I recently caught this Ted Talk by Larry Lessig, a Harvard professor who's an expert in copyright law. For me he coalecsed many thoughts I'd been having on copyright, namely that with the internet the paradigm is reverting to a pre-broadcasting model, where mixing, sharing, and crucially to my thinking, story evolution across authors is possible. This is after all, how many of our best stories - myths, legends, fairytales came about. With broadcasting (TV, radio, books) story was a "one truth" to be imposed by the one on the many. Now it's a merely a starting point for others to join, experience and share. Vive la Revolution!
And you've also got to watch it to see Jesus Christ sing "I will survive" pure class!
A friend also gave me a heads up yesterady of two authors who are actually exploring this new way of creating - Neal Stephenson and Greg Bear. They've started a wesite called Mongoloid which seems to be an effort to start an evolutionary story about knights at the times of the Mongol invasion of Europe. Everyone's free to add, create and consume the content - which is everything from sound to video to text and pictures - and being lead by two such Sci-Fi luminaries as Stephenson and Bear I'm betting it may go somewhere.
The internet is the new campfire. Food for thought.
Tuesday 30 November 2010
Tuesday 16 November 2010
Spartacus has blown up Robin Hood Airport!
Sounds like a mash-up time travel movie doesn’t it? Actually it’s slightly more surreal than that. The famous book, 1984 by George Orwell, appears to have crash landed in Judge Jacqueline Davies’s head – there was enough room - in a bid to punish the aspiring terrorist Paul Chambers.
Now there are crap jokes and there are crap jokes. "Crap! Robin Hood airport is closed. You've got a week and a bit to get your shit together otherwise I'm blowing the airport sky high!!" I hope was one of Paul Chambers’ worse ones.
But a fine of £2,000 for such a limited sense of humour, seems, even to me, fairly absurd.
Paul tweeted this immortal phrase when his dirty weekend to Northern Ireland was postponed due to an excess of snow at Robin Hood airport. It took our brave officers in blue a full week to track him down at his home address and arrest him. Arrested under the terrorist act, he was then taken to court and convicted of a minor infringement under a law the Crown Prosecution Service found down the side of the sofa, namely one dating from the 1930’s and aimed at protecting “female telephonists at the Post Office.”
Judge Jacqueline Davies then effectively called him a liar – which he might be - most of us are, before refusing his appeal and fining him £2,000.
And that was when the twitterverse exploded (literally. Tweets fell from the air) with thousands of tweeters (bear in mind that these are not real people – only electronic simulations of them) repeating his tweet under the banner of “I am Spartacus”. A real thumb in the face to the no doubt technologically challenged adntherefore unaware Judge Jacqueline Davies.
All these surreal shenanigans have been reported in the newspapers, and the twitter being Stephen Fry has offered to pay off Paul’s fine. Paul himself has admitted it was a crap joke and he maybe should have been told off for being stupid. Leave the stand up to Stephen, Paul.
A storm in a thimble? Undoubtedly, and I wish it had been about a decent joke at the least. But with other, similar cases looming one can hope that a case is being made for the repealing of some of Labour’s more draconian laws. We are, currently, living in a post-1984 world. The new clone government has done some good by, for example, cutting the ID card scheme but a lot more remains to be done. They can continue with cutting the Judge out of Judge Jacqueline Davies – I imagine the NHS would cover the operation.
The twiiterverse is a naval gazing indulgence for the media class, and while the Iran “green your icon” campaign did revolt me in it’s ineffectuality, in cases like this – where it is not a life or death matter and indeed, not very important, - then I think it is strangely apt. The story started in 140 characters, but I wonder where it’ll finish.
Now there are crap jokes and there are crap jokes. "Crap! Robin Hood airport is closed. You've got a week and a bit to get your shit together otherwise I'm blowing the airport sky high!!" I hope was one of Paul Chambers’ worse ones.
But a fine of £2,000 for such a limited sense of humour, seems, even to me, fairly absurd.
Paul tweeted this immortal phrase when his dirty weekend to Northern Ireland was postponed due to an excess of snow at Robin Hood airport. It took our brave officers in blue a full week to track him down at his home address and arrest him. Arrested under the terrorist act, he was then taken to court and convicted of a minor infringement under a law the Crown Prosecution Service found down the side of the sofa, namely one dating from the 1930’s and aimed at protecting “female telephonists at the Post Office.”
Judge Jacqueline Davies then effectively called him a liar – which he might be - most of us are, before refusing his appeal and fining him £2,000.
And that was when the twitterverse exploded (literally. Tweets fell from the air) with thousands of tweeters (bear in mind that these are not real people – only electronic simulations of them) repeating his tweet under the banner of “I am Spartacus”. A real thumb in the face to the no doubt technologically challenged adntherefore unaware Judge Jacqueline Davies.
All these surreal shenanigans have been reported in the newspapers, and the twitter being Stephen Fry has offered to pay off Paul’s fine. Paul himself has admitted it was a crap joke and he maybe should have been told off for being stupid. Leave the stand up to Stephen, Paul.
A storm in a thimble? Undoubtedly, and I wish it had been about a decent joke at the least. But with other, similar cases looming one can hope that a case is being made for the repealing of some of Labour’s more draconian laws. We are, currently, living in a post-1984 world. The new clone government has done some good by, for example, cutting the ID card scheme but a lot more remains to be done. They can continue with cutting the Judge out of Judge Jacqueline Davies – I imagine the NHS would cover the operation.
The twiiterverse is a naval gazing indulgence for the media class, and while the Iran “green your icon” campaign did revolt me in it’s ineffectuality, in cases like this – where it is not a life or death matter and indeed, not very important, - then I think it is strangely apt. The story started in 140 characters, but I wonder where it’ll finish.
Wednesday 10 November 2010
BBC Radio 4 Film Programme
For those of you who missed it, there were a couple of screenwritery themed programmes on the Radio 4 Film Programme - featuring Frank Cottrell Boyce, Simon Beaufoy and Moira Buffini. Enjoy!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006r5jt
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006r5jt
Tuesday 2 November 2010
LSWF 2010 - The Main Event
And onto the main event.
...and I pitched myself straight in at the deep end. As it was my daughter’s birthday on the Friday I came in at lunchtime, sadly missing the opening sessions.
And I was booked into Speed Pitching at 2pm. Yikes!
But, strange to say, I enjoyed it. The pitchees didn’t burst out laughing but rather asked intelligent questions - the first two even gave me a few hints on improving it (which I certainly needed). Very nice of them. Then Gold! The third asked for a one pager which I found after much rummaging in my bag.
After that I went to Julian Friedman’s Pitching class where I groaned at all the mistakes I had made. It was very informative. He said to pitch the project to friends / colleagues before you start writing - that’ll help you work out the story. He also said to try to lead the meeting, and not be phased by an executive taking a call for example – simply stand up and say “shall I return when you’ve finished?” – politely like. Or if receiving blank gazes move on – “Perhaps this isn’t appropriate for you?”
And as to what should be a on a written treatment – he split that into four parts:
1. Pitch/synopsis- eg blurb on the back of a novel
2. Character biogs – 5 lines for major, 3 for minor
3. Why are you writing this?
4. A description of the film – a few pages – in terms of what you see. Keep the exciting action, the drama, the emotion.
So not just a list of plot points as I did (you live and learn).
After that, rather ambitiously I headed to “Great Script – what next?” the main points were: don’t take rejections personally – there are many reasons for rejection, and your writing isn’t (necessarily) top of the list. Persevere, and generate a lot of material – have more than one project on the go.
Success takes a combination of: Talent (we all have it), Luck (actually generated by experience and contacts) and Perseverance (nuff said). Be agile and take opportunities where you see them.
Finally, try having a USP. What do you know about, what experience do you have that’s unique to you?
Saturday:
The next day, feeling not quite so indomitable I hit “Why 98% of scripts get rejected”, hosted by Stephen Follows, producer with guest Noelle Morris, head of Development from Kudos and Chloe Sizer from Icon.
The main thrust from Kudos was that they wanted to read a spec script that was true to the author’s voice. Then, if interested, they would talk / maybe hire you. Noelle said she looked for a writer’s voice and level of skill to determine their potential – and skill can almost always be taught.
Voice = your dream script. Don’t try to play the market or be clever. A spec script in the UK is mostly used to impress people with your voice. Highly unlikely it’ll get made.
Chloe at Icon, on the other hand, does pick up spec scripts, but normally only with actors/directors attached already. But she also reads to spot new talent and keep tabs on potentials. The most popular specs to write are genre pieces – Thrillers, comedies, horror – with an excellent hook – as these are easiest to sell to the audience.
However, to enter this rarefied world of execs always reading your full script and giving feedback it has to come through an agent. Hmm. Very useful session though.
Then after some more pitching (another one pager down – yay), it was onto another of Julian’s sessions – “Negotiating Skills”. Julian had a German agent and agent/lawyer with him – Nick
Nick gave us an extensive list on how to negotiate. Very quickly:
1. Have a clear objective and don’t give anything away
2. Ping Pong – it’s a back and forth – agree easy points to your advantage early on, lest thy be used as bargaining chips against you later.
3. Emotion – flatter your opponent, show them you respect and like them. They’ll like you in return and be nicer – it happens!
4. Use imagination - nothing is off limits. Try to work with the opponent if at all possible.
5. Cash – do you want it now or can you sacrifice it for winning other points/more cash in future?
6. Silence. The most powerful. Silence unsettles anyone, and they immediately want to fill the void – with offers, information, anything.
And there was a lot more. Recommended Books were:
Getting to Yes – Fisher and Yuri
The Gentle Art of Self-Defense
And then, to round off the day a supercharged inspirational smack around the brain from Chris Jones. I don’t want to reveal too much – you had to be there. But a few points:
1. Push yourself to your limits and beyond. As you do your characters. Only that way can you find what you’re capable of.
2. Make Choices (based on what you want) rather than Decisions (based on fear, your own history, what you expect the result to be).
3. We’re all tiny motes on a green ball of mud in an endless galaxy. It really doesn’t matter what you do.
4. Action breeds success.
Sunday
Slightly hungover, I came in looking for inspiration. Dr Craig Batty was first. After pointing out that many screen writing courses taught restrictions – formulas, structures etc, he tried to show us some ways of developing our creative side.
For example, take your main character and list a number of his/her characteristics starting with the letters in their name. Or create twenty images or actions to describe an emotion. Some good techniques.
Jurgen Wolf in the next session went a bit further, encouraging us to interact with our characters, acting them out as an actor would to answer question we (the screenwriter) would ask them. Entertaining and much more creative than answering those endless character questionnaires.
After that Chris shared the story of his short becoming Oscar nominated. Again, the same attitude – do something Exceptional. The one thing that staggered me was the size of the marketing campaign - £5,000 in short film competition entries – between 100 and 200 individual entries. It must get you down. But loads of that info available on his website.
Wow. What a few days. Met great people, came out with many ideas as to my next moves and can’t wait until next year. Than you all again, so much!
...and I pitched myself straight in at the deep end. As it was my daughter’s birthday on the Friday I came in at lunchtime, sadly missing the opening sessions.
And I was booked into Speed Pitching at 2pm. Yikes!
But, strange to say, I enjoyed it. The pitchees didn’t burst out laughing but rather asked intelligent questions - the first two even gave me a few hints on improving it (which I certainly needed). Very nice of them. Then Gold! The third asked for a one pager which I found after much rummaging in my bag.
After that I went to Julian Friedman’s Pitching class where I groaned at all the mistakes I had made. It was very informative. He said to pitch the project to friends / colleagues before you start writing - that’ll help you work out the story. He also said to try to lead the meeting, and not be phased by an executive taking a call for example – simply stand up and say “shall I return when you’ve finished?” – politely like. Or if receiving blank gazes move on – “Perhaps this isn’t appropriate for you?”
And as to what should be a on a written treatment – he split that into four parts:
1. Pitch/synopsis- eg blurb on the back of a novel
2. Character biogs – 5 lines for major, 3 for minor
3. Why are you writing this?
4. A description of the film – a few pages – in terms of what you see. Keep the exciting action, the drama, the emotion.
So not just a list of plot points as I did (you live and learn).
After that, rather ambitiously I headed to “Great Script – what next?” the main points were: don’t take rejections personally – there are many reasons for rejection, and your writing isn’t (necessarily) top of the list. Persevere, and generate a lot of material – have more than one project on the go.
Success takes a combination of: Talent (we all have it), Luck (actually generated by experience and contacts) and Perseverance (nuff said). Be agile and take opportunities where you see them.
Finally, try having a USP. What do you know about, what experience do you have that’s unique to you?
Saturday:
The next day, feeling not quite so indomitable I hit “Why 98% of scripts get rejected”, hosted by Stephen Follows, producer with guest Noelle Morris, head of Development from Kudos and Chloe Sizer from Icon.
The main thrust from Kudos was that they wanted to read a spec script that was true to the author’s voice. Then, if interested, they would talk / maybe hire you. Noelle said she looked for a writer’s voice and level of skill to determine their potential – and skill can almost always be taught.
Voice = your dream script. Don’t try to play the market or be clever. A spec script in the UK is mostly used to impress people with your voice. Highly unlikely it’ll get made.
Chloe at Icon, on the other hand, does pick up spec scripts, but normally only with actors/directors attached already. But she also reads to spot new talent and keep tabs on potentials. The most popular specs to write are genre pieces – Thrillers, comedies, horror – with an excellent hook – as these are easiest to sell to the audience.
However, to enter this rarefied world of execs always reading your full script and giving feedback it has to come through an agent. Hmm. Very useful session though.
Then after some more pitching (another one pager down – yay), it was onto another of Julian’s sessions – “Negotiating Skills”. Julian had a German agent and agent/lawyer with him – Nick
Nick gave us an extensive list on how to negotiate. Very quickly:
1. Have a clear objective and don’t give anything away
2. Ping Pong – it’s a back and forth – agree easy points to your advantage early on, lest thy be used as bargaining chips against you later.
3. Emotion – flatter your opponent, show them you respect and like them. They’ll like you in return and be nicer – it happens!
4. Use imagination - nothing is off limits. Try to work with the opponent if at all possible.
5. Cash – do you want it now or can you sacrifice it for winning other points/more cash in future?
6. Silence. The most powerful. Silence unsettles anyone, and they immediately want to fill the void – with offers, information, anything.
And there was a lot more. Recommended Books were:
Getting to Yes – Fisher and Yuri
The Gentle Art of Self-Defense
And then, to round off the day a supercharged inspirational smack around the brain from Chris Jones. I don’t want to reveal too much – you had to be there. But a few points:
1. Push yourself to your limits and beyond. As you do your characters. Only that way can you find what you’re capable of.
2. Make Choices (based on what you want) rather than Decisions (based on fear, your own history, what you expect the result to be).
3. We’re all tiny motes on a green ball of mud in an endless galaxy. It really doesn’t matter what you do.
4. Action breeds success.
Sunday
Slightly hungover, I came in looking for inspiration. Dr Craig Batty was first. After pointing out that many screen writing courses taught restrictions – formulas, structures etc, he tried to show us some ways of developing our creative side.
For example, take your main character and list a number of his/her characteristics starting with the letters in their name. Or create twenty images or actions to describe an emotion. Some good techniques.
Jurgen Wolf in the next session went a bit further, encouraging us to interact with our characters, acting them out as an actor would to answer question we (the screenwriter) would ask them. Entertaining and much more creative than answering those endless character questionnaires.
After that Chris shared the story of his short becoming Oscar nominated. Again, the same attitude – do something Exceptional. The one thing that staggered me was the size of the marketing campaign - £5,000 in short film competition entries – between 100 and 200 individual entries. It must get you down. But loads of that info available on his website.
Wow. What a few days. Met great people, came out with many ideas as to my next moves and can’t wait until next year. Than you all again, so much!
Monday 1 November 2010
London Screenwriting Festival 2010
Goodbye Festival.
But what a fantastic time - the perfect mix of eager, curious writers and warm, knowledgeable teachers. Thanks to one and all.
As for me? Think I'll start at the beginning. Sod that, before the beginning.
Pre-Festival warm up:
I was anal enough to book things early for this festival - so not only did I get a free 6 week course at the Met Film School, but I also managed to book myself a Euroscript look at my script and two pitching sessions (Friday and Saturday) to industry professionals on the weekend.
Despite this, I did manage to miss the first of the Met School courses - but I did my homework for the second, watching "A Prophet". Claire, hosting that week's course, gave us an intensive rundown on creating characters - the most revealing tit bit for me was the revelation that the CHARACTER ARC/TRANSFORMATION IS STRUCTURE: Set-up, develop and resolve character just as you do with plot. AHA! Maybe it's fairly obvious, but this way of looking at it really helped me.
Then Justin took over, leading us through a whirlwind of theoretical and practical studies. The first session looked at Michael Clayton and examined the question and answer rhythm, how the writer offers questions and holds the answers back till later to draw the audience ever further into the story. Worked for me.
The next week was a view of the mind-bending classic La Jetée - for those who don't know it, a 1962 black and white film constructed from still photos telling of a post-apocalyptic future where they experiment in time travel. Yep. Not a film to miss the first half of when you're late for class. Especially when you have to re-pitch it to the class later that same evening.
But I did escape that particular humiliation, and the next week we looked at pitching. Treat it as a conversation and enjoy it - then you'll be able to do it confidently - that was the line. Initially, say the title, genre, format (film/TV etc), then go on to introduce yourself with some blurb before throwing in the log line and maybe a very short precis. Wait for the breathless questions.
Tangentially, if you suffer from that furry little red thing called shyness (I think it lives in my throat) well, um, don't. But on a practical level here's a couple tips from a voice coach I saw recently (freebie at work - BBC radio). Men, when nervous, often purse and tighten their lips. This makes the sound coming from the mouth tight, monotone and dull (John Major). To avoid this, merely concentrate on opening your mouth as wide as possible when speaking - and I promise you, it won't look weird. Or, if it does, at least you'll look weird confidently. The theory is, not only do you sound better, but as you're concentrating so hard on opening your mouth, you forget to be nervous/shy.
On the distaff side, women often react to anxiety and stress by opening their mouth too wide, (I think. I didn't pay huge attention here) and as such, their voices when stressed often sound high pitched and nasal (Janet Street Porter). As I'm a bloke, the lovely voice coach at the Beeb didn't tell me how to overcome this one - but being aware is half the battle.
The penultimate session concentrated on writing individual scenes - eg. the Christopher Walker / Dennis Hopper scene from True Romance (fantastic). The main message: always try to find a new way of writing a scene - a way that reveals character.
In the last session we pitched our own ideas in practice for the festival. Mine was pretty appalling, but I got through it so that was a result for me. And pitching in front of a group and in front of one person, thankfully, is a whole different ball game.
I'll leave it at that tonight, and hopefully deconstruct my festival in the days that follow.
But what a fantastic time - the perfect mix of eager, curious writers and warm, knowledgeable teachers. Thanks to one and all.
As for me? Think I'll start at the beginning. Sod that, before the beginning.
Pre-Festival warm up:
I was anal enough to book things early for this festival - so not only did I get a free 6 week course at the Met Film School, but I also managed to book myself a Euroscript look at my script and two pitching sessions (Friday and Saturday) to industry professionals on the weekend.
Despite this, I did manage to miss the first of the Met School courses - but I did my homework for the second, watching "A Prophet". Claire, hosting that week's course, gave us an intensive rundown on creating characters - the most revealing tit bit for me was the revelation that the CHARACTER ARC/TRANSFORMATION IS STRUCTURE: Set-up, develop and resolve character just as you do with plot. AHA! Maybe it's fairly obvious, but this way of looking at it really helped me.
Then Justin took over, leading us through a whirlwind of theoretical and practical studies. The first session looked at Michael Clayton and examined the question and answer rhythm, how the writer offers questions and holds the answers back till later to draw the audience ever further into the story. Worked for me.
The next week was a view of the mind-bending classic La Jetée - for those who don't know it, a 1962 black and white film constructed from still photos telling of a post-apocalyptic future where they experiment in time travel. Yep. Not a film to miss the first half of when you're late for class. Especially when you have to re-pitch it to the class later that same evening.
But I did escape that particular humiliation, and the next week we looked at pitching. Treat it as a conversation and enjoy it - then you'll be able to do it confidently - that was the line. Initially, say the title, genre, format (film/TV etc), then go on to introduce yourself with some blurb before throwing in the log line and maybe a very short precis. Wait for the breathless questions.
Tangentially, if you suffer from that furry little red thing called shyness (I think it lives in my throat) well, um, don't. But on a practical level here's a couple tips from a voice coach I saw recently (freebie at work - BBC radio). Men, when nervous, often purse and tighten their lips. This makes the sound coming from the mouth tight, monotone and dull (John Major). To avoid this, merely concentrate on opening your mouth as wide as possible when speaking - and I promise you, it won't look weird. Or, if it does, at least you'll look weird confidently. The theory is, not only do you sound better, but as you're concentrating so hard on opening your mouth, you forget to be nervous/shy.
On the distaff side, women often react to anxiety and stress by opening their mouth too wide, (I think. I didn't pay huge attention here) and as such, their voices when stressed often sound high pitched and nasal (Janet Street Porter). As I'm a bloke, the lovely voice coach at the Beeb didn't tell me how to overcome this one - but being aware is half the battle.
The penultimate session concentrated on writing individual scenes - eg. the Christopher Walker / Dennis Hopper scene from True Romance (fantastic). The main message: always try to find a new way of writing a scene - a way that reveals character.
In the last session we pitched our own ideas in practice for the festival. Mine was pretty appalling, but I got through it so that was a result for me. And pitching in front of a group and in front of one person, thankfully, is a whole different ball game.
I'll leave it at that tonight, and hopefully deconstruct my festival in the days that follow.
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