And WULFIE begins!

Just heard from Deirdre Barry of Monster Entertainment that my series WULFIE - the cute little Big Bad (and purple) Wolf called Wolfgang Amadeus Rachmaninov III and his best friend Libby - got funding as part of their Media Slate application.

I am over the moon, as any of you who know me can imagine.

WULFIE began with bedtime stories I made up for my daughter in 2005... when she was all of six. She's now 14. We are both eeping at each other with delight, punching the air and grinning insanely.

To everyone who is a writer with ideas that haven't yet been recognised.... take this as hope!



(Concept designs by Mark Flood.)

Second Success for the Animation Networking Group

March 12th, an empty room in Temple Bar fills with the hum of conversation and networking at its finest -- good conversation, interesting people, nobody actually selling anything but enjoying each other's company and making connections.

We had another great group -- some managed to make it back from the first but, as usual, we all ran out of time and I'm not sure we all managed to talk to everyone but that's why the network is growing.

All being well, I'm planning another for April 30th. Which seems miles away but dates can creep up on padded toes in a very underhand way when life is busy! So, if you want to come, let me know and I'll put your name down. It is a fantastic way to make connections. If the energy in the room and the sheer heat of the space was anything to go by during the first two, something good will come from it.

And a huge big thank you again to the Screen Directors Guild of Ireland, to Birch and Angie who came along on the night, for the wonderful space.

The Next Animation Networking Event for writers and animation directors...

Yup, it's a snappy title. I can't help them - they just flood from the keyboard!

Anyway, following on the success and popularity of the first networking event, I'm organising another one to take place on March 12th in Temple Bar.

The purpose of these events is to bring writers and animation directors together and see if we can't start collaborating with each other on various projects from shorts to features to series to, even, books. Who knows? There was so much creativity in the SDGI Screening Room the last time that if I hadn't called it to a close, I suspect we might still be there now! (Okay, slight exaggeration.)

There will be another event six weeks later on April 23rd and I'm hoping that we can get a Facebook Page up for on-line networking after the next one. There is a waiting list from the last event on Jan 31st but if you want to be part of the momentum, let me know.

The Animation Networking Event is now officially and enthusiastically ALIVE!

The inaugural meeting last night of the Animation Networking Event - yes, we are on the hunt for a title for the group, all suggestions welcome - was a fantastic night. So many talented and enthusiastic people in one room, all with the desire to collaborate. Writers came from every field from theatre, animation and soap with a desire to work on ideas from horror shorts to pre-school TV, from post watershed TV series to features and competition shorts. The animators came from backgrounds in modelling, 2D, stop motion, 2.5 D, flash, concept design, games...

Best of all, everyone was of the opinion that the bringing together of our two species - animators and writers - should have happened a long time ago, can only lead to good things - maybe in two days, two months, two years... and that the group was overwhelmingly worth developing into a viable and long-term critical mass...

Phew.

INAUGURAL ANIMATION NETWORKING EVENT

Animators need writers and writers who like to write animation scripts need someone to bring them alive.

Here’s an opportunity to informally meet your counterpart and, hopefully, strike up relationships that might lead to new, creative and wonderful work in animation

On Monday 30th at 7pm in the Screen Directors’ Guild Screening Room in Temple Bar, The Screen Directors Guild of Ireland (SDGI) and The Irish Playwrights and Screenwriters Guild (IPSG) are inviting writers and animation directors to the first ANIMATION NETWORKING EVENT.

The idea is that animation directors and writers interested in or already writing in animation can meet in comfort, with a cup in their hand and get to know each other. The hope is that various collaborations and partnerships may form that will lead to interesting work in the field. It came about from a Screen Training Ireland gig when I broached the subject of where, as a writer, I could submit animation scripts. There didn’t really seem to be anywhere. Most companies create in-house and if you can’t draw, it can be hard to get a writing paw in the door.

And we need each other. Take PUNKY. I could have rattled around with that idea for years. As I have done with lots of other animation ideas and scripts. But for Monster Animation deciding to put their creative juices into it, it would still be an idea on a page. This, as a writer is frustrating. (Okay, basically, I wish I could draw!) To date, it’s turning into a very successful series that is on the verge of selling internationally in five countries that I know of, won the Producer of the Year Award for Gerard O’Rourke and has been nominated for two IFTAs.

But it seems to be crucial to develop ideas with the animation directors of companies, for the simple reason that if they are employed by a company, they need to be involved in most ideas produced by that company. Bringing a written idea from outside is difficult.

Surely for animators who need new ideas, who haven’t studied screenwriting or find it less interesting than drawing, it must be equally frustrating.

So this new group will meet on a regular basis. All animation directors and writers working or interested in working in animation are welcome; if you can’t make this one, let me know you’re interested and I’ll put your name down for the next one.

Could be fun!! Could be an interesting way to meet fellow writers and animators!! Could be the start of something amazing!!

Serendipity - grab hold and don't let go.

Well, the haze has shifted and the revised ARCHANGEL script has travelled cyberly to a producer in New York who knows Dick Wolf (Miami Vice, Law and Order etc) and has contacts in CBS etc. He was at the reading on Monday 26th September and really liked the writing.

Who knows where it might lead? There's a portfolio of other material ready to trail in its wake if anything does. And I have a feeling it will, in some form.

After all, he only came to the reading because an actor, Con Horgan, invited him along. I met Con at a party on the 52nd floor of an apartment block on 39th Street the night before (Sunday). (What a view!)

It was a party for the First Irish Festival in New York hosted by the Irish Consul and I was only there because I went to a series of readings the day before run by Origin Theatre Company and met George Heslin - who heads that company and created First Irish five years ago. He invited me along. (I'll be sending him scripts too, theatre this time, that he might pass on to other companies.)

But I was only there because a friend of mine (Suzanne Geraghty) was performing part of her piece at this event and introduced us.

And this only happened because I arrived in New York on the Friday - torrential rain - for the reading of my script on Monday at the Irish Rep Theatre. This event was occurring only because an actress called Anna Nugent had liked the script enough to set it all up...

And she only saw the script because I met another actor for coffee in Galway in July - Gary Hetzler - who voiced my first animation character, WULFIE, in 2008. I'd made contact again with a Cork director who wants to make Archangel the week before and mentioned the frustration on having a producer and a director and yet being unable to move it forward.

Gary had a (greyhound, apparently they sleep 18 hours a day) and a good friend in New York who was campaigning to get her own Detective series...

So I sent it off as soon as I got home.

I didn't know anything would happen in this chain of events before I booked. It all fell into place once I had.

And I nearly didn't make it to Galway for the Fleadh - to pitch feature scripts - at all.

So chin up, these waves of serendipity are out there waiting to pick you up. Enjoy the ride!