LSWF 2012 ULTIMATE PREPERATION GUIDE

How To Get The Most Out Of The London Screenwriters’ Festival - The Ultimate 2012 Guide

Preparation

LSWF 2012 is six weeks away and by now, if you're serious about being a writer, you should be preparing for the event. Here’s a brief outline of what you should be doing in the weeks running up to the festival:

1. Buy your ticket if you haven't already.
2. Sign up for the speed pitching. It's a wonderful chance to get five minutes face-to-face with an agent or producer, and not an opportunity to be missed.
3. Make sure you have accommodation close to the festival. If you have to travel a fair distance every day you'll miss out on valuable networking time.
4. Practice, practice, and practice your pitches so you know them off by heart. You never know when you'll be asked to pitch and if you're not ready then you'll blow your chance (more on this later).
5. Check the list of speakers every couple of days, research them, choose the ones you want to listen to (or even approach to have a chat) and have a list ready for when the schedules are published. That way you can plan which sessions you want to see in advance.
6. Go on to the Private Delegate Network Page (only accessible when you've bought a ticket), research everyone on it, highlight people of interest you want to talk to and send them a preliminary email and arrange a meeting if possible. Remember though the delegate list will also have people on it from previous years who may not be going to this year’s festival, so it is well worth asking if they are.
7. Choose your projects wisely. I would suggest that you choose no more than three and make sure they're finished, proof read and the best you have.
8. Order at least 250 business cards, you'll need them. Make sure they're blank one side so people you speak to can write notes about you on them.

How To Prepare In More Detail

You've bought your ticket, printed off ten copies of your screenplay and now you're ready for LSWF 2012, right? Wrong!

It's not a matter of just turning up; you really need to plan for the festival to get the most out of it. If you don't then you might as well roll up your ticket, insert one end into your anus and light the other. No producer is going to see the genius of your screenplay, no agent your obvious talent, unless you approach the festival professionally and with at the very least a little forethought. You will only get out of the festival what you put in to it.

Research:

Above I talked about how you need to research your fellow delegates and speakers. This is very important. You’ll have an advantage over most of your fellow writers if you know who is going to be at the festival and what they are currently working on. There’s nothing worse than trying to talk to a well-known producer and not knowing what their last film was.

To give you an example I actually managed to get work from last year’s festival simply by scouring the delegate list. I discovered one producer who was looking for a writer for his project so I researched him and his company and then sent him an email to set up a meeting at the festival. To cut a long story short I will soon be starting the first draft of a feature film for him sometime towards the end of October when I finish the current project I’m working on. If I hadn’t done my research I would have missed the opportunity.

Pitching:

You should have already decided on the three projects you want to take with you to the festival, remembering to print off one page pitches for these to hand out if requested. Don’t take full screenplays. If a producer is handed twenty screenplays and one, one page pitch, which do you think he’s going to read first? I saw someone hand a very well known and successful TV writer a full screenplay and a pitch in a large folder last year. He didn’t take it home with him. Would you want to be weighed down with all that paper for your train journey home? Stick to one-page pitches…trust me!

Your one pager should be written in the style of your project, so if it's a comedy then it needs to be funny, and remember to make it visual. If you don't know what I mean pop down to your local book store, pick up a few random novels and read their back covers. Their story is summed up there and you need to sum up your project in a similar manner. Like your screenplays; write, rewrite and rewrite again until they're as perfect as they can be.

What you also need to do is work out a sixty-second pitch for each project. Why sixty seconds? Anything longer and you risk sending the recipient of your pitch to sleep. Keep it short and then if they're interested they'll ask you questions about your project. If you drone on all they'll want to do is to get away from you as fast as they can.

The pitch should be split up like this: *

• Title - relevant to the script.
• Format - film, TV, etc.
• Genre - If you don't know what it is how can they?
• Compare it to something else that has gone before (It's similar to Quantum Leap, but with robot rabbits.)
• Then..."This is a story about... who...'

Once you've worked out your pitches for all three projects go and practice them. Pitch to friends, family, or to a video camera, so you can play it back and see for yourself how it works. Then practice some more, and more, so they eventually become second nature to you and you could even pitch them in your sleep.

Networking:

Business Cards: The most important tool you're going to take with you and the one most frequently overlooked. I took 250 with me last year - you can never have too many - and handed out a good proportion of them. I couldn't believe there were delegates at the festival that didn't have business cards and were writing their email addresses and phone numbers down on scraps of paper. It shows a total lack of professionalism not taking any with you. There is absolutely no excuse not to have any. Get them now!

Get at least 250, they don't have to cost much, don't have to be fancy - all they need is your name, what you do, your phone number and email address - and should be blank on one side. Why? Good question and the answer is simple.

When you collect cards from other people and you've finished having a conversation with them, write down the highlights of that conversation on the back of the card. Why write this information down on a separate piece of paper and risk losing it? This information is important for following up your new contact after the festival. You'll hopefully be talking to a lot of people and it will be difficult to remember every conversation. I have one card from 2010’s festival that simply says 'fork man' on the back and is still even now more than enough to jog my memory of who he was, what he did and more importantly what we talked about. Remember to keep the cards you collect safe. Hide them away in your bag so you don't risk losing them.

I made a conscious effort in previous years not to hang around with people I know. I wanted to meet new people and forced myself to go out of my way and talk to as many strangers as I could. This is your best option to make new, and possibly valuable, contacts. I did check in with my friends now and again and I'm glad I did, as one of them introduced me to a producer who offered me work at the 2010 festival.

I'm not naturally social so I know how difficult it is to walk up to a complete stranger and start talking to them, but I did it and towards midday on the second day I was really enjoying it. Push yourself to talk to people and try and remember they are probably just as nervous about talking to you as you are to them.

There are a few simple rules that will help you with this:

• Everyone likes people to show an interest in them. Ask them questions about their work and experience, rather than just barging in and telling them everything about yourself including your last trip to the doctor for that unexpected rash. If you show an interest in them, they'll naturally want to know about you and what you're working on.
• Listen carefully, make eye contact, smile often and make sure you show an interest. There's nothing ruder than answering someone's question only for them to start playing Angry Birds on their phone while you do. I usually walk away at that point, or stop talking until they start paying attention again.
• Always check the body language of the person you've met. If that person looks like they may be getting bored, stop talking about yourself and ask them a question about themselves to get the conversation back on track. If you keep yabbering on about you and your work they'll easily forget about you, or at least do their best to do so.
• Get there early and stay late. Network while you eat. Network at the bar. Network while you're having a quick ciggy. Network in the canteen queue. However, don't try and network in the toilet. Someone who is taking a private moment in a cubicle to empty their bowels might not take too kindly to you popping your head over the cubical wall and saying, 'Alright mate, how's your festival going?' Make the most of your networking time, because if you don't then others will.
• There will be a bar at the festival, but I suggest you don't drink, or if you do then just make it the one. People don't like being cornered by a slurring drunk waffling on about utter bollocks for several hours, giving them a hug and telling them they're their new best friend. Stay sober.
• Buy drinks for others, especially producers and directors. It's OK to get them drunk, as you might find them more open to your 197 page factual TV drama about the woman down the road who looks after stray cats, if they have been well lubricated in advance.

When the festival is over leave it a week before you start following up on those conversations. Send polite emails to everyone you met and talked to. There are no bad contacts so don't leave anyone out, as any single one of them could turn out to the one that helps move your career forwards.

Essential Items You Will Need To Take:

• Your LSWF ticket - DUH!
• Your 250 business cards - remember these are your most important tool.
• An empty business card box - to put all those valuable business cards in which you will collect from other people.
• A copy of the schedule - print one off from the website the day before you go and highlight the sessions you most want to attend. The schedule will most likely change anyway, but at least you'll have a basic one to refer to (There is a fantastic phone app this year that has the schedule, a map and a list of speakers included to help cut down on the things you need to carry. Download it now.)
• A map of Regents Collage - you need to know where you are going for each session.
• Several pens - in case one runs out, you lose one, or some thieving little git 'borrows' one.
• A small notebook - for the making of detailed notes about possible collaboration. You should always carry one anyway, to write down any ideas you might have.
• An A4 pad - for the writing of notes while listening to speakers.
• Ten copies only of the one-page pitches of the three projects you are going to take with you.
• Your three sixty-second pitches - do not read these out from your notes, they are only for back up.
• A fully charged spare battery for your mobile phone - you'll be surprised how quickly it will run out.
• Your thoroughly researched speaker and delegate list - with pictures so it's easier to spot people while you're there.
• Mints - no one wants to talk to someone whose breath smells like a camel's bum.
• Money - for the buying of sustenance and plying producers and directors with liquid 'YES' juice.
• A can of Red Bull - for the drinking of to keep your mind sharp should you suddenly find yourself flagging.
• A smile, a cheerful disposition and an eagerness to soak up every ounce of information and milk every networking opportunity.

Summing Up

• Remember your business cards, you'll need them.
• Remember your one-page pitches, but only hand them out if asked for one.
• Don't worry too much about missing a session if networking is going well, as the sessions are filmed and will be available on the delegates network after the festival.
• Don't hang around people you know, go and mingle, talk to as many new people as possible.
• Be brave.
• Ask them about what they do and what they're working on, show an interest in their work and don't rabbit on about yourself.
• Take every opportunity to network.
• Stick to one drink in the evenings at the bar, so you can continue to network and don't come across as a dribbling drunk.
• Buy people drinks; they'll love you for it.
• Turn up early, go home late.
• Make as many notes about what you learn as you can - remember to write these out in longer form as soon as you get home from the festival, as they won't make any sense in a months time.
• Be polite, friendly and professional at all times. You're promoting yourself here.
• Follow up any chats after the festival with an email.
• Listen, learn, absorb.
• There is no such thing as luck, only hard work and persistence pays off.

Have a great time, enjoy yourselves and come and say hello.

*Pitch format shamelessly borrowed from Julian Friedmann's session on pitching in 2010.

SWITCH OFF

Writing is a full time occupation. Even when I'm not actually writing I'm still thinking about it. Plotting, character, structure, dialogue, they're all there in my head floating around, changing, shifting, becoming something else. I even dream plots in my sleep. It can be a little exhausting sometimes, especially when I've got a job on.

It's important to switch off every so often just so my head can have a rest. Easier said than done. I was going to take a day off today, but guess what I lined up for myself... I plan to read a 'How To Get Into Television And Stay There' handout from Yvonne Grace, catch up on some TV, read a few chapters of Lee Child's Worth Dying For and write this blog post. Not exactly getting away from writing, plots and characters.

And there in lies the problem for me, I can't escape and to be honest I don't really want to. I love creating stories, characters and exploring other people's work, be it printed or visual. I love reading books and handouts which help me improve as a writer and a businessman. I love letting my mind wander over the plots I have created and seeing where they take me. I just can't stop.

I suspect there are some of you out there who have the same problem and some of you who are probably trying to puzzle out what I'm on about. I think it's important to actually take yourself away from your writing now again, even if it's for only a few hours, to still the brain and quieten the soul.

I'm going to follow my own advice. I'm going to forget about what I planned to do today. I'm going to lie on the sofa and listen to music instead. Then I'm going to go for a walk with my youngest son. Then I'm going to pick the eldest son up from school. Then I'm going to eat my lunch. Then I'm going to play with both my children all afternoon until my dear lady wife comes home from work.

Probably.

OPTION

For those of you who might not know my award wining screenplay Faith has been optioned by Starfront Pictures Ltd and Johnny Kevorkian, director of the acclaimed British horror The Disappeared. But what does an option mean exactly?

The 'option' means Johnny has taken out the exclusive right to develop the project for a set period of time. When he's happy with the screenplay and he's secured financing he can exercise the option and take the project into production. However, an option is no guarantee the screenplay will reach the production stage. There are many factors that can contribute to the option being dropped, or simply lapsing. Johnny might not be happy with the results of the rewrites, or the project might fail to secure financing for example.

So the hard work doesn't stop when you get an option. In reality it's only just beginning. In the next few weeks I'll be given notes from Johnny with which to rewrite the screenplay and I'll have to work hard to deliver a draft he wants to take forward. I can't be complacent and I can't be precious about my screenplay. I have to be flexible enough to incorporate Johnny's ideas with my own and produce something we are both happy with.

It's also worth mentioning my screenplay isn't the only one Johnny has optioned. He's a director looking for his next project so it makes good business sense to option at the very least a couple of screenplays that interest him, so if one project falls through he's not left empty handed, with the need to start again from scratch.