is told in two halves, entitled ‘The Children’ and ‘The Mothers’. The first half is told from the POV of an unconnected group of troubled teenagers. The film cuts between several different, unconnected stories. Then in the second half we revisit the same stories all told from the POV of the teenagers’ mothers. And we discover several unexpected connections between the characters from different stories, as some of the stories start to come together.
Structurally, particularly in the first half, this is reminiscent of Short Cuts or Crash and keeping the stories separate for so long only makes the eventual surprising links between them all the more satisfying from an audience POV.

Finally two films that are both about families in crisis (how many films that phrase covers!) the UK \ Australian co-pro The Boys Are Back; and a Brazilian film A Deriva (Adrift) which starred French actor Vincent Cassel. Both films are beautifully written, character-driven in the best way. Of the two films, Adrift is more claustrophobic and low-key – an intense study of a family break-up, over the course of a summer by the attractive Brazilian seaside, as seen through the eyes of the eldest daughter of the family, a beautiful 14 year old who, while observing her parents’ infidelities and break-up, is beginning to discover boys and relationships for herself. It’s this approach to the story – seeing it through the eyes of a 14 year old girl that really raises this film to a different level.
The Boys Are Back is structured more conventionally – the story is told from the POV of the Clive Owen \ protagonist character and is generally linear. Based on Simon Carr’s memoir, this is just a beautiful bit of story-telling about a complicated family situation (big understatement), a middle-aged man whose wife dies, leaving him to bring up his two sons by different mothers. The observation of character and particularly poignant and hilarious moments in the family’s life is so well done. And writer Allan Cubitt, without, in my opinion, ever resorting to cheap sentiment, manages to wring every last drop of narrative tension from this deceptively slight story. Familiar in terms of subject matter – the tragic death of a loved partner – this is intelligent, accessible film story-telling at its best.

Philip Shelley
www.script-consultant.co.uk
Nov 6th 2009

In the UK opportunities for new writers exist but the nature of the work available to new writers has changed over the years. Kevin Spacey’s recent much publicised comments about ‘Play For Today’ have helped reawaken this debate. The plea for a reurn to the writer-led single play \ film is a common cry from the script-writing community of the UK but Spacey’s diatribe has given these views added credibility. ‘Play For Today’ was a weekly slot which broadcast over 300 films for TV between 1970 and 1984.

The wide-ranging nature of the plays was extraordinary, and the slot helped cement the reputation of many celebrated writers – Alan Bennett, Mike Leigh (Writer? Director?), Dennis Potter, Stephen Poliakoff and many, many others. Stephen Poliakoff is interesting as one of the very few (only?) contemporary writers still able to command slots for the sort of writer-led single films that ‘Play For Today’ was for so long.  What is it about Poliakoff’s work that the BBC routinely still seems to commission two or more of his single ‘state-of-the-nation’ films almost every year? Hmm…that’s a question for another day. There are so many writers at least as worthy, if not much more so, as Poliakoff of this privilege – Off the top of my head (and we’ll all have our own different opinions) – Russell T. Davies, Paul Abbot, Frank Deasy, Lee Hall, Tony Marchant, Tony Grounds, Jimmy McGovern, Ricky Gervais & Stephen Merchant, Toby Whithouse, Charlotte Jones, Peter Moffat, David Wolstencroft…to name a random few. Perhaps we will look back on ambitious, excellent films like Russell Davies’s ‘The Second Coming’also as part of a new ‘golden age’ of TV screen-writing.

Maybe what broadcasters – and writers – should look at are the possibilities offered by new technology – the relative cheapness offered by the digital alternatives to relatively expensive film stock; online editing packages that can be used from the privacy of one’s home. Because one of the main reasons ‘new writing’ as a commercial TV proposition became sidelined, it seems to me, was the demise of conventional video studio filming for drama. Through the ‘80’s and into the ‘90’s, many major TV drama series mixed and matched between the film used on locations and video stock used in the studio interiors. To our relatively tutored eyes the cutting between one and the other now looks jarring and dates the shows terribly. Once BBC Films and Film Four started staking a claim to the single dramas, they became synonomous with big budgets and cinematic production values, in a way they never previously were.

And we shouldn’t forget that as well as ‘Play For Today’, there were many different incarnations of series of contained, studio-set plays for TV, mostly shown on BBC2. I particularly remember the excellent ‘Second City Firsts’, but there were many other ‘seasons’ of TV plays, concentrating on the writer as the fulcrum of creativity. So now things are different. There are without doubt opportunities for new writers in the continuing drama series and there are mechanisms in place at both the BBC (the writers academy) and ITV to attract, train and encourage new writers for these shows. And there are still strong single pieces being written for TV – but it’s indicative of a cultural change that so many of these new films are now being ‘disguised’ as part of a series under umbrella titles like BBC3’s current and very interesting ‘The Curse of Comedy’, BBC1’s recent ‘Fairy Tales’ season, ‘The Street’ and the recent updated BBC Shakespeare films. It seems that there is an inherent distrust of the single film among TV executives unless it is packaged under a broader, easier-to-grasp ‘umbrella’.

Regards,

Philip Shelley
script-consultant.co.uk