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!

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.