Life On Mars

Life On Mars has come to an end. I haven't written about the ending before because I wanted to examine the final episode from all angles, and there were so many. That's what good drama leaves you with; it answers some questions but allows the viewer to come to their own conclusions on others. Good drama is discussed long after it has ended.

So was Sam really in the past or was he mad? Here are my own conclusions.

For me Sam had been transported back in time after his accident. When he returned to the future he realised that he belonged, and could do more good, in 1973. Sam wasn't really living in 2006, he was just existing, going through the motions. In 2006 Sam was a very small cog in a very large machine, with very little influence on the world he inhabited. He just didn't feel he belonged. Realising this he committs suicide and returns to 1973, a place where he feels alive.

This view of the ending can be disputed and this is what I mean by 'good' drama. You could argue that Sam was in fact from 1973 and because of the childhood trauma, revealed in the final episode, he had created the vision of the future to cope with the loss of his parents. 2006 was all in his imagination, an illusion reborn from a recent accident. Going back to 'his' 2006 Sam was having a breakdown. Making a conscious decision to stay in 1973 he finally saved himself and his sanity.

These are only two interpretations of the ending and I'm sure others have come up with many more.

And then of course there's the ending I would have written.

Sam discovers Gene Hunt was the person who ran him over in 2006 and to get home Sam has to destroy Gene Hunt in 1973. However, by doing so he has to destroy the rest of the team, people he considers friends. Sam realises he can't do this and saves the team and Gene Hunt, sacrificing his own life for the sake of the others.

What did the finale of Life On Mars mean to you?

Five Goals

I've been tagged...WOO HOO!!!!!

1) To buy a house that I can afford, which has more than one room.

2) To afford my first child.

3) To make some money from this writing malarkey.

4) To write for Doctor Who.

5) To write my first novel this year.

To Swear Or Not To Swear?

Faith is coming together nicely but I'm having a bit of trouble deciding how much swearing is acceptable in a script.

As the script is set in the back streets of London, among the prostitutes and crack addicts, you have to accept there is going to be a few swear words in it. What I don't want to do is write so many it becomes almost farcical. I know SEXY BEAST is a film with a high swear count and that worked, but could I get away with a large count as a new writer? Would production companies avoid a script with lots of swearing in it?

I would appreciate your thoughts on this matter.

Q&A With Steven Russell

Cletic Film's very own Steven Russell has kindly agreed to be my first Q&A victim. He's a very, very nice man.

Q: What's your job title?

Development Coordinator.

Q: What's your job description?

All incoming material (scripts, treatments, books) come through me, and everything stems from that. I ensure everything gets read in a timely fashion, and keep in contact with agents and writers that we like. I brainstorm ideas in-house for the type of TV and film we want to be making, and tally that material up with the right screenwriter. On projects already in active development, it's a case of constantly refining the material at a script stage, and how it is packaged for potential financiers and distributors.

Q: How did you get to where you are now?

Just working hard, and I don't think I ever turned down the chance to read anything. There was a point when I was reading scripts for five different companies at the same time. I just decided what I wanted to do, then did as much of it as I could.

Q: Describe a typical day?

There's no such thing as typical. I start every day reading the news, on Variety, Broadcast and Screen, as well as geek refuge ComingSoon.net. I end every day by going home. The stuff in between, thankfully, is rarely ever the same.

Q: What tool you use at work would you find it hard to live without?

Coffee.

Q: What attracts you to a project?

A hook. Always a hook; every screenplay should be instilled with rewarding arcs and characters that you are interested in, but combining this with a strong hook helps immeasurably. I am a strong believer that a script can be fun and potent at the same time, and there's nothing I loathe more than a bombastic screenplay, trembling under the weight of its own perceived drama. Levity is everything.

Q: What script (of an already produced and released film) do you wish you had discovered?

"Little Miss Sunshine". It's such a smart, self-enclosed piece of scripting but somehow still relates to the world it exists in.

Q: Are Celtic Films open to unsolicited submissions at this time?

No.

Q: What's the best way to approach Celtic Films?

Through your agent.

Q: Does Celtic support new writers?

Yes, but the position I'm in now means I don't read as much as I would like to. A writer not being protected by a fixed agent-client relationship is one reason (if by 'new' you mean unrepped), but also the fact that we are a business as opposed to a public service is another. If you saw our office, and indeed parts of my house, the amount of scripts to read is already an insurmountable pile.

Q: What advice do you have for new writers?

Make sure you're writing in the right medium, don't write selfishly, and write material that people are actually going to enjoy watching.

Q: What's your favourite film quote?

"Jaws", and "you're gonna need a bigger boat." What else is there to say? A moment of levity in a moment of tension, and for me, it still really sums up the fact that Brody doesn't quite feel a team with Quint and Hooper yet, hence "you're" and not "we're".

Thanks Steven.

Choices

I thought I knew which two of my shorts film scripts I was sending to this years BSSC. Then I let my wife read all of my back catalogue of short scripts and she chose another one. She said it was better than the one I wanted to send.

I don't know which to send now so I'm leaving the decision up to you lovely bloggers. The links to all three scripts are below (don't worry only ten pages each roughly). All you have to do is name the two you like the most in the comments and I'll go with the majority decision.

Thanks for your help.

The Dead Side Of Life.

Goodbye.

I Do?

Faithful

Faith is coming on in leaps and bounds, alternative plot lines are suggesting themselves on a daily basis. As I'm on a no rewrite policy I just add a script note so I will be reminded of these alternative ideas at a later date. Some might work better, others might not. God I love writing a new script, I've missed it so much.

It's hard to resist the urge to go back and rewrite what I've written, but so far I've succeeded. Every time I've been tempted I get up and have a quick wander around the room, or look out of the window, just to distract myself. It works.

However, one problem has reared its ugly head. I've found that I've named many of my characters with the same first letter. So far I have three 'F's, Frank, Faith and Flash, and two 'M's, Mary and Michael. With the names too similar it might cause confusion with the reader so I'm going to have to face facts and admit I will have to change some of the character's names. Again this is something I'll leave until the first draft is finished, I don't want to distract myself before I'm done.

Things are on track for an end of April finish.

Three Is The Magic Number

I hate rewriting, not because it's a never ending task, but because as writer you can get so involved in a script you become blinded to its faults. Then you're just rewriting for rewritings sake and not actually doing the script any good.

So after listening to Adrian Mead last week talk about his Power Of Three I put out some feelers offering to read other people's work. I received a couple of offers and was pleased with the results.

So now I'm going one step further. I'm going to start my own Power Of Ten group.

How's it going to work? I'm going to look for nine willing volunteers, who are prepared to read other people's work and ask questions about it. Then those nine people, and myself will swap contact details so that we all have nine people to send our work to, to be read. That way we don't have to spend time seeking new people to read our work, they are already there ready, willing and able.

So those of you that are interested please email me on my website email address and let's start helping each other and ourselves. I haven't presumed that those two people who have already swapped scripts with me would automatically want to be included in this. If you do then please email me.

Don't forget, this is as much for your benefit as it is for mine. We're here to help each other.

Look forward to reading your emails.

It Does Exactly What It Says On The Tin

THE LONG DISTANCE SCREENWRITER

'Adrian Mead's classes are brilliant - exciting, informative and
inspirational. Nobody does it better!' Alanna Knight Crime Writer

As an aspiring screenwriter you will quickly learn that the vast majority of
PAID work comes from companies and broadcasters based in London. People
will tell you that in order to get that work you need contacts and "Insider"
information. But what if you live hundreds of miles from the media
capital? How can you build your career?

Marc Pye, Rob Fraser, Louise Ironside and Adrian Mead are successful
Scottish based writers who have written for shows such as Eastenders, Waking
The Dead, River City, The Street, Holby City, Where The Heart Is, Taggart,
The Bill, Monarch Of The Glen and numerous other film, TV and radio
projects.

Come and discover how they got started and how you too can build a career as
a screenwriter. The details of the day are as follows:-

MORNING - Adrian Mead will teach the highly practical strategy that you
need in order to work as a "long distance writer".

1. PLANNING THE TRANSITION TO BECOMING A PROFESSIONAL WRITER - Financial.
Personal. Bursaries. Building a profile. Networking.

2. GETTING YOUR WORK READ

What to write - The most recent briefs from broadcasters, producers and
financiers.

What to send - Log Lines. One page Pitches. Treatments. Spec and sample
scripts.

Who to send it to - Current opportunities.

3. MEETINGS - Scheduling meetings. Cheap travel and accommodation deals.
Pitching at meetings. When to ask for expenses.

4. GETTING AN AGENT .

5. MANAGING REWRITES AND NEW WORK.

“Informative, informal, inspiring!” Peter Hynes

LUNCH BREAK

AFTERNOON - The afternoon panel session will give you the opportunity to
ask the writers about their experiences and gain career advice.

The panel will chat about their own approaches to the subjects covered in
the morning and their experiences of working in the industry. Discover how
they deal with script editors, tight deadlines and the challenges and joys
of working as a freelancer. This is also a unique opportunity for you to
learn how professional writers manage the balance between family and career
whilst working in such a highly competitive industry.

During the coffee breaks and a light lunch you will get the chance to
network with the other attendees. This is an great opportunity to make
contacts and gain info.

Attendees at our previous classes will know already that this will be an
extremely busy but fun day, packed with the most up to date and highly
practical information.

if you want to build a career as a professional screenwriter it is essential
that you understand the road ahead and have a strategy for reaching your
goal. That's what this class will give you.

“We all do the writing courses. We’ve been taught about Structure, Tone,
Theme, etc etc etc, and now we can write wonderful screenplays, but it’s just
a piece of paper. Adrian tells us how to go about getting it from that
piece of paper and onto a screen.” James Brannigan Glasgow

BOOK NOW!

Sat 9th June
St Columba's By The Castle Church Hall, Johnston Terrace Edinburgh
10.00 am - 4.30pm
COST £55 (inc VAT and light lunch)
CONTACT: info@meadkerr.com or 0131 554 4539

To see testimonials from previous class participants go to
http://www.meadkerr.com

The Insider's Guide For Writing TV

Saturday 17th March 2007. With three hours sleep (I worked Friday night) I found myself on a train to Waterloo at 6.30am. I was looking forward to it, meeting up with my blogger chums, and listening to what Adrian Mead had to say. I was so eager I arrived an hour early. Damn, I could have had an extra half hour or so in bed.

And there they were, the motley crew of bloggers; Lucy, Lianne, Good Dog, Pillock and Potdoll (hope I haven't missed anyone). Lucy and Lianne I remember from university, and it was good to finally put a face to the other names. I'm not surprised that Potdoll and Lucy get on so well, they're both as mad as March hares and lovely with it. Their enthusiasm for everything was infectious.

I was tired and worried that I would start nodding off during the seminar, and I didn't want to drink coffee because it's not pretty when I'm on coffee. I didn't need to worry about snoring in the seminar because it was so riveting I didn't feel sleepy once.

Adrian was very open, friendly and more than willing to answer people's questions even during the breaks. He even came to the pub afterwards, something that surprised me. Other industry professionals at festivals can't wait to get out of there, so it was refreshing to see that Adrian was happy to help us in any way he could. His enthusiasm during the day washed over us and no one felt embarrassed to ask questions or network during the breaks. My only regret is that I was too tired to take best advantage of this and I'm sure some people thought I was a mentalist when I zoned out and was staring into space while they were talking to me. I was paying attention, or at least trying my hardest to do so.

So what did Adrian have to say? A lot as it turns out and all of it useful, as my seven pages of notes can testify. Here's what Adrian covered.

- Researching the industry is important if you're going to be a part of it.
- Play nice. Be generous with your information. Be polite, helpful and above all open to other people's suggestion even if you don't always agree with them. Maybe you can come up with another way? Being negative is only going to bring you negativity.
- Why do you want to write? Looking at your motivations to take on the world of writing.
- Your voice. Plot or character? Current topics and how interesting is your particular slant on it?
- Your spec script (which will probably never get made but will get you work) should be what you want to write and shouldn't be constrained by budget concerns.
- Lose your fear of having your work stolen. It doesn't happen. Putting the copyright symbol all over your script screams of amateurism.
- Feedback, follow up contacts and meetings. People like it when you thank them for their time.
- The biggest reason for rejection is your script not being ready for sending out. The Power of Three: send you script to three people, get their comments and rewrite. Do this again twice more with three different people each time. Hopefully your script should be ready after this.
- Regional schemes. Get on them, they're there to help you. Don't be worried if you don't live in that region, find a producer who does live in that region and submit it through them.
- Writing discipline. Have some. A writer writes or they die.
- How to get an agent.
- How to handle meetings.
- The one page pitch; an important document so get it right.
- Raising your profile. You are a writer, not a new writer.
- The importance of ringing people to find out who you should send your work to. Don't be shy.
- Selling yourself. Enter competitions, regional schemes, find a sponsor within the industry and blog.
- Are you doing enough? Constantly check that you are doing enough to get yourself noticed. Don't slack off.
- How not to get fired. The main reasons writers get fired from shows.
- Rejection; how to handle it.

There you go, lots to think about but all good advice. I really enjoyed the seminar and would heartily recommend you attend the next one; I know I will be.

And if anyone out there in blogland wants someone to help them with the power of three I am officially making myself available to read your work. Feel free to contact me.

Mead You There

I'm off on my travels this weekend, down to London Town for Adrian Mead's The Insider's Guide For Writing TV.

This is the first course I've been on since I completed my BA (Hons) degree in Scriptwriting and I have to say I'm really looking forward to it. If the one day course is as good as the handouts Adrian has supplied me then it's going to be fantastic. I will of course provide you all with a full and frank review when I return.

Faith: I've actually started writing and it's really coming together. Usually when I write something I spend months working through the plot and characters before I even type one word of the script. It's a slow process so I've decided to use this opportunity to experiment a little.

Normally my time on a script would be split like this: 80% prep, 5% writing and 15% on rewrites. When I was at university there were people who would start writing in a matter of days with the flimsiest of plots, and let the script develop itself. I could never do that.

With all the other work I've had to do I reckon I've spent at most three weeks working on the plot of Faith. So I decided it was time to start writing. Now I have, new ideas, characters and plot lines are suggesting themselves as I write. I still find this a very strange way of writing, but as I need to speed up my work I am giving it a shot. It appears to be working so far. If by the end of the first draft I find the plot is full of holes then I may never try this again.

Mapping

Most writers dive head first into their writing with little or no forethought. I'm no exception.

I realised yesterday that it's been nearly a year since I've written something new; nearly a whole year with out a single new idea being put down on paper. That's bad and more importantly dangerous. Why? Because production companies don't want to see the same script several times but in different guises. They've rejected it already, so unless it's a drastic overhaul the likelihood is that it'll be rejected again. If you're not continually producing new work as a writer you'll go stale and have nothing new to offer production companies.

So what have I been doing in the last year? Rewrites, that's what. Rewrites are important but at the moment that is all I seem to be doing, and I'm bored of them. I want to write new stuff.

So I've come up with a plan which is as follows.

Mondays: Work on new stuff, be it outlining, characterization, or writing the first draft.

Tuesdays: The first rewrite day, going over my old scripts and polishing them until they gleam.

Wednesdays: Work on new stuff again.

Thursdays: Rewrite day part two.

Fridays: Post day. Send out polished scripts to production companies and work on my first novel.

I implemented the above timetable for the first time this week and it helped a great deal. Instead of waking up in the morning and spending an hour or two deciding what to work on that day, I already know, which means I can just get on with it. Timetabling your work helps to organise your working week. Give it a try

Nearly There

So I've finished my rewrite of Cross The Rubicon and I find myself with more time to spend on the structure of Faith.

One of the plot points I wanted to introduce meant a great deal of research was needed before I was able to continue. I hate research at the best of times but when one of your characters has brain damage research is needed to make it believable. So now it's done I can continue with the structure.

I'm almost there, only a month behind schedule, but nearly complete which means I can get on with the writing.

Will the first draft be done by the end of March? I hope so.

Networking

Proof of the importance of networking became apparent to me today while at lunch with Danny T and Tim Clague. Tim mentioned a competition he was thinking of entering, but was hesitant to do so because he really didn't have an fully formed idea to go with.

"What length script are you looking for," I asked. "Thirty minutes." And there it began, a simple lunch meeting turned in to a possible chance to get something made.

Never let an opportunity pass.

Multi-tasking

Faith is not going well, and the reason being is that I'm moving house. I hate moving! Or am I using moving as an excuse for being lazy? No I'm not being lazy, after all I've been working on the rewrite for Cross The Rubicon over the last month. I'm just not good at multi-tasking, something I'm going to have to work on.

I still haven't got the structure of Faith 100% sorted out yet. I think it's pretty obvious I'm not going to meet my deadline of the end of February. So 31st of March is the new deadline.

This is the fun of writing a script in public view, you get to see warts and all.

And I'm still sober.

One Too Many

"OK, just one more then." - Anon.

This post has nothing to do with writing; it's a personal post, and serious, and therefore not an easy one to write.

"You're an alcoholic, Dominic!"

I have a comeback prepared for such occasions. "I'm not an alcoholic, I'm a drunk. Alcoholics know they have a problem." I thought it funny, but it isn't, because ironically my comeback is true.

Don't get me wrong I don't get up every morning and brush my teeth with two litres of vodka. I'm not a full blown alcoholic, I just have a problem with alcohol. Alcohol related problems come in many shapes and forms, mine is that even though I don't drink everyday, when I do drink I don't have a stop button. I'm only 12 stone and slim (ish), but yet I have an unnatural tolerance for alcohol. Where as most people are drunk on six pints I can drink twelve or more.

I may go a week or two without drinking but when I do go out I drink until I either run out of money (very rare) or I'm so drunk I want to go home to bed. I can't go into a pub and just have a quiet couple.

I used to wear my drinking exploits like a badge of honor and I now know this was wrong. Drinking non stop for fifteen hours is not clever. Drinking until you lose count of how many you've had is not impressive; nor are blackouts, two day hangovers, making your wife cry, vomiting until there's nothing left, and realising you've pissed away £150 worth of booze in one night.

So after Saturday night out doing the usual I have finally come to the conclusion that I need to quit.....forever!

Never again will I grace the bar surfaces of Stavanger, Norway, half naked and entertaining the locals with my silly beer poems. Never again will I wake up in a hedge and wonder how I got there. Never again will I spend the day after trying to find my wallet only to discover it in the freezer compartment of the fridge. Never again will I spend another night on the sofa. Nor will I receive several days of silent treatment from the wife. It's over, once and for all. The End. Full Stop!

So as a final farewell to my days of being a drunken twat here is one of my beer poems.

I love beer,
Beer is great,
If he were a bloke,
He'd be my best mate.

Adieu.

Cop This

What a book. I bought this yesterday because it looked interesting and I didn't put it down until I'd finished, and believe me that's a rare thing.

The book is an active beat officer's daily musings of the job he signed on to do and the job he actually does. It's funny, insightful and gives the reader the real inside story of modern day policing. It illustrates just how unprotected the average citizen is from crime.

He also has a daily blog which I always read with interest; have a look see at http://coppersblog.blogspot.com/

Just imagine if they made a TV police drama based on this book? Less The Bill, more The Thin Blue Line.

I'm seriously thinking about leaving the country.

Research

We have to do it sometime, but should we let it get in the way of a good story?

As an unsold writer research uses up a lot of my writing time, time I think should be better spent getting the script into a good as state as possible. Obviously if you're writing a script about real life then some form of research needs to be done.

Let's say one of my characters is a firefighter, how much research should I do? Just enough to make it convincing, that's what I say. I know, that's a very ambiguous statement; how much is enough and how much is too much? Let me put it this way, if I was researching firefighters I would find out how many people were on a fire truck, what their specific jobs were, rankings, and times of shifts. I don't need to go into great detail, like what pressure the water is when it comes out of the hose, as I really only need enough information to cover the basics. For example, I don't need to know about pensions and death cover unless I specifically need this in the script, otherwise the research is unnecessary.

What I should be doing is thinking about the kind of emotions a firefighter might go through and if I can use them in the script. Getting the character right is more important than what diameter hose he's using on what fire. As long as I know a firefighter will use a hose, and the rough tactics he'll employ, to put out a fire I don't really need to dig any deeper.

However, when the script is sold you can afford to do more research on firefighters for the many rewrites you'll be asked to do. Research in this instance is fine and expected, and the more that is done the better the script. Otherwise, if you do a lot of research for your first draft you are using valuable time that should be used for writing. It's the writing that's important and not how much research has been done.

New Model Of Structure

The report cards are being filled slowly, but a different structure to the initial one I envisioned has presented itself.

This is a good thing, playing with the conventional and opening up new possibilities of telling the story is why I use these cards, they offer a flexibility of change that a beat sheet does not. Now I'm looking at a non-linear telling of the story and to be honest it's an improvement and gives the story a greater impact.

I am however, struggling with a subplot. As the story is about prostitution and wanting a better life I am aware that to make this script different I have to steer clear of cliches of the genre. I want the overall feel of the script to be bleak and dark, but the subplot I want to put in does lift the tone slightly. A character offers a regular act of kindness to Faith, but I can't quite decide if he volunteers this regular act (illustrating there is hope out there amongst Faith's bleak surroundings) or if Faith pays him with free sexual favours. The latter would be in keeping with the tone (nothing in this life is free, you have to work at what you want). A bit more thought on that before I make my final decision, I think.

Challenge Dom-The Start

I've decided which script I'm going to write. It was between two, a robbery comedy with a difference or Faith, a dark drama about prostitution and escaping the streets of London. I have said previously that I wasn't going to write Faith just yet as I wanted to write something a bit lighter, but on reflection I feel that I should be writing what I want to write and not what I think the industry might be looking for at the moment, so Faith wins.


Now, to keep you all informed of how I'm getting on I will be making regular posts. To help you identify them quickly each post about the challenge will have a picture of me in the corner, scary I know but this way you will know it's a post about the challenge rather than a random post about nothing in particular.

Right, nose to the grindstone. As Faith is an idea that has been floating around for several years now most of the plot and characters are worked out, so I feel confident starting to lay out my key scenes.

This is how I do this. First I buy a pack of record cards (6" by 4" nice large £1.99 stationary heaven from WH Smiths) to write down scenes on. What I usually do is take 40 cards, 10 for act one, 20 for act two, and 10 for act three, and write a brief description of as many keys scenes as possible on these cards (in pencil, as pen is hard to rub out and change). Then I lay them out on the floor (or pin them up) and see if the structure is working. Remember these are only the key scenes so I don't have to use the full 40 cards, and obviously there are going to be more than forty scenes in the script. I use these cards just to make sure of structure and as a guide for when I finally get down to the writing. Other people write beat sheets, I use record cards. I find them easier because I can swap them about to see if scenes will work better in a different order.

Better get on with it.

Challenge Dom

Stuff the usual New Year's Resolutions, this year I'm setting myself goals which I shall attempt to achieve in full view of the blogging community. I will set myself a goal and keep you all updated on my progress in regular bulletins. It should provide a smidgen of mild amusement for you all in blogging land at the very least.

The first challenge is to write a feature script by the end of February. Yep, that's 90-120 pages of actual writing, something I didn't do a lot of over the last six months, in roughly eight weeks or less. Not an impossible task as I have written a 112 page script in six weeks before. However, the difference here is that I will also be doing rewrites on all of my back catalogue over the next six months, polishing and buffing them to perfection.

I'm taking the rest of this week to decide which of my many film script ideas I will be taking on for this challenge. When I know which one I will give you a few more details.

Watch this space.