the business and craft of writing
Today I’m sitting by the phone waiting to hear if I’ve got my second short film commission. While I’m doing that, I’ve just been reading through an excellent series of articles by Danny Stack on how to become a professional screenwriter. They’re so good, in fact, that I thought I’d share them with you:
If I do get that commission, I might just try and put step 5 into practice. Wish me luck!
In my last post on Filmmaking: the screenwriter’s role I told you how many people, including the director, can suggest or even demand a script rewrite. So I’ve asked an up and coming writer / director for his perspective on the creative process.
Alex Kinsey is a 28 year old actor and director. Acting work has included short films, TV dramas, commercials and theatre work. He wrote, directed and produced his first short film ‘Smile’ – a strange tale of a sinister meeting in the ‘Get Carter’ car park in Gateshead. Alex directed the short film ‘Maybe One Day’ through the Stingers scheme in 2008. Another recent short film he wrote and directed, ‘The Other Woman’, can be seen on Northern Film and Media’s website.
Continue reading ‘Screenwriting: the director’s perspective’
After twelve months of hard graft I was thrilled to finally see my four-minute short film, ‘Enemy Lines’, on the big screen. ‘Enemy Lines’, the story of a British soldier returning from Iraq and witnessing an anti-war protestor getting mugged, was one of 11 short films produced and screened through Northern Film and Media’s Stingers programme in Newcastle upon Tyne.
Now I’m ‘officially’ a screenwriter, with my very first commission in the can. Here’s what I’ve learnt so far about the writer’s role in the filmmaking industry:
Continue reading ‘Filmmaking - the screenwriter’s role’
As some of you may already know, I’ve just made my first foray into screenwriting and have received a commission for a short film - ‘Enemy Lines’, produced by FNA Films. It will be screened next month in Newcastle. Since receiving that commission I’ve written another short film and have been hired to write the pilot of an animated children’s series - first draft in the bag.
Up until now I have simply been writing on instinct. I felt like a bit of a fake because I hadn’t read any screenwriting books and wasn’t fully aware of the ‘proper’ way of doing things. I had simply downloaded the free Scriptsmart Gold software from the BBC Writers’ Room and figured it out by trial and error and looking at sample scripts.
Continue reading ‘Screenwriting for Dummies’
It’s good to see someone else analysing a ‘product’ from a writer’s perspective. The good folk over at the Script Factory are running a monthly script analysis of a popular film to see what makes it tick. This month it is Pixar’s delightful Wall-E. For those of you who haven’t seen it yet, check out the trailer:
I just came across this excellent post on pitching scripts. It’s about a year old, but, like good wine, holds its age well. While you’re there have a dig around the site. There are links to all sorts of interesting articles and information on writing for performance. Check it out at Writing for Performance and while you’re there, say I sent you!
In our series on scriptwriting (see writing short films and writing for radio) we have explored some of the outlets for writing for performance. This week we speak to ex-Eastenders writer Richard Stockwell about writing for television.
Richard was an actor who had time on his hands, so started writing plays, then moved into television. His plays Bad Blood and Killing Time have been produced many times, in 10 countries and in several languages - most recently touring in California. He wrote for the BBC’s premier evening soap Eastenders for two years. He is also the Programme Leader for Drama and Scriptwriting at Northumbria University. Continue reading ‘Writing for Television’
My very first script has been included in the Stingers 6 programme with Northern Film and Media in Newcastle upon Tyne. FNA films are producing and Michael Steele, directing. It is funded by the UK Film Council and will be screened at a film festival in October. I wrote the script for ‘Enemy Lines’ (about a British soldier returning from Iraq and getting caught up in an anti-war protest) while attending a 10-week short film course at the Tyneside Cinema run by Peter Dillon. Rather than setting myself up as an expert with one film not-quite-in-the-can, I asked Peter to tell us more about writing short films. Continue reading ‘Writing Short Films’
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