As we confirm our special guests for the Sunday afternoon slot, we will announce them here. Rest assured, they are all going to be highly experienced industry professionals, with serious production backgrounds. That way you can be sure you’re getting the most current, most useful answers to your questions.
NOTE: We will do our absolute best to ensure that things run smoothly, but this industry is known for its unpredictability, and very occasionally the demands of working on shows that are in production may mean that one of our guests has to cancel at very short notice. We will strive to replace them with guests of a similar calibre, but that may not always be possible.
London, 16-17 June 2012
Tanya Tillett, Literary Agent, Knight Hall Agency, is our special Sunday afternoon guest.
Tanya joined Knight Hall in March 2006 having worked in script development for Little Bird. After finishing a degree in English Literature at Oxford University she also worked as a production assistant in film and tv. Tanya has completed a 2 year post graduate diploma in script development with the National Film and Television School and produced a short film for the Synergy Theatre Project while at the agency.
Most importantly for new writers, Tanya is currently building her own client list of writers and directors…
PAST SPECIAL GUESTS
Cardiff, 21-22 April 2012
Nikki Wilson, Series Producer for BBC1′s Casualty.
Nikki started her career as script editor to the legendary Lynda La Plante where she gained a gruesome knowledge of crime, forensics and pathology which stood her in good stead for a stint as storyliner on The Bill. After a brief dip in the torrid pool of Family Affairs she moved to Manchester to script edit and assistant produce 2 series of New Street Law with Red Productions. Returning back down south, she found a home in Cardiff where, after a year as Head of Development, she went on to produce The Sarah Jane Adventures, Doctor Who and Upstairs Downstairs, working with the wonderful Russell T Davies and Heidi Thomas as well as brand new writers on Sarah Jane. Nikki joined Casualty as Series Producer in June where the first challenge was to move the show from Bristol to brand new studios in Cardiff Bay.
Belfast, 24-25 March 2012
Vanessa Haynes, Ex Development Producer for Kudos NI, and Terry Cafolla, Lead Writer, Law and Order:UK are our two special Sunday afternoon guests.
Vanessa specialises in bring new writing talent to screen. She has won commissions for new writers on C4, ITV, BBC1 and BBC3. She joined LWT Comedy in the mid Nineties where she worked in development under Humphrey Barclay and Gareth Edwards. As a trainee, she was an early champion of Bain & Armstrong (Peepshow) and Riley & Cecil (Black Books and Hyperdrive) and discovered Seamus Hilley, who went on to win a Channel Four writing award. She then moved to The Bill where she became a script editor and, later, storyliner.
She was reunited with Humphrey at Celador Productions in 2002 where she discovered Keith Temple (Angel Cake) and Beth & Emma Kilcoyne under their writer-performer moniker Live! Girls!. The BBC3 show, Live! Girls! Presents Dogtown drew a cult following and brought the Kilcoyne writing team to French and Saunders’ attention. Vanessa has several notable near-misses: two comedy-dramas she co-created – both of which had Steve Coogan attached – and an ITV show about look-alikes starring Mark Heap, John Thomson, Samantha Womack and Tom Watt. She won’t let it drop.
She moved to Belfast under Kudos and decided to stay. She has started up on her own as Mighty Sprite productions, developing comedy and drama, and continues to do freelance script editing and producing work.
London, 4-5 February 2012
We’re very happy to announce that we’ve managed to confirm Ben Stoll and Matt Bouch as our special Sunday afternoon guests for this workshop.
Ben is Head of Development for Channel 4 Drama where he is responsible for managing the slate as well maintaining an overview of shows in production including Skins and Shameless. He began his career as an in-house reader at BBC Films and Singles before becoming a Script Editor on The Bill (ITV) and Attachments (World Productions and the BBC). He has worked as a Development Producer for Maverick TV and TwoFour Television and has a wide range of experience as a freelance Script Editor and Development Executive.
Ex Head of Development for BBC Wales, Matt is probably best known for having produced two series of Being Human, as well as having run the second series of The Sarah Jane Adventures. In a career stretching nearly fifteen years he’s worked on shows as diverse as Eastenders, Torchwood, Buried, Mistresses and Spooks, has worked for the legendary Tony Garnett at World Productions, and has even done serious script editing stints on Holby and Eastenders. Recently he’s started writing, and has already secured two commissions for original pieces – no easy task, I can assure you!
Both Ben and Matt are mines of information about the industry and how writers get commissioned, plus they are both very nice blokes.
Our seminars are very informal, so this is your chance to grill two people who are currently very much at the sharp end of the industry! Ask then anything you want to know about how to write, and how to get hired.
Glasgow, 12-13 November 2011
A double bill of top guest speakers – Eric Coulter and Kate Croft.
Eric has worked in the television and film business since the early 1980s. His first role was as unit runner on Bill Forsyth’s Gregory’s Girl. He worked on dozens of films, commercials and music videos as a location manager and assistant director before moving to a Producer role in the mid 1990s, with The Cops. This was a truly landmark show for World Productions/BBC2, and it won BAFTAs for Best Drama series in 1998 and 1999.
Eric then joined STV as Head of Drama, where he’s been responsible for the successful overhaul of Taggart, leading to its biggest ever commission in 2008. There, Eric oversaw all development and production including Taggart, Rebus (with Ken Stott), Missing (with Gregor Fisher), Goodbye Mr Chips (with Martin Clunes), High Times (winner BAFTA Scotland Best Drama) and Cracked (Mind Media Awards Best Drama 2009). Eric left STV in the summer of 2009 and then worked as consulting Executive Producer on BBC Scotland’s River City before founding SurefireTV in 2010.
Kate Croft is currently the head of KoCo, a drama company owned by Shed Media Scotland, and she also runs Shed Media Scotland drama. Kate previously developed and produced Murderland starring Robbie Coltrane which aired on ITV in 2009. She also produced Coming Up (the Channel 4 emerging talent drama series) having script edited the serious previously. Other script editing credits include Fallen Angel for ITV and Messiah for BBC1. Kate’s first job was at Scala Productions and she also served as an army officer in her gap year!
This is a rare opportunity to sit round a table with people of this calibre – and the relaxed nature of our seminars means that you’re definitely going to get all your questions answered.
If you’ve ever wanted to ask how things REALLY work, and how Scottish writers REALLY get hired, now’s your chance.
