Screenwriting: Like-minded people

When I was at uni I did a short course on writing short films. It was a four day course spread over a month. One of the things I learnt on the course was that if you had a ‘Hollywood meeting’ about your work, you should also have something up your sleeve, in case the powers that be like your work and want to see what else you’ve written.

This is something I’ve always remembered and going into 2016 one of my aims was to join a screenwriting group. During my 29 challenge, I wrote a fair bit and as a result had ‘something up my sleeve’ to show people. So armed with this I went about joining a group where I could a) learn about the industry and b) more importantly meet people who could help, collaborate or point me in the right direction of somebody that could get my screenplays made (that being the ultimate aim.)

At the start of the new year I discovered Industrial Scripts which I have mentioned before on this blog. Industrial Scripts put on Insider Interviews once a month in London. These are interviews with a variety of people in the film industry; screenwriters, producers and directors. Networking then follows after.

Armed with my Vista Print made business cards I went to my first event and it couldn’t have gone any better. I ended up getting a reputation for being a powerhouse after explaining how much I’d written in 18 months (which apparently was not normal.) Give or take a couple of months I’ve been to most of these this year and I’ve learnt something everytime and met other people who screen write. People that have got something made, or are at the same stage as me, or have yet to start writing.

I also attend a monthly group called the Creative Meat in Hitchin. This group was recommended by my old boss as she knew I did screenwriting as a hobby and thought this could help. The first ‘meat’ I went to everyone was friendly and it was a great atmosphere. The format was pretty similar to Industrial Scripts, except the focus is on creative people in general and not just screenwriters. In fact, I didn’t meet anyone who did screenwriting until the start of December.

At one of the ‘meats’ there was an exercise we all were asked to do. During the weeks between that ‘meat’ and the next we had to pick a name out of a hat and meet for a drink with that person to see how we could help each other out creatively.

As a result, I got to know Frankie who is a Jack of all trades and Pete who is a freelance photographer. Meeting anyone creative instantly gets me motivated. Pete was and is really enthusiastic about my work. He in fact encouraged a passing idea I had years ago which I mentioned in our initial catch up and got me to write it as a short film. And following this I entered my first competition with it in September.

The screenwriter I met at the start of the month, Nigel was a great person to meet. Upon chatting we realised that we’re both at the same point and realised that we could help each other out. We could be a sounding board for potential ideas, and a new pair of eyes for any drafts we have that need reading and feedback to be given.

At the last Industrial Scripts event I went to I met two others who have offered to read my screenplays. Although some would broach with caution people who want to read my work, in the fear that they would nick my ideas for their own; I think you have to get to know the person beforehand. The people I’ve spoken to are writing in completely different genres, so if I can get someone who isn’t a fan of the genre I’ve written in, to respect and even like my work, then I maybe onto a winner.
With Pete and Nigel, I’m going to meet up with each individually on a monthly basis going forward and I think this will be incredibly beneficial. I already feel inspired and motivated after every creative event I go to. Meeting up with like-minded people will mean I’m constantly motivated.

Both Pete and Nigel will tell me if what I’m writing is rubbish. I’ve yet to receive feedback from Nigel on my work, but Pete was the only one I sent my short film to before sending it off for competition and his feedback was amazing. Although I didn’t win the competition, his feedback gave me a real boost. The short film was about M and James Bond and he said he could imagine the characters saying the lines and said he was laughing halfway through the first page. You can’t really get much better feedback than that.

Going into next year I look forward to getting a good set of contacts to help me on my way in screenwriting. One person I met at Industrial Scripts in December called Shell said I had an infectious enthusiasm and I inspired her to start writing. So even though I haven’t had any of my screenplays made, the fact I got someone else to start writing is something I didn’t expect to do. I write because I don’t want to be one of those people that say I’m going to write someday. I want to be the person that writes and gets on with it. I want to continue this into 2017.

Thoughtful presents: Festive treats

Nothing says Christmas like festive sweet treats. Although I’d done Secret Santa twice at work, there were a few people at work that I wanted to give little presents to.

At my work I know most people like it when I bake, so I baked some millionaire shortbread. And I put the shortbread in cute little festive paper bags I brought from Not on the High Street years ago, but didn’t know what presents to use them for.

Again another present not costing the earth, but the recipients seemed to like it as much as a really expensive gift.

Thoughtful presents: Chris Pratt for Christmas

Tis the season for gifts and I thought I’d share what I made for one of my work colleagues. My workmate Faith is a big fan of Chris Pratt and he’s currently promoting one of his films. Now alas I haven’t got the power to give Chris Pratt to Faith for Christmas, but he is on the cover of the latest GQ magazine.

So I got the magazine and decided to personalise it with speech bubbles of Chris Pratt saying things to do with things that Faith likes or things she jokes about at work.

Here are some of the personalised pages and Faith loved the present and found it hilarious.

An unusual present which didn’t cost the earth but was funnier than any present I could’ve bought in a shop.

Screenwriting: Voice memos

A while ago I blogged about how I used a long car journey to give me time to think about how to think about certain parts of my second feature film. What I also have a tendency to do is think about the dialogue the characters would say. More often than not, I’d think of something great, but then when I get to my destination, I never can write it down exactly what I said.

Then my flatmate Rachel had a suggestion; that I should use voice memos. This was an app on my phone and you can just talk for as long as you want and then play it back later. So I set my phone up to record before I set off (safety first of course), put it on the passenger seat (obviously I couldn’t hold onto the phone when driving) and just started talking as I drove to one of my friend’s house for a catch up.

In the days afterwards I’ve been spending time listening back to what I wrote and writing it up. Although it was for a few different scenes, it’s good to have a bases for upcoming scenes which I can flesh out if need be.

I was worried the recording quality wouldn’t be able to capture what I was saying, and sometimes outside traffic was too overbearing and drowned out my voice. But for the most part it was a great app to use, and I’ll definitely use it again in the future on car journeys when I’m on my own.

Screenwriting: Festive brainstormng

The other week I was round my mum and dad’s and we ended up watching one of those Channel 5 Sunday afternoon Christmas films. You know the ones that are continuously played on the Christmas 24 channel. The one that you can probably figure out how it’s going to end within 2 minutes. We sat there listing all the traits that the films had, and if it was a drinking game looking out for all these traits, we all would’ve been drunk very quickly!

I don’t who suggested but the idea of me writing one of these films came up. They are my guilty pleasure and I’ll say that already I’ve watched my favourite one Matchmaker Santa twice this Christmas season already (there was nothing else on TV!) My mum and I have seen a fair few of these and I’m sure my dad has seen his fair share as well. Together we all worked on a basic plot and I thought this might actually work.

Then a few days later I woke up in the middle of the night and couldn’t get back to sleep for a couple of hours. So I thought I’d listen to some Christmas music and figure out the plot in detail. But I was focused more on trying to get back to sleep and thought my amazing brain would remember the plot I got sussed. Wrong! I woke up the next day only remembering the start and the end.

I saw on a Screen Craft post on Facebook about using note cards to write out plot points and spreading them all out to help figure out the structure of the screenplay.

So I thought I’d give this a go. I didn’t strictly have plot points written. I’d started brainstorming character development and ideas for things to include in the screenplay. So I wrote those down first and then explained the plot to my parents. Then we all came up with different ideas of how we could get from the start to the finish. How different characters could be developed, the traits in those films and how they could be featured. We managed to come up with two great names for the male and female leads (for some reason my dad was adamant that the male lead had an Italian sounding surname!) It was a lot of fun working on ideas with my parents, and at times I struggled to keep up with writing down all they were coming up with.

We didn’t entirely figure out the whole plot; there’s a part about halfway through that I need to figure out in its entirety but armed with my index note pointers I managed to write a pretty detailed synopsis for the screenplay and even wrote 3 pages straight away.

Now being in the festive season, I’m hoping that the dialogue flows easily. Who knows maybe I’ll get it written by Christmas.