Archives: Writing

Over the last 7 days leading up to the London Screenwriters Festival at Regents College, I’ll be preparing a special (text-only, sadly) Lowdown looking at how you can get the most from your weekend and the biggest bang for your buck.

You can read Day 1 here and Day 2 here.

Day 3: Making the Most of Your Schedule

After yesterday’s blog about how to pick apart the schedule and select your sessions (another interesting note on which Monica Solom has blogged once again), it’s time to get down to the nitty gritty of how you make the most of the workshops you’ve chosen.

Here’s a quick, 5-point Lowdown on getting what you need:

1. Pause before the start to work out what 3-5 nuggets of info or tips you’d like to come out with at the end of the session and write them out on a blank page in your note book.
2. Make notes through the talk. If you’re not a great – or natural – note-taker, don’t worry, I’ll have more on making notes in tomorrow’s Lowdown.
3. Listen carefully. You’re looking not only for your 3 key nuggets, but also the extra bits of info that you wouldn’t have thought of or hadn’t realised were important until they came out of the speaker’s mouth. But you’re also listening to make sure that when it comes to Number 4 you’re not going over old material.
4. Ask questions. If you find yourself without key notes written by your important pieces of info you’re after, ask. Don’t EVER be shy to ask a question in a panel or a talk. All of the sessions will have time for a Q&A and, if it helps you achieve your goals for the festival that we talked about yesterday, there’s no such thing as a stupid question. However stupid you may feel asking it, you’ll feel even more stupid if you don’t and you walk away without at least broaching the subject.
5. Talk about it. When you’re filing out, when you’re heading across to the next session, when you’re grabbing a cup of coffee or a bite of lunch; talk about it with anyone and everyone. Nothing seals information in your brain better than forcing your brain to process it so you can sum it up to someone who wasn’t there (maybe you’re “workshop buddy” who’s been taking in a competing session. Equally, discussing it with someone who was also in the session can help you see things from another angle that you may have missed.

There is an untold wealth of information to be discovered, mined and absorbed at the festival. Even once you’ve narrowed your choice of workshops and sessions right down, you still need to be aware of what you want to glean from each individual element on your personal schedule.

With 5 minutes of forethought and an hour of concentration, you will emerge from each and every block a wiser person and, hopefully, a better writer.

Tomorrow on the Countdown Lowdown, we’ll take a brief gander at note-taking: an investment in learning.

Over the last 7 days leading up to the London Screenwriters Festival at Regents College, I’ll be preparing a special (text-only, sadly) LOWDOWN looking at how you can get the most from your weekend and the biggest bang for your buck.

Read Day 1 here.

Day 2 – Get Organised, Part II: Setting Your Schedule

After yesterday’s first post you should now be primed and ready with notebooks, pens and business cards on the way.

Today and tomorrow, making the most of the weekend, it’s time to sit down and really study the timetable for the festival and decide what you want to tackle.

This is only a blog of limited space (I know you don’t want to sit and listen to be drone on), so there’s no way I can systematically go through the whole weekend workshop by workshop, but here’s my top tips for choosing the right sessions for you.

1. Think carefully about your short- and medium-term goals. What you should be aiming for from this year’s inaugural festival is to kick-start your journey to the next step of your career – whether you’re a newbie, an old-hand or somewhere in the middle.
2. Print out the schedule from the LSWF website (which you can find here) and put big black marker lines through the workshops that hold no interest for you at all. That narrows things down a bit (but probably not a lot!).
3. Pick two or three workshops on each day that fit with what you want to achieve/improve RIGHT NOW. Whether it’s getting that first draft down, to selling it, to getting representation or looking into self-producing, select the sessions that will help you get there as soon as the festival finishes.
4. Be REALLY honest with yourself. If you haven’t finished a working, saleable/shootable draft of your screenplay yet, is it really worth that workshop on getting an agent, or would you be better off sitting in on the re-writing workshop instead?
5. Pick at least one networking event each day that you will commit to. Networking is the major bonus of actually being at the event (as opposed to watching the sessions back on the ‘net afterwards), so make the most of it. More on networking later in the build up, but don’t avoid it because you’re nervous!
6. Pick at least one workshop every day that’s not something you’d normally attend. Whether it’s about a topic you don’t normally deal with or about a media you don’t normally write for, go and see something different.
7. Pick one workshop a day that just looks interesting and/or fun – something that you actively really want to see. Maybe it’s Tim Bevan, John August or some of the other big names at the fest whose work you admire, or a session with people you know and follow in the wider world. Make it your treat.
8. Lastly, but not least, pick yourself a schedule that’s going to feel rewarding. You’ve got to find a balance between information and entertainment, between over-loading your brain with info and getting enough useful information to push yourself forward.

All the delegates of at LSWF have to face the fact that you can’t be at all of the events you’ll want to be at, but if you spend enough time studying the schedule you will at least be able to maximise the information you take in that will help you take that leap to the next level.

Another great tip I’ve heard is from an article over on TwelvePoint from Monica Solom (thanks for the tip!). She suggests buddying up with other writers to split workshops between you. Then arranging time to get together and swap notes after the fact, so you gain from more than you were able to see yourself. The LSWF social network for delegates is a really useful place to find a buddy if this idea appeals to you.

Tomorrow, Day 3 of the Countdown Lowdown will look at making the most of your workshops.

Over the next 7 days as things ramp up towards the London Screenwriters Festival at the phenomenal Regents College, I’ll be preparing a special (text-only, sadly) LOWDOWN looking at how you can get the most from your weekend and the biggest bang for your buck.

Day 1 – Get Organised

With 7 days still to go, you’ve still got time to get your business cards designed, printed and sent out to you. Granted, it’ll be speedy-shipping, which will cost you a little more, but you really can’t underestimate how important having good – or any – business cards can be.

There’s loads of great, cheap websites to get your cards produced and you don’t need anything flashy or glossy. Try places like Vistaprint or BestPrinting, both of which allow you to design your own cards online and upload your own image.

A quick tip for card design: leave space on the back side for people to make notes about you and your projects. When you’re meeting the hundreds of other delegates at the festival, you’ll find some of them stick in your mind and others, well, wont. But if you keep track of people and their projects you stand a better chance of enhancing your networking after the fact.

Whether you use a standard template (not the best idea, but better than nothing) or create your own, business cards are essential to your LSWF experience. The last thing you want is to be in a situation where people are asking for your details and you have to scribble them on the back of a fag packet (after emptying out all of your smokes) or a page hastily ripped out of your notepad. Not a great impression.

And talking of notebooks – buy two. Just looking at the lineup, you know that whatever you’re going to be taking in you’ll going to be taking copious notes on everything you see (or at least you should be!).

With you notebook, buy yourself a PACK of pens. You’ll be wanting AT LEAST three, if not more, because you don’t want to be scuppered by empty pens.

That’s today’s mission in preparation for the festival, then: get online and order your business cards if you haven’t already, and pop down to your local stationary store and kit yourself out for copious note-taking. It’s for your own good!

Day 2 tomorrow will look at how to choose your sessions and workshops.

Apologies for the delayed return to the return to blogging – I’m not sure why I chose to re-start blogging just before going into production on yet another short film – I should plan these things better.

The film in question, Love Like Hers, went remarkably well despite a hectic schedule and 3 lost hours on the first morning thanks to the good old Yorkshire weather.  The writer/director, Danny Lacey, has already detailed the ins and outs of a crazy 3 days on both his blog and his live show, which you can watch back on demand on his LiveStream channel, so I won’t go into it too much. For those of you who want a taste of what we went through, here’s a short behind the scenes vid from Danny’s YouTube Channel:

My role was essentially as an on-set coordinator, since I’d come on board too late to really be able to take a lot of the “real” production stuff from Danny. Although, frankly, I ended up with more than enough on my plate as it was. It definitely would have been an impossible mission had it not been for the extraordinary Bethan Davis, who started as a Production Assistant, but ended up as a Production Co-Ordinator/Production Manager and was outstanding, as was Danny’s girlfriend, Jacqui, who shouldered a huge amount of stress on Danny’s behalf.

If there was one mistake we made it was in not having enough time for me to take financial control of the picture, meaning all spending decisions had to come from Danny himself. That will doubtless be rectified in future projects together.

What I’ve learned over the last few weeks, though, is that I’m actually not only a big fan of, but also well suited to being a producer. I like the coordination, I enjoy the on-set challenges, but most of all I like to be able to help other writer/directors achieve their vision.

This became abundantly clear to me yesterday after spending over 2 hours in a script meeting with a first-time writer/director who’s got a great little story mapped out.

Louisa is unique in many ways, not simply because she has made a powerful and fascinating documentary exploring her physical and emotional recovery from an horrific accident. She also knows exactly where she stands in terms of skills, abilities and desires.

The script she sent to me has, at its heart, a really strong emotional pull and a really quirky, captivating idea behind it, but it it – by her own admission – in very rough form. Yesterday afternoon she stopped in to my place and we talked through the whole thing from start to finish and really started to delve deeply into the characters, where they were coming from and why they made the decisions they did.  I’m totally confident that when she sends her second draft over it’ll be a vast improvement.

For those of you who want to know why I find Louisa such an exciting person to want to work with, check out her doc, The Highest Low:

And while I’m here, if there’s anyone out there with a script they want to turn or see turned into a finished product, I’m all for taking a look.

Way, way back in the olden days of May or June a few of my Twitter buddies started twittering about the Red Planet Prize, a free screenwriting competition run by Red Planet Pictures, the production company run by Tony Jordan behind dramas like CRASH, HUSTLE and ECHO BEACH/MOVING WALLPAPER.

The competition required writers to send in the first 10 pages of a 60 page TV show, either a stand-alone hour or part of (or pilot for) a longer series.

I’ve had an idea buzzing about in my head for quite a while for a TV series I want to write, so I thought I’d give it a whirl.  My early drafts were shabby to say the least, but as the first-round submission deadline loomed I had ten credible pages that I felt I could send off.

The biggest issue was the recommendations of most professional writers when talking about the prize – make sure you’ve got all 60 pages before you submit, so you can send the script across as soon as you get the call.  That is, if you’re successful enough to still be in the running once the 1500 submissions are whittled down to those few whose full script will be read.

I asked a friend and script editor, Lucy Vee, what I should do.  Her advice? Go for it anyway; it’s free, what have you got to lose.  So I did.

I have to confess at this point, I’ve been going through something of a crisis of confidence in my writing in the last few months.  I’ve not written a huge amount and what I have written, when glanced back over with a critical eye, doesn’t seem up to snuff for me.

I’ve been laying low, not hitting my keyboard as much as I should have (as evidenced by the lack of bloggage) and focused instead on filmmaking rather than writing.  I’ve been on a great project with Northants County Council, through Catalyst Theatre Arts, making a doc about a sibling support project in the area and I’ve also just come off Assistant Producing/Production Managing a UK Film Council short film, ELLIE.

I wasn’t prepared, then, for the email that landed in my inbox yesterday to say my script, NUMBER 10, has made it through to the next round of the RPP.  Seriously.

My first reaction was utter delight – it felt like a real vindication of my work thus far and showed me that despite my crisis of confidence, I do actually have a bit of talent at this writing lark.  The second thought was dread.  I hadn’t actually looked at the Final Draft file with my submission on it since I sent it in.  The email stated quite clearly that the full 60-pager had to be submitted by email by Monday lunchtime, just 6 days away.

I checked the file and did some calculations.  I’d managed 21 pages of the script so far, of which I’d submitted the first 10.  I now had 6 days to come up with another 40 pages that would match the quality of the submission that appears to have piqued the interest of the judges.  And given that this was at 6pm, it really meant 5 days.  And since I’m away giving a talking Liverpool on Thursday, that really meant 4 days.  That’s an average of 10 pages a day, but I’d still need time to proof-read and edit before submission.

Yes, ladies and gentleman, I am also currently blogging.  This is 600 words that could have gone into my script, but instead I’m sat here filling you all in.  I hope you’re happy.  I am.

Yours sincerely,

Oli Lewingon, King Procrastinator & Red Planeteer.

Thursday 1 April not only saw far too many people sucked in by (and irrationally annoyed by) Philip Bloom‘s masterful April Fool on Canon DSLRs, but also the launch of the month-long Twitter-based #scriptfrenzy.

In essence, the plan for Script Frenzy is to churn out 100 pages of an original screenplay in the 30 days of April.  But just how useful is it to hammer out a first draft in a frenzy?  I took some time to weigh up my own personal pros and cons:

PROs

We all like a deadline.  Actually, most writers hate deadlines, but it can’t be denied that setting one focuses the mind.  And by sharing that deadline with all the other “frenziers” out there, not to mention all of your other Twitter followers, you’re binding yourself into a loose contract to say you’ll at least have something on paper at the beginning of May.

Sometimes it’s good just to write.  Far too many writers – especially those just starting out who are struggling to find the time for wordsmithing alongside busy and demanding day-jobs – put off starting that new piece because there are “other things” in the way.  By forcing yourself to sit down and hammer out an average of just 4 pages a day for a 1st draft, you get those creative juices flowing.

CONs

Thinking time. Former Doctor Who showrunner Russell T Davies talks about the majority of his writing time being time spent in “the Maybe” – that etheral neverland of thoughts, shapes and possibilities where stories solidify and conform in the brain before you actually sit down to hammer out the pages on Final Draft.  Similarly, Paul Schrader, writer of modern classics like Taxi Driver and Raging Bull, has a Maybe that exists in his meticulous outlining and documenting of the entire story prior to the 1st draft.  How do you account for thinking time in a frenzied rush to hammer out your 100 pages? Do you need to have put that all in place before April 1st, or do you build that into your month-of-crazy?

Arbitrary page counts. Yes, a feature film script should come in somewhere around 100 pages, but – more importantly – a script needs to be the right length to tell the story, whether that be 75 pages or, God forbid, 150 pages.  100 is a good guideline, but is it an appropriate target?

Forcing the words out. All screenplays need a little time to digest as you go.  Undoubtedly, sometimes you do just need to sit down and hammer your way through a stumbling block, but other times you need to be free to step back and recognise when simply bashing the keys is wasted time until you’ve worked out why the scene isn’t working for you.

I don’t have anything against #scriptfrenzy and certainly not against those taking part. But I know that it’s not the way that I can sit and hammer out a first draft of anything. I need the time to consider it, the time to plan it and then to set myself a deadline that’s reachable at a daily page count that works for me, my working time and my goals for the script.

How about you? Are you a frenzier, a plodder or a somewhere-in-the-middle?

Since the back-end of last year, I’ve been working on a new screenplay for an ultra-low-budget film with just two characters and a powerful, emotional love story.

It’s now at that stage with which many writers will be familiar – the skeleton is there, the bones and muscles, but it still needs that little something to really form it into something special.

What I’m battling with now is the classic filmmaker’s dilemma of just how commercial do you make a script for a micro-budget indie? I know that the market for the film isn’t going to be vast, but I also know that a couple of simple – but major – tweaks could open it out to a wider and more passionate market. If nothing else I’m confident these changes would give it a much better chance on the festival circuit.

The trouble is, I don’t know how big a compromise this is. I’m not as familiar with the environment I’d be re-setting the film in and although I think the story would work just as well, am I betraying both my instincts and my original story in pushing for a bigger audience? Or am I doing the underlying story a disservice in sticking to my guns and potentially reducing the market for the finished film?

As it stands I’m torn between the two, hence this little cry for help. At what point does targeting a market becoming selling out?

A few weeks ago now, I started talking to Matt Shea of Swanky Reviews about joining their team as a UK/European writer for their reviews site.

Swanky is a reviews site with a difference – it’s not solely focused on what’s hitting the screens or the streets this week, but rather in building up a catalogue of quality reviews of great – and not so great – movies, so that any time you’re stuck wondering which DVD to choose from or which of the movies on your satellite channel to pick you can refer to SwankyReviews.com for advice, guidance and heavily-subjective opinions.

None of us at Swanky pretends to be the ultimate in film reviewing wisdom, but we share with our readers what we like, what we don’t and why – then we leave you to decide whether you want to believe us, disagree with us, watch it or skip it.

So head on over and check it out at http://www.swankyreviews.com. You can also follow new posts & reviews via the site’s Twitter feed or subscribe to the RSS.

As I said on Wednesday, we’re going to need your help to make this film and achieve what we want to achieve. That means cold, hard cash – £25,000 of it in fact.

It’s a huge amount, but it’s worth it. To be considered for Oscars and the like, shooting on film is really the best way to go – it’s not dead and it never will be. More than that, though, as a calling card movie for both myself and the people who end up coming on board to help, it’s important to show the world that we can handle the big boys’ toys.

More than money, as I said before, is support – and as I know now, support comes in many fashions. I will be asking everyone who works on this film to give their time for free. That includes the military adviser who helped me write the screenplay and their commitment to assisting us throughout production.

So far they have been absolutely brilliant. Not only were they instrumental in the creation of the script, but they have also offered us the use of a fantastic location to shoot the military battle scenes in as well as full technical support and advice throughout preproduction and production.

That should hopefully tell anyone umm-ing and ahh-ing over this project something significant – these guys like it. A lot.

With military backing and the financial support of not only you guys but also some bigger sponsors I’m hoping to pull in, we can truly make this a film to knock people’s socks off.

There’ll be more on how you can help in non-financial ways here next week, but until then have a root around the sofa and see what you come up with. You can find out all about your options and rewards for chipping in here.

After all the to-ing and fro-ing, the waiting, the build-up, the Big Secret Project is finally here.

Oscar

BAFTA

As many of you will know, a good friend of mine set out to make a short film when I was waiting for my transplant. Gone Fishing eventually reached the final 7 in the shortlist for the Oscars, some going for a little film made with the help of friends, colleagues and people he didn’t even know at the start of the project. Shot on 35mm film and finished to the highest of professional standards, Chris’ film has won far too many international festivals for me to count. If you visit his blog, you’ll be able to find out all about it and the festivals.

By far the biggest thing to come out of Gone Fishing for Chris, though, is the launch-pad it has given him into the film industry. From taking meetings in LA to signing with an agency and manager, Chris is living the life he (and I) has always dreamed of.

When I sat at home an mulled over my options for how to get where I want to go when I don’t know how long I have to achieve my goals, Gone Fishing and Chris’ experience thrust themselves into my consciousness. I’ve always wanted to be a filmmaker, I’ve always wanted to make films. It’s that simple. So why sit around thinking about it when you can actually go out and do it?

And given the blessing I’ve been given – the most wonderful gift any person or family can give to anyone else – it seems even more important to push myself to achieve the very best that I can. No middle ground, no soft-peddalling. If I’m going to do this, I’m reaching as high as I can. As a wise man once said, “Reach for the stars and you may just reach the ceiling, reach for the ceiling and you will barely get off the ground.”

Every journey, as they say, starts with a single step. And this is it, “Remembrance”.

Remembrance is a 15 minute short film about war, family and memory through the eyes of three generations of a single British family. It’s chock full of action, carefully-crafted dialogue and packs a real emotional punch. It’s designed to showcase all of the things I can do as a director and writer, working with big names (if things go to plan), working with children and young actors, directing action scenes and working with stuntmen and stunt arrangers as well as working on a smaller scale with intimate dialogue scenes.

As I said when I first sat down to write about it: this one’s good. It’s really good. And I believe it can go all the way. I intend to fully document the process on here for everyone to read and for filmmakers to learn from and I will shortly be enlisting you all for your help in creating this piece of historic cinema. It may not rock the entire world of film, but it will turn my world upside down and become a launching point not just for my career, but hopefully for everyone involved.

Keep checking back for progress reports and on Friday I’ll tell you all how you can help.