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 !!
Monday, 11 July 2011
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!!
Wednesday, 8 June 2011
Food for Thought...
Read an article a while back that has been brewing in the background. Basically the writer* said that all great scripts boil down to the relationship between two characters. Get that right and you have a chance of the story working emotionally.
It got me thinking about my more successful scripts. And some of the feedback on others.
If you pull back on everything and everyone else, pull out those scenes featuring your two main characters and really work on that central relationship, the one that holds up your story, drives it forward or fatally flaws your main character... might it make your story stronger?
*Of course, when I go to dig the article out, I can't find it. I have a feeling it came via the Raindance site but I'll give you the url when I find it.
It got me thinking about my more successful scripts. And some of the feedback on others.
If you pull back on everything and everyone else, pull out those scenes featuring your two main characters and really work on that central relationship, the one that holds up your story, drives it forward or fatally flaws your main character... might it make your story stronger?
*Of course, when I go to dig the article out, I can't find it. I have a feeling it came via the Raindance site but I'll give you the url when I find it.
Friday, 27 May 2011
Day 9: The NIPper is done!
In the words of one of the greatest: If 'tis done when 'tis done, then 'twere well it were done quickly.
Nine days, 56,000 words, 26 chapters edited, plus a prologue and an epilogue.
And look, it's still daylight!
Rewriting is a strange beast. Some writers love it; most writers love to have done it but it's never an easy or especially comfortable process. It can be wonderfully energising or utterly deflating but when a chapter or a scene that hadn't worked suddenly comes together, it's worth all the effort.
But it is soooooooooo nice to have finished.
I want to start something new!!
Nine days, 56,000 words, 26 chapters edited, plus a prologue and an epilogue.
And look, it's still daylight!
Rewriting is a strange beast. Some writers love it; most writers love to have done it but it's never an easy or especially comfortable process. It can be wonderfully energising or utterly deflating but when a chapter or a scene that hadn't worked suddenly comes together, it's worth all the effort.
But it is soooooooooo nice to have finished.
I want to start something new!!
Wednesday, 25 May 2011
Day 7: Distracted by Dog, Daughter and the Addams Family
Three chapters done but it's not enough. So why am I reading The Addams Family script. 'Cos it's brilliant and funny. (I'm choosing to stick my head in the sand about the fact that this script is the 11th revision because that tells me how much pain, heartache, frustration has gone into this great script.)
Take this for a line:
MORTICIA, to Gomez
Last night, you were... unhinged.
You were like some desperate,
howling demon. You frightened me.
Do it again.
I need to get three more chaps at least marked up before I finish. The backdrop is a child dressing a dog like a pirate/ belly dancer/ Turkish horse trader... Which means odd dressing up garments all over the house, a little cinnamon dog fleeing under my chair for protection and a frustrated artist chasing her with a golden camera.
Three more chapters. Three. More. Chapters.
Then I can join in the chaos.
Take this for a line:
MORTICIA, to Gomez
Last night, you were... unhinged.
You were like some desperate,
howling demon. You frightened me.
Do it again.
I need to get three more chaps at least marked up before I finish. The backdrop is a child dressing a dog like a pirate/ belly dancer/ Turkish horse trader... Which means odd dressing up garments all over the house, a little cinnamon dog fleeing under my chair for protection and a frustrated artist chasing her with a golden camera.
Three more chapters. Three. More. Chapters.
Then I can join in the chaos.
Tuesday, 24 May 2011
Lindsay Jane Sedgwick; writer, script ed, tutor: Day 6: On time and writing
Lindsay Jane Sedgwick; writer, script ed, tutor: Day 6: On time and writing: "What is it with time and writing? No matter how long you think a piece of work will take, it inevitably takes longer and while this piece ..."
Day 6: On time and writing
What is it with time and writing?
No matter how long you think a piece of work will take, it inevitably takes longer and while this piece of work waits for you to finish, it will make snarling noises, poo on the carpet and shred your curtains. Just to see how you'll react. And it will drink lots of lukewarm coffee, ideally with chocolate and King crisps.
If you take a conservative guess and give yourself heaps of time, then nothing gets done; if you try to restrict yourself to the minimum time + coffee break you think it needs, it will run over into every other part of your life. And you will end up finishing something else instead.
Today chapters 14-19 got a going over. None of them are fully edited but they are all re-modelled so I know, at least, they work chronologically, are cut back where they ran over-long and most of the dull bits have been buried in the back garden under the weeds. All the other chapters took a gentle hammering too - I now have 25 chapters, not 23 - but it was satisfying work.
And I have found out that you don't leave line spaces between separate sections, you centre a 'hash'... This is in case the editor doesn't realise there is meant to be a line space because of the configuration of the print out.
Oh yes, it's coming together--just more slowly than I'd like!
No matter how long you think a piece of work will take, it inevitably takes longer and while this piece of work waits for you to finish, it will make snarling noises, poo on the carpet and shred your curtains. Just to see how you'll react. And it will drink lots of lukewarm coffee, ideally with chocolate and King crisps.
If you take a conservative guess and give yourself heaps of time, then nothing gets done; if you try to restrict yourself to the minimum time + coffee break you think it needs, it will run over into every other part of your life. And you will end up finishing something else instead.
Today chapters 14-19 got a going over. None of them are fully edited but they are all re-modelled so I know, at least, they work chronologically, are cut back where they ran over-long and most of the dull bits have been buried in the back garden under the weeds. All the other chapters took a gentle hammering too - I now have 25 chapters, not 23 - but it was satisfying work.
And I have found out that you don't leave line spaces between separate sections, you centre a 'hash'... This is in case the editor doesn't realise there is meant to be a line space because of the configuration of the print out.
Oh yes, it's coming together--just more slowly than I'd like!
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