The World At Your Feet

A while back I sent World Productions a copy of From This Day Forth. They read it, liked it, but rejected it because it was too similar to something they had just done. However, they went on to say that they loved my writing and thought that I have a talent worth pursuing and developing. They then gave me an open invitation to send them more of my work.

So another script has come back from World Productions this time Where Angels Fear To Tread. Again they liked it but it wasn't something they wanted to pursue at this time.

What do I send them next? I can't decide so I'm going to let you do so. Here are the two choices and their brief outlines.

Title: Sins Of The Father
Genre: Feature thriller/drama
Outline: Will Pearce (17) escapes his abusive stepfather and mother to return to his home town, and the father he hasn’t seen for eighth years. Will soon discovers his childhood memories are a lie as he struggles to come to terms with the violent world his father, Steve, inhabits. But his plans for a reconciliation are thrown into jeopardy when an attempt is made on Steve’s boss’s life and Will finds himself sucked into a life or death game of cat and mouse.

Title: Mr. Valentine
Genre: Feature comedy
Outline: The grass is greener on the other side. At least dreamer Barnaby Valentine believes this until his wish is granted and all women suddenly find him irresistible. It isn’t long before Barnaby realises even the greenest grass hides weeds and the odd obsessed teenage girl camping out.

In the best Big Brother traditions; which one goes, you decide? Please tell me which you think I should send and why?

Being Professional Part 1

There are thousands of us out there so how can we as scriptwriters make ourselves stand out from the crowd? By being professional, that's how.

Here is the first in a series of how to be professional starting with that must have tool of any writer, the business card.

A business card is essential for a writer because it's your point of contact. It not only holds your contact information, but it also tells the recipient that you're serious about writing and that your script wasn't written on the back of cereal packet during the breakfast the previous day (it might have been but we'll discuss presentation in another blog). It also tells the recipient that you're prepared to put yourself out there.

You don't have to have a fancy one like I do, a plain one, print on one side, with your name, occupation and contact details will do. Don't worry too much about cost because even if you only get a commission from one of those cards it will have been worth it. So make sure to get plenty printed. I found five hundred to be a good number.

I decided to spend a little more money on my cards and had a template designed especially for it. If you look closely at the card you can see that the script in the background is one of my own. No one will ever notice, but I know it's there and I get a kick out of it.

But having a business card is no good unless you're prepared to use them. Keep a small amount on you at all times (because you never know when you might bump into Russell T Davies or Ridley Scott) and hand them out when you meet people in the industry, or to people with contacts within the industry. I paper clip one to every letter or script that I send out. Most come back, but a few have been kept.

It's not uncommon in meetings for people to swap business cards. If someone gives you a card give them one of yours and keep their card in a safe place. If someone doesn't give you a card then give them one of yours anyway. Remember, you're promoting yourself here.

Use it, that's what it's there for.

Cat In The Hat

I have a hat. It's not any old hat. It's a writing hat. Terry Pratchett has a hat and now so do I.

You might ask yourself why does a hat make so much difference to your writing? It's because the brim of the hat is in my view and blocks anything that might distract me above it. Think of it as the same sort of thing as blinkers for horses. I'm less distracted when I wear it.

Besides it makes me feel more like a writer, it puts me in the mindset so I can sit in front of my computer for several hours and do that little something that eludes even the best of us at times - actual writing. It focuses me.

What do you guys and gals wear/or do to facilitate the flow of words that will one day become screenplays?

Ve Ver The Dogs of Var

Yesterday was my stag do. At 9am we went paintballing and as you can see from my wounds I got hit several times, including once on the jaw. That was very painful. It was so hot running around in those woods we were sweating buckets, but it was cracking laugh despite the fact there isn't a part of my body that doesn't hurt. My legs hurt so much from all that running around I can hardly walk today.

After paintballing everyone piled around to my house to watch the football (see Olaf, I told you all Swedes were rubbish, everyone kept yelling, "4-4-2 not 4-5-1 you dozy Swede"). After showering and downing two pints of water to regain some lost fluids we started on the beer. Two cases were quaffed before the final whistle had blown. During extra time we had a pizza delivered and the pizza delivery girl came and watched the football with us until it went to penalties, when she jumped back on her moped and raced to her next delivery to watch the penalties. I knew if it went to penalties we would lose, we always do. We can't take penalties for shit.

After the game we went into town. I would report what happened here but for some funny reason I can't remember a great deal. I think I must have been mugged of my memories because my head really hurt this morning. Some of the things that did come back to me during today include; lots of shots including sambuca, a never empty bottle of lager that changed flavour every time I drank from it (At one point it even tasted of pears), exploding a 2ltr bottle of diet coke using a packet of Mentos (you put the sweets in the coke bottle and then stand back to watch as the sweets react with the bubbles and send a fountain of coke 20 feet into the air which drenches your brother's trousers), losing a shoe, running down the middle of a main street without my trousers or boxers on screaming at the top of my voice, playing Halo 2 really badly on the X-Box 360 until 4am and being told to F#%k off by Susie when I woke her for the seventeenth time to tell her I loved her.

Susie woke up the next morning to be greeted by the sight on the left, a real sleeping beauty. I'm not really convinced that she had to take that picture to remind me of my stag do for all eternity. Still, it was a good sleep and much needed.

To sum up it was a wonderful day one I am finally recovering from at 9.30pm.

Festival / Snorefest?

Today I attended the New Writers Day at the Cheltenham Scriptwriters' Festival 2006. When it was originally advertised I didn't fall into the category of Professional Delegate according to the wesite's guidelines - "This part of the Festival is generally for writers who have been optioned, produced or who have a projects that has been accepted in competition by recognised screen development agencies." So I signed up for the New Writers Day at £90.

I received an email a week before asking me to fill in a tick list of the sessions I wanted to attend - "Please find attached a tick sheet containing the session for Tuesday 27th June. Would you be able to tick which ones you are interested in and return to me, we want to make sure that everyone will get to the sessions of their choice." When I got there I was told that people had to sign up to the pitching sessions on their arrival, something as far as I was concerned I had already signed up for on the above tick list. I was told that this was not the case and that all the pitching sessions had now been booked up and I couldn't get on one. This was the main focus of my day and I was quite furious that I wasn't allowed to attend when as far as I was concerned I had already booked my place.

To make matters worse the rest of the events/presentations were basic at best, not really geared to what I would call New Writers trying to break into the industry. The guests simply went over stuff I already knew. It was all basic stuff aimed at people who have just decided to take up writing and not those who have been writing for some while and want a little more insider knowledge to help them along.

Most of the presentations were 45 mins long and so hurried that they were brushing over large chunks of information. The question and answer sessions at the end lasted no longer than 10 minutes allowing for 2-3 questions only. The delegates were then hustled out like sheep to the next presentation by a woman with radio and headset/microphone.

14.00 - 14.45pm Getting in - A Pitching Case Study the fourth presentation was by far the worst. The first 20 minutes were taken up by the presenters telling us their bios, which we already had in our welcome pack. They then talked about how shit the industry was at letting talent in for the next 15 minutes and then during the last five they answered two questions from the audience.

I staid for one last presentation on the legal side of things (contracts, etc) and was treated to a slide show that was brushed over so fast I didn't have time to make any notes. By this time I had had enough and I left for the two and a half hour journey home.

It was a total waste of time as far as I was concerned and I will be writing an email asking for my money back.

UPDATE: I think my lack of enjoyment can be put down to my expectations. Having a degree in scriptwriting I knew pretty much everything that was covered at the New Writers' Day. I was kind of expecting the day to be aimed at those writers who hadn't yet had a sale/commision/option. I wasn't expecting it to be aimed at those people just taking up the craft. 75% of the people who have contacted me seem to agree.

I have been reliably informed by Danny Stack that the Professional Delegates Festival is a winner. I shall be attending that next year.

Forty Key Scenes

Maybe I should have posted this before everyone started their 14 day feature challenge? It's a simple device I use to plan out a script to make sure it flows properly. Here's how it works.

Key scenes are the major turning points in your script, inciting incidents, points of no return and major character obstacles. Simply put they are the important points of plot and character development for your main story.

They should roughly be spread out like this; 10 key scenes for act one, 20 for act two and another 10 for act three. Key scene 10 should be your first turning point and the end of act one, key scene 20 the second turning point and the midway point, key scene 30 is the third turning point and the end of act two, and key scene 40 the final scene.

If you write a paragraph for each key scene you then have a rough layout of your plot. Of course you don't need to stick exactly to the 40 scenes, these are just a guideline to the key moments in your plot. Other scenes should be inserted to cover sub plots, build and show character and move the plot along.

I hope you find this a useful tool as I certainly have.

14 Days And Counting

It has begun. 14 days to write a script, or in my case to rewrite a script. OK, I'll be honest it's actually 12 days as I've only started this morning.

The quickest I've ever written a feature script was in three months. That was Sins of The Father for my final year project at university. We had no other choice than to finish it in those three months but at least we had six months to prepare for it before we started.

The reason I chose to do a rewrite instead of starting a new feature script is that Mr. Valentine has so far taken something nearing four years to complete. Not that I've been writing it for four years, it's just that most of that time it has been sat gathering dust. I've decided to lose one character and a couple of subplots to make the film tighter and give it a better, more logical ending.

I am very interested in the write a feature in fourteen days idea and I think I'll even give it a go again sometime soon. I do have a feature idea ready to go so this is just the motivation I need to get it done. The only reason I haven't before is that I was reluctant to spend another year or so writing one and not doing much work on other projects. I think I'll give myself the two weeks before my wedding to complete it that way I have a self-imposed time limit and two weeks off afterwards to clear my head before I read it.

I had better crack on with this one now though, so I'll see you all soon.

Dom's Life Rules

Four rules I live my life by that have helped me become a better writer.

(1) Change The Way You Look At Life.

If you think of yourself as unlucky you will see bad luck everywhere. With the glass half full the unlucky person will say, "I've only got a bit left." The lucky person will say, "It's not empty and I didn't pay for it."

(2) Make Opportunities.

The more you try the more opportunities open up to you. If you have a script you want to send out to producers then follow the carpet bombing method. The more people it is sent to the more chance there is of it landing on the right persons desk at the right time.

(3) What's Important To You?

Take a little time now and again to slow things down and reflect on what's important to you.

(4) Expect Good Fortune.

Believe good things will happen even when bad things are happening. Never give up, only unlucky people give up. Lucky people keep going and eventually get their reward.

I am Buddha, hear me roar.....meowwwwwww.

Will They; Won't They?

I have just emailed the second draft of my script to the production company. Now I'm scared.

This has been a rollercoster ride for me and a real eye opener. I think I've been through about every emotion there is with the second draft. I haven't doubted myself so much for so long. But now isn't the time to doubt as I've sent it; now all I can do is wait. I've followed their notes but there is always the chance they won't like what I've written and drop the project. I have no idea how I'll react if they do.

My other half keeps telling me to be positive about it. The thing is I am normally a very positive person. My positivity is infectious and most people can't help being positive about things too while I'm around. I'm not arrogant, or at least I would hope I don't come across like this, I just have an unfailing belief in myself and I can't look at life in any other way than 'the glass is half full'. Half full is infinitely better than just plain empty. So why if I'm normally so positive am I acting like a paranoid freak?

It matters, that's why! Everything I've done in the last ten years has led to this day. I need to get this option on my script to validate those last ten years and the direction I have decided to go with my life. And I need the money.

Have you guys wanted anything so much you have almost burst?

Rewrite All Right

Your eyes are bleeding and you can't feel your legs. You've been sat at your computer for so long you've forgotten what 'outside' looks like. Rewrites are hell!!!!

Rewrites make you paranoid, as you're constantly questioning what you've written. "Is it good enough?" "Does this character work in this scene?" "Are my brains dribbling out of my nose?" You start to second guess yourself over the rewrite you're doing for a production company. You've read their notes several times and you worry even more that you're not quite getting it right. It seems to matter more when you're writing from someone else's notes. It matters when there's a chance it might get made, so instead of writing something and being happy with it you keep looking at it and asking yourself, "is it really good enough?"

Then you start to become paranoid about yourself, "am I really any good?" And that's when you become paralysed, your fingers poised on the keyboard but the connection between your creativity and your fingers broken. Amazingly the only thing that does work are your tear ducts.

You begin to realise you've been so tied up in your work you're neglecting other things. Your girlfriend pops her head around the door and asks, "I need some new shoes." "Fine," you say, "just don't bother me again, I'm busy." Before you know it she's bought two pairs of shoes, a pair of riding boots and a £45 dress from Debenhams. Now your wallet's paranoid too. And amazingly your tear ducts still work.

In the end you just give in. The newly rewritten script is shoved in an envelope, sealed and addressed. "Right, that's it," you say as you leave the flat for the first time in weeks to post your work of art, feeling dizzy on all that fresh air.

You get back to the flat and sit down in front of the computer again. You rip open the envelope and throw the script into the bin, "OK, just one more rewrite and then I'll post it." You're not surprised to find that your tear ducts still work.

Drink Of Choice

Most scriptwriters I've know love their beer. Is it alcoholism or is it something about the business that drives a scriptwriter to drink? Or is it a little of both?

While I was at Bournemouth University doing a BA (Hons) degree in Scriptwriting For Film and Television it was the norm to discuss your work, or other's work, over a few beers in the student union bar. Even the lecturers were partial to a few pints.

So what is your drink of choice?

Procrastination

Procrastination is a trap anyone can fall into. It's trapped me now as I'm meant to be doing a rewrite but I'm writing this instead. I'll start my writing in a moment, but first I'll go and make myself a cup of tea.

It's an easy trap to fall into and one that's hard to get out of. "I'll just check my emails," or any number of things can get in you way and interrupt your flow. So how can you avoid it? Here's my guide to the essentials.

When you get out of bed in the morning only allow yourself to do the following - Go to the loo and eat breakfast. If this takes more than half and hour you're procrastinating (or you might be constipated in which case I suggest laxative). Once done sit in front of your computer and start writing. It's that easy, but yet it's also so difficult. "But what about a shower and brushing my teeth?" What about them? You're alone in the house so who's going to care that your breath smells, or that you haven't shaved in a week, that your hair has enough grease in it to fry chips and that you've been wearing the same underpants for the last four days. What's important is that you sit in front of your computer and write. No looking out of the window, no checking your emails, no checking the news on TV, no playing your X-Box, no reading the paper and no making a cup of tea every five minutes. Set yourself a time to start and a time to finish and don't let you bum move from that computer chair until that time is up. And above all write, write like your life depends upon it.

"But what if I have a block?" Just write. Write anything, it doesn't matter what just as long as you write. It may well be rubbish but when you come to do the rewrite you can sort it out then, what you need to do is fill those pages. Don't worry about quality for the moment it's quantity that matters more at this stage.

There is one important question I ask myself every morning, "What is a writer?" If you answered with anything other than, "Someone who writes," or you had to think about it, then you're already procrastinating. Go and bloody write!!!

Olaf Lovin'

Where has Olaf Legend gone? Has he become a victim of his own success?

We all loved Olaf, or at least most of us did. There were a few who sent him hate mail, but then if you write about your mother you have to expect her to hit back. So why did Olaf court such adoration and hate in equal amounts?

Olaf to me summed up everything that is writing; the seemingly constant rejection, the paranoia, the self-doubt, the ridicule from your so called friends when you tell them what you want to do with your life, the constant search for validity and the hope that one day it'll all be worth it. And on his journey he made us laugh. We thank you for that, Mr. Legend.

So why has he disappeared? I can only assume it all got too much for him. Poor lad, we'll miss him. RIP my friend.

What is you favorite Olaf Legend moment and why?

Vanishing Act

Following on from the last post, and after reading Danny's post earlier today, I can't help feeling that a lot of good British sci-fi shows have been unnecessarily axed after only a season or two. We are talking good quality drama with engaging characters and innovative plots. So why are great shows like Hex, The Vanishing Man and Ultraviolet disappearing from our screens?

At first I thought maybe it's because these shows can't compete with American imports? British shows like Ultraviolet provide great drama but the only thing I can see that they lack compared to American shows are visual effects. American shows have bigger budgets so more money is obviously spend on special effects and CGI. British TV simply can't match this but surely that means the writing has to be better? If this is so why have shows, such as above, vanished from our TV screens so quickly? I don't know the answer and there are probably multiple answers, a different one for each programme.

So fellow bloggers which British TV programme do you wish they would bring back and why?

Hexed

So another popular programme has been axed from our screens.

Last week Richard Woolfe, Sky One's newly appointed Director of Programmes, wielded the axe for the second time this month. Not one, but two flagship programmes of Sky One are now no more.

What is it with new Directors of Programming that they feel they have to start with a clean slate when they take over? Popular and innovative shows get the axe simply because they were the brain child of their predecessor and not because they were losing ratings. Surly any self-respecting DOP would want to keep a successful show because after all their job relies on good ratings? Or is it an act of ego?

It appears to me that a new DOP simply wants to take credit for their own shows and not the shows of their predecessor. They can't be seen to benefit from someone else's work so they axe them with scant regard to the wishes of the viewing public.

Hex was one of the few successful British Sci-fi series that could compete on the same level with anything the Americans could throw at us. So what is Richard Woolfe going to replace it with? Reality shows are at the top of his wish list apparently. No doubt we'll see several new shows with the world CELEBRITY in them, featuring some unrecognisable people who's only claim to fame is that they one appeared in the Big Brother house for about thirty seconds, or someone who once dated Jade Goody. We lose good quality drama for that? Thanks a lot Richard Woolfe, lets hope you're not in your job for long.

Spin Off - Turn Off

New Earth didn't really get the new series of Dr. Who off to a good start, but Werewolf more than made up for it... until the end. What a blatant plug for the new spin off show Torchwood.

I'm not opposed to spin offs, in fact I'm rather looking forward to the much darker Torchwood, but when I read today on the Broadcast website that yet another spin off was being planned I couldn't help but think that maybe they're milking it all a little too much. With CBBC planning a cartoon of Dr. Who aimed at younger children and Jetix Europe confirming that they are going to make a CGI version of K-9, could my favorite programme be about to suffer from overkill?

Yes, I understand that programme makers want to exploit the audience's thirst for all things Dr. Who but doesn't flooding the market with the product shorten it's life? We all know what happened to Star Trek when the producers created new shows to satisfy public demand; the show failed. It failed because to satisfy that demand quality had to give way to quantity and because of this old stories were remarketed with new crews. The show had nothing new to say and the audience soon became tired and moved on.

It's obvious that more money has been spent on the new Dr. Who series but the scripts have still been a little raw in places, especially the first episode New Earth. I'm worried that in their desire to satisfy demand quality might be lost and in a season or two we might well see the demise of Dr. Who from our screens once more.

You Can Not Be Serious

One of my fellow course mates (who shall from now forth be known as CM) has left the sandy beaches of Bournemouth and made the move to the bright lights (and dingy streets) of London.

After graduating five years ago, despite a short lived attempt dabbling in computer game writing, he has never tried to follow a writing career. In fact he's actively avoided it. CM felt very strongly his degree was worthless and was very skeptical regarding his fellow graduates' chances of making it in the film and television industry. It came as a shock to me therefore, that he has quit his job and moved to London with the intent of starting a writing career.

Always one to offer encouragement and support I text him to let him know that if he needed any advice he should give me a call. No reply. Thinking he might have changed his number I emailed him a couple of weeks later telling him about my fellow bloggers and how forthcoming they are with advice, as well as offering advice on which books to read to help him on his chosen career path. I even offered him an old version of the writing software I use to help him with his writing. Still no reply.

I know we never saw eye to eye on everything and he may on the odd occasion have had good reason to think me an idiot, but to turn away free help, help that he obviously needs, seems to me to be very silly. He's in London, not earning any money, living off his girlfriend's wages, with no contacts in the industry and with no portfolio of work. I can't help thinking he's making a mistake and that maybe he's not really that serious about a writing career after all. But then it's his mistake to make I suppose.

All I can do is offer my help and let him decide if he wants to take it.

Near Death Experience

I had a near death experience over the weekend. It was one of those life changing brown trouser moments that provide clarity and the need to change your underpants. Let me explain.

Picture it; Dom Carver on a camping trip with the outlaws, in Porlock, north Somerset. "Lets go for a drive," Steve, my future brother-in-law, suggested. I wanted to go and watch the football but I got dragged along against my will. "Let's visit the Valley Of The Rocks," said Steve with glee. I hate glee, glee means trouble. Glee is the Devil laughing in your face and stamping on your bollocks for good measure.

Once we had gone past the Rocks (very exciting they were too - big granite shaped rock type.... well, rocks) Steve decided to drive us along a single track coast road overlooking a huge cliff, one lacking a barrier between us and the 200ft drop to the rocks below. Now Steve likes large vehicles. I'm rubbish with anything like this so as far as I'm concerned Steve was driving a tank (think something along the lines of the A-Team van... but bigger). We were fine until we were headed back down and met another tank coming the other way. There was physically no room for us both to pass.

Perhaps I should have mentioned before that I suffer from vertigo, so it is safe to say I wasn't enjoying the trip anyway. Steve pulled over to his side (the one without the barrier and the very long drop) to let the other tank past. I was screaming at this point and, I'm not ashamed to admit, touching cloth. There was literally one inch of mud separating us from a tumble to our deaths. As I looked down out of the window in horror the one inch of mud decided to do exactly what I expected us to do a second later. The tank started to slide over the edge.....

When I awoke I expected to be very squashed at the bottom of the cliff melded with the twisted wreckage of the tank. Instead I awoke to Steve laughing in my face and to find we had actually made it down the track and were now parked on a wide road with no cliff-drops in site.

I learnt three things that day:

1. Never go camping with your other half's family.
2. Always take plenty of clean y-fronts with you.
3. If the football's on then go and bloody watch it.

A lesson well learnt.

Cut, Slash & Hack

I'm rewriting Where Angels Fear To Tread episode one of a six part drama series. The page count started out as 90 but I want to cut it down to 60 to make it a tighter script. I was dreading it, as there are some truly great scenes.

However, knowing you've got to lose 30 pages really focuses the mind. While I was working on it today I realised I had tried to do too much with character in the first episode and that was watering down what could be a tense drama. I started to cut several scenes (which I shall probably use in later episodes) and one subplot that were only slowing down the story. Before I knew where I was I had lost over ten pages of script. I thought the process would hurt but instead I found it exhilarating. When I read the first 20 pages again there were no wasted lines.

I learnt a valuable lesson today; kill your babies. No mater how well a line of dialogue or a scene is written, no matter how much you love it, if it doesn't contribute to the story or character then it needs to be cut. I cut a lot of my favorite lines and scenes today and now the script is looking much sharper. I'm not saying it's done yet but it's a lot closer than it was.

The Next Step

As some of you may be aware (if you have been reading the blog on my website) I was contacted on my birthday by Celtic Films who expressed an interest in my 90 minute one off drama From This Day Forth.

I've been after this for years and now I've sobered up after my birthday I've realised it's finally here, and to be honest I feel a little lost. Don't get me wrong I know where I go from here (a re-write from their notes), I just feel strange. For the last five years I've been so focused on getting interest in my scripts I never gave any thought to anything beyond that. Now I have to and it's a little more daunting than the first step.

I have faith in my ability and I'm looking forward to the next exciting challenge of my chosen career. There is some hard work ahead of me but I have the tools to cope with it. It just came out of the blue and caught me a little unawares I suppose.

I can't wait to get my hands on those notes.