Opportunity Knocks!

This looks a good 'un...

Sky Indie.

Happy writing, darling ones.

SWF: How To Be Good, Part Two.

Darling ones,

this was a very informative lecture led by the ever-enthusiatic Kate Leys and Rob Kraitt, the lecture was a follow-on from a lecture in SWF's 2008 fest but was just as good for those who hadn't attended last year.

First off a few interesting statistics:

'Nobody Knows Anything'

14 million people visit the cinema each month. The best openings that make the most money are the the first week of the three school holidays.

30% of British box office goes on British films.

15% of global box office goes on British films.

Top three film economies:
North America
Japan
UK

On the basis that 'nobody knows anything' you don't actually have to know very much to know more than anyone else. If you want to get taken seriously as a writer then take the business seriously yourself. It's an art form as well as a business so you have to find a combination that works for you. You're not so much selling your work as selling yourself. It's all about the RELATIONSHIPS, people!

When you start, be pro-active, get on the mailing lists, inform yourself of what is out there. Theatre, radio, BBC writers' room, grants, UKFC, shorts, competitions etc., Plenty of ways to develop not only your creative voice but to network with others and build collaborations.

Kate then made an interesting point about how Development Hell is viewed here and in the US.

USA
Your film is optioned but never sees the light of day.

UK
Development IS Hell

Well it doesn't have to be really (at least not from the writer's side). Meet your deadline, don't be late with material. Fit the criteria of what is asked. If they want a crisp 90 pages, don't give them 120 pages. Think of the poor reader.

DEVELOPMENT NOTES
Take notes well. They are there to identify weaknesses. If you get notes that resonate with you (even in your heart of hearts) you know it's got to change.

Bad notes are vague and answer a question that hasn't been asked. We've all had them I'm sure. But again we're back to relationships. There's nothing wrong with asking for clarification if you don't understand notes.

Kate said not to follow the money for there is none, my children!

FILM 4, WORKING TITLE, BBC and UKFC, thereafter the regional screen agencies and remember, if someone pays you for your script, it's not yours, it's theirs.

Write all the time, get a slate of projects together. Sort out the structure of your writing.

Network, form those RELATIONSHIPS. Find your allies and possible champions. Avoid the tossers. Talk is cheap.

Kate quoted Tony Grisoni:

'The road to success in the British Film Industry is littered with dead bodies and they're all suicides'

Easy to get burnt out so be good and be clever. Keep grafting.

zeroneonezero

Darling ones,

Lock and Load is proud, not to say unreasonably excited, to be part of the zerooneonezero project as a 'Covert Script Editor'. Clearly my stockpiling of surveillance equipment will now come in handy.

Ten Steps To Great Treatments

Darling ones,

this most excellent seminar was presented to us by Simon Van Der Borgh. Now, he was preaching to the converted somewhat as I am a big fan of Chris Soth's Mini-Movie Method and Simon's approach follows a similar model being essentially an eight sequence model of filmmaking based on the old Hollywood eight-reelers.

Sequences 1 and 2 comprise the first act.
Sequences 3-6, the second act and sequences 7 and 8 the third act.

Simon made the point that there are essentially two sorts of treatments.

One is for yourself as the writer before you get down to the script where things may alter radically. Then when you've finished the script, you write another sort of treatment that sells the script to a potential producer.

THE PREMISE
THE LOGLINE
ONE PAGE SYNOPSIS
FOUR PAGE OUTLINE
EIGHT PAGE TREATMENT
12-15 PAGE TREATMENT

All these can be used as a tool at the development stage and afterwards as your selling documents.

THE PREMISE
What is it about?
What it is REALLY about - the underlying theme?
What is it trying to say?

EMOTIONALLY
Why should we care?

PHILOSOPHICALLY
What's in it for you (the writer) and us (the audience)?

THE LOGLINE
This should be simple and straightforward to sum up the premise.

Who? What? How?

Who is the main character?
What is their problem?
How will they deal with it?

What are the fundamentals?

ONE PAGE SYNOPSIS
1. To start with have three sentences for each of the three acts.
2. Describe the characters.
3. What kind of story is it?

4. Reduce the answers to questions 1, 2 and 3 to 25 words each and there is your first paragraph.

'Movies are real life with the boring bits left out'.
You don't have to include every little detail. Nail the theme of the story in that first paragraph.

Summarise the story in the present tense and be clear about the conflict which should be resolved in the final act. Always name the characters. Lead the reader through the story but with clarity and always INCLUDE THE ENDING. Simon was very specific about this.

FOUR PAGE SYNOPSIS
Each of the eight sequences can be flexible, around 10-15 minutes.
Each act has its own dramatic tension expressed as a question for the character.

This can then be expanded to an EIGHT PAGE TREATMENT
Keep to a sequence a page.

Simon then talked about BEAT OUTLINES.

These are structural.
40-60 key story beats.
Allows analysis of story from three perspectives:
- Writer
- Character
- Audience

Underneath in italics outline the significance of the story beat.

Who knows what and when?

TRANSFORMING THE BEAT OUTLINE INTO A TREATMENT

Remove the italics and you have interconnecting paragraghs that make the story active and logical that establish WHY we should CARE about the characters and also WHAT'S IN IT FOR US. This will be the essence of your treatment.

So, in a treatment of 12-15 pages:

1-4 will be act one.
5-11 act two.
12-15 act three.

The narrative form will be closer to that of a short story and should ideally provoke an emotional response, display true conviction and original insight. Easy eh? Well, no. But for me, a useful companion approach to the Mini-Movie-Method.

SWF - DAY 1. 'There Will Be Cake'

Darling ones,

what a joy it was to find ourselves at breakfast with the very lovely Tim Clague, Jared kelly, Philippa Langley and Hilary Wright, not to say your own, your very own Lucy Vee. We all ate versions of the full English, feeling the need to fortify ourselves. The first speaker was Chris Jones who gave us a rousing 'call to adventure'. Using the Hero's Journey as his model of exhortation to us. The great thing about Chris is his boundless enthusiasm and his complete focus on his goals. Fresh from his Oscar shortlisting, Chris gave us a breathless gallop through our own potential journeys as we write, whilst maintaining all the other requirements of our lives. The point being, of course, that the script's journey from our heads to the first day of the shoot is a transformation that mirrors our own as we transform from obsessed writer to successful scribe who MAY EVEN GET PAID. Inspirational stuff! No time for whingeing (unless of course you can be very funny and splenetic at the same time). Bloody marvellous.

Next up was Doug Chamberlin who made it his mission to explode some of the Hollywood myths that abound in the UK.

MYTH NO. 1 - NOBODY KNOWS ANYTHING

This famous comment by William Goldman has become law. Doug replaced it with REALITY IS PERCEPTION.

That is to say that if you are championed by mentors already in the business, if you can market yourself, raise awareness of your work be it by collaboration, contests, query letters etc., then you can create a perception of yourself that is very positive.

MYTH NO. 2 - EVERYONE HAS FRIENDS IN HOLLYWOOD

Doug maintains it's actually ABOUT RELATIONSHIPS.

You're dealing with people not companies. Contacts will get you in but talent keeps you there. Network people!

MYTH NO. 3 - EVERYONE IS CRAZY

Doug exhorted us to think in HOLLWOOD LOGIC NOT REAL-WORLD LOGIC.

The fact is that evryone in Hollywood is scared to death in case they lose their jobs.

E.G: Got a great Family Guy script?

Real world logic: Send to the studios that make Family Guy.

HOLLYWOOD LOGIC: No, send it to the studio that makes the Simpsons. If you send it to the makers of Family Guy, they won't want it because you're never going to have the inside knowledge that they do about the plot, characters etc., but the people who make the Simpsons will see it as a valuable example of your writing skills.

Real-world logic: Dress for success.

HOLLYWOOD LOGIC: Dress like a slob.

Real-world logic: Tell the story.

HOLLYWOOD LOGIC: EXPLAIN the story.

Real-world logic: Be rational at all times.

HOLLYWOOD LOGIC: Be eccentric. Hollywood loves originality.

Real-world logic: Be truthful.

HOLLYWOOD LOGIC: no one minds hutzpah so long as you can back it up with talent.

Real-world logic: Be sure to let the execs know how you sweated blood over your opus.

HOLLYWOOD LOGIC: The hard work is nowhere near as inportant as the 'magic'.

Real-world logic: Act humble.

HOLLYWOOD LOGIC: Be a pompous ass and toot your horn.

MYTH NO. 4 HOLLYWOOD IS LAZY

Doug stated that actually people work very hard in Hollywood but that they can afford for writers to come to them. LA is a company town and people there are easily contactable.

MYTH NO. 5 HOLLYWOOD IS PHILISTINE

Doug asserted that you the audience call the shots. It's about clarity of premise, Ideas that are easy to tell, stories that can be complex but told in simple terms.

Above all, DON'T QUIT!

Doug felt that Hollywood rules are entirely transferable to the UK market which in many ways resemble the Indie market in the US. Female writers are well-represented in the US though not so much on comedy shows. There was also some discussion on the concept of showrunning on US TV, the danger of which is long-running homogenised shows. Thereafter, my notes bacame rather incoherent. We broke for lunch and went to the rather posh HOTEL DU VIN for lunchipoos with Julian Friedmann and the team from TWELVEPOINT.COM.

Tomorrow, Ten Steps to Great Treatments. Try and contain yourselves.

Screenwriters' Festival -- 'Let's walk and talk, darling...'

Darling ones,

how you've missed me!

Lock And Load is pleased to say that she had a right good time at this year's SWF. Though at three days she was a tad tired and emotional towards the end. Some excellent seminars (notes upon which I will expound in the fullness of time). Met up with several bloggers in the flesh and some new people too. Marvellous. I shall certainly be going next year but just for the two days, methinks.

Stayed at The Wyastone Hotel with your own, your very own Lucy Vee. Note to anyone who finds networking difficult: I really didn't think it was as it mainly consisted of standing in the Queen's Hotel bar talking business and occasionally utter balls. How hard is that?

If there's a theme to my blogposts about SWF, I'd have to say it was RELATIONSHIPS. So hold that thought...

Voiceovers

Darling ones,

the gloom of yesterday was instantly dispelled by a lovely day at The Dairy Recording Studios in Brixton.

I was very nearly late as I wandered into Morleys and saw the fateful words 'Handbag Sale'. However I resisted temptation and tottered back out onto Brixton High Street with the housekeeping intact. The lovely people at The Dairy were dolliness itself and some more fab recording for Justin Hustlin was done. So brilliant was Silas Hawkin's impersonation of a certain Mr Branson that Charles, the sound engineer and I were soon laughing. All good stuff.

Till next time my dears...