Tuesday 1 January 2008

Last Year

2007 was a good year.

My first ever TV drama broadcast (an episode of Doctors). My second episode commissioned, written, produced and broadcast. And I get in to the BBC Writers' Academy.

Now for the official tally against my 2007 objectives...

1. Inundate the BBC with story ideas for Doctors, so that they have no excuse for not giving me more commissions. Not exactly an inundation... 0.25 points.

2. ... get at least three more commissions for Doctors over the course of the year. Well, I got one. 0.33 points

3. Apply for (and be accepted into) the BBC Writers' Academy. Yep. 1 point

4. ... and, as a result, get at least one commission for Eastenders, Holby City or Casualty.Yep. All three. 3 points.

5. Get my radio play commissioned by BBC 4 for The Afternoon Play. Nope. 0 points.

6. Get at least half a dozen TV series ideas to my agent, and have her hawk them around the industry. Pathetic. One idea sent to BBC. 0.16 points.

7. ... and get at least one meeting out of the process. Nope. 0 points.

8. Go to the Cheltenham Screenwriting Festival again. Not exactly difficult, this one. 1 easy point.

9. If the Film Council ever get around to running another 25 Words or Less, apply for it and (this time) win the £10,000 (rather than just getting within sniffing distance*). They did, but I didn't get around to entering (I was busy). 0 points.

10. If the UKFC don't run the scheme again, work up at least one feature film concept, write the opening ten pages and get my agent to hawk it around (including to the Film Council). Errr... well, OK. Guilty as charged. A resounding 0 points.

11. Make some money from writing. Yep. Not a fortune, but enough to get by for the moment whilst waiting for better things. 1 point.

12. Have fun. I could really cheat here and give myself buckets of points. I think it's worth at least three. 3 points.


Which gives me a grand total of NINE AND THREE QUARTERS out of TWELVE.

Hurrah!

2 comments:

Lucy V said...

1. Inundate the BBC with story ideas for Doctors.
Didn't send any in, so 0 pts.

2. ... get at least three more commissions for Doctors over the course of the year.
again, 0.

3. Apply for (and be accepted into) the BBC Writers' Academy. If you got one point for applying AND getting accepted, I must get 0.5 for applying and not getting accepted, seems fair.

4. ... and, as a result, get at least one commission for Eastenders, Holby City or Casualty. Nope. 0.

5. Get my radio play commissioned by BBC 4 for The Afternoon Play. Same for me - 0 points. Tho I didn't write one to be fair.

6. Get at least half a dozen TV series ideas to my agent, and have him hawk them around the industry.
Check on this one actually. I'm gonna give myself 3 points for this.

7. ... and get at least one meeting out of the process.
I got all my meetings myself, so I'll give myself 1 point.

8. Go to the Cheltenham Screenwriting Festival again. Not exactly difficult - I beg to differ. 0 point thanks to no bloody childcare.

9. If the Film Council ever get around to running another 25 Words or Less, apply for it and (this time) win the £10,000 (rather than just getting within sniffing distance*). I entered but got nowhere near, so another 0.5 methinks.

10. If the UKFC don't run the scheme again, work up at least one feature film concept, write the opening ten pages and get my agent to hawk it around (including to the Film Council).
I wrote the spec, didn't send to agent. 0.5.

11. Make some money from writing. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH.0 POINTS.

12. Have fun. I'll go with 3 as well, it's been a good year.

GRAND TOTAL = 8.5

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOH!

Lianne said...

A great tally Paul, well done! Lucy: not too shabby!