The weather's turning warmer. My daughter insists that she wants to wear her summer dress to school. Must be time to review those New Year's Resolutions and see how I'm doing...
1. Inundate the BBC with story ideas for Doctors, so that they have no excuse for not giving me more commissions. Hmmm. Well, my inundating was going OK, until my script editor left (familiar story?). So, there's a new script editor in town. He seems a nice chap. But it's a question of starting from scratch. And, it is so difficult staying enthusiastic about a process which, nine times out of ten, results in several days work being rejected outright. But, there was a reason why this resolution was #1 - Doctors is the only show in town for writers of my level of experience, and, until I build up a decent portfolio there, nobody else is going to take me very seriously. Probably. So, more work needed there, Paul. More inundation, please.
2. ... get at least three more commissions for Doctors over the course of the year. Yeah, well, not so much a resolution as a wish. And it won't come true unless I put the work in (see above).
3. Apply for (and be accepted into) the BBC Writers' Academy. Nothing's happened yet in this department. No word from the BBC about whether or not the Academy will continue, but I'm watching all 4 BBC continuing dramas on a regular basis now. This one's still my main hope for the year.
4. ... and, as a result, get at least one commission for Eastenders, Holby City or Casualty. Naturally. But now I'd like to add The Bill to the list. Nothing to do with the BBC, of course. But I attended an excellent TAPS course on writing for The Bill and it has whet my appetite.
5. Get my radio play commissioned by BBC 4 for The Afternoon Play. Well, that didn't happen. I had the usual nice words, but no banana. But there's another submission round coming up soon, and I have a few ideas which I'll be discussing with my friendly independent radio producer shortly.
6. Get at least half a dozen TV series ideas to my agent, and have her hawk them around the industry. I have been promising this for so long now, it's becoming embarrassing. But I am one step forward at least. I have done some work on one of them, Bloodline, and my agent thinks it has promise. More work to be done there, and then repeat the process for the other ideas.
7. ... and get at least one meeting out of the process. That would be nice.
8. Go to the Cheltenham Screenwriting Festival again. I think so. They've just announced the dates (3-6 July), and I think I might go for the Thursday and Friday. Anyone else care to join me there?
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). No word from the UKFC on this one.
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). Yeah, right! Well, once I've finished my inundation of the Doctors' team, and written up 6 TV series concepts, then maybe I'll turn my hand to this hopeless cause.
11. Make some money from writing. Income from writing this year so far - £0.00.
12. Have fun. Well, this one's easy. It's still a lot of fun. And I got see my name on the screen for the very first time this year (see screen shot, above right).
Showing posts with label TAPS. Show all posts
Showing posts with label TAPS. Show all posts
Thursday, 15 March 2007
Friday, 2 February 2007
Murdering people
I spent yesterday working out how to murder my wife.
Don't worry - Carolyn's perfectly safe. But the TAPS course (see below) set us all some delightful homework which involved seeing into the mind of a murderer.
We spent the first two days analysing the first part of a two-part episode of The Bill that was transmitted last year some time. For anybody who knows the show, it was the one where Smithy was locked up for the alleged murder of his lover, Louise. Part one showed us Smithy on the inside getting involved with a young prisoner who seems to have stabbed another inmate. Meanwhile, on the outside, the team at Sun Hill are trying to find evidence that Smithy was set up by Louise's gangster husband.
Our homework is to produce a step-outline of part two. All we know is that part one ends on a downer as everything seems to be going pear-shaped. And we know that, by the end of part two, Smithy is off the charge, Louise's husband is arrested for her murder and the story of the young prisoner has to be tied up and sorted.
If any of you saw that episode last year... please keep the details to yourself! I don't want to know. When we go back for the second part of the TAPS course we'll get to see the script and watch the episode as transmitted. But, in the meantime, I have to work out what the backstory might have been and how the cops solve the crimes. Which is why I spent all of yesterday trying to work out how Louise was killed, and whether that young prisoner really did stab someone in the shower or whether he too was set up (of course he was!).
It's been a lot of fun. I now know what happened in both cases (or, rather, I have now invented my version of what happened), and I've worked out how the cops work it out. My problem is working out how to tell it on screen.
The difficult thing with The Bill is that they have a convention that we never see anything unless it is actually witnessed by one of the cops from Sun Hill station. So, although I now have my elaborate back story, I can't actually show on screen what happened. No flashbacks, no dramatic reconstructions. I have to get my characters to tell the story through exposition (aaarggh!). It goes against the grain of everything I have ever learnt as a screenwriter. But I've been watching a lot of The Bill recently (obviously), and it works! It's very distinctive, and sometimes frustrating, but it's an interesting editorial decision that gives a distinct feel to the show. Yes, there's a lot of cops walking through busy corridors talking through their theories of what might or might not have happened, but you find yourself thinking it through with them, trying to work it out.
Now all I need to work out is what happened to the blood-stained towel. Any ideas?
Don't worry - Carolyn's perfectly safe. But the TAPS course (see below) set us all some delightful homework which involved seeing into the mind of a murderer.
We spent the first two days analysing the first part of a two-part episode of The Bill that was transmitted last year some time. For anybody who knows the show, it was the one where Smithy was locked up for the alleged murder of his lover, Louise. Part one showed us Smithy on the inside getting involved with a young prisoner who seems to have stabbed another inmate. Meanwhile, on the outside, the team at Sun Hill are trying to find evidence that Smithy was set up by Louise's gangster husband.
Our homework is to produce a step-outline of part two. All we know is that part one ends on a downer as everything seems to be going pear-shaped. And we know that, by the end of part two, Smithy is off the charge, Louise's husband is arrested for her murder and the story of the young prisoner has to be tied up and sorted.
If any of you saw that episode last year... please keep the details to yourself! I don't want to know. When we go back for the second part of the TAPS course we'll get to see the script and watch the episode as transmitted. But, in the meantime, I have to work out what the backstory might have been and how the cops solve the crimes. Which is why I spent all of yesterday trying to work out how Louise was killed, and whether that young prisoner really did stab someone in the shower or whether he too was set up (of course he was!).
It's been a lot of fun. I now know what happened in both cases (or, rather, I have now invented my version of what happened), and I've worked out how the cops work it out. My problem is working out how to tell it on screen.
The difficult thing with The Bill is that they have a convention that we never see anything unless it is actually witnessed by one of the cops from Sun Hill station. So, although I now have my elaborate back story, I can't actually show on screen what happened. No flashbacks, no dramatic reconstructions. I have to get my characters to tell the story through exposition (aaarggh!). It goes against the grain of everything I have ever learnt as a screenwriter. But I've been watching a lot of The Bill recently (obviously), and it works! It's very distinctive, and sometimes frustrating, but it's an interesting editorial decision that gives a distinct feel to the show. Yes, there's a lot of cops walking through busy corridors talking through their theories of what might or might not have happened, but you find yourself thinking it through with them, trying to work it out.
Now all I need to work out is what happened to the blood-stained towel. Any ideas?
Saturday, 27 January 2007
Haven't done much writing...
...but it's been a good week.
Thursday and Friday saw me down in Wimbledon at the TalkbackThames studio for the first two days of the TAPS course on writing for hour-long TV drama. Truth to tell, they'd have been better off describing it as "How to write for The Bill".
They asked us not to Blog about it. Odd request, but it will be honoured. However, I'm sure they won't mind if I say that it was one of the best courses I've been on. They genuinely pulled out all the stops and I can't wait to get back there for the second two days later in February.
And, half of us on the course had been invited to the BBC party on Thursday night, which turned out to be a lot of fun. I didn't meet anybody famous, or pitch my ideas to any senior BBC bods, but then I didn't drunkenly bore any of them either. I finally managed to put faces to the names of two of my script editors from Doctors and met the man who is taking over in that capacity very shortly*. And I caught up with a bunch of writer friends who I haven't seen for a while. Great fun.
* Yes, I have yet another script editor at Doctors. He'll be my sixth, and I've only had one episode produced (well, fifth actually, but I had one of them twice). I'm beginning to feel that it must be me. But, given that some of my past contacts have gone on to greater things, I like to think that it is contact with me that gives them all a leg up in their careers - just so long as they remember me once they've reached those heights!
Thursday and Friday saw me down in Wimbledon at the TalkbackThames studio for the first two days of the TAPS course on writing for hour-long TV drama. Truth to tell, they'd have been better off describing it as "How to write for The Bill".
They asked us not to Blog about it. Odd request, but it will be honoured. However, I'm sure they won't mind if I say that it was one of the best courses I've been on. They genuinely pulled out all the stops and I can't wait to get back there for the second two days later in February.
And, half of us on the course had been invited to the BBC party on Thursday night, which turned out to be a lot of fun. I didn't meet anybody famous, or pitch my ideas to any senior BBC bods, but then I didn't drunkenly bore any of them either. I finally managed to put faces to the names of two of my script editors from Doctors and met the man who is taking over in that capacity very shortly*. And I caught up with a bunch of writer friends who I haven't seen for a while. Great fun.
* Yes, I have yet another script editor at Doctors. He'll be my sixth, and I've only had one episode produced (well, fifth actually, but I had one of them twice). I'm beginning to feel that it must be me. But, given that some of my past contacts have gone on to greater things, I like to think that it is contact with me that gives them all a leg up in their careers - just so long as they remember me once they've reached those heights!
Thursday, 18 January 2007
Any more TAPSters out there?
I'm heading off to the studios of The Bill for a two day course next week run by TAPS. Should be fun - it's a masterclass on writing for continuing series, focusing, of course, on The Bill.
I've just been sent the pre-course reading material, consisting of the series outline for a block of ten shows, a beat sheet for one of those episodes, and the first draft of the same episode. We have two days on it next week, then we have to go away and do an exercise before coming back for another two days at the end of Feb.
I'm really looking forward to it - anybody else going?
My own stuff's going OK at the moment. My Doctors script editor has commented favourably on three of my story outlines - a bit of editing and we should be there. She's already passed another on to the series producer. It's a slow old process, but I am optimistic that there will be other commissions at some point.
And right now (well, once this is posted) I'm actually doing work on a TV series outline. Yes, I know I've been promising this for months, but it's actually happening right now. I'll let you know how it goes.
I've just been sent the pre-course reading material, consisting of the series outline for a block of ten shows, a beat sheet for one of those episodes, and the first draft of the same episode. We have two days on it next week, then we have to go away and do an exercise before coming back for another two days at the end of Feb.
I'm really looking forward to it - anybody else going?
My own stuff's going OK at the moment. My Doctors script editor has commented favourably on three of my story outlines - a bit of editing and we should be there. She's already passed another on to the series producer. It's a slow old process, but I am optimistic that there will be other commissions at some point.
And right now (well, once this is posted) I'm actually doing work on a TV series outline. Yes, I know I've been promising this for months, but it's actually happening right now. I'll let you know how it goes.
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