...The awards night organised by the Irish Playwrights & Screenwriters Guild to celebrate Irish writers is on May 10th in The Sugar Club and the more of us can make it, the better the night will be.
It's always a good night, a chance to catch up with fellow writers and dress up just a little... (The dress code is Writers' Chic... You can see what this is in photos from last year on the Guild website. I MUST learn not to kick my leg up and across photos. It just doesn't look as smooth as it feels at that late stage of the night when photos seem to be taken!) )
Anyway, tickets are 15 euro for members and 25 for those who haven't yet paid subs this year...More details are at http://script.ie/zebbies/z2012/ztickets/
Showing posts with label feature writing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label feature writing. Show all posts
Thursday, 12 April 2012
Thursday, 2 February 2012
BLUECAT Quarter Finalist: Monkey Puzzle Tree
My second newest script, MONKEY PUZZLE TREE, just got into the quarter finals of the Bluecat Screenplay Competition 2012 out of over 2700 scripts.
It's a nice little nudge of, well, niceness/ nice news/ commendation on a freezing cold morning in a wooden shed looking at wallflowers!
It's a nice little nudge of, well, niceness/ nice news/ commendation on a freezing cold morning in a wooden shed looking at wallflowers!
Thursday, 19 January 2012
THE PERFECT MAN...
... The Attic Studio have confirmed that they will do a reading of my romcom on Jan 31st. Having seen the calibre of the acting overall during just two visits to its below ground basement home in Filmbase, I'm getting pretty excited.
I've learnt in the past six months how much, as a writer, I can get from a reading of any of my work but especially something that doesn't quite work. With this script, feedback on the first draft was very positive by three of the four readers, but what was interesting was that there was little agreement about what was wrong. What one reader loved, another hated... Which is why this reading is so important to me.
I need to hear it to know for myself what works. To garner feedback from actors, other writers, directors that I can spin around in my head and use to figure out what I need to change or work on or maybe even, if I'm lucky, how to make it great!
And I have 24 hours to complete the rewrite. Why am I blogging? To spur myself on!
To all who are currently in the midst of a rewrite, GOOD LUCK and COURAGE!
I've learnt in the past six months how much, as a writer, I can get from a reading of any of my work but especially something that doesn't quite work. With this script, feedback on the first draft was very positive by three of the four readers, but what was interesting was that there was little agreement about what was wrong. What one reader loved, another hated... Which is why this reading is so important to me.
I need to hear it to know for myself what works. To garner feedback from actors, other writers, directors that I can spin around in my head and use to figure out what I need to change or work on or maybe even, if I'm lucky, how to make it great!
And I have 24 hours to complete the rewrite. Why am I blogging? To spur myself on!
To all who are currently in the midst of a rewrite, GOOD LUCK and COURAGE!
Wednesday, 16 November 2011
NaNoWriMo - satisfying but tough to do!
Back on target. Edging towards the 26,000 word mark on this the 16th day of National Novel Writing Month.
It's hard. Harder than I expected, but easier too. Harder to keep going but more enjoyable when you do. It has reminded me of why I write - because I love words!
Having a meter ticking over helps. I love calculating my new daily 'score' of words - I think I do it every few pars on some days. In 'stats', you can calculate your wordage by day and see what day, if you continue at that pace, you will finish; also how many words you need to write every day to reach the goal of 50,000 words by November 30th. (I think we may have a few extra crucial hours too, it being calculated in American time!)
Probably it appeals to the geek in me that needs numbers going upwards to feel the progress. Unless it's a Visa bill. Not so good when it keeps getting higher.
I took for my template a first draft screenplay that isn't working. Without really referring to the script except for snatches of dialogue that I then rewrite completely, I have just gone with the flow and I type up whatever seems to present itself. Chain of consciousness. A conscience suddenly talking. A monologue on why people fall in love. A foray into the background of a character and questions he asked that weren't answered when he was four and a half.
It's one of the most refreshing, tiring and satisfying exercises in that my other projects are also getting the benefit because my brain is being forced to create without worrying about whether it is any good. I find the words are flowing more freely on the other work I have to do, that I'm editing more clearly, that I get through work that has to be done without agonising over how long it will take.
But of course I have a sneaky hope it might be okay... if not in this draft (no, definitely not in this draft) then in the future. At least I will have the bones of a novel to pick over.
As for the screenplay, part of me is thinking the novel is better for the story while another part is seriously hoping that by writing it up as a novel, I can force the structure of the story to heal itself...
It's hard. Harder than I expected, but easier too. Harder to keep going but more enjoyable when you do. It has reminded me of why I write - because I love words!
Having a meter ticking over helps. I love calculating my new daily 'score' of words - I think I do it every few pars on some days. In 'stats', you can calculate your wordage by day and see what day, if you continue at that pace, you will finish; also how many words you need to write every day to reach the goal of 50,000 words by November 30th. (I think we may have a few extra crucial hours too, it being calculated in American time!)
Probably it appeals to the geek in me that needs numbers going upwards to feel the progress. Unless it's a Visa bill. Not so good when it keeps getting higher.
I took for my template a first draft screenplay that isn't working. Without really referring to the script except for snatches of dialogue that I then rewrite completely, I have just gone with the flow and I type up whatever seems to present itself. Chain of consciousness. A conscience suddenly talking. A monologue on why people fall in love. A foray into the background of a character and questions he asked that weren't answered when he was four and a half.
It's one of the most refreshing, tiring and satisfying exercises in that my other projects are also getting the benefit because my brain is being forced to create without worrying about whether it is any good. I find the words are flowing more freely on the other work I have to do, that I'm editing more clearly, that I get through work that has to be done without agonising over how long it will take.
But of course I have a sneaky hope it might be okay... if not in this draft (no, definitely not in this draft) then in the future. At least I will have the bones of a novel to pick over.
As for the screenplay, part of me is thinking the novel is better for the story while another part is seriously hoping that by writing it up as a novel, I can force the structure of the story to heal itself...
Thursday, 10 November 2011
Jameson Dublin International Film Festival/ Untitled
What a mouthful!
Okay, we have till Monday to submit a one page synopsis, a logline and CV for a new feature idea to the Irish Film Board/ JDIFF for their UNTITLED competition. The theme this year is 1916, which really stymied me for a while but I have pulled an idea roughly together that would be such FUN to write. They want lateral thinking, but it has to be historically accurate - tell that to Neil Jordan re Michael Collins!
But here's my problem - they lure you in with this competition called UNTITLED. But then you have to give it a title. Is that a carrot/ stick thing? As I am woefully disastrous with titles,it would be so nice if they didn't need one...
Anyone want to swop synopses before the weekend and give mutual feedback???
Here's the link to the information too: http://www.irishfilmboard.ie/irish_film_industry/news/Deadline_for_Entries_to_the_Successful_Screenwriting_Competition_UNTITLED_Extended_to_November_14th_/1778
Okay, we have till Monday to submit a one page synopsis, a logline and CV for a new feature idea to the Irish Film Board/ JDIFF for their UNTITLED competition. The theme this year is 1916, which really stymied me for a while but I have pulled an idea roughly together that would be such FUN to write. They want lateral thinking, but it has to be historically accurate - tell that to Neil Jordan re Michael Collins!
But here's my problem - they lure you in with this competition called UNTITLED. But then you have to give it a title. Is that a carrot/ stick thing? As I am woefully disastrous with titles,it would be so nice if they didn't need one...
Anyone want to swop synopses before the weekend and give mutual feedback???
Here's the link to the information too: http://www.irishfilmboard.ie/irish_film_industry/news/Deadline_for_Entries_to_the_Successful_Screenwriting_Competition_UNTITLED_Extended_to_November_14th_/1778
Tuesday, 4 October 2011
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!
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!
Wednesday, 14 September 2011
ARCHANGEL to Visit New York City
In less than two weeks, on September 26th, in New York City, there will be a table read by some fantastic Irish actors of my feature-length pilot script for a series I developed called ARCHANGEL back in 2002. It is being hosted by the Irish Rep Theatre in Manhattan and I'm heading over because this was one of my favourite projects and still has more than enough legs and originality to run and run. It nearly made it into production back in the early days but someone lost out.
In recent years a NI producer has been trying to get it made, a Cork director has tried and is still trying, and now, thanks to actress Anna Olson Olson Nugent (https://www.facebook.com/AnnaNugentTVcop), this event is happening. And in the last place on earth I imagined it would!
Maybe now all the pieces will come together and it will get made?
Originally billed as a 'female Cracker', Archangel features a detective inspector called Rebecca Gabriel who is sent from the PSNI in Belfast to swop places with a colleague in Dublin. She manages to pick up a goose along route, based on an aggressive 'guard-goose' my Aunt Joan had for years. The whole twist on it was that Rebecca relates to the crims rather than the victims because of an incident in her past, but she would never allow herself to admit this -- at least not yet. Her partner is a hot lawyer representing the scum of Dublin whose sixteen year old daughter is about to turn up unexpectedly and stay....
I've set up a separate page to try and talk about writing, starting with this at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Lindsay-Jane-Sedgwick-Writer/117962409020
In recent years a NI producer has been trying to get it made, a Cork director has tried and is still trying, and now, thanks to actress Anna Olson Olson Nugent (https://www.facebook.com/AnnaNugentTVcop), this event is happening. And in the last place on earth I imagined it would!
Maybe now all the pieces will come together and it will get made?
Originally billed as a 'female Cracker', Archangel features a detective inspector called Rebecca Gabriel who is sent from the PSNI in Belfast to swop places with a colleague in Dublin. She manages to pick up a goose along route, based on an aggressive 'guard-goose' my Aunt Joan had for years. The whole twist on it was that Rebecca relates to the crims rather than the victims because of an incident in her past, but she would never allow herself to admit this -- at least not yet. Her partner is a hot lawyer representing the scum of Dublin whose sixteen year old daughter is about to turn up unexpectedly and stay....
I've set up a separate page to try and talk about writing, starting with this at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Lindsay-Jane-Sedgwick-Writer/117962409020
Saturday, 10 September 2011
Tips From a Master - Gill Dennis
Just added a page with some of the tips handed out by Gill Dennis, the scriptwriter of Walk The Line, who worked on Apocalypse now, who has a long and esteemed history as a screenwriter, tutor and mentor in the film industry...
Thought they might be of use.
Also, typing them up has reminded me of the very many useful notes within each tip... Makes me want to start all over on so many scripts, sob!
Thought they might be of use.
Also, typing them up has reminded me of the very many useful notes within each tip... Makes me want to start all over on so many scripts, sob!
Thursday, 8 September 2011
Archangel in New York City!
On September 26th a group of enterprising and talented actors are getting together to read through the feature-length pilot script for my series ARCHANGEL at the Irish Rep Theatre in Manhattan.
It's called The Changling. Over the years it was shortlisted for the Tony Doyle Bursary by BBC NI, it was being considered for production by first ITV and then the BBC. There is a director who has wanted to do it for years, at least one producer who loves the socks off it; another director who gave great advice but I couldn't really shrink it down to fit RTE's Storyland pitch.
Thing is, I love the characters and the world; there's a detailed treatment of the whole shebang that I think, mostly, works... but I wrote it in 2003. I have no idea how it will sound in 2011. So, it's exhilarating and slightly nerve-wracking and I am so curious to see how it goes...
It's called The Changling. Over the years it was shortlisted for the Tony Doyle Bursary by BBC NI, it was being considered for production by first ITV and then the BBC. There is a director who has wanted to do it for years, at least one producer who loves the socks off it; another director who gave great advice but I couldn't really shrink it down to fit RTE's Storyland pitch.
Thing is, I love the characters and the world; there's a detailed treatment of the whole shebang that I think, mostly, works... but I wrote it in 2003. I have no idea how it will sound in 2011. So, it's exhilarating and slightly nerve-wracking and I am so curious to see how it goes...
Monday, 11 July 2011
On being Compared to Coppola ... sort of!
Two of my scripts - PIA and PIGPEN just got into Round Two of the Page 2011 Awards! There were nearly 4,500 scripts entered so it's fantastic news .
Also just back from teh Galway Film Fleadh and Fair where I had an hour's consultation on PIGPEN with Gill Dennis (veteran screenwriter of Walk The Line, the Johnny Cash movie; worked on Apocalypse Now etc) at the Galway Film Fleadh.
His first comment : "You've led a baaaaad life!"
It's a pretty violent script in parts! Be more worrying if the comment was about a fluffy flick!
Anyway, it was a great hour going through the script; good tangible comments that are easy to implement and I'm looking forward to the rewrite. In terms of my habit of packing action into paragraphs, he referenced Coppola on Apocalypse Now. Apparently, Coppola had kept the script short so it would look less expensive to make. Therefore you had:-
Bombs fall
The temple collapses.
How many weeks, he asked Coppola, do you think that will take to shoot?!
His screenwriting masterclass was great too. He has 12 questions he asks, primarily of himself and then of characters, which can not only provide the energy to give emotional power to a story but will provide you with your character arc for every project, be it a series or a feature script...
Full blog on those questions once I've followed up on all my meetings at the Fair but it was a good week - starting when one producer said they could give me 2 million !!
Also just back from teh Galway Film Fleadh and Fair where I had an hour's consultation on PIGPEN with Gill Dennis (veteran screenwriter of Walk The Line, the Johnny Cash movie; worked on Apocalypse Now etc) at the Galway Film Fleadh.
His first comment : "You've led a baaaaad life!"
It's a pretty violent script in parts! Be more worrying if the comment was about a fluffy flick!
Anyway, it was a great hour going through the script; good tangible comments that are easy to implement and I'm looking forward to the rewrite. In terms of my habit of packing action into paragraphs, he referenced Coppola on Apocalypse Now. Apparently, Coppola had kept the script short so it would look less expensive to make. Therefore you had:-
Bombs fall
The temple collapses.
How many weeks, he asked Coppola, do you think that will take to shoot?!
His screenwriting masterclass was great too. He has 12 questions he asks, primarily of himself and then of characters, which can not only provide the energy to give emotional power to a story but will provide you with your character arc for every project, be it a series or a feature script...
Full blog on those questions once I've followed up on all my meetings at the Fair but it was a good week - starting when one producer said they could give me 2 million !!
Friday, 10 June 2011
Justification of all the Hard Work!
After a few weeks of negatives, a glowing report back from a UK producer on that script I wrestled with earlier this year, Monkey Puzzle Tree:
“It’s lovely; really, really lovely. It was a delight to read. The difference between this and your last draft is stunning. I thought, ‘My God! This is the writer I know’. It’s huge. The changes are so strong – it’s grown leaps and bounds --it was really exciting to read... . You should be thrilled with it. It’s so nice when you’ve done two hours of something and thought, that was a fantastic use of my time. You’ve made my week. I cried. I laughed.”
See, it is possible!
Now to get it made!!
“It’s lovely; really, really lovely. It was a delight to read. The difference between this and your last draft is stunning. I thought, ‘My God! This is the writer I know’. It’s huge. The changes are so strong – it’s grown leaps and bounds --it was really exciting to read... . You should be thrilled with it. It’s so nice when you’ve done two hours of something and thought, that was a fantastic use of my time. You’ve made my week. I cried. I laughed.”
See, it is possible!
Now to get it made!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)