Posts Tagged ‘Screenwriters’ Festival’

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If you can’t join them, beat them.

Friday, December 18th, 2009

The Writers’ Guild blog has an interesting and important debate over the assertion that the BBC Writers’ Academy favours its trainees so that other writers get less of a chance. This blog is partly my response to the debate in the WGGB blog.

http://writersguild.blogspot.com/2009/12/bbc-writersroom-update.html

A couple of years ago I interviewed John Yorke, BBC TV series supremo:

http://www.twelvepoint.com/files/Interview%20John%20Yorke_Julian%20Friedmann.pdf

john-york1

It was clear then that the Academy made sense from the BBC’s point of view: they would get a better-trained cadre of writers, who would deliver more usable scripts in less time, thus saving time and money.

Other writers (such as my own clients) would probably get less access to slots even though some of them have had many years of diligent service in writing dozens and dozens of soap and series scripts.

There cannot be enough to go round for everyone. As a result of the increase in degree courses for scriptwriters over the last 5 years there are also now many more writers with some experience (even if it is spec academic scripts) trying for the decreasing number of slots. Inevitably there will be fewer writers getting a piece of the pie.

On top of that the BBC like the other broadcasters are having to cut the budgets of their shows. This is a reality they would be negligent not to deal with. Using equally talented writers who have been trained in the in-house hothouse of the Academy is pragmatic and sensible even though the Beeb admits a kind of sadness that they can’t please all the people all the time. But I don’t see anyone protesting at the ever-increasing new degree courses in scriptwriting that will turn out hungry and ambitious writers also after those slots.

The key – which I have encouraged through the pages of TwelvePoint.com and as an agent is to be flexible and adapt. There have been several long-running series and soaps cancelled in the last 4 or 5 years: between 500 and 600 episodes have disappeared; add that to the Academy writers and the new graduates and any scriptwriter who assumes that they can behave as they have in the past will end up probably out in the cold for a lot of the time.

Writers have to be more proactive; they have to start partially being like producers; they have to write saleable and commercial spec scripts; they have to consider other formats like novels – I had amazing feedback in Cheltenham on a session about novel writing for scriptwriters.

They way we were has gone. Like the ice shelf at the North Pole. As an agent I have had to make changes to the way I work to deal with the changing business in which we all work: so writers need to make changes. If you are a storyteller and want to earn a living by telling stories then tell stories for people who want to buy them in the format that they want to buy them. Don’t worry so much about the format. I would not recommend novelists start writing scripts (without training and experience); but most scriptwriters I talk to have read more novels than they have read scripts. You see where I am going with this. Watch out for my Cheltenham talk as a forthcoming article in TwelvePoint.

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Festival-ed out?

Saturday, October 31st, 2009

It is now 48 hours since I returned from the Screenwriters’ Festival (and just over two weeks since the Frankfurt Bookfair, and less than a week before the World Conference of Screenwriters. I have not blogged recently because I have been overdoing the networking. With literally hundreds of meetings (true some are in the queue for Chai Latte or Honey Fluffies (yes that is what I wrote), the meetings still count.

James Schamus of Focus addressing the Screenwriters' Festival

James Schamus of Focus addressing the Screenwriters' Festival

I am trying to make sense of the patterns, of the state of the industry, of the temperature of optimism. Do we wind each other up at these gatherings just by being there, so we feel better about the industry? Many of the speakers are upbeat from the podium, a bit more realistic face to face.

The mood in Cheltenham was definitely positive. Even when an agent (often me) said that they were not actively looking for new writers, there were always a couple who sounded so interesting that the script or book mountain suddenly didn’t seem enormous.

The Film and Television Forum at Frankfurt was more meeting producers than writers; Cheltenham was both and I suspect that the Athens’ World Conference will be more about the politics and rights of writers than about business, though I see there are some producers there so I guess I will look for opportunities. We met with the London Bookfair and Frankfurt Film & TV organisers in Cheltenham to discuss events for the April 2010 London Bookfair.

Film and TV rights selling at the Frankfurt Bookfair

Film and TV rights selling at the Frankfurt Bookfair

What was so great about Cheltenham was putting carefully prepared information before hundreds of people who seemed to appreciate it. I must check out the audience response sheets as it is so difficult to know what a cross-section of the audience felt. Those that come up to you almost always say nice things. But – as when you get a compliment about a script – you should immediately ask ‘What was wrong with it and what can I do to improve it.’

David Pearson and Kenny MacDonald did an astonishingly wonderful job of organising the Festival. The range and quantity of events and speakers was mind-blowing. They deserve medals and our eternal gratitude. The only shame is that the event is once a year. There is talk about regional one-day events organised as part of the Festival, all over the country.

If they can keep up the quality these, too, are not to be missed. I for one will be back next year (as many of the TwelvePointers posting in the TwelvePoint Forum have confirmed). I may feel daunted at the thought of another journey and so many new people passionate about scriptwriting in a few day’s time; but the adrenaline will kick in and already I am feeling less daunted and not a little bit excited. Bring it on.

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If you don’t want them to beat you join them

Monday, October 12th, 2009

Networking is a bit of a black art and one that many writers shy away from. But, for a writer, developing and maintaining the right contacts can mean the difference between a hobby and a career. I asked scriptwriter and marketing consultant Caroline Ferguson what she thought her session with Scriptwriter and networking ace Janice Day would be offering: she replied:

“Many writers would rather rip out their own teeth than introduce themselves to complete strangers. Self promotion simply isn’t part of the character set of the typical writer. Janice and I will be giving plenty of tips and practical tools for how people can overcome their own reticence.”

Check out Caroline’s great article on networking at Cheltenham in TwelvePoint, which is the best primer on how to prepare for an event like this. It is so crisp that even social misfits and marketing-phobes should find it of value.

In the next week or so Caroline will be summarising and updating that advice for those attending the International Screenwriters’ Festival in Cheltenham (26 – 29 October). Even better, on Day 1 of the Festival she and Janice Day will run a session on networking. Janice will guide delegates through working a room, while Caroline will offer practical tools to help even the shyest attic-dweller overcome their aversion to building a useful network.

Once upon a time it was enough to be a good writer, hiding away and turning out five pages a day. But the world has changed and where once there was a relatively level playing-field – you either had an agent or you didn’t – now with websites and social networking sites and a recession sorting the wheat from the chaff, being able to get that little bit extra out of a gathering, being able to draw attention to your work by whatever means that are legal and unaggressive, needs to be considered.

The old saying “it is not what you know but whom you know” has greater currency now than it did in the past. It is not enough to write well; you need to get out there and meet people. That is where commissions increasingly come from and why I encourage my clients to attend as many events as they can.

This is a disadvantage if you live miles from anywhere in rural bliss and have lots of young kids who should come first I really do believe that). But there are ways. Cheltenham is only four days and I believe that there are families coming with the non-writing parent utilizing the local council’s facilities for kiddies. Some people come for only two days – you can notch up at least 20 meetings a day. Where else could you meet 40 people intwo days, including leading producers, directors, writers and agents?

To make sure you do actually hit the marks each day (that sounds ambiguously bad; isn’t ‘mark’ a disparaging idiom?) Janice and Caroline make it simple and sensible. Being good at networking is very much part of being a writer in the 21st Century. It is actually easier than writing well.

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Spin, doctor, spin: why we all need PR

Sunday, October 11th, 2009

‘Starving in a garret may be traditional for writers but these days it’s no good unless you’re broadcasting it on the web’ according to PR and Marketing guru K D Adamson. We have managed to get her to come to the Screenwriters’ Festival in Cheltenham at the end of the month to explain why any ambitious writer needs to establish three key things: their positioning, motivation and objective.

Sounds miles from anything in Sid Field or McKee et al. But when she grilled me on my lack of profile-raising sense, I realized there was another game out there being played by some writers (and possibly agents) which the rest of us were simply not aware of.

What does it mean to ‘create your brand as authentically as you would a character and learn how to leverage that across the most cost‐effective medium ever invented: the world wide web’?

Is it not enough to struggle to write better, find an agent (or find out how to operate well without one)? Isn’t it mainly – as Gene Fowler is supposed to have said: ‘Writing is easy: all you do is sit staring at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead.’

Many writers write because they don’t like the social networking aspect of showbiz (as opposed to those who write only in order to legitimize their access to showbiz, which usually means that they are not really good writers).

This is why we have scheduled several networking, negotiating skills, PR and marketing sessions at Cheltenham. I need to know this stuff for the benefit of my clients. Do you know about ‘Expert Sources’? I didn’t but I wish I had learned about it much earlier. It is a website journalists use to find experts on any subject that they want to write about. Many of you will be expert in something, whether it is Romantic Comedy (because you have studied it and written several and can talk about it endlessly, or whatever).

Being a successful writer means embracing the business of being a writer, that is the professionalizing of your chosen career, which is where TwelvePoint and Cheltenham come in. Many quite successful writers still behave like amateurs and could make lots more money if they were more businesslike about the career.

If I need to learn how top marketers approach the creation of brands, why the phrase ‘summers in Rangoon, luge lessons’ is a shortcut to PR gold and how you can use that to make your approaches to production companies, broadcasters and (if you are a writer) to agents far more effective, then I suspect that we all do.

I also suspect that this session alone could be worth the full delegate fee to the Screenwriters’ Festival.

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The event of the year is a couple of weeks away

Friday, October 9th, 2009

The season of party conferences is over for the public but for screenwriters and those who work with them it is about to start. For months there has been unprecedented bad news from broadcasters and from the traditional sources of finance for film. The recession in housing may be beginning to lift slightly, but in the film and television industry it will take time to trickle down to the creatives, who do their work at least two years before it hits the screens.

MIPCOM – the autumn television market in Cannes – reported this week a sense of optimism that, like the housing market, must be taken with a pinch of salt.

The answer lies in gaining a better understanding of the current problems of the industry: where are there gaps, what do the movers and shakers in the industry believe they need from writers in order to be able to get new shows on air and new feature films funded.

Where can writers hear it from the people who matter? In the UK the answer could be at the Edinburgh film Festival or Television Festival (both passed) or at the Cheltenham Screenwriters’ Festival. The first two events are excellent but not specifically for writers.

They write Toy Story 2, Goodnight Sweetheart and Wallace & Grommit, and they will all be at the Festival

They wrote Toy Story 2, Goodnight Sweetheart and Wallace & Grommit, and they will all be at the Festival

Cheltenham is not only totally focused on writing, it brings together producers, directors, script executives, commissioning editors who are directly concerned with working with writers.

These are the people who need writers to help advance their careers. And there really are more of them than we have ever brought together before. The move of venue to The Cheltenham Ladies College has been to facilitate a far bigger crown of both industry people and writers.

So who will be there? Click on this link to see some of the guest speakers’ biogs: http://www.screenwritersfestival.com/guest-speakers.php

There will be 80 events in 4 days: more than you could possibly attend so you can be sure of finding a great deal that is relevant to you. For the programme click here: http://www.screenwritersfestival.com/programme-2009.php

The gorgeous location for the 2009 Festival

The gorgeous location for the 2009 Festival

You will find new writer friends, bond further with old mates, swap up to 100 business cards (that is only 25 a day) and some of us gain an extra evening by starting on Sunday with two drinks gatherings: a TwelvePoint one and then later the Festival one.

There is no doubt in my mind that these four days could have a greater impact on a writer’s career than the previous 352 days of the year.

It is not cheap: getting all these speakers and all the facilities for a huge scriptwriting event is not cheap. But it is incredible value. Even if you only manage 10 meetings/business card swaps a day it comes out at about £10 a meeting. Many writers do not make 40 contacts in an entire year – here you can do it in four days. What’s not to love. Be there or be left behind.

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Where have all the writers gone?

Thursday, September 24th, 2009

I am not doing a blog today because there is a far more important article in Screen International by Phil Parker for anyone who works with scripts. Whether you are a writer, script editor, producer, director or agent, please read this and get to the Screenwriters’ Festival in Cheltenham where there will be a major debate over the four days dealing with this situation. Be there where the real action is going to be. It could be your future. And thanks Screen International for publishing this.

The decline in UK productions based on original screenplays has been caused by a misguided film-industry culture says development consultant Phil Parker

Screen International   24 September, 2009 | By Phil Parker
In the last decade, the proportion of original screenplays produced within the UK film industry has declined significantly compared with adaptations, sequels and remakes – a trend reflected in the US studio system. Is this inevitable? Are UK screenwriters incapable of creating successful original films?
The UK film industry over the last decade has shunned original ideas, and new screenwriters, in favour of ‘safer’ bets.
Major UK films of the 1990s such as Four Weddings And A Funeral, The Full Monty, Shallow Grave and Shakespeare In Love were all original works, and all but the last one were from first-time feature film screenwriters. So, why has there been such a decrease in backing for new screenwriters with original ideas?

The answer lies in the development culture that has grown within the UK film industry over the last decade – a culture in which original ideas, and new screenwriters, are shunned in favour of ‘safer’ bets: true stories, adaptations and new writer-directors. In the early-1990s the UK film industry was described as a cottage industry but in truth it was closer to a bunch of, often inexperienced, individuals desperate to make a film, any film.

This all changed at the end of the 1990s with the government and the City backing UK talent into production. The result has been a production explosion, with an average of more than 100 films a year since 2000 achieving theatrical distribution. Alongside this, more than $165m (£100m) was spent on development and a new generation of untrained, inexperienced development executives, readers and new producers suddenly found themselves making UK films.

However, the box-office share of UK independent productions in the same period did not increase substantially. When the majority of the larger UK-based film companies were asked why this was the case, their answer was, “Development does not work.” This was based on the simple fact that the massive increase in development spending had not produced more successful films.

The rapid growth of production had not been matched with a supply of good, if not great, screenplays. This failure of development was put down to spending too much on new talent. However, no-one seemed to question whether the money had been spent on, or by, people who actually knew how to develop feature films, and it should be noted that the vast majority of new talents were not new writers, but new writer-directors. Some may put this situation down to writers not being able to match the demands of film but ultimately the answer lies elsewhere – with the new generation of producers and development personnel. Their inexperience and the wealth of opportunities, in contrast to what was available in the 1990s, created a culture in which people realised they did not need a good screenplay to make a film. This generation has created a culture based on simplistic notions of screenwriting and development theory learnt on script-guru weekends and driven by producers, and directors who know that cast and/or budget, sometimes just a saleable idea, are the key to getting a film funded, not the quality of the screenplay.

Writers were frozen out, writer-directors (more than 300) were ultimately treated as expendable talent, and too many poor films were, and are, made. If this culture continues, the UK film industry will remain dependent on adaptations, true stories or remakes. The lack of originality could force up-and-coming screenwriters to work in TV or migrate to other countries instead of working in the UK.

The Screenwriters Festival is one place where this culture is being challenged. It is where a new generation of original screenwriters meet with producers and financiers who see the commercial potential of backing new original screenwriting. This annual meeting will take place in October and could be where the next Four Weddings or Full Monty are born – and the 2010s see a rebirth of original UK screen hits.
The Screenwriters Festival runs in Cheltenham, UK, from October 26-29. www.screenwritersfestival.com

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Why writers feel aggrieved

Sunday, September 20th, 2009

There may be many reasons, some better than others. The Writers Guild has a session this week at BAFTA on the crisis in TV drama that will no doubt air some of these issues.

I am dealing today with a situation in which a writer has worked on a script with the production company for some months and it has got better and better. Then a director comes onboard and all of a sudden the film the director wants to make is at such variance from the film the writer and producer have agreed they are making, that the writer is forced into a corner.

Stand up and argue against the big director, or give in and see the film possibly changed for the worse. The big question is will it be worse? Does the director have a vision that will lift the script, together with the actors, into a higher league than the writer and producer had in mind? Looking at the changes the director wants to make there is little doubt that some will be detrimental.

Did the writer and producer spend too long on the script so that they can only see it the way it is? This reminds me of titles for films and books – the starting title becomes well-worn and comfortable, so that it seems to be good, but to someone who knows nothing about the project, coming in fresh, another title might be better.

I wish I could say that directors always improve matters. They don’t. They sometimes do. So is it a kind of Russian roulette? Must writers lie back and think of England or wherever, just because the film industry is a director-led industry?

The truth is that if directors and producers were really good they would enable there to be calm and detailed discussion about the changes they want. The changes would not be forced upon writers unilaterally, as they sometimes are.

I reall a TV movie written by a client with over 400 hours of top TV drama behind him, including (at that time) the highest rating single on ITV. When an ITV commissioner greenlit the film there was no director; the director was hired after ITV provided all the money and the director promptly fired the writer and brought in another, so in effect even undermining the decision of the ITV commissioner.

So much depends on the management of people, on the diplomacy by all concerned. In my experience writers feel aggrieved often because they are simply not treated with respect but like naughty children who must be told what to do. Because the director might be right there is no reason why what the writer wants must de facto be ignored or rejected. There is every reason for the process to be as collaborative as possible, rather than firing the writer simply because the director thinks they know better. Who will rid me of this meddlesome writer? Unfortunately is is not necessary to get a bunch of mercenaries as producers ensure that is possible to fire the writer in the basic contract.

No wonder writers want to be producers and directors. It is one of the reasons agents also want to produce. The moment that any of the players pull rank rather than behave in an inclusive way, the rot is in danger of setting in and the Writers’ Guild and all writers and agents need to stand up and be counted.

This is another obvious reason why getting several hundred writers together at the Cheltenham Screenwriters’ Festival and why the Guild are so important. We need to build bridges and to work together so that the fragmented freelancers who make up the scriptwriting community can have some cohesiveness. That is exactly why ScriptWriter magazine and TwelvePoint.com were set up.

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Story – not script-writing is the key, Cheltenham the place

Saturday, September 19th, 2009

The longer I am in the biz the more I believe that storytelling not scriptwriting is the key. Writers should simply (ha!) try to tell stories; the format – prose, script, long or short – is very secondary to the story to be told.

But for scriptwriters, there is so much emphasis put on structure by so many of the people selling courses and books that writers are forced into a painting-by-numbers and artificial way of writing that will usually result in bad writing.

This distorts the learning about writing. The truism, seldom followed, that plot comes out of character, is usually thought of after the basics of the plot have been decided. Instead, who the characters are should determine what happens, so know your characters first and worry about the three-act structure or 22 steps later.

Why am I bothering about this on such a lovely weekend? Because I am preparing for a session at the Screenwriters’ Festival on publishing. I believe that screenwriters should also consider writing prose, that novels are an important way of progressing your career as a screenwriter.

Apart from the many obvious reasons (novels generally make more money, they are easier to write, you own the film adaptation rights, you can describe what characters think and feel and so on), there are also many more novels published than films made and self-publishing is a great deal easier than making your own film (never mind so cheap with print-on-demand that it is laughable).

When I look through the lists of courses on offer that promise a short cut to being able to make a career as a writer, I am surprised how few have a health warning: “This course is almost statistically guaranteed, despite the few notable successes we have had, not to enable you to have a career as a writer, unless you arrive here with a great deal of talent, since we cannot teach you to have talent.”

Don’t get me wrong: many of the courses contribute in many ways to the lives of those taking them. The years (or weekends) with like-minded people, sharing values and friendship, is important. But you can’t learn to write in the same way as you learn either brain surgery or plumbing.

swf_logo_1jpg

So at this year’s Screenwriters’ Festival there will be a series of TwelvePoint sessions geared to the bits not usually taught in screenwriting classes: how to network, how to market yourself be good at your own PR, how to have a better website, how to negotiate, how to write prose documents that will sell your work better and how to tell stories in another format, namely prose, where there is a proper industry (the publishing industry) that is always on the lookout for good writing and good writers, an industry that publishes over 100,000 books a year (not counting a similar number of self-published books).

And that is quite apart from over 70 other sessions. Check the Festival website (www.screenwritersfestival.com) for an up-to-date listing of speakers and events. And if you are a TwelvePoint.com member you can join our booking group and get a big discount. After 4 days you will leave having had the best masterclass in fast-tracking your career that I can think of. And hopefully a lot of fun as well. When you then see an ad telling you that this or that organization or person offers you the secret of success as a writer, you will remember what you heard in Cheltenham: there is no secret way. It requires talent and perseverance. Why 80 sessions in 4 days? So you can tailor your choice to what you need. This could be the best investment you ever make for your career. Now, why would you believe me?

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The BBC – one stop shopping?

Saturday, September 5th, 2009
Kate Harwood at work in the BBC Drama office

Kate Harwood at work in the BBC Drama office

This week in TwelvePoint we have Kate Harwood’s interview: I think that despite the slap on the wrist (that is all I think it was) from James Murdoch (SKY) the BBC seems to be in rude health. Perhaps that is why so many people attack it: competitors for audiences and those who have their submissions rejected by the BBC in particular.

I am not a fan of everything the BBC does in drama. Thankfully, since my tastes are certainly not a benchmark and anyway they must appeal to a wide audience, as Kate makes clear.

So should they simply expect a bad press because they have as near a monopoly as any broadcaster could have. They are like Royal game: the licence fee gives them a margin of comfort their competitors simply do not have.

Kate, Controller of Serials and Series at the BBC, makes no bones about the difficulties new writers have in accessing her department: there are other access points for newer writers. She tends to use experience, which for her are writers who have learned by seeing their work produced. She says:

‘It’s hard for people to get what I call ‘flying hours’ because in the end, as a writer you can do a tremendous amount on your own but if you can’t get beyond a certain stage, you don’t participate in the process. If you want to be a professional television writer you need to see your work produced because that is the only way you really learn.’

How do writers out in the wilderness, even those with agents, get to meet Kate and Ben Stephenson and other luminaries of the broadcasters: easy – many will be (as they are every year) at the Cheltenham Screenwriters’ Festival at the end of October.

There is so much happening at the BBC that we all need to understand it (which is why the interview with Kate is very long and will appear over three weeks). It is not ‘our’ BBC as is sometimes said, but it commissions more hours of drama than anyone else. How Kate’s department relates to the Writer’s Academy and the Writersroom at the BBC is also interesting, as is her relationship with Manda Levin and the powerful John Yorke.
Knowledge of the personalities and power structures in the major broadcasters is as vital as understanding the three-act structure, beats, sequences and whatever other craft skills are deemed necessary. But reading the trades is seldom demonstrated by writers as a priority (hence the Buzz provided in TwelvePoint to provide that kind of industry information about who is commissioning what and what the trends are).

I would not recommend treating the BBC as one-stop shopping for drama writers, but I would suggest that they are the most important place to get to know well if working in the UK as a drama writer is what you want to do.

Making drama at the BBC: an interview with Kate Harwood – part 1

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Gissa job

Tuesday, September 1st, 2009

Spent sometime this weekend thinking about training because of the upcoming Screenwriters’ Festival at Cheltenham and all the publicity about the television festival in Edinburgh especially the Murdoch attack on the BBC and the belief that profit is the main motivator of good telly in a free society.

Well, I didn’t actually hear the speech but it was a big promo for SKY, who thankfully (and belatedly) are doing drama, so let’s be grateful for small mercies. I guess the big battleground is about news not drama (though I do hope SKY’s drama makes profits so they will do more). For screenwriters and those who work with them, however, declining budgets and fragmenting audiences means write smart.

The demise of Big Brother is leading C4 into increasing its drama budget overall, an excellent thing when you look at some of the brilliant drama they are doing. I wonder how much money they made from Slumdog Millionaire? Probably not as much as they deserved.

Back to training: Skillset has undoubtedly focussed many good minds on training and I believe that it is getting better than it was say five years ago. What remains unresolved is the vocational nature of scriptwriting. It is simply not like writing novels.

When you look at the stats (take the Rogers’ Report, which found that over a couple of years the average identity of those who write British films is white, male, over 50 and having had no formal training to write), it makes you think.

When we set up the MA in Television ScriptWriting at De Montfort University in Leicester a number of years ago, one aspect we all agreed on (there were aspects on which the academics at DMU did not agree with those of us from the industry who designed the course) was the intensity of contact with the industry: apart from the opening and closing weeks we wanted industry speakers every week. We paid the speakers well so that every year out of some 24 terms days a year (the third term was not on campus) there were about 20 top industry visitors, ie 40 over the two years.

Even this we felt was not enough but I believe it is the highest in the country. Bournemouth makes the undergrads do six weeks work experience in the industry at the end of their second year, which is an important experience for them. Many of those students spend their time at my agency. Bournemouth has also had the recent addition of the very smart Craig Batty as a senior lecturer in scriptwriting: his book (with Zara Waldeback) is an excellent introduction to screenwriting.

My conclusion from all this is that actually working in the industry in almost any capacity might be as good – better for some, not for all – than doing a degree. In other words learning to write is done by doing it as much as studying it. It requires participation in an industrial process and working under pressure, different from the somewhat laid-back life of most degree courses.

I have come round to favour a combination of gap-year thinking – get your hands dirty and work in the business; if that goes well then get your employer to fund a part-time MA in scriptwriting. Would Skillset provide bursaries to help those companies losing a staff member for a day while they studied for the industry they were working in?

It could be the fast-track to industry-savvy, script-literate professional writers who know what the industry wants and don’t have to guess. In the meantime, where can you get an exceptionally prescient insight into the film and television industry in four days, more information than you can possibly take in, more contacts with the industry than you will make in any year of your life outside of Cheltenham? The Screenwriters’ Festival is worth a year at any higher educational institution. And which university always takes the largest number of students to Cheltenham? De Montfort.

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