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.