Scotland Writes Q&A - Glasgow

Just got this email, thought it would be of interest...

Scotland Writes Q&A

BBC Scotland Drama department are delighted to invite writers for a Q&A session in Glasgow hosted by Anne Mensah, the Head of Drama. This will give you a chance to find out more about the department and pose any questions you have about BBC Drama.

There will also be a chance afterwards to meet the rest of the team behind shows such as Waterloo Road, River City, Hope Springs, Wallander, and Fiona's Story. We look forward to meeting you!

5:30pm - 7:30pm
Thursday 26 November 2009

BBC Scotland
40 Pacific Quay
Glasgow
G51 1DA
To book your place, please RSVP to scotlandwrites@bbc.co.uk

Screenwriters Festival - Day 3

I've started this on day 3, although this was my day 1. Confusing, yes?

Anyway, I went down on the Tuesday with Andrew, staying in a little vegetarian B&B about 25 minutes walk from the festival. Cheltenham was a lovely town, and it was nice to see all the red lanyards about (except for those of us who started on wed and didn't get one, moan moan moan). We went to the night out on Tuesday, meeting such illustrious types as Lucy, Elinor, Jason, Dave, Katie and Andy.

I am a serial panel attender at festivals, generally wearing myself out quickly, and the Wednesday was no different. Here are the panels I attended, and any notes taken...


Before The Beatles with Kevin Loader, Matt Delargy and Matt Greenhalgh
Panel involved in the film 'Nowhere Boy' about a teenage John Lennon. Bare bones of the story came from a book written by one of Lennon's best friends from his teenage years. The writer (Matt G) immersed himself in the music Lennon listened to at the time the film is set, found out what was in the charts etc, to feel inspired by it as John had been.

They broke some screenwriting rules (although as we all know, rules are there to be broken) by including a very long conversation as a scene, flashbacks, etc.

There was a great feeling that 'you can't touch the Beatles' - and nor would you want to. However, you can plant the seeds of the Beatles, and examine what made Lennon the musician he was. In this film, the examination focuses on his relationship with his two 'mtohers' - his birth mother and his aunt, who brought him up.

Interesting panel, made me want to see Nowhere Boy.


Negotiating Your Contract with Julian Friedman
This was a great session. First off, The Writers Guild have issued "Writing Film: A Good practice Guide" which Julian advised everyone to download. Get it here.

Julian was very helpful, and went through many key points to watch out for in a contract. Having signed contracts before, it was quite worrying to note how many I have NOT encountered before - but then I have not signed on for a funded project yet. Not going to pass on everything he said here as the technical details may not translate, but I have some fundamental points I wanted to pass on:

• Know what the writers guild rates are - and join if you can, even as a candidate member. This is not only a badge of honour for your CV, but you may be paid more by producers, and you will have access to a lot of information.
• Being fired is common, do not worry about it (boo)
• Do not fall over with gratitude just because someone wants to make your film. The more money someone is willing to invest in your product, the more they will want/need to make it.
• Always negotiate your purchase price and contract when doing your option agreement. You do not sign the purchase agreement at this point, but do initialize each page
• Be as sure as you can that you are making the right agreement - you can't back out.
• Always make sure you have the right to re-write your script and be paid before someone else can be taken on to re-write.

On notes:

• Always ask for notes. Not only helpful, but you may need to establish that you did what you were supposed to do.
• Make sure you just get one set of non-contradictory notes following a script meeting.
• If you have a face to face script meeting, write everything down and email it back to producers to show what was agreed.
• If there are problems you can see and have mentioned with script changes, state the problems and say you need another draft to remedy.

I agree with all this, and would append it by saying be tactful in how you approach the subject of disliking changes. If you simply dislike them because they are not your ideas, try them out. If you honestly think they are going to ruin the script, state your case articulately and politely. Try not to use negative language about the ideas, and be willing to try them and correct after if needed. I'd also recommend signing up to Twelvepoint, if you haven't already, as Julian has a lot of this information up there.

What I found out from this: I need an agent. I do not like all this contract stuff. I need a barrier between myself and other people for when the going gets tough. I've known this for a while, but this cemented it. I'm going to make this a priority for the next year.


Film BBC with Christine Langan
Much of this conversation was about Christine rather than BBC films, so I didn't make many notes. Some I took were:

• BBC Films can be approached by represented writers only - those with an agent or producer on board.
• They make films for cinematic release - not made for TV.
• Ideas not immediately recognisable as commercial are often those which work best.
• BBC Films need to appeal to the BBC audience, which is very diverse.
• If you're writing period drama, keep the budget as low as you can.

I've written the phrase "building worlds with words" which sounds rather nice, assume she said it!

BBC Films I'm going to look out for: 'Bright Star,' 'An Education' (which is on now) and 'Fish Tank.'


Commissioning the BBC with Ben Stephenson
I loved this. Ben was chatty, articulate, funny and thoughtful in his replies (and no, I'm not just being a sook).

Didn't make many notes, but here are a few:

• Series are king for audiences in the UK - we love them.
• A serial writer can own up to 5 hours of television - this is singular to the UK.
• Authorship matters.
• Risk is a good and scary thing.

Ben talked a LOT about his passion for Being Human - he pointed out that it maybe high concept, but it was very cheap to make. I really should watch this...

TV I'm going to watch out for following this: 'Small Island', 'criminal Justice', 'The Silence' and the 'Our Women' season.


Solving TV Drama problems with Kate Harwood
Again, not many notes. Kate talked a lot about the importance of great writing and imagination, how the expectations for tv are back on the writer, and that tv and film was a practical artform.

She also used the phrase 'text in conversation' a lot - the idea of the importance of words. She had clips of 'The Firm', 'Cracker' and 'Boys from the Black stuff' to demonstrate this.

Last session of the day
Writin' USA with Ashely Pharoah, Stephen Volk and Hate Harwood
Only three notes made at this, which were:

• It is a complete myth that you make any money from re-formatting (i.e. selling your series to the states, if you are a writer).
• British scriptwriters bring emotional storytelling, and,
• If you're writing or thinking of a long running series (a la Lost) - try writing it without thinking of the ending.

This busy day was followed by another night out, for the Twelvepoint party. Finally met more twitter cohorts, including everyone's favourite gibbzer. Talk at this point was dominated by the lack of lanyards and bar staff, how terribly nice everyone was, and that Piers looked nothing like his photograh on twitter. This must be true, for though I thought I saw him once and gurned at him from afar, on second thought I wasn't so sure and hid.

Coming soon: SWF day 4, in which I speed date and panic.