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.)

Derry here we come

PUNKY is among four nominees in the Celtic Media Festival's Children's TV awards section alongside two from BBC Alba(Scotland) and one from Wales so I'm hotfooting it to the lovely city of Derry this evening.

Regardless of what happens tomorrow aft, it's a great upbeat excuse to return to the city. But then you don't need much of an excuse to visit Derry... except the five hour EACH WAY by train. Which is why I'm breaking records to try and get as much material to the stage of printing so that I have plenty of work to entertain me en route!

In case you haven't heard and are interested in attending, I'm organising a third networking event for animators, animation directors and writers on April 30th. Same place, same time, but it's filling fast so let me know if you want to come! The group is now officially called the Creatives in Animation Network.

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.

Diary Dates: For Animation Networking Events

March 12th
April 30th, rather than 23rd.

Frameworks -- usually March but not released yet. Focus for collaborations people?!

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.

PUNKY Dresses Up For The IFTA Awards Night....

Gearing up for a big day on Saturday 11th.

With PUNKY up for two IFTA nominations... with floor length gown and tux specified for entry along the red carpet into the new Conference Centre for the award ceremony... this could be one of the biggest nights for PUNKY!

The nominations are for Childrens/ Young People's Programme and for Sound Design. To everyone who voted for us, a heartfelt thanks.

But then it has already been a big nine months for PUNKY between the launch at the end of April, multiple screenings on RTEjr since May 3rd, to the overwhemingly positive response internationally - virally via the web, DVD's being sent overseas and word of mouth - to Gerard O'Rourke winning European Producer of the Year at Cartoon Forum last September and Target Entertainment coming on as distributor to launch the series internationally at MIPCom last October...

So Saturday already feels like a real celebration of all that has been achieved -- and very far from the scribblings of an idea that I had back in 2007!

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.

FEW PLACES LEFT FOR ANIMATORS

INAUGURAL ANIMATION NETWORKING EVENT

Next Monday 30th at 7pm, the first networking event to bring together a group of writers and animators takes place in Temple Bar. Limited by space, there are three spaces remaining for animators.

The initiative will, hopefully, become a monthly event – there is great interest on both sides and a waiting list of writers and animators for the next event – but we do need to make sure there is an even mix of writers and animators for the idea to work. Hence we need three more animators for this event so we can get this series off the ground.

My hope is that these evenings will bean opportunity for animators and animation directors and writers interested in or already writing in animation to meet in comfort, with a cup in their hand and get to know each other. The meetings will last about two hours and there is no cost involved. The hope is that various collaborations and partnerships may form that might lead to new, creative and wonderful work in animation. We have great writers lined up for this one and a waiting list of writers and animators for the ones to follow. But we need three more animators to come on next Monday .

The initiative is supported by The Irish Playwrights and Screenwriters Guild (IPSG) and SDGI.

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.

INAUGURAL ANIMATION NETWORKING EVENT:places limited

Should have mentioned that you need to let me know if you want to come along. The Screening Room isn't huge and we want to make sure that everyone has a chance to mingle and talk. Email me or let me know via this blog/ Facebook/LinkedIn if you want to attend, Lindsay

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!!

NEW dedicated PUNKY blog...

http://punkyandhercreator-lindsayjsedgwick.blogspot.com/

I have so many files of articles and pictures and feedback from around the world that I've decided to make a home for it all. Also, she's out there now, knocking on receptive doors and looking for international homes so it's a way of celebrating her progress as she goes.

Please comment - and let me know your own personal story - if you have one - of PUNKY.

And if you're looking for another animation series, let me know cos I may just have the perfect one for you!

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!

Punky's producer is European Producer of the Year

Gerard O'Rourke, the producer of the series I created, PUNKY, has just, in the last half hour been awarded European Producer of the Year at Cartoon Forum in Poland on the back of Punky! RTE got the Broadcaster of the Year award for young people's programming - I'm sure I have the terms wrong - and Punky's part of that too.

But fantastic news for Gerard - he pushed so hard to make this series and it wasn't easy!

Punky is in The News!!!

Tune in to tonight's Six-One News on RTE1 to see Punky officially launched.

Put together a packed room of adults, children and adults who are still children at heart; add a few short speeches, a blue rabbit called Oggie; present with a couple of episodes of what we believe is the world's first mainstream cartoon with a central character who is not only fun and loveable but also has Down syndrome - and stir gently ... The result: a wonderful, quite fantastic celebration of what can happen if you are lucky enough to get that germ of an idea before anyone else, to be pushy enough to create the world around that idea and believe it has to be made, to get support when you need it - (Irish Film Board Development Loan, such a lovely pre-Christmas bit of news in 2007) - and a producer - Gerard O'Rourke of Monster Animation who truly believed it had to be made ...

It was a fantastic event, so much absolute and happy positivity in one room!!! It was on Radio 1's lunchtime news too - don't think I'll ever get used to hearing my own voice on radio though but this is such a wonderful whirl and I could get used to that!!!

Aimee and Punky on RTE 1 tonight!

Aimee Richardson, the voice of 'Punky', the central character of my series, is going to be interviewed on the Saturday Night Show on RTE tonight.

Aimee has done a fantastic job and is also an ambassador for Down Syndrome Ireland, who have been behind the idea from the series since I first approached them in 2008/9 after I'd got some Irish Film Board development money.

At that stage, I wanted to make sure I was hitting the right tone with the series and they set up meetings for me with lots of Mums and their children. You have no idea how much research goes into a series like this!!!

Waiting for the call...

In twenty minutes, I'm due to be interviewed by Skype by a New York based network called Family network about the origins of my series PUNKY.

I'm as nervous as a kitten and it's ridiculous! It's not as if I don't know the answers - I only spent three years developing Punky and her world!

Fortunately, I don't even have a webcam - I barely have Skype! - , so I don't have to worry about what I look like. And I am so happy to have an opportunity to talk about this idea that I lived with and sweated over and fought for and which is finally in production.

So where did it come from? There were germs sown when my sister Karen, an occupational therapist in the Central Remedial Clinic would bring children home that had special needs. One autistic boy smashed my little red kettle. I couldn't understand why the rules were different for him than for me.

Then there was the fact that my mother made no secret of the fact that she worried all through the pregnancy that there might be something wrong with me. She had seven other children. She was 46 and a quarter when I was born. She was told I'd be a fool or a genius. She always said she hadn't made up her mind yet!

In more recent years a friend of mine told me stories about her younger brother, David, who had Down's syndrome. I loved them. I loved his perspective of the world. The way he interpreted it and could make the mundane, make things we take for granted, fresh and new.

My partner has a son who is severely autistic. My daughter was six when they met and she really didn't know what to expect. She tried to make him notice her, to talk to him, but she was a child and under his radar. It's only in the last ten months that he has registered her and she has been so thrilled every time - when he stopped after she called him, when he almost-sort-of 'hugged' her! -, when he pointed out that we were leaving her behind. He knew she was one of the family.

But the relationship he and his sister have is really special. I've never seen anyone so loved as he is and he is mad about her. It's probably because of her that he hugs and loves to be cuddled - on his terms.

But it's not easy being the sibling of a child with special needs and I decided I wanted to explore that relationship. Honestly, with humour and in a way that would make children more accepting of difference. They begin that way. It's only as they get older that they become judgemental.

But I also wanted to tell stories, to create a world, from her perspective. I wanted her to be the lead, I wanted her to decide how we interpreted the world and what was happening in it.

And so Punky, albeit in a slightly different incarnation, began. She emerged in a very funny animated short that hasn't been made yet. Then she dived into a live action/ cgi film script but there were too many stories in it for it to work fully. When I started toying with the TV series element, I knew I wanted it to be funny, to be honest, to be imaginative and to fell real, albeit as a cartoon. As children enjoyed the entertainment, they would be learning to accept difference.

The Irish Film Board weighed in with their support in the form of a Development Loan in 2007. I worked with Barbara Slade (Rugrats, Angelina Ballerina) as script consultant and then worked with Aidan Hickey for a while. But it was a hard one to get right - to work as a commercially attractive series a producer would feel able to make, and yet live up to everything I wanted from it.

Gerard O'Rourke of Monster liked the sound of it and the talks began. He supported it long after another producer would have turned tail and run because he really, really believed in it. Jason Tammemagi liked it too and came on as Director and so the saga began to roll towards the full scale production that is taking place now.

An Interesting and Fruitful Week...

I have agreed a director and production company for my play, A Fresh Gale and Cold Chicken. He is as passionate about it as I am, very experienced as an imaginative director and determined to make it happen.

We're talking next Spring. For the launch of Smock Alley theatre. Fingers crossed, toes too... all we need now is money!

My daughter and I saw the first episode of Punky too, last Tuesday. It's lovely, really beautiful and sweet and will be a fantastic series. They were finishing voice recordings on the first six this week, and the pre-publicity will begin to roll soon. The publicity that says, "yes, it is happening. Watch this space!". Exciting.

Unfortunately, this week we also buried the last of my father's sisters, and the most colourful of all that generation in our family. I didn't know her well, being at the tail end of my family, but I grew up hearing stories about her. A party animal,who lived life to the full, she could jitterbug in a way that emptied dance floors - y'know, the over the head, spun around her partner's body, flung under the legs and up again... it sounds tiring just writing it! She also had, and this is a phrase her son used, "a voice that could cut hedges"... which I thought was wonderful!

But I also discovered my father's other sister, who died a month ago, was a doyenne of high society and something of a fashion icon in Ireland in the late 40s and fifties, written about in society columns here and abroad. She was one of Ireland's first real businesswomen, running the travel information bureau in Brown Thomas'.

I knew her as a talented artist whose nail varnish always matched her shoes, who grew smaller and smaller like a little delicate bird over recent years.

As I said, an interesting week!

Interesting Times...

From feeling quite flat after that period of major productivity, things are looking up again. Next Tuesday, I see the rough cut of the first episode of my animation series, PUNKY, animated by Monster Animation under the directorial hand of Jason Tammemagi.

How many series are being made, in reality, in Ireland this year? To have one doing just that, thanks for the tenacity of the producer Gerard O'Rourke, is phenomenal and I can't wait.

On Wednesday, I get to see my latest great-nephew - my tenth great niece or nephew! (Scary, but true!) And on Thursday, I meet the director/ producer interested in putting my play - A Fresh Gale and Cold Chicken - into production next year. I had been told he required chasing; he himself told me to "hound him" and yet he was the one who made first contact looking for an early opportunity to meet. Which feels fantastic.

So I'm all spurred on again, juggling the different projects in my head that I want to get my teeth back into and thinking about my next play. There are a few I had to put on the back burner but are any of them the right one now? Would I be better coming up with something utterly new that captures the energy of this latest one? Or a children's play? Or a comedy?

I want to write so many things! Where is the time, and what should I really focus on?!

I can list at least five projects I really, really want to get back to.

Meanwhile, my daughter only wants me to play Littlest Pet Shop. We have worlds laid out in the sitting room with doll's house furniture, even if upside-down tables are doubling as beds, and each of us has a business. Mine is a book-store, hers is a magical park that covers a table, a shelf and a stool.

I've sneaked out to the office on the premise of collecting a new range of books for my characters - one hamster, one bird, two cats - to sell to hers. So long as I keep creating little books, I get to write a little more...

Nope, the idyll is over. She has informed me that my book-store is too full of books and it's time to take up the reins again. Sob!

School's back on September 1st.

PUNKY, the new animated series

The first episode of my TV series, PUNKY is now being animated by Monster Animation. There should be rushes to see - though I'm sure they're not called rushes in animation - by the middle of August.

I left the series as writer a few months ago. Hence the radio silence on the subject. The target market for the series had switched from the 9-11 year age group to pre-school (3-6 years). Try as I could, the pre-school market is one area of writing for which I don't seem to have the knack. The scripts I wrote and rewrote were being honed from larger stories, from a larger canvas, from a more complex series and I wasn't sure at the end what it was that I was meant to write. It wasn't a pleasant experience, despite the wonderful relationships I had with Monster, and was quite heart-breaking.

The writer they brought on board after this is Andrew Brenner, who created and wrote HUMF (78 episodes), which is also pre-school. He makes it look easy and maybe it is easier, if that's an age group for whom you want to write. I hadn't, but I fought that and came a cropper. Learning curves, don't you just love 'em!!

Once I'd come to terms with it, the pressure came off. Once I'd seen the first script, which is sweet and lovely and has the spirit I was trying to capture in my proposal, I knew it would be a fantastic series.

Now, I can't wait now to see my adorable Punky come to life. I invented her back in 2007 and yes, the project changed and some aspects that I loved, were lost en route to a series that would work and would sell.

And now she is finally being 'born'. How cool is that!?

PUNKY, Pettigrew the snail and the challenge of writing for pre-schoolers

The snail Pettigrew, is behaving herself. She now has a nice shimmer of purple (nail varnish) and sunset kiss (lip gloss) on her shell and seems to be adapting well to life in a flowerpot.

That the selfsame flowerpot got flooded at the weekend while my daughter was at cub camp and despite my being given strict instructions on The Care of Snail Farm While I’m Away this doesn’t seem to have fazed either it or my daughter. She just shook it out, touched up its shell and put it in another pot. Makes me wonder what these poor snails did in a previous life.

Meanwhile, I’m adapting to Punky. Writing for 3-6 year-olds is a challenge. Yes, we are aiming at the top of that age range but I’m not an animator and this, I’m learning, is a big disadvantage when writing for this target group.

For a start, stories have to be simple, which is good. (Forgetting for now the great stories that worked when Punky was a longer form for an older age group. Muffled sob stage left). In addition, this age group tend to listen more than watch, so everything important has to be said as well as shown, in case they miss it. So I’m writing lines that in any other form would be redundant and ‘on the nose’. But they work.

Events have to be perfectly linear. If Punky decides to do something – aloud – then she does it and then we have to see the result in the next scene. There’s no opportunity to let several events build up and bring everything together in a climax. It has to be cause and effect every step of the way or they’ll miss it and it won’t make sense.

Transitions are another one. Time passing, location hops that an older audience would comprehend, just don’t work. For example, if a character is upstairs, they can’t then be downstairs in the next scene. Either we see them leave the room and head down or, if there is a significant change in time, we have a transition. This means, we show time passing.

Only we can’t have anything written because this is for children aged 3-6. So we have the classics of a sun moving across a sky, a clock's hands spinning or, ideally, someone going to bed and waking up but that takes longer.

Oh and scenes are more static, of course. At its simplest, every angle is a different drawing. You can’t turn the camera around and look upstairs so the less of this that is needed, the better.

Scene set-ups need a visual clarity too. You can’t simply have

INT – PUNKY’S ROOM

The alarm goes off, startling Punky. Her hand reaches out to turn it off.

You have to say at the top of the scene that Punky is in bed, not assume they will know. This comes down to not being an animator. If I was, I’d think in terms of the visual set up and what we need to see drawn, and then create the flow of the scene from this. One suggestion has been to make a little set and move the characters around to give myself a sense of what the animators need to see on the page. Everything they need to draw for the scene to work has to be spelt out at the very top of the written scene.

So the word now is that we really only have story room for Punky and her dog; yes, there are other characters but the focus has to be her point of view. Insistently so. Because this is what makes it original. It is also what I always intended for the series. It’s the old adage – let your main character drive the story.

So, at its most basic, I am being driven by Punky back to the root and core of all storytelling and all screenwriting.