Highly recommend, not only for the no nonsense approach of Industiral's Script's main man Evan Leighton-Davis, but also for the extensive support and backup they give you. This includes a 50 page handout of the course, including a very extensive list of industry contacts - one that would (and probably has) taken years to build - and doing a sample script report after the course and getting feedback on it from the course tutor, Evan.
I'll give a few highlights from the course, but first a disclaimer. Yes, I won this course. And yes, I won it through the UK Scriptwriter's Podcast - again. Those of you who've paid attention will rember I won another of their competitions in January. Now before it starts to look too bad I must stress I've never met Danny or Tim - and besides, Evan (who I hadn't met till I did the course) chose the winner of this competition, not Danny or Tim. I felt a little guilty when I won this second prize, but hey, what ya gonna do? It did apparently come up in conversation between Evan and Danny after Evan announced the winner. ANyway, hope my roll keeps...rolling.
The course was great - here's a few highlights but if you've got the cash and are wanting to be a script reader this is the one to do. Gonna bullet point your arse:
In script reports:
- don't fence sit
- do refer to recent movies
- even if it's a bad script, write a good logline.
- don't waffle.
- Synopsis - dot' do this: and then this happened, and then this, and then this - NO, Peter, NO (who's Peter? Peter is the bad script reader).
- Pace is the result of Structure (with a capital S).
- look at the big picture - how does the script sit in comparison to others? Is it designed correctly, with characters that complement each other and naturally create tension - indeed, are there enough or too few characters? Does the scripts world/arena work or is it unbelievable?
- is the story too simple or complex?
But, where this course excelled was the time it devoted to actually finding a reading job. Evan went into depth with information, strategies, tips and personall anecdotes on how to get those in demand jobs - and all very good advice it was too. Ultimately what I took away from the course was the necessity of strategising one's career - building a brand and working with the best. This applies in any profession, but even more so in the media, where name recognition is everything.
So just make sure that whatever you do - be it writing scripts, writing script reports or riding a laser-beam to Jupiter, make it very, very good - just like Evan's course.
In a coupe weeks I'm off to the BBC Writersroom Writer's Festival in Leeds, so hope to be blogging some about that.
Keep writing!
