360 Degrees Festival Report Part 2

Read part 1 of this report here.

***

Ok, so after Nuno had brought us up to speed on what the kids are doing online, we all felt very uncool and unworthy, and slunk off for a bit of a break before the BBC Writers Room Roadshow.

This was the most attended event of the Festival, reflecting the amount of interest there is in the Writers Room and how it works. Which is a good thing. It makes you realize how many other writers there are out there. Even in a place as small as Northern Ireland. And these are only the ones who’ve shown up.

The talk was led by Kate Rowland, who runs the BBC Writers Room. (For those not in the know, this is possibly the single most important entry points into the industry in the UK.)

Kate comes from a radio background, and indeed still commissions for the Radio 3 strand, The Wire (no, not the David Simon cop show from Baltimore. Find out about the Radio 3 Wire here and here).

She basically gave a run-down of how the Writer’s Room works, what they are looking for in the first 10 pages (and the rest of the script too) and then answered lots and lots of questions from the floor.

Kate started off by telling us that the Writers Room receives about 10,000 scripts a year. The first thing they do is the 10 page sift. Basically, they look at the first 10 pages of the script and if they like it, they give it a full read. So, those first 10 pages are very important.

We then went on to have a look at the first ten minutes of Funland, which you can read on the Writer’s Room site 

Kate then got us to talk about what we had noted in those first ten minutes.

It starts with a guy on Blackpool tower, in an ape’s uniform, falling to his death (suicide?) and basically got even stranger, with lots of story, lots of characters, lots of quirkiness, quite in your face.

You REALLY knew where you where with it tonally after 10 minutes, and it had also raised lots of questions. Whether you liked it or not, it was definitely different.

Kate then took us through the important things for the first 10 pages of your script. Well, some of them. Someone will always come up with others.

1. Medium and Form. Use industry formats, don’t handwrite it, the usual stuff. They are fairly flexible about this, as long as it is readable and in some kind of recognizable/standard format. Don’t direct from the page. This was interesting. We are constantly debating on this site about whether or not this matters, or rather how much it matters, and it was interesting to see that she described it as a definite no-no.
2. Hit the ground running. Get the story going immediately. Show characters in action, don’t waste time with too much preface, set up, introducing characters/world and beware of exposition/backstory. Of course, you also DO have to set up the world and characters. Just don’t waste time doing it.
3. Coherence. Know your world and story, know your genre and tone, give the audience/reader a focused way in, don’t try to do too much and beware beguiling distractions - which means cut that scene you love if it isn’t essential!
4. Character is everything. Characters should be vivid and compelling on an emotional level. Make the reader want to spend time with them. Make sure they have an active goal, journey, obstacle, dilemma. Make sure they are an individual - not a cliché or stereotype and know the moral line that they will or will not cross. What is the world through their point of view? What is their faith? (Not necessarily religious, that last one.)
5. Emotion. Stories matter on a human level. Explore the concept via the characters. Kate also spoke about the squelch principle. Meaning, make the reader/audience have an emotional response to the characters and story. The thing that makes them go "ohhh"
6. Surprise. Clichè/predictability kills story. There are a finite number of archetypes, so you need a fresh take, a unique perspective, an original touch. Have you seen your basic idea before? What’s different about your version?
7. Structure is key. Begin in the right place. The story must be going somewhere. There must be a dynamic purpose for each story beat, sequence, scene, moment.
8. Exposition and Expression. People don’t tell each other things they already know. Good dialogue expresses character, whereas bad dialogue simply relates or explains. Don’t be afraid to use inarticulacy - by which she means the fact that people struggle to express themselves, and will often talk about something else rather than express what they really feel. Another word for that is subtext, avoiding writing on the nose.
9. Passion - you have to have it. Is your story keeping you up at night? What keeps you up at night? What are you compelled to write? Don’t try to be expedient. Don’t try to second guess.
10. Be yourself - which comes from your passion. Have an individual, distinct, original voice. Write a script that only you could have written.
11. Finally, don’t think first draft, but first read. Make sure it’s ready!

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