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The Street

August 13, 2009
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Just a quick one to recommend ( a bit late in the day) the current BBC series ‘The Street’. For me, these shows are object lessons in top-quality dramatic story-telling. The first story in particular, featuring a stand-off between the excellent Bob Hoskins & Liam Cunningham, was dramatic screenwriting at its best. Using a highly [...]

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screenwriting articles

May 26, 2009

Two really interesting articles, one recent, one not so recent.
Firstly, an excellent article by US screenwriter SHANE BLACK from last week’s Guardian, with tips on how to write an action movie – although you could adapt the principles to any genre of screenwriting.
And Nicolas Shindler’s 2002 Huw Wheldon lecture about story-telling in TV drama.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2009/may/22/shane-black-12-rounds
http://www.redproductioncompany.com/aboutus.asp?menuid=8
Philip Shelley
www.script-consultant.co.uk

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Happy Anniversary!

May 21, 2009

www.script-consultant.co.uk has just passed its first anniversary and I thought I’d briefly reflect on the first year.
Above all, it’s been a lot of fun. Generally speaking I’ve read a huge variety of scripts in both subject matter and style and I’ve been really inspired by the energy and ambition of so many screenwriters in the [...]

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more screenwriting books…

May 8, 2009

Some more recommended books about screen-writing that may be of interest:-
The Pitch by Eileen Quinn & Judy Counihan
As far as I’m aware the only UK book specifically about pitching, treatments etc, and by people who work in the industry and know from personal experience what works and what doesn’t.
Conversations With My Agent by Rob Long
Gives [...]

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screenwriting books

April 27, 2009

There are a whole host of screenwriting books on the market and their usefulness (or not) to writers is an interesting question.
There’s undoubtedly a place for the best of these books but I think it’s dangerous to view any of them as gospel – better to cherry-pick the best from each, use them to re-energise [...]

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Screen writing \ football. My pitch for screenwriting guru status.

March 18, 2009

A little while ago I went to a screenwriting talk in London. It was run by a US screenwriter, and it was about STRUCTURE. The screenwriter turned out to be more of a ‘guru’ than a writer. As it turned out (mentioning no names here) he was a bit of a poor man’s McKee.
He was [...]

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Factual Drama : Fact vs Fiction

February 27, 2009

Thinking about the best screen drama I saw in 2008, The Shooting of Thomas Hurndall was somewhere at the top of the list. Soon after I’d seen this I watched the much-hyped Clint Eastwood film, Changeling, also based on a true story. For me there was a yawning chasm in quality between the two. TSOTH [...]

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Interview With Terry Cafolla

November 28, 2008
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TERRY CAFOLLA is one of the most talented screenwriters working in British TV drama today. As you’ll see from this interview, his talent is driven by a passion for his craft, and the awareness that as a writer you never stop learning.

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Interview with CERI MEYRICK, BBC Writers Academy

October 22, 2008
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CERI MEYRICK is a producer \ script editor with whom I worked at Carlton  TV Drama. Ceri now runs, with John Yorke, the BBC Writers Academy. Here are some answers to questions you may have about BBC Drama in general and the Writers Academy in particular. If you have any questions about the BBC Writers [...]

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Double Inspiration

July 14, 2008

On July 2nd  I spent a day at the Cheltenham Screenwriters Festival, publicising the website and being on the panel for a session on ‘Showrunning’ and how this US trend is beginning to catch on in UK TV drama. The Festival was held in and around a beautiful country house near Cheltenham and it provides [...]

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