The Year I Became Angelic

Traditions are for fulfilling so here's my look back at 2011.

In many ways it's not been a great year. Nor has it been a bad year.

There have been bad things though not on the screenwriting front. I've had two bad contracts this year - one of which cost me money. I could take time going to court over it but frankly it's not worth the effort. I went down that round years ago when I ran a design agency and we were ripped off by someone who said to our faces "If I can get out of paying you, I will".

Here's a tip: If you choose to take legal action against someone to get money you're owed: Get the biggest legal firm you can - even if it means that you'll lose most of your money in fees. Why? Because you'll win, and that's more important than the money.

But here's another tip: Think long and hard about taking legal action. It's very stressful, very expensive and seldom really worth it.

Mmm. Cheerful. Let's move on.

Agents

Early in the year I met with an agent. They liked what I could do but it just wasn't quite ... enough. Later in the year I made the Talent Connector through Industrial Scripts and had two bites from other agencies. They read my stuff but it wasn't quite ... enough.

As mentioned in a previous blog I am competent. But nothing I currently have has sufficient spark.

Not writing

I spent a lot of time not writing this year. Partly because of the contracts I was working on and partly because of the travel time to and from work. And partly because of a web site I've been working on for a while now, though it's finally coming together. Part of my plan is to make myself less reliant on the day job but since I have a family, mortgage and credit cards to support I can't dedicate myself 100% to the writing, which would be what I'd like to do.

Events

But I did go to the BBC's writing festival in Leeds which was very good indeed. And where I made a contact with a major US TV writer and producer (a legend in the TV SF world) currently working on something for the BBC. I have his email address and he's reading my stuff :-)

I almost didn't go to the London Screenwriters Festival. But I did and what happened? I got onto the advanced mentoring session with Gub Neal. Awesome.

But curiously that leads into something else which will be in my "Next Year" post coming up tomorrow.

The LSF also taught me something very very important: Rehearse pitches. I pitched at Gub Neal's session, the speed-pitching and, on the spur of the moment, the Pitch Factor. For Gub I had rehearsed the pitch and narrowed it down to a set of reminder cards that just kept me on track, though I barely used them. The speed-pitching was hastily written and only slightly rehearsed, while the Pitch Factor wasn't planned at all.

Result: From Gub "Good pitch" and from the others no kind words at all, and some critical ones. This also becomes relevant for the future (in the obvious way but also a less than obvious way).

ScriptFrenzy

I always do ScriptFrenzy and write a feature script in April. And this year was no different. Except I wrote a Steampunk story in the same universe as the Winter project.

ScriptFrenzy has been going five years which means I have five feature scripts I wouldn't otherwise have. Of course they need work but they're out in the real world.

Winter

This web project has been in development for three years now - you can read the potted history of that developing on the Voidships blog and if you're a Google+ person you can circle the Voidships page (and please don't believe the anti-hype about G+ being quieter than the grave - that is truly bollocks).

Two months ago the pressure I'd been building up internally to rewrite Winter suddenly kicked in and the story poured out. I zoomed it off to various readers and a month later I had all the feedback - which wasn't too bad and the areas that need work were agreed on by all readers which is a clear sign of what's needed.

Angels One Five

When we make the Winter project happen a lot of it is going to be crowd-funded. I could take the attitude that, well, we'll find the people and they'll pay. But that's not fair, really, is it? How can I justify asking people to pay money towards my projects if I take no notice of anyone else's? There are other filmmakers (and other creatives) who are trying to get their projects made.

What goes around comes around. As ye sow so shall ye reap. Treat others the way you'd like them to treat you. Stuff like that.

So I started funding projects - short films and book. Those on a personal basis.

Then, as my business, I became an investor in Piers Beckley's Red Table stage productions.

Let me say this: If you're in it for the money, or the rewards, forget it. That's not what it's about. What it's about is supporting creative people because they are the ones who make the real difference in the world. (Not that I want to give the impression that Piers' Red Table does not give ROI, but that's not the reason why.)

Summing up

It wasn't a bad year, much of it felt like treading water. There were a few good things and a few bad things, but the coming year is shaping up to be totally awesome and I will speak on that anon.

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What's on the turntable? "Tubular Bells" by Mike Oldfield

Fiesta! Bonus Pics #2

You may wonder why I keep posting the pictures a day later.

Then again, you may not. Is it because I need to get the digital pictures developed first? Strangely, no. It's because I can only think about one thing at a time, being male, and when I'm writing my day report I just can't think about incorporating pictures.

Picture #1 is very important. This is a picture of Stuart Perry having lost his voice. Oh yes. He's the chap in the middle, in case you don't know. Note clearly how he is not speaking.

On his left from our viewpoint is James Moran, writer of Severance and of Spooks, Dr Who and Torchwood episodes. While on his right is someone who's name I forget but he was a very nice chap. The table is littered with lunch.

Next up we have an image of the majestic Nigel Planer standing in the food queue with no one talking to him. Apparently something is happening to the left of picture but I don't recall what that was.

Why is no one talking to him? Because they're too embarrassed because he's just so big, and tall as well. It's difficult being famous.

The red-head just right of centre is Joanne Leigh, winner of the Red Planet competition 2007.

I thought I'd throw in this picture of the happy crowds of writers talking and chatting with all the news friends they've made over the last few days.

Most, like me, would not really have known anyone else and came, heart in hand, in the hope of meeting like-minded folks, the chance to learn some things about their trade and perhaps even make contact with a producer interested in their work. At the very least, you will make friends.

This is my final image. It sums up the weekend. A game of croquet being played by Stuart Perry, Piers Beckley and friends. Life is like a game of croquet, on the surface it is a civilised activity involving balls and hoops; in truth it is a cut-throat endeavour with the participant's armed to the teeth with hammers.

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What's on the turntable? "White Man" by Queen from "A Day at the Races"

Fiesta!

I'm knackered but, to be honest, that's my own fault, after all only mad dogs and Englishman go out in the midday sun. Which makes me either a mad dog or an Englishman. Briefly: I ran out of cash, I misunderstood the location of the nearest cash machine. I walked 4 miles in the heat of the day. I got a sunburnt bonce (actually not too serious). In fact I enjoyed the walk but it was a little exhausting. I had plenty of liquids with me. I did get the cash and didn't miss anything because there was rather a long break in the proceedings or, at least, the proceedings I was interested in.

Here's how my day went: Woke at 6:30am, made myself beautiful, walked to the event location following signs and looking like I knew what I was doing. Waited with other silly people who were there first thing (8:00am). Signed in, got a bag of heavy magazines. Very annoying. Put unnecessary clutter into backpack. With new friends went to breakfast.

Met two of the people who I'd decided I wanted to meet. Didn't talk business with the one I should have talked business with. It didn't feel "the right time". Must find him again tomorrow.

Ate large breakfast (knowing I was going to need it) and at 9:30am wandered with new friends to the front row of main theatre for opening address from Barbara Machin. Was suitably impressed. She said: write interesting and new stuff. And don't worry, new writers don't have to write for long running TV series (meaning the likes of East Enders and Casualty) to get "in" any more. I was grateful.

The opening had been delayed to get in late registrants, so the opening speech ran almost straight into the next thing "How to make a living as a writer". I'm afraid I wasn't very impressed, but then it's not something I want. I hadn't actually been planning to even watch it because I wasn't interested.

Piers and Jason who were sitting next to me did a runner after 10 minutes.

Honestly I have nothing against good life coaches, and certainly nothing against people who've succeeded in giving up the day job and now make a living through writing of various sorts. As I've mentioned, I like my day job, people pay me to do something I consider relaxation and I have time to write in the evening without distraction. I'm lucky.

But I seriously disagree with suggesting that anyone and everyone who wants to be a writer should give up the day job they don't enjoy and start a new and untested business idea that's supposed to be related to writing. It will not work for most of them. And many have responsibilities that make it a very bad idea indeed. (Like me, for example, even if I didn't like my job.)

The three example people they had were creditable gentlemen who clearly worked very hard at what they do, and I admire them for that ... but they work hard at what they do and have managed to be successful. Regardless of them, how many have failed? I felt the session was irresponsible and basically just an advertisement for the life coach concerned. Not impressed.

That's my opinion, and the opinion of many of the people I spoke to.

Anyway, back to the good stuff.

"Protect Your Writing" this was a talk given by a media lawyer, Guy Sheppard, and covered the various legal things that are dealt with in contracts. It was good stuff, if very dry, filled with jargon which he explained clearly. He gave the analogy of copyright (which is a collection of rights) being like a townhouse where you can, for example, let-out a floor and put any restrictions on it you like: "You can have exclusive use of the basement for the next 6 months".

Being a proper suit (sorry Guy) we had print-outs of his Powerpoint presentation as take-aways.

Guy was also one of the people I wanted to talk to, but I got the chance to ask my question in the Q&A at the end. Unfortunately he wasn't sure what I meant. Oh well, more of that later.

Next would have been lunch but I had no money. This is when I went on the long march.

Arriving back having eaten, drunk, and burnt, I rested for 40 minutes or so until the best session of the day for me:

"How to be Good" this was presented by the comedy duo Krait and Leys: Rob Krait an agent with AP Watts, and Kate Leys, a script editor. They were amusing, thorough and had real advice that was good to take away. The best tidbit for me was based on William Goldberg's "Nobody knows nothing" principle which is this: Nobody believes they know anything, so they are scared, all of them, every exec, everyone involved in monetary decisions, they are scared. So they behave like scared people in meetings: they say silly things; they do silly things; they prevaricate etc etc. So it's up to you, as the writer, to understand this and help to calm them down, help them have faith in what they are doing. Say things like: "What do we need to achieve in this meeting?" or "What do you need from me today?" in order to help them focus.

They said lots of other really good stuff, but hey, I paid for this. Kate with some offhand comment actually answered the question I'd tried to ask Guy, and I had a quick chat with her afterwards. I came away a very happy bunny because it meant I could actually write an adaptation of a book that I've been longing to do. (It's not an out-of-copyright thing, the author is still alive.)

This session was closely followed by "The Right Treatment" by Jenna Milly who's a script editor in the States. I've always had a serious problem with treatments which is why I wanted to do this one. And it really helped, in some ways. Apparently the format of a treatment is more clearly defined in the States than here, she went over the structure required and what it should consist of which was very useful. However tying that in with the excellent previous session, in the UK when someone asks for a "treatment" or an "outline" always ask what they're actually expecting to see, otherwise you could get it seriously wrong.

Finally she gave us a practical test which was to watch the first 5 minutes of Jaws and then write the opening of the treatment for that sequence. I nailed it in about 50 words (though they might not have been a good 50 words) my neighbour was into his third paragraph. There was no checking. She also gave us homework: find two films that had a similar tone to the our Work-In-Progress, watch one of them and then do the same trick with that. And for extra credit, write the treatment for the whole film.

And that's about it for me. I didn't go to see Mike Leigh doing a talk, because I was completely shattered. I had a long and pleasant chat with another of the "Pitch in Time" finalists, John Robertson from Edinburgh.

Apparently the Pitch in Time coaching that all the finalists received today was pretty rugged, and their efforts were torn apart. This follows what happened last year but, unlike last year, they at least have a day to pull their pitch back together before the final tomorrow.

And good luck to them all.

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What's on the turntable? "Oxygene (Part II)" by Jean-Michel Jarre from "Oxygene"

First night nerves

I arrived about 2:58pm and checked in, apparently 2 minutes early was okay. Travelodge is basic but hey, it's a cheap hotel.

I spent some time dealing with a problem at work, they apologised for contacting me but as I'm the only one who knows how the core code works I can't really be upset. (I spent some time last week getting someone studying what I'd done, hopefully he can make the changes.)

I was too tired to do any serious writing, I'd spent a couple of hours on the train working on my changes to Monsters, so instead I did some programming. I know, sounds pathetic and sad, the thing is, I like it. For me, programming is relaxation. And I get paid for it. How cool is that?

So come 6:00pm I was hungry and the informal Scribomeet was due to start. So I prevaricated. Of course I did. I'm not a natural mingler, in the terribly misunderstood words of Chase from "Being There": I like to watch. But networking is a necessity in this biz.

So I scrunched up my courage, and my hunger, and headed down.

There's a lot I don't know about this event. Some of it I got sorted this evening. My biggest issue was food. Well, there's the Harvester Inn right next door to the Travelodge (who don't really do food). Which is good. There's also a Kentucky Fried Rat.

And apparently there's an on-site caterer, who does breakfasts. This is important.

(Once upon a time I used to assist in the organisation of events of all sorts, including massive outdoor events for 5000+ people lasting several days. Food and toilets.)

What's also important, and awkward, is that there is no cashpoint nearby. A quick trip to multimap shows that the nearest one is as far away as the station (a trip will probably be required tomorrow). Maybe there's a supermarket closer that does cash-back. Interrogation of the locals is required.

So, this picture is early on, probably about 7:00pm. Far left side-on is Stuart Perry then comes Piers Beckley then, with their backs to us from the left Tony Keetch (who's a Pitch in Time finalist, with an advantage over the common writing folk ... he's also an actor). The one in red is Jason Arnopp.

As for everyone else in the picture, and those who arrived later, sorry I have a poor memory for names and faces. (And the camera was unable to shoot the future - now there's an idea.)

And much merriment was had by all, alcohol consumed (though not by me) and many were the secrets revealed. Fear not, my lips are sealed, and will remain so until I am offered the right price.

Suffering from extreme tiredness I excused myself early and trekked with leaden feet back to my domicile. Where I wasted time dealing with e-mails (more excellent responses to the enquiries I sent out), researching parkour on YouTube and reading other people's blogs until I decided to do this. And then I did. And now I've finished.

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What's on the turntable? "Pluto" by Bjork from "Homogenic"