Coming up in 2012

(I am not writing this at midnight I've just scheduled it to appear at that time.)

Two years ago I organised some additional shooting for the Monsters trailer. In my past I have run businesses, organised and run exhibitions, been an organiser of massive events. Talking to people and in front of large groups doesn't scare me.

Which is why I finally decided to embrace something that has been creeping up on me. I've known it was there but pretended it wasn't.

The Producer's Hat - though I suspect wearing a hat is probably more useful than embracing it.

This year we will make Winter or at least film the actors (it will be CGI sets a la Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow). But for that to happen we have to drive it forward and unless we pick up the Producer's hat and get it worn, that won't happen. As I have more time than Chris the Director - and once the writing stage is complete I effectively have nothing to do (sort of) - it may as well be me.

Truth is, I enjoy it. I pretend not to but when, for example, we lost the cameraman a day or so before shooting the additional footage for Monsters - I managed to organise a replacement within 24 hours. It was exciting, scary and fun.

So that's the big target for the coming year: Shoot Winter. And it's a biggee. I have been gathering every bit of information (including buying a seminar on DVD from an actual producer on the subject of being one) books and so forth. It's no good going into this blind. And then adjusting everything I'm learning to fit the crowd-sourcing paradigm. It's a fun game.

Lesser goals for the year:

1. Script in for Red Planet;
2. Re-work two feature scripts so they stop saying I am merely competent;
3. Build industry contacts;
4. Get web sites running and generating income so I'm less reliant on the day job;

Overall policy for the year: Get busy!

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What's on the turntable? "Amarok" by Mike Oldfield

Next!

The Teacher and the Daughter read Tec yesterday, the Daughter never says anything critical (maybe I should give her one of my known-to-be-not-very-good scripts just to test her). The Teacher, on the other hand, has no problem saying what she thinks (she also spent many years as a magazine editor), but said she liked it anyway. (She particularly liked the fact she gets a cover page credit for the original idea.)

So what's next? Choosing the next project seems to be a common issue in the scribosphere at the moment - but I'm not asking for a vote.

I need to do another draft of Running before I hit the spec script. I think having a finished feature - especially one that a producer is slightly interested in - is most important plus I need the practice in feature writing, I'm much more uncomfortable with features than TV.

Assuming I can organise my time on my new schedule. We shall see.

(Just saw Half Blood Prince, it's rather good - it's all downhill from here.)

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What's on the turntable? Nuffink

The story so far...

Back here I outlined what I felt my goals were for this year.

1. Get a writing commission.
2. Complete my current works in progress

The WIPs then were: Air, Unit X, Une Nuit a Paris, and Winter.

So how's it gone?

No commissions, I have the collaboration offered to me specifically because the Producer liked my style. I have the other potential commission still waiting.

Air was completed to a good result.

Unit X was completed to a poor result, but I know what's wrong with it.

However some time later I re-evaluated my projects on the basis of how they could forward my career, though I can't find the post. This threw Une Nuit a Paris out of the running, as was Unit X, both need too much work. But I did finish the first draft of Unit X.

Winter was a potential commission from the BBC but wasn't accepted. It got canned by me because it's far too complicated to write as a spec, it could never even work as a spec for reasons I won't go into.

Okay, I will go into it: Imagine you had to write a script but at every major decision point you had to branch off and write the rest of the script. But you've taken one branch, now you have another decision point, the story can go two further ways, you have write both. And so on.

That's a lot of writing for a spec.

Instead I've nearly completed Tec, I wrote Which? my fun Torchwood/Being Human crossover, and experiment in writing in other people's character's voices. Tec exists to show I can write non-SF/non-Fantasy. Oh and I wrote the feature script Running as well from scratch in April.

So what's next?

1. Work on the collaboration thing which we'll call Clones.
2. Work on a spec for an existing TV show, which is Noise.
   
3. Work on a second spec script for an existing TV show ... hm, that'll be called Wildlife.
4. And work on new drafts of Running
   
5. and of Tec - which will be my entry for the next Red Planet.
   

Might not hear much about Noise and Wildlife for a while, but you never know.

Good enough.

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What's on the turntable? It's quiet here on the train. I'm not in the Quiet Carriage, because people there always make loads of noise. Seriously.