10 Essential Things About Adapting A Novel

by Phil Gladwin on May 4, 2010

I’ve been getting lots of questions about the various aspects of adapting a book for the screen lately, and I’ve been referring them to this article over on the main website – just follow this link for ten solid, relevant thoughts on how to adapt a novel for the screen.

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Screenwriting Podcast

by Phil Gladwin on April 8, 2010

Actually, first of all, what IS a screenwriting podcast?

Go on then, I know I’m Old School, I really do, so I admit I (probably) do get the concept – but I just don’t get the need.

I guess the real question is: why would people WANT screenwriting podcasts?

If they are little videos of people teaching other people the finer points of screenwriting, well, OK, but why would you want that? Surely watching someone chunter on in a video on a titchy little screen on one of those terribly fragile and hugely expensive iPod devices takes five times as long as just reading the equivalent content in one of those light, easy to manage, random access, highly damage resistant, portable information storage devices we used to call ‘books’?

OK OK, talk me through it. Email me, or comment here – if you’re one of those people who really likes screenwriting podcasts, what do you actually like to see in them? Can you see a role for Screenwriting Goldmine podcast or two?

“Screenwriting podcasts” It just sounds wrong.

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Why Story Structure is Important

April 4, 2010

I’m spring cleaning at the moment, and have been on an archeological dig through the boxes on the very top of the shelves in my office.
I found a fascinating folder full of short stories and chapters from novels that I wrote during the first ten years I spent as a writer. I had a [...]

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ITV Cancels “The Bill” After 26 Years

March 26, 2010

Yesterday the whole of The Bill production team was called into a meeting in the canteen to receive the news from the Executive Producer Johnathan Young that, after 26 years, ITV would not be renewing their contract for a new series, and that transmission would stop after the current episodes have been screened.
This is [...]

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Battlestar Galactica to Caprica – That’s Some Fall

March 23, 2010

I finally succumbed and got the pilot for Caprica from iTunes. (I know, but I live in the UK. It’s hell keeping up with US drama sometimes.)
I loved the first three series of Battlestar Galactica, deeply, fervently. Apart from a nostalgic cleaving to some Doctor Who episodes, on the whole I tend to avoid telly [...]

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They Needed Dennis Lehane in this Shutter Island

March 21, 2010

Saw this last week, and liked it. I wanted to love it, but I liked it.
Clever idea, but an idea that we’d seen before. The Manchurian Candidate is too far away for a real comparison, but its shadow did fall across this one.
Leonardo was Ok, but I was more interested in seeing just [...]

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Welcome to the Round Up

February 22, 2010

This is a new feature where I catch a flavour of what people are saying about the industry. Have a look for what people are talking about on Twitter in the catogory links. (Where-ever they end up.) (I’m experimenting with templates at the moment.)

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“Paranormal Activity” – Child Friendly Really?

December 7, 2009

So my friend, a grown woman and a hardened horror film goer, a connoisseur of gore, a genuine terror and torment addict, goes to see this movie and comes out so “thrilled” that for two nights afterwards she can’t sleep without the light on.
On the other hand, my teenage daughter goes with a gang [...]

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Endgame by Samuel Beckett – Duchess Theatre, London

December 4, 2009

I’m not a regular theatre goer, but this was an easy call. Beckett is a legendary writer, Simon McBurney is the legendary director of the Complicite Theatre Company, Mark Rylance is reputed to be one of the best actors in the world right now, and Tom Hickey and Miriam Margolyes are both stellar in their [...]

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Screenwriter Jobs

December 3, 2009

Just a quickie this time – I’ve added a new section to the website – a screenwriting jobs section.
If you’re looking for work as a screenwriter, story editor, comedy writer, whatever – or even work within movie and tv production – you should definitely take a look.
The pages take ads from quite a [...]

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