Scripts Wanted!

by Phil Gladwin on May 4, 2012

Here are a quick round up of some Scripts/Films Wanted Opportunities.

There’s some amazing doors opening here, so do take a look.

BBC WRITERS ROOM

The BBC have announced another scheme. They’re offering £10,000 prizes, for writers living in Wales.

In case you’ve ever doubted the value of the Writersroom, you might be interested to know that Ben Stephenson, head of Drama at the BBC, announced a set of brand new commissions this week.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latestnews/2012/new-drama.html

One of which, a three part drama on BBC3, is a post zombie apocalypse story that was originally found by ‘Northern Voices’, a BBC Writersroom Competition.

Here’s the link for the Call For Writers:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/opportunities/wales-drama-award-2012

BFI YOUNG FILMMAKERS

The British Film Institute have announced they are creating a new initiative to help filmmakers aged 16-19.

It’s not open yet, but if it applies to you then make sure you become a regular visitor to the BFI site as as it’s going to get going very soon.

Here’s the BFI site:

http://www.bfi.org.uk/

And here’s a news article on the announcement:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-17170889

COMING UP 2013 SCHEME | C4 TALENT

Coming Up is currently the only talent scheme in the UK where emerging filmmakers have the opportunity to make an authored drama with a guaranteed network broadcast.

They say they want ‘bold, original and surprising ideas with strong voices – unafraid of ambition, wit, urgency and fearless entertainment. Films that can be shot in four days on a limited budget.’

It’s open to writers who have not had an original single, series or serial broadcast on UK television. (Writers who have contributed episodes or series and serials (eg a long-running soap) are eligible to apply.)

http://4talent.channel4.com

EMMERDALE WRITERS INITIATIVE

Emmerdale has a new writers’ initiative. If you are from a Black, Asian, or any other Minority Ethnic background,and you have a permanent residence within the Yorkshire and North East Region, you can apply for this one. No professional experience needed.

http://responsibility.itvplc.com/investing-in-drama/emmerdale-writers-initiative.aspx

GALWAY FILM FLEADH – IRELAND’S PREMIER FILM FESTIVAL

This is a great place to pitch ideas (in or out of the official pitching competition). It’s great fun. And there are lots of film and TV bods there.

They have various calls for entries on their site:

http://www.galwayfilmfleadh.com/index.php

iFEATURES

This is a contest open to writer, director and producer teams who can already demonstrate a strong body of work. 3 films will be produced on a budget of £350,000 from a slate of 16 developed projects. They say they are looking for ‘films that can capture a sense of place, and even time. Tales of the way we live and the world we live in that will challenge, move and entertain audiences across the world.’

http://www.ifeatures2.co.uk/

The deadline is noon on 8th May so if you’re interested in this you need to hurry.

KINO SHORTS

Kino Shorts is a Manchester based Short Film night that promotes the work of emerging filmmakers essentially from the North West. Their aim is to give the audience a chance to see films they would not see anywhere else. They say they are the longest running short film night in Manchester and the North West – they’ve certainly been going for over fifteeen years.

The organiser, John Wojowski, has a very long involvement with cinema – he used to run the legendary Aaben Cinema in Hulme in the 1980s, so his commitment is total!

They next meet in central Manchester this Wed May 9th, so if you’ve got a short film you want to show, or you want to see what’s going on, you should make definitely contact:

https://www.facebook.com/events/319652571437699/

SCI-FI LONDON 48 HOUR FILM CHALLENGE

David Early, a friend of the Goldmine, posted a short film he’d directed up on Facebook for the Sci-Fi-London 48 hour Film Challenge.

It’s pretty good – especially when you consider the whole thing was made in just 48 hours from start to finish, on a budget of practically zero!

It’s attracted quite a lot of praise already, and I’m sure it will lead to good things for David.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlOsbLBEG3c

It just goes to show what you can achieve with a little bit of effort, creativity, determination, luck, a few favours, and the ability to function on very little sleep for a weekend.

The challenge has closed now until next year, but it’s one worth bookmarking:

http://www.sci-fi-london.com/48-hour-film-challenge

SCREEN YORKSHIRE

Screen Yorkshire has announced a new £15 million fund to invest in creative content within film, TV, games and the digital sector within Yorkshire and Humberside. The Yorkshire Content Fund has secured £7,500,000 of investment from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), which will be further matched by private sector investors on a project-by-project basis.

http://www.screenyorkshire.co.uk/news/news-archive/screen-yorkshire-announces-new-15m-content-fund-fo

SCREENWRITING GOLDMINE SCRIPT COMPETITION

And finally, a reminder of our very own powerful (and international!) career starter.

We’re looking for great original screenplays, 45-125 pages in any genre, from new writers from all over the world.

We’re offering some great prizes, including cash, Final Draft software, Raindance workshops, and best of all, genuine script meetings with some of the eight world class judges.

It’s just over a month now till the early bird discount closes, and the fees are very reasonable, so why not improve your chances by making your first entry today and getting to work on a second entry? (If this sounds a surprising idea, it’s not – we’ve had several multiple entries so far. In fact one industrious American writer has already entered five scripts.)

http://awards.screenwritinggoldmine.com

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Call For Entries: First Screenwriting Goldmine Contest

by Phil Gladwin on April 17, 2012

Screenwriting Goldmine is five years old this summer. Throughout that time I’ve done my best to make it as useful, as truthful, and as directly connected to the industry as possible. To mark this fifth anniversary year I’m proud to announce an exciting new initiative to get the best new writers to the people who can make a difference.

Want to join up?

Submit your script to the First Grand Open Screenwriting Goldmine Screenplay Competition before the 12th July.

http://awards.screenwritinggoldmine.com

WHY SHOULD YOU ENTER YOUR SCRIPT?

Here’s 7 big reasons to begin with:

1. If you’re at all serious about writing you’ll recognise the commissioning power of the judges we have on board. These are some of the bigger players in the UK. As such, you’ll know the chances of getting your writing actually read by them any other way are pretty small.

2. What’s more, if you’re listed as a finalist you also actually win a dream choice of script meetings with some of these judges! These people are in positions of great power within the industry, and you will be able to choose the meeting that best suits your writing.

3. The other prizes are pretty good too!

4. At the time of writing we know of only one or two other big independent screenplay competitions in the UK. This is a fresh concept, and as such the winners will be newsworthy. If you win you are likely to get a lot of attention.

5. This is a no gimmick, high quality competition. Screenwriting Goldmine has always been about quality writing. Our focus is simply on finding the best writers and the best scripts, and I’m personally overseeing the whole reading process to make sure we truly find the best scripts.

6. This is an open competition for relatively new/unknown talent. Unlike some other competitions we don’t judge you on your CV, where you went to school, who else you know, or even what you have written before – we judge you only on the script laid before us. No old boys’ network here – the only requirement is that you deliver a screenplay of reasonable length, in English. This is a truly level playing field.

7. It’s very affordable! We’re not in it to make massive profits, we’re in it to find good writers. From what we’ve seen in our research, the entry fees are some of the most reasonable around. So why not have a look around the all new competition website?

You’ve got until the 12th July, which gives you chance to submit any scripts you have now, and then even to work on another.

And don’t miss the early bird submission discounts!

Why not take a look at the Judges, the Prizes, the FAQ, or the Rules?

Or even just go straight to submitting your script.

SPREAD THE WORD

One thing I’ve realised is that the power of recommendation on the internet is massive. Please pass on the word about this new contest wherever you can – Twitter, Facebook, your own blog, social media wherever you can.

You can just copy and paste this tweet:

Call for entries: Screenwriting Goldmine 1st International Script Contest. Top industry judges, feedback, low fees http://bit.ly/HYPWiL

Or copy and post this elsewhere:

‘Screenwriting Goldmine has just launched its first ever screenwriting competition. It’s open to international screenwriters of all genres of drama/comedy. The script length is between 45-125 pages, TV or Movies. Top industry judges, script feedback available, low entry fees, early bird entry submission ends 7th June, entry finally closes 12th July. http://awards.screenwritinggoldmine.com

Good luck!

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Ten Crucial Screenwriting Tips

by Phil Gladwin on April 13, 2012

The list started as a response to a rash of questions I received that all went along the following lines:

Dear Phil,

I have an absolutely brilliant idea for a screenplay, but I just don’t know how to take that idea and get it into 110
pages of well written script. Please tell me everything I need to do.

All best,

Writer.

This was, and still is, my answer:

Dear Writer,

Believe, me, I understand what you mean, and I understand how daunting it can seem. The problem is that is way too big a question for me to answer in a single email, or even a series of emails. It’s actually the subject of the entire Screenwriting Goldmine, the books and booklets I sell on there, many of the audio interviews I’ve uploaded, and probably thousands of other websites besides.

It took me a long time to work out how write a script reliably, and, though like all things you can get pretty good at it if you just keep working at it, building a good story is a fairly complicated process.

So it’s not surprising that you might be feeling a little lost. But don’t worry. There’s a lot you can do about that. I’ve come up with these key areas to work on:

1. READ AS MANY BOOKS ON SCREENWRITING AS YOU CAN

There are hundreds of them out there, and there are some absolutely brilliant accounts of just about everything you need to do, from brainstorming your idea through to launching your get-a-greenlight schmoozing blitz. Just google, or check on Amazon, or ask your writer friends, or ask on the Screenwriting
Goldmine Forum. There’s actually a thread here with quite a few suggestions and comments:

http://www.screenwritinggoldmine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1005

2. TAKE CONSISTENT ACTION, AND FOLLOW IT THROUGH

If you do get one of the books that contains a method for writing a screenplay, then actually FOLLOW THAT METHOD and FOLLOW IT THROUGH TO THE END and see what happens.

Would you learn to drive a car by taking a few lessons here, and a bit of anecdote here, and evolving your own system for handling traffic lights? It’s a bit like thinking you’re going to lose 15Kg by reading a diet book cover to cover, but not actually changing what you eat.

If you find a book with a system you like, then take action on that system! What have you got to lose, bar a couple of weeks of writing time? (And time spent trying things out is never wasted. Even if that particular system doesn’t work for you, then you’ll still learn a hundred priceless lessons in the process of finding that out.)

3. READ AS MANY SCREENPLAYS AS YOU CAN

It always surprises me how many people think they can write a screenplay without ever having read a real one. (Is that because somehow it feels like cheating, or a diversion from the real work of getting words on paper? It’s neither, trust me.)

If you’re going to compete in a highly competitive professional market you MUST read as many professional screenplays as you can find, and keep on reading them throughout your career. It’s cumulative. The more you read, the more the whole thing sinks in. The more you will find your basic formatting and layout
questions are answered. And the more you will start to understand the more subtle things, like rhythm, and pacing, and what an action sequence looks like on the page, and how much directing of actors the best screenwriters actually do. (More than you might believe, but in a very subtle way!)

There is a page here which gives you some suggestions on where you can find screenplays – and what you do when you download them. (Clue – you don’t just sit and read them!)

http://www.screenwritinggoldmine.com/free-screenplays-its-a-mistake-to-just-read-them

4. DON’T BE SCARED OF THE BLANK PAGE

Real writing is actually very, very hard, for most writers I know. (That’s why it’s so rewarding, I believe.) Don’t spend a couple of hours not being able to think of something, then give up and say ‘oh, I’m obviously not a writer.’ It can take days to get going sometimes. Days to solve specific problems. Days and days when you just stare at the screen, hating what’s coming out of your mind, but unable to see the way forward. I don’t say it’s much fun, but it does seem to be normal.

5. WRITE DAILY

Better a half hour a day for seven days a week than one three and a half hour splurge. There is something about the brain. Once it knows you’re going to be doing this on a daily basis it resists at first, kicks, yells, tries to distract you by watching Modern Family, then finally shrugs, says ‘OK’ and slowly opens the flood gates of your creativity. This too is a cumulative process. If you’ve managed to write daily for three or four days, and stuck at
it through the desert of no ideas, then you’ll be amazed how much easier it gets after that – until after a week or so of daily writing, you are really flying. (Oh, and shut down your internet while you are doing this. Just allow yourself to truly concentrate for that rare, precious time. Here’s a tool that will do that for you.)

http://macfreedom.com/

6. USE STRUCTURE

Please, please, please at least make it your business to find out about, and understand – and put into practice at least once before you junk it! – all the current thought about screenplay structure. When you watch movies on screen, or read screenplays at home, you need to be able to spot three and five act systems, act breaks, midpoints. You should know what an inciting incident is, and where the climax should be, and what a character arc is. You may decide
not to consciously use this stuff in the end, but learning about these very well established tools of the trade really does help most people. (Bar the natural genius – who knows it all and uses it all instinctively anyway.)

7. USE STRUCTURE! I MEAN IT!

It’s that important. Understand what roles an antagonist and a protagonist play; and that characters can have internal and external desires, and both are essential for powering an emotionally resonant screenplay. Understand that a screenplay needs a spine, and an escalating chain of conflict, and once you start adding scenes that don’t hang off this spine you’ve stopped writing a screenplay and started making rice pudding. This is where reading all those screenplay books comes in.

And in particular, reading this one:

http://www.screenwritinggoldmine.com/how-to-write-a-screenplay

8. USE YOUR UNCONSCIOUS MIND

Finally, at some point step back from the structure, step back from the theory, and just let whatever is inside you about this story spill out onto the page. You can always give it a damn good structuring later. If you don’t let those bolts of subconscious lightning in when they present themselves; if you don’t go off-piste with your structure occasionally, you WILL end up with a very dull script.

9. KEEP TO LENGTH – DON’T THINK “MINE IS SPECIAL”

Never submit a spec script of more than 120 pages. Aim for 100-110 pages of standard format.(And find out the bald truth about standard format at

http://www.screenwritinggoldmine.com/blog/screenplay-format-and-layout/2007/06/05/

When you’re Steve Zaillian you can do what you want, but while you’re trying to get a script reader to pick yours out of the drab and dreary pile weighing down their desk, excess page count is murderous.

10. EMBRACE THE HAPPY ENDING

Script readers love it. Audiences love it. The universe loves it. Yes, yes, I know. Of all my pieces of screenwriting advice this is the most contentious. But have a read of these two linked articles, and then decide…

http://www.screenwritinggoldmine.com/blog/happy-endings-just-do-it/2007/09/26/

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Breaking In: Comments From A British Show Runner

by Phil Gladwin on April 10, 2012

While we’re all waiting for the new Screenwriting Goldmine competition website I thought those of you who want to write for British TV (and who are thinking about coming on our Cardiff seminar on the 21st April) might be interested in a little Q/A from the special guest.

Starting in 1986 as a reasonably radical critique of the National Health Service, CASUALTY settled in pretty quickly, and soon matured into a well-loved family drama.

Over its life the show has provided several generations of viewers with dynamic medical action, built up a vast raft of characters familiar in most houses across the country, and been an absolute powerhouse for neat, effective, well-researched – and sometimes extremely powerful – storytelling.

I myself spent a year working on the show as a script editor back in the 1990s, and was one of the team responsible for generating the Series 13 Story Bible, as well as script editing 8 or 9 episodes.

I was actually pretty new in the industry at the time, and that year I spent in the world of the show taught me a great deal about how to shape story quickly and effectively.

In some ways the show seems evergreen, and still regularly commands some of the largest TV audiences in Britain.

And now you have the chance to access some of that talent yourself, because the special guest at our up-coming Cardiff seminar is a woman called Nikki Wilson.

Over a long career, Nikki has managed shows as diverse as Doctor Who and Upstairs Downstairs, but currently she is Series Producer on Casualty.

This means that the responsibility for just about every decision on the show – including which writers to hire! – ultimately rests on her shoulders. She’s a very, very busy woman, but she’s agreed to come along to our workshop and be available to answer questions and generally talk about the writing process.

Here’s just a few of the queries I had for her. I’m sure you’ve got your own questions you’d like to ask her.

Q. How many writers do you employ a year at Casualty?
A. It varies, but on average around 25-40

Q. How many hours of the show are there a year?
A. 48 last year, 43 this year and 44 next year

Q. How many script editors/story liners/researchers do you manage at the moment?
A. 1 script producer, 1 story producer, 3 script editors, 1 assistant script editor, 1 story assistant, 1 researcher (plus a team of medical advisors)

Q. If you’re building a career as a screenwriter in the UK, how important is getting hired by Casualty, (and long running drama series in general)?
A. Long running dramas are a great way for writers to cut their teeth and find out where their strengths lie. All the shows are quite different and require different skills. For Casualty we need writers who can create robust guest stories with 3-dimensional characters which can weave with the serial stores for our medics. The soaps require more in-depth knowledge of the regular characters and their voices.

Q. Where do you find your new writers?
A. We have a constant dialogue with literary agents who send us sample scripts from clients they think would be suited to the show. We also run our own shadow scheme where brand new writers are given a chance to work with a script editor to write a half-hour episode of the show. We have given several brand new writers an episode of the main show after writing a successful shadow scheme script. On top of this we have 8 episodes a year written by writers from the BBC Writers Academy, many of whom go on to write further episodes.

Q. What’s the best way for a new writer to attract your eye? Write a brand new original spec script? Or write a terrific spec episode of Casualty?
A. Definitely write an original script about a subject that you’re passionate about.

Q. Have you any tips for new writers trying to launch themselves?
A. Write about subjects that inspire you. Don’t write just one spec script and rely on this to open doors – keep writing, write something every day, and keep notes on people/subjects that interest you. Make a conscious effort to meet people from all walks of life and talk to them about their lives – inspiration can come from the most unlikely of sources. Don’t watch American dramas and steal story ideas!

Over the last 25 years Casualty has been a major employer of creative talent in the UK. It’s got to be one of your top targets if you want to write TV, so please don’t miss this rare chance to meet a huge industry player like Nikki in our very friendly, highly informal, workshop environment.

Get more information on the seminar at:

http://www.screenwritinggoldmine.com/screenwriting-courses

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How To Write Character

by Phil Gladwin on April 1, 2012

The really great thing about running this site is the contact I have with people literally all over the world. When I look at the site analytics there are only a very small handful of countries left who have never sent a visitor or three to the Goldmine.

That’s meant that I’ve heard things, and ‘met’ people online I would simply have never encountered any other way.

One of these was a man called Bryan McDonald. He was a writer who emailed me a few years back to say hi, and we got chatting. It turns out he had had a dream job – working for David Milch on a couple of series of Deadwood.

Sally Brockway ended up doing a great audio interview with him for the site, in which, among a lot of fascinating stuff, Brian talked about what it was like working with such a gigantic talent as David Milch.

I listened to that interview when it came out – probably 2008/9 – thought how very interesting it was, and how I’d really like to try out some of these methods one day but, when you’re working flat out, sometimes you don’t have time to step away from methods you know work, so I get to put any of it into practise there and then, and I moved on.

But one idea Bryan mentioned has kept on nagging at me all this time.

Apparently when he got working on his first episode, David said to him that the first thing he should do is get the characters talking to each other. Spend, literally, a couple of days writing page after page of conversation, just getting the characters to converse with each other.

Don’t worry about story, don’t worry about whether it makes sense. Just get them talking to each other.

According to Mr Milch, that’s how you get to know our characters. That’s how you make them real. THAT’s how you make them jump off the page.

That was a very interesting thought to me.

I normally write dialogue by working out the story function of the scene, working out what each character wants, and making them take physical steps to get it. If physical steps are inappropriate, then that, as a last resort, is when I write dialogue – always as lean and as laconic and oblique as possible.

It’s worked pretty well till now.

But, of course, that’s screenwriting. And when you’re writing some other forms, such as radio, you don’t get the pictures. So when I wrote a radio play last autumn that was a very big deal for me. (If you’re a reader of the blog you’ll remember that time – I wrote a play in three weeks, keeping up a running commentary of the ups and downs most days. You can find it here:

http://www.screenwritinggoldmine.com/blog/category/script-in-3-weeks/

If you did read the blog you’ll remember that I got into trouble writing the play. My long honed method of using as many pictures as possible just simply didn’t apply. I had to do it ALL with dialogue!

What’s more, the play was about a lost weekend in the life of a psychotic teenage girl who is cranked up on the wrong medication, and what happens to her when she meets a similarly psychotic mid-20 year old woman – who then falls in love with her.

‘Write what you know.’

And that’s where the trouble started. I’m nearly fifty, male, straight, with absolutely no history of psychosis. I couldn’t lean back and rely on a director to make them real with costumes and great visual casting. However was I going to find their voices? Truly I had nowhere to hide. For a day or two I just blanked.

Then, casting around for new ways in I remembered the advice from Brian/David Milch. I listened to the interview again, and tried the technique. I went off script, just spent a couple of days writing the characters chatting to each other, telling jokes, arguing, went back to the script.

It seemed to get me through.

Actually, much more than that. Just recently I met the director of the play to get my notes on the first draft. (Radio can have a LONG lead time sometimes!)

It was one of the first sunny days we’ve had this year, so she took me down from BBC Bush House to the Somerset House terraces. We had coffee overlooking the Thames, felt the sun on our faces, and talked about the script.

Which, I was SO relieved to hear, she thought really worked.

She gave me a few light notes – mainly to lose one minor character in the middle of the script – but the most important thing for me was that she found the two main characters, what they said, and what they did, ‘totally believable, very convincing’.

“Happy”. “Relieved”. “Delighted”. Are all words I would use to describe my state of mind at that point.

Thanks Bryan, for that, and thanks to David Milch himself,indirectly.

I want to suggest to you, if you’re writing about people you don’t know personally, and you have nagging doubts as to whether your characters ring true, then maybe it would be worth trying an experiment like the Milch Chat technique?

I’ve reposted the interview with Brian so you can hear the details, and I strongly recommend that you listen to it when you have time.

Find it here:

http://www.screenwritinggoldmine.com/category/interviews

Bryan had the most amazing launch to his career. The stuff of which dreams are made. Seriously. It’s a very entertaining half hour.

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Paula Milne and White Heat – Interview

March 2, 2012

Paula Milne is a multi-award–winning British screenwriter, famous for, (amongst others) The Politician’s Wife, The Virgin Queen, Chandler & Co, Die Kinder, Second Sight, Driving Ambition, Small Island and Endgame. Her new series, White Heat, is being broadcast by BBC 2 beginning Thursday, 8th March, at 9.00pm. We were honoured when Paula gave an interview [...]

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Beat Sheet/Story Beat – What Are They Talking About?

February 9, 2012

People keep on emailing to ask me what a ‘story beat’ is, and how you put them together into a ‘Beat Sheet’. ‘Beat’ and ‘beat sheets’ are words that people in the industry in the UK use all the time, and the whole concept can be just a little bit slippery. At its heart it’s [...]

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‘This is Brighton’ – Amazing Short Film

January 30, 2012

Wonderful example of how you don’t need a budget or any experience (he’s 13) to make your mark as a film maker. It’s not a drama, but I’d love to see what he does if he ever makes one. This is where I live. (Make sure you expand the video out to full screen when [...]

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Write to Reach Your Audience

January 27, 2012

This is a terrific video. It only takes a minute to watch, but it says a lot about writing, and having an effect on your audience. Thanks for sending it, Doug

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Inside Philip Shelley (The Man Who Runs The Channel 4 Screenwriting Competition)

January 18, 2012

I first met Philip Shelley in the late 1990’s when he was a very amiable – and acutely perceptive – editorial presence in an office along the corridor from mine in the BBC Drama Series Department. Since then he’s gone on from there from strength to strength, worked on some terrifically high profile projects, and [...]

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