STORY

At the recent first weekend of this year’s Channel 4 screenwriting course, screenwriter & novelist RONAN BENNETT (Top Boy, Hidden, Rebel Heart, Public Enemies) talking about the vital importance and centrality of STORY, made reference to the script of TOY STORY 1 as a touchstone for screenplay story-telling.

This was something I really related to from my experience of reading and assessing scripts. I read a vast number of scripts – and particularly recently so many really outstanding scripts for the Channel 4 screenwriting course.

I’ve thought a lot about what made the 12 scripts that we chose to have on the course stand out – and I think it comes down to two things – a big, strong idea that’s at the heart of the script; and an ability to tell a story that keeps you hooked. And the two are very much linked. So many of the good stories work for me because they have a fascinating idea at their core.

So, for instance, among the successful scripts for this year’s Channel 4 course –

- a story about asexuality, based around two couples in each of which one of the partners is asexual. This was a fascinating idea – how some people have no sexual instincts at all, and how this deeply and often tragically affects their lives and relationships.

- a play about an aging male working-class Londoner, a lifelong Labour supporter who finds himself seduced by the promises of the BNP.

- a rom-com about a single career woman who decides to invite tenders from her male friends when she decides she wants to have a baby; and once she gets pregnant, falls in love with someone else altogether.

- a screenplay about two kids, aged 5 and 7, left in South East London to fend themselves for two weeks while their mother goes on holiday to Thailand.

- a radio play about a publishing company who discover a brilliant ‘misery memoir’ by an Afghan woman, decide to publish it to a fanfare of publicity – only to discover that the ‘Afghan woman’ doesn’t exist and the story is a fabrication.

I think it’s fair to say that all 12 scripts selected had at their heart strong ideas such as those above – they are all easy to pitch and instantly engaging as ideas. Of course the brilliance of the execution in each case matched the strength of the basic idea. But it seems to me that if you have a good idea, it’s a whole lot easier to write a good script.

So often, it’s less about the writing and more about WHAT you’re writing about. Sometimes, however good the writing is, if the idea isn’t also a really strong idea, a script still doesn’t fully come alive.

Which reinforces for me the usefulness and importance of being able as writers to pitch your ideas.

Oh yes, and one more thing that most of the scripts had – a sense of humour. Scripts that make me laugh are quite rare and strong comic moments are a huge plus.

Good luck with all your writing!

All the best

Phil

Phil Shelley

February 3rd 2012

Hi there,

This is the second of my weekly newsletter \ blogs for 2012.

Earlier last year I spent a really interesting and enjoyable week in Singapore teaching a script editing course to Singapore TV Drama professionals. While there I also met an American screenwriting partnership, BRIAN SAWYER & GREGG ROSSEN.

BRIAN & GREGG are experienced and successful screenwriters, resident in LA, working right at the heart of the US TV and film industries.

They very kindly agreed to do an interview for www.script-consultant.co.uk and they offer a fascinating insight into the differences – and similarities – between working as a screenwriter in the US and the UK.

They are also brilliant and experienced teachers of screenwriting – as well as running regular courses back home in California, they have taught all over the world – from Singapore to Iceland to Bermuda.

I’m hoping to set up a course for them in London later this year when they will offer an insight into how UK-based screenwriters can break into the huge US market – which should be well worth catching!

Watch the website for further information on this in the coming months.

In the meantime, here is the interview they did for me. ENJOY!

Gregg Rossen and Brian Sawyer are both graduates of USC’s School of Cinema-TV. They recently sold their comedy script “Bulletproof Bride” to the Hallmark Channel and optioned their comedy “The Christmas Consultant” to MTV Networks. In addition, they are currently developing the television project “Skating Through Life” with ice skating champion Michelle Kwan, as well as “Model Family,” a TV pilot starring Jamie Kennedy purchased by 20th Century Fox Television. Prior to that, they sold their feature comedy screenplay “Diesel Debutante” to New Line Cinema, and “Guida” to Revolution Studios as a vehicle for Jennifer Lopez. Prior to this, they sold the dance-spoof pitch “Save the Last Dirty Flashdance for Footloose Billy Elliott” to Tapestry Entertainment. They also wrote the “Pixar’s 20th Anniversary Special.” Most recently Gregg and Brian sold their live-action tv pilot script “Home Turf” to Nickelodeon” in January 2012.

“Bulletproof Bride” has just finished shooting and will be released in June 2012.

How did you both start off as screenwriters? Did you train and if so where and for how long? How useful was this training?

We both went to USC School of Cinema for graduate school. It was useful but 3.5 years is a long time to go to “learn” about something that is best accomplished by doing. Still, it was really useful for meeting people and being a part of a community of filmmakers. One big regret is while at film school neither of us wrote a full feature screenplay ready to go out, though we both did make a lot of short films and learn filmmaking craft.

So after graduation we started to write, but it probably set our careers back a couple years not having left school with a batch of scripts ready to hit the spec market, which at that time was very hot.

What films \ TV shows influenced you? What were the films \ shows that inspired you to want to become screenwriters?

Shows that influenced us? TV-wise, a lot of them were British, from “Monty Python” to “I Claudius.” Actually, one of our earliest projects combined those two shows. A sitcom set in Ancient Rome… actually, the backwater Roman province where all the best Roman families sent their “little mistakes,” i.e. those family members who were too stupid or lascivious to handle it in Rome.

Did you both work as individual writers before working together? How did you get together? And what do you see as the benefits of working as a writing partnership? How does the process of writing together work? Please tell us a bit about the process involved.

Before meeting up at film school, we’d both been involved in various aspects of creative, or at least, media, endeavors. Just after finishing undergrad, Gregg worked for Britain’s TV-am, researching story segments for “Good Morning Britain,” and Brian edited the “California Pelican” humor mag at the Univ. of California at Berkeley when an undergrad, and worked in hometown Santa Barbara’s theater scene.

As for our career writing, we’ve mostly written as a team. In comedy it’s really useful to have a collaborator both for pitching or to brainstorm jokes, etc, and also it helps to generate material faster. Also a collaborator can tell you if something is funny, or tasteless, or just stupid. For other genres or more personal stories, there seem to be fewer writing teams, but those genres have never been that interesting for us.

Our process is that we brainstorm together, either in person or over email. When we find an idea we like, we’ll explore it further with an outline. As spec writers, we generate projects that we like and then write them, on spec, in the hopes of selling them down the line. For us to like an idea it has to pass the Cocktail Party Test, i.e. it has to be something we’re not ashamed to mention at a cocktail party. If we love an idea, we next enlist our reps to see if (a) they like it and (b) they think they can sell it. They both have excellent story sense as well as a sense of the market which we, as insulated writers, don’t have.

Do you mainly write ‘on spec’ or under commission? What genres \ areas do you write in mainly? How did you break into the industry? Where do opportunities lie for budding screenwriters in the current US marketplace?

Though there are always rumors of wonderful “open assignments” which studios pay top dollar to have rewritten, in our experience only a handful of writers really do that kind of work. Pretty much everything we’ve sold has been on spec. As far as genres, we write comedy for the most part, though we’ve optioned a couple books which we turned into dramas, one on the life of automaker John Delorean who hustled the British government into investing in his dream of creating a new car company in Northern Ireland in the turbulent 80s. But again, comedy is our forte.

Our first sale in the business was a pitch we sold to a small company at a time when the Scary Movie franchise was on fire spoofing horror films, and we came up with a spoof of dance movies. It was a tiny sale, but it gave us the sense that we could sell stuff in town just like everyone else. That’s an important psychic hurdle to leap. Being seen as a writer, and seeing yourself as a writer… those are not small leaps of faith to make, especially in Los Angeles where every person on the street professes to be working on a screenplay, and where the lion’s share of people you meet are in some way affiliated with the industry.

Energized by this sale, we wrote a screenplay called “Diesel Debutante” about a rich society deb who inherits a redneck racing team (i.e. “Nascar” sort of racing… an American version of Formula 1… big money is involved but it used to have the aura of being redneck and associated with the South… think of the old Smokey and the Bandit of movies). We loved the fish out of water collision of East Coast debutante and Southern racers, and a character who never had to work for herself who finds an unlikely outlet for her energies and dreams. That was our first major sale when it was purchased by New Line, and that’s what got us into the Writers Guild.

How important is pitching (particularly verbal but also written pitches)? I get the impression that you have to do a lot of pitching of completed scripts as well as pitching new ideas. In the UK pitching is more about new ideas, in order to get a script commission. Please could you give a few tips about what’s involved in successful pitching. And a few tips about how to run a pitching meeting successfully.

The fashions are always changing with regard to pitching– one month we’ll hear the studios only want pitches, the next month we’ll hear they only want to read completed screenplays. From the writers perspective a pitch is easier– you’re able to float an idea without the time commitment it would take to write a completed screenplay. Then on the other hand, we’ve occasionally been pulled into situations where a pitch drags on for so long, with producers endlessly “tweaking” aspects of the pitch, that we realize just writing the screenplay could easily have taken less time.

One thing we discovered a few years ago was that having visual aids of any sort changed the dynamic of a pitch, for the better. Especially if you could lay out the tone of the vision you have in your head. That’s when we called on our film school skills and started making short films to illustrate our ideas.

Studio executives are smart and well-read. They come from the best universities, and if you ran into them at a party you’d have fun hanging out, discussing literature or politics. BUT when you’re pitching to them, you need to give them the most salient, fun, interesting points of your story in the most succinct way possible, so that they can then SHARE your idea with their bosses and colleagues. Very few people have the power to say “yes” so you need to give the person you’re pitching to the best tools for adequately discussing your story once you leave the room. We discovered that short films are a great way to accomplish this, and you can check out some of our pitch shorts at the links below. Some sold, some didn’t. But at least we got the chance to put our stories out there and communicate what we had in our heads.

What are the scripts you have written of which you’re most proud? Why have the scripts that have done well for you, worked? Do you see any common elements in your more successful projects? Please can you tell us a bit about the work you’ve done as screenwriters, what excites you, what elements you look for in a story.

We find the scripts that we enjoy writing are also the ones which sell. We’re most proud of our comedy “Diesel Debutante” and also “Model Family” which was a comedy TV pilot sold to 20th Century Fox TV. These ideas to us were strong enough on their own that the drama/character/comedy were all inherent in the basic idea, rather than elements we had to rack our brains over. When we fall in love with an idea, it writes itself, and that fact is so apparent on the page. Characters that are distinctive, with their own unique voice, and a comedic premise which clearly can drive the story forward… that’s what it’s all about. These are the stories that, once we think of them, we MUST write them.

How important is a good agent \ manager for you? What qualities should screenwriters look for in an agent?

Having been at both the big agencies and the smaller ones, in our experience the best representation comes from someone who genuinely appreciates your work, because that passion translates from them to potential buyers, and generally gets the best results. Big agencies are prestigious, and the agents there savvy and tied in, although that may not necessarily translate into anything specific, while a smart insightful rep at a smaller agency can move mountains if in love with the material. It really is about who “gets” you.

Do you have suggestions for new screenwriters just starting out about how to go about learning the craft of screenwriting – any drills or good practices you’d recommend?; any books in particular they should be reading? Do you think screenwriting classes are a good idea in principle?

We like the book series “Save the Cat”– it’s all very practical (and accurate) info written by a writer who sold material relatively recently and his advice seems very in tune with the market. As far as classes we would say stay away from any classes except for Philip’s and ours Just kidding. Classes can be good, but try to take classes that have an eye towards the marketplace, because ultimately the goal is to get one’s work sold. Sorry if that sounds crass, but it is the reality of developing a career as a screenwriter.

By the way, we should mention we met Philip in Singapore when we were all teaching classes there. With so few natural resources the Singaporean government has a major stake in developing its human capital, a smart move which acknowledges that screenwriting is not something you necessarily succeed at overnight… it takes an investment of time, energy, time, mindpower, time, talent, time, etc.

Please can you tell us a little about your teaching work, and perhaps discuss how your teaching and writing feed each other. What do you learn for your writing from helping other writers?

Teaching is great because as much as we preach the importance of good structure, we will still forget to employ it, and the classes we teach remind us of what to emphasize in our own work. Oh yeah, our main character still doesn’t have a well-defined arc. Or, that dialogue absolutely sucks. As teachers, we often see in the missteps our students take the same missteps we take daily. It’s nice to feel insightful and all-seeing as an instructor (as writers, ego boosts are few and far between). But it’s easy to be insightful with someone else’s work. Teaching helps us improve our own writing immeasurably, reinforcing the tools in the writer’s tool box.

Feel free to check out these links of pitch trailers we’ve done:

“MODEL FAMILY”

In a family of perfect supermodels, it’s hard to be the ugly duckling.. (Fox TV)

http://vimeo.com/14906301

“COMMON LAW”

A woman on the verge of marrying Mr. Perfect discovers she’s accidentally already married to the slacker she let live in her basement the past seven years.

http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/aff2c9ae16

“THE GENERAL”

When a tough 3-star General gets fired and returns to civilian life, he takes on a new challenge: to get his son a girlfriend.

http://vimeo.com/15135318

“SKATING THROUGH LIFE” with Michelle Kwan

Can a beautiful, smart ice skating champ navigate the world of endorsements, charity, diplomacy, and training–and carve out a normal life to boot?

http://vimeo.com/5321647

http://www.hallmarkchannelpress.com/PageList/PressReleaseDetails.aspx?ID=365&PageID=116

If you have any follow-up questions for Brian & Gregg, please send them to me through the website or via email and I will ask them to respond…

A quick reminder – our Feb 4th & 5th London screenwriting course, ‘The Authoritative Guide To Writing & Selling A Great Screenplay’ is only a week or so away and very nearly sold out. Book now if you want to attend.

Followed by ‘How To Give A Great Pitch’ London March 10th and…

‘The Authoritative Guide To Writing And Selling A Great Script’ in Belfast March 24th & 25th.

http://www.screenwritinggoldmine.com/screenwriting-workshops

All the best

Phil

Phil Shelley

January  27th 2012

]]> http://www.script-consultant.co.uk/2012/01/27/screenwriter-interview-brian-sawyer-gregg-rossen/feed/ 0 http://www.script-consultant.co.uk/2012/01/12/screenwriting-feb-4-5-venue-announced/ http://www.script-consultant.co.uk/2012/01/12/screenwriting-feb-4-5-venue-announced/#comments Thu, 12 Jan 2012 17:56:13 +0000 admin http://www.script-consultant.co.uk/?p=319

Quick update.

The Two Phil’s AUTHORITATIVE GUIDE TO WRITING AND SELLING A GREAT SCREENPLAY 2 day course on Feb 4th and 5th now has a home. The course will be taking place at the Chaplin Close Community Hall London SE1 8TU – right behind the lovely Old Vic theatre, a convenient 5 minutes walk from Waterloo and Southwark stations.

http://www.screenwritinggoldmine.com/screenwriting-workshops

Hope to see you there!

Phil

PHIL SHELLEY

script-consultant Jan 12th 2012

Here’s some information about a screenwriting course with a difference. Screenwriter, novelist, poet and librettist (yes a true Renaissance man!) DAVID HARSENT  is running a 5 day residential course in what he describes as ‘a little slice of heaven’.

Here’s the link – http://www.espirita.org.uk/downloads/loutro2012.pdf

David is a very experienced screenwriter (writing as Sam Lawrence). He has many hours of TV drama credits to his name and is also a very successful crime novelist (as Jack Curtis) although he is mainly known as a poet. A man of many names and many talents!

I can very happily vouch for David, having worked with him as a script editor some years ago on a series for ITV, NOAH’S ARK.

All the best

Phil

PHIL SHELLEY

January 11th 2012

I am delighted to announce that I will be running the  ‘Authoritative Guide To Writing And Selling A Great Screenplay’ two day course in Central london on Saturday and Sunday Feb 4th & 5th 2012 with screenwriter Phil Gladwin. The three previous courses (2 in London, 1 in Glasgow) went really well and we had so much positive feedback.

This comprehensive two-day course is designed to be suitable for all levels of screenwriter – from the very experienced to the brand new.

The first days focuses on tapping into your creativity as a writer, and honing your craft. The 2nd day concentrates on how to sell your screenplays and forge a career as a screenwriter.

As I mentioned, the course has had some wonderful feedback (see the link below) and one of the virtues of the course is the closed ’screenwriters studio uk’ Facebook page which only those who have completed the course have access to. Through this Facebook page you can keep in touch with your fellow writers who have done the course, and with us, Phil & Phil, and swap ideas and information about the industry.

Places on this new London course are limited to the first 20 applicants – we keep the numbers down so that we can engage fully with all the writers who attend – and places are already selling well, with attendees signed up from as far afield as Italy and Indiana, USA!

We are also delighted to announce that we have two very special guest speakers for this London course -

BEN STOLL – Ben is head of development for Channel 4 drama in London. Channel 4 are responsible for shows like SKINS, SHAMELESS, and briliant, ground-breaking news shows like FRESH MEAT and TOP BOY. Ben is at the heart of UK TV drama production and can offer many insights on what is currently being commisioned in the UK.

MATT BOUCH – Matt is a highly-experienced TV drama producer, notably on the hit show, BEING HUMAN, and he has worked for many of the top UK drama producing companies.

All the information you need about this course and how to secure a place can be found at -

http://www.screenwritinggoldmine.com/screenwriting-workshops

All the best

Phil

Phil Shelley

January  10th 2012

]]> http://www.script-consultant.co.uk/2012/01/10/central-london-screenwriting-feb-45-2012/feed/ 0 http://www.script-consultant.co.uk/2011/12/15/channel-4-screenwriting-2012-announcement-2/ http://www.script-consultant.co.uk/2011/12/15/channel-4-screenwriting-2012-announcement-2/#comments Thu, 15 Dec 2011 18:40:09 +0000 admin http://www.script-consultant.co.uk/?p=310

CHANNEL 4 SCREENWRITING COURSE 2012

We received over 3000 entries for 4screenwriting 2012 (compared to 650 for 2011) and the standard of the submitted scripts was impressively high.

The choice of the 12 writers for the course was a very difficult one but we have now contacted those 12 writers and if you haven’t heard from us then you have not been short-listed for the 2012 course.

We apologise for not being able to respond to each applicant individually and would like to thank you very much for your interest in the 4screenwriting scheme.

Please look out for details about the 2013 course on the 4talent website in the autumn of 2012.

Philip Shelley

Dec 15th 2011

Phil Shelley (www.script-consultant.co.uk) and Phil Gladwin (www.screenwritinggoldmine.com) are delighted to announce our latest course dates for 2012, as well as letting you know about our two special guest speakers on our Nov 12th & 13th Glasgow two day screenwriting course. The guest speakers are:-

Eric Coulter

Eric Coulter has worked in the television and film business since the early 1980s. His first role was as unit runner on Bill Forsyth’s Gregory’s Girl. He worked on dozens of films, commercials and music videos as a location manager and assistant director before moving to a Producer role in the mid 1990s, with The Cops. This landmark show for World Productions/BBC2 won BAFTAs for Best Drama series in 1998 and 1999.

Eric then joined STV as Head of Drama, where he was responsible for the successful overhaul of Taggart, leading to its biggest ever commission in 2008. There, Eric oversaw all development and production including Taggart, Rebus (with Ken Stott), Missing (with Gregor Fisher), Goodbye Mr Chips (with Martin Clunes), High Times (winner BAFTA Scotland Best Drama) and Cracked (Mind Media Awards Best Drama 2009). Eric left STV in the summer of 2009 and then worked as consulting Executive Producer on BBC Scotland’s River City before founding SurefireTV in 2010.

Kate Croft

Kate is Head of Drama for Shed Media Scotland in addition to running KoCo Drama, the new bespoke drama brand set up by Shed Media.

Kate Croft developed and produced Murderland by David Pirie starring Robbie Coltrane, for ITV in 2009.  Prior to that she script edited and produced Coming Up the emerging talent strand for Channel 4.

As a script editor her credits include Fallen Angel by Peter Ransley for ITV starring Charles Dance, and Messiah by Lizzie Mickery for BBC1. Kate’s first job in the industry was at Scala Productions working on feature film Divorcing Jack in Northern Ireland.

In her gap year Kate was an SSLC officer in the British Army.

ERIC and KATE will be discussing opportunities for screenwriters in Scotland.

We still have a (very) few places left on this course so, if you’re interested, I’d advise booking soon. Here’s the link:-

http://www.screenwritinggoldmine.com/category/training

Our New courses:-

‘The Authoritative Guide To Writing & Selling A Great Screenplay’

LONDON Sat \ Sun February 4th & 5th 2012

BELFAST Sat \ Sun March 24th & 25th 2012

and our brand new one day LONDON course -

‘How To Do A Great Pitch‘

LONDON Sat March 10th 2012

The link is the same as above :-

http://www.screenwritinggoldmine.com/category/training

We look forward to seeing you there!

HAPPY WRITING

Phil Shelley

script consultant

Oct 30th 2011

INTERVIEW WITH SCREENWRITER PHIL GLADWIN

I first met screenwriter Phil Gladwin when we worked briefly together as script editors in the BBC Drama Series Department in the late 1990’s.

Even then Phil’s ambition was to write for the screen and he has since gone onto work on a number of the UK’s top TV shows, as well as writing for theatre and radio. His credits include The Sarah-Jane Adventures, The Bill, Casualty and Trial & Retribution.

We teamed up recently when Phil came to talk to writers on the first Channel 4 screenwriting course; and since then we have run two weekend screenwriting courses together in London; and are running another in Glasgow on the weekend of Nov 12^th & 13^th.

http://www.screenwritinggoldmine.com/workshops-and-seminars

Q: Phil, What were your earliest influences – the shows, films, books, whatever, that inspired you into wanting to become a screenwriter?

As long as I can remember I just liked the physical process of writing. I remember being round at a friend’s house with my family when I was about 8, and finding an old typewriter. While everyone else was running around playing I spent a good hour copying out a newspaper article, finding each letter as I went, and being somehow deeply thrilled by the process. The first thing I actually wrote was a direct copy of a funny poem in a comic. I showed it to my mum and insisted it was all my own work. I still remember – with some degree of pain – the look on her face as she tried to believe me.

Apart from the obligatory school English essay (weekly agony, 7-9pm on a Sunday evening) I didn’t really try writing again. But I was reading like a monster, literally everything I could find. One summer holiday, aged about 10, I hoovered up a couple of Noddy books, a James Bond book, and Slay-Ride by Dick Francis. Then it was Marvel comics for quite a few wonderful years, (and I know why when I look at some of them now – those Marvel writers had an astonishing gift for muscular storytelling. No fluff there!) alongside all those Victor Gollancz yellow-jacketed science fiction books. I finally came out of that via Ray Bradbury, and then to A Level English where I discovered non-genre stuff could be exciting too. In particular, EM Forster, Shelley, Joyce and TS Eliot – the usual A Level stuff.

When I started writing again I was really more interested in being in bands, so it was all song lyrics for a while. (Neil Young and Bob Dylan were my inspirations there.)

Luckily it didn’t take me long to realise that I had zero musical ability, so then it was short stories. I spent a good 10 years writing science fiction short stories and trying the occasional SF novel – selling about three in the process. It was only when I started to write screenplays that it finally all seemed to make sense.

And only when I got the job at the BBC that I seriously thought it might just be possible to make a living doing this hobby of mine.

Looking back, that’s a very long journey!

Q: So – working as a script editor at the BBC. Was this a deliberate strategy to kick-start your career as a writer?

Yes. Three sales in ten years?? You didn’t have to tell me there was something wrong. Some grave hole in my understanding. And I knew that without filling that hole I’d probably never get any further. I thought I wasn’t going to get any better training than I would receive at the BBC. If I couldn’t make it as a writer after working there then, well…

Q:…And how useful to you was your work as a script editor for your subsequent screenwriting career – both in terms of the craft and industry contacts?

Vital. Absolutely vital. I spent the first six months there as a Script Reader (like the Writers Room now) and over that time had to summarise perhaps 200 scripts. That discipline of extracting and summarising a story into a half page was the first step towards understanding what a story was. After that I worked on a show about Edwardian nannies called Berkeley Square, and a script editor on that called Suzanne Van De Velde introduced me to the notion of beat sheets, and how by going through a script you could pull out the beat sheets and thereby see the skeleton of the story. A few more years of that kind of pulling stories apart on shows like Bugs, Casualty, and The Bill, and I finally could knew how to write a story that people actually wanted to read!

Q: Do you have any particular tips for new screenwriters trying to break into the industry at the moment?

• Write every day, for at least an hour. Seriously. You’ll only understand the benefit of that once you have been doing it a week. A couple of days off, and you’re dead again. Just try it.
• Brand yourself. You are in a truly competitive market, which is made even harder by the recent cancelling of certain long running shows, and the current tendency of new series to be written by just one or two writers to concentrate the authorial voice. Whatever is unique about you, play on it, don’t hide it, bring it out. I’m not so sure of the value of that online presence re Twitter and so on (though you do want to google well, so get your own domain name etc,) but when you walk into a conference, or a meeting you want people to recognise you, and to know why they recognise you.
• Write at least two great spec scripts. Make sure they are as good as you can get them. Pay a couple of professional script editors to look at them, and if they give you notes that agree, act on those notes.
• Network like crazy – by which I mean attend every industry related event you can find and concentrate on finding people to make friends with.
• Set yourself a clear writing target, find out the people who can hire you for that target, and get to know them, and get your work read by them.
• Be proactive. Marketing yourself is 50% of the job. That never stops. If you don’t like that, you’re not alone. But if you won’t do it, if you think that you can sit in your bedroom and just send your work out, well, that’s like planning your life based on winning the lottery.

Q: When you read a script by a new writer what qualities are you looking for? What makes a script leap off the page, and capture your attention?

Sharp, concise writing. No fluff. Vivid dialogue. Strong characters. A story that kicks in early and keeps on cranking. A powerful, involving opening. And yes, you really, really can tell that some people can’t write after just half a page.

Q: What is the work of which you’re most proud and why?

Transmitted, the Trial and Retribution about the bad Nanny. It seemed to have a powerful emotional effect on a lot of people. There was an episode of the Bill I wrote about death – combining an extended interview with a serial killer (brilliantly played by Hywel Bennett), and a strange vagrant (the wonderful Giles Ford)who was obsessed with killing animals and fancied a policeman next– that I liked in a different way. It was a very dark hour, had a lot of ambition, and I thought it worked pretty well when I saw it.

Q: What is your broad overview of the current UK film & TV industry? What strategies can new writers use to get themselves and their work noticed at the moment?

Things move on, and the reality of it is that Come Dine With Me and the X Factor and all that stuff is what people want to watch. Hell, I want to watch those shows. I’ve been watching a lot of Jonathan Creek lately as research for something I’m speccing up, and it’s clear how far the industry has moved in the last 12 years. If you don’t stay current, and tell stories that in some way reflect the current state of the nation’s sensibility, well, it’s going to be all the harder for you to break in.

Don’t get nostalgic about the way it used to be and spend a year lovingly crafting a Morse tribute, or even a Wire tribute  – take a hard look at what is actually happening NOW, watch CSI, watch The Killing, watch Wallander, watch Spiral, watch Dexter, and Luther and so on, and see how you can move the game forward.

Q: Do you have any tips for new screenwriters trying to sell ideas (as opposed to completed scripts)?

Don’t bother. You’re not going to get listened to.

If you must bother, then write it into a 2 pages pitching summary and get a meeting off the back of that and your two great specs. Work the idea up at the meeting and get the nod to expand that document into five, or ten pages.  If you get paid it probably won’t be for many months, and many pages, but that’s how the game works now, even for very experienced writers. These days you’re basically forced to fund your own development and write a lot for free. (Not so different from when I started then!)

Just a quick reminder about the Glasgow screenwriting course I’m running with Phil G – the £30 ‘early bird’ discount window closes at the of  the week so, if you want to sign up, make sure you beat the deadline!

http://www.screenwritinggoldmine.com/workshops-and-seminars

Everything you need to know about the Channel 4 screenwriting course 2012:-

We are delighted to announce we will again be running the Channel 4 screenwriting course for Channel 4 drama, running from January to June 2012.

We are looking for 12 talented, original and diverse writers who currently have no broadcast credit but wish to write for television drama.

The course will give you a chance to find out how TV drama, particularly Channel 4 TV drama, works, and to write, over a 5 month period, your own 1 hour pilot script for an original series or serial, working with an experienced script editor.

You will also attend two weekends of talks and script meetings at Channel 4’s Horseferry Rd building.

The course is designed so that writers should be able to take part even if in full-time employment (the only attendance is on two weekends, in January and June 2011, and you will have five months to write the required two drafts of a one hour drama script).

Writers will be paid a small fee for attending the course.

Here are all the details on how you can apply:

DATES: 21st and 22nd January 2012, 9th and 10th June 2012

Writers must ensure before entering that they are available to attend both weekends, and to write two drafts of a one hour television drama between 23^rd January and 25^th May 2011.

HOW TO APPLY:
Applicants should submit by email a CV and one writing sample. This can be a screenplay, a stage play or radio play, minimum length 30 minutes (novels, treatments, short stories, unfinished screenplays and “shorts” are not acceptable).

The scripts should be original, not episodes of existing drama series.

Email scripts and CV’s to:-  4screenwriting@script-consultant.co.uk

ELIGIBILITY:
Only writers who do not have a broadcast credit as a television or film writer may apply (although produced short films – 20 minutes or less – are exempt).

CLOSING DATE FOR SUBMISSIONS: Tuesday November 1^st 2011.

FEE:
Writers will be paid a fee for participating in the course and for completing two drafts of a one hour script. Writers will grant Channel 4 an option on their script and will be told within six months of the end of the course if Channel 4 wishes to exercise this option.

COURSE CONTENT: GENERAL
The purpose of the course is to offer 12 writers new to television drama an insight into the industry and to provide a “dry-run” of what it can be like to write under a television drama commission, for one hour series and serial drama, and to work with an experienced script editor.

Writers will be expected to write an original, pilot one-hour drama series or serial episode, and 2-3 page outline \ pitch for the series \ serial as a whole. Each writer will be assigned a script editor, who is currently working in the industry, to guide them through this process. The writers will meet with their script editors between the course weekends to discuss how to approach each draft. Second draft scripts will be sent to the script editor and two other writers on the course, for workshop discussions at the second weekend.

FIRST WEEKEND
Writers, directors, producers and script editors in the industry will give talks to the participants on a variety of subjects relating to television drama. There will also be time for writers to discuss their proposals and ideas for their one hour scripts with their assigned script editor.

SECOND WEEKEND
This will be split between a reading of a section of each script by actors on the first day, and discussion and analysis of each of the twelve finished scripts in small groups on the second day, finishing with a screening \ workshop and an overview of the course and of the specific requirements of series and serial television drama.

QUOTES FROM WRITERS ON THE 2011 COURSE:

‘The Channel 4 Screenwriting Course gave us an amazing opportunity to work with extremely talented industry professionals, and to develop a script with their help and guidance was truly invaluable. We came away having learnt so much and having made some great contacts who are still being very supportive even after the course has ended. A great opportunity for any writer trying to get ‘in’ to the industry.’

Natalie Malla & Xara Higgs

‘The weekend courses were fantastic and inspiring. I found the development process fun and I learnt so much. Working with a script editor made me realise that pitches and treatments could become useful tools for me as a writer and have given me confidence when approaching my next project. The course also gave me the courage to write the script I’d always wanted to write. It was so worth travelling from Belfast to attend this course.’

Deirdre Alexander

Philip Shelley

script-consultant

Sept 15th 2011