SCRIPT EDITING FOR TELEVISION JULY 2018

Yes, I know it's been a while since I last wrote a blog post, I apologise. I've been quite busy with writing script reports for clients, taking meetings in the big smoke and finishing a treatment and a spec drama pilot. And if that wasn't enough, over the last couple of weekends I've also been in London for Yvonne Grace's SCRIPT EDITING FOR TELEVISION course.

And what fantastic weekends they were. I can't speak highly enough of Yvonne, she knows her onions and then some. I'm already having withdrawal symptoms. I and my fellow attendees had such a brilliant, informative and momentous time that we didn't want it to end, so we've asked Yvonne if she would consider carrying on the course one day a month over the next few months just so we can continue to get our fix of script editing goodness. For those of you who don't know who Yvonne is she honed her skills at the sharp end of TV drama working as a script editor for Eastenders and as a producer for Holby City amongst others.

I obviously can't go into great detail about the course content otherwise I'd give away all of Yvonne's secrets, but I can give you a brief summary of our shenanigans and the plentiful information that was shoved into our lugholes over those four days.

Saturday 21st - We learned about the Macro vs the Micro, how narrative works in TV, text and subtext, storylining, the peaks and troughs in stories, the job script editors do, how important they are and how to be a great one. We also learned about the A, B and C storylines and how they're used in TV drama, how to structure treatments, series bibles and writers' reports, series development and we closely examined character arcs over single episodes and the series as a whole... and that was just on the first day. Blimey!

Sunday 22nd - We looked at how each characters' story intertwines with others over the series, how to get into script editing, how to get experience, how to approach producers and execs, what to expect as a script editor, how story conferences work, the skills a script editor needs and what the story producer and script producer do - yes, they are two different people. Then we were visited by Holby City and Casualty exec producer Simon Harper, who gave up a couple of hours of his Sunday to chat to us about the importance of script editors and how script editing works on Holby City and Casualty.

Saturday 28th - We script edited a Pete Lawson episode of Eastenders, breaking down the A, B and C storylines, assessing what scenes worked or didn't and pointing out what bits of the script that halted the flow. Then we got to live script edit the man himself when Pete Lawson kindly dropped in for two hours and allowed us to talk over with him where we thought his script could have been improved. It was a brilliant opportunity to learn how to structure a positive meeting with a writer and get direct feedback from our notes. Thankfully we didn't reduce him to tears and he even came out for a drink with us afterwards. Thanks, Pete!

Sunday 29th - Sunday was Holby City day. We script edited an episode, all contributing to where we thought it succeeded or failed and then watched the transmitted episode, noting the changes that were made between the draft we had read and filming. It was great to see that we picked up on all the changes. Then in the afternoon, we were visited by freelance development script editor Lucy Hackney, who has worked for such companies as Red Planet. It was a wonderfully informative chat and she too came to the pub with us afterwards.

I had an absolute blast, learned so much that I'm still dizzy from all the information that was crammed into my head over the course of those four days. I can't recommend Yvonne's course highly enough, you should all make sure you book yourself on her next and buy a copy of her book too.

Happy writing!