Scottish Book Trust - New Writers Award 2012/13

This year's New Writers Award opportunity from the Scottish Book Trust has opened.

First Position

Here's a trailer for one of the highlights of the EIFF for me, a wonderful documentary on ballet: First Position.

Every year 5,000 dancers aged 9-19 compete in the Youth America Grand Prix, an international ballet competition, in the hope of winning scholarships and contracts with dance companies. We follow six inspiring young people as they strive to make their dreams of becoming professional dancers come true. The screening on 30 June will be followed by a Q&A on dance as a career, with Kerry Livingstone, Head of the Associates Programme at Scottish Ballet and Lecturer in Modern Ballet at the Royal Conservatoire.

EIFF 2012 - my last few days

Thought I'd blog about the latter half of my week at the Edinburgh International Film Festival 2012. My delegate pass stopped on Monday (next time I'll just get the full pass) so I tried to cram as much in as possible.

Films seen were -
Friday:

• Flying Blind
• The 99 Unbound

Saturday:

• Fusion Shorts (some excellent shorts in this selection, particularly loved one called The Last Bus)

Sunday:

• Grabbers
• First Position

Monday:

• Unfair World

Any picks highlighted in bold again.

I also went to see both Elliott Gould and Jim Broadbent in person - both were extremely interesting.

I saw a few less films as the last half of my pass coincided with the launch of the delegate events. I attended a Screenwriters Forum, First Feature panel, a debate on women in comedy, a presentation on creative producers, a pitching session along with several networking sessions and talks.

If I get the delegate pass again I'll certainly buy the two week pass, as I said above, as I felt like I missed a few too many things. If you're thinking of getting a pass in the future, just be warned that while there are film screenings during the day for the first three days, there's nothing else.

Anyway, I'm extremely glad I went. I feel buoyed and inspired, and loved being surrounded by other writers and film-makers for a week. The programme was excellent and the Traverse Theatre made a brilliant, atmospheric (and bloody boiling) delegate centre.

Rent-a-Cat (Rentaneko)

I loved this, so thought I'd share the trailer
 

Every day Sayoko pushes a cart along a river, renting out cats to lonely people in order to fill the empty spaces in their hearts. Somehow Sayoko herself, though she has no trouble attracting felines, has a hard time finding human love.

Coming Up

Last week I finished the first draft of a new SF Comedy, intended in the first instance to go to Coming Up.

I've only written one 30 minute piece before, and this one felt very different. I wrote it long hand, for a start (it's been a while since I wrote a script outside of Final Draft!).

Something I love about competitions like Coming Up - even if I don't always remember to enter them - is that they push you to write to a brief. When you're between commissions it can be lovely to write whatever you fancy, but it's also good to work between set parameters now and then, to keep those muscles flexed.

For Coming Up, you need to be able to deliver something 30 minutes long that can be shot in just 4 days, with limited budget - but it also has to deliver 'ambition, wit, urgency and fearless entertainment.'

Vague enough to be attractive, while having some definite guidelines in there.

Anyone else entering Coming Up? Good luck if so.

Edinburgh International Film Festival 2012

Towards the end of May, I bit the bullet and purchased myself a Delegate pass for the Edinburgh International Film Festival 2012.

I've been a delegate a couple of times before, but four years have passed since my last stint (time is flying).

Picked up my pass and delegate bag (pictured above, it's a good one) on Monday, and have been having a great time so far. While the industry events were rather thin on the ground the first few days, there have been loads of films on to see.

So far I've been to see the following -

Monday:

• Girimunho
• Sun Don't Shine
• Mirage

Tuesday:

• The life and times of Paul the psychic octopus
• Killer Joe
• Rent a Cat
• Fred

Wednesday:

• Flicker
• Tabu
• Bestiare

(My personal favourites of each day are in bold.)

Going to see a few more films today and over the weekend, along with some industry events. Will blog anything helpful here.

Typewriter tip, tip, tip

I was strolling around Edinburgh New Town the other day, looking for a good place to get a coffee and write, when I spotted this lovely little thing in a shop window - a Lilliput typewriter.

I'm actually terrible at using typewriters (would you believe I had to use one in a terrible temp job a few years ago?!) - but I do love them.

He now has a good home beside my desk. I may even try using him properly when I get a new ribbon.

Book review: A Monster Calls

A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I came at this as a fan of Ness's Chaos Walking series, and was surprised but happy to find that it's a very different style of book.

This was somehow beautiful, devastating, touching and funny, at once.

The story of Conor, a 13 year old struggling to come to terms with his mum's terminal illness. School is terrible, home is worse, and nightmares plague him. Then, one night, he is visited at 12.07am by a monster...

Should come with a 'will make you cry for at least 15 minutes' warning as well as the (well deserved) Carnegie medal(s) sticker.

Brilliant idea, wonderful prose, and incredible illustration. Just an amazing book.

Definitely recommended to read.

View all my reviews

Little Brother’s Big Opportunity II

Little Brother Productions are offering a talented writer £1000 to develop an original television drama idea of theirs through to treatment stage.

Submissions open for lo-fi - the scottish low budget film initiative

lo-fi is a low budget film initiative aimed at developing up-and-coming talent. This comprehensive programme aims to find exciting new work, by up-and-coming film makers, that can be made at micro budget level.

Moonrise Kingdom: Animated Shorts

I loved Moonrise Kingdom, and found the books that Suzy reads rather appealing (they looked like exactly what I was reading as a kid).

Luckily for me, in April Wes Anderson decided to animate passages from each of the books she carries, and they are now available to view on YouTube (above).

Read a bit more about the animations on Entertainment Weekly.