Posts Tagged ‘TwelvePoint’

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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Good enough isn’t good enough

Sunday, November 15th, 2009

Tweet

There was quite a lot of tweeting about this topic and the session today (which I missed). Writers often ask what the market is looking for, which immediately indicates that they don’t know.

It also indicates that there is an assumption that other people will or might know, as if this nugget of knowledge will give writers an advantage if only they knew what it was.

You can check TwelvePoint’s Buzz, you can check the Commissioning Index on Broadcast’s website, you can read Screen International, surf the web for articles and chat. You can check the box office and the ratings and the best seller lists.

The Buzz in TwelvePoint

You will learn what was chosen 1, 2 or even 4 or 5 years ago. You won’t know what the market wants now or in the near future.

The Commissioning Index

I think that grasping at straws like this is completely understandable. It is obvious. But the bandwagon that went by is too late for you.

On the other hand there are the perennials: certain genres and formats that are always in demand only if the script and story is good enough. Which reminds me of an article Tom Williams did in TwelvePoint some time ago, when he went over to LA to work in development in Hollywood, to see how different it was from the UK (check out his articles: put his name into the search box in TwelvePoint): one conclusion was that in LA ‘good enough wasn’t good enough’.

What is far more valuable for writers is to know what they are good at. Interrogate your strengths and weaknesses. Work on the weaknesses; build up your strengths. And write what you are best at because all genres are viable, even apparently unpopular ones. As soon as someone with talent gets a hit in a genre no-one seems to be looking for it becomes hot again, and by then it is too late to chase the bandwagon.

Worry about your own writing, not what others are doing. That does not mean you must only write the kind of movies you like watching, though it does help to enjoy what you like writing. What you enjoy as a punter is not necessarily the same as what you may be good at.

If you do choose to cross genres, then beware: you have half the time to develop the storyline of each genre and expect the script to be on the long side and to take longer to write. Putting Dolly Parton and Sylvester Stallone into the same picture is like crossing genres: it doesn’t always work if her fans don’t like his movies, and vice versa.

Since most spec scripts do not sell, but the good specs get their authors work, focus on whatever it is you do best.

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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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BBC – drama not crisis

Sunday, August 30th, 2009

I spent some time this Bank Holiday proof-reading Kate Harwood’s fascinating and information-packed interview for TwelvePoint (forthcoming weeks). She not only talks about her current view of status drama in British television but also about how the BBC drama department relates to BBC films, its attitude towards single dramas, the lowering of drama budgets, what Ben Stephenson’s role is, how writers can best approach the BBC with series ideas and how writers get onto series teams. All of that is just in part two of the three-part interview.

Among the many thought-provoking things she said was that “the idea is only a small part of the whole and you can have a brilliant idea for series but if the writer hasn’t the ability to execute it, there’s no point. We have been there any number of times labouring away at a really good idea with the writer who can’t pull it off.”

I often get a niggling feeling when I read through the submissions at the agency and come across so many unlikely ideas for films or television dramas by writers have not worked extensively anywhere in industry. Given how much there’s been in the press lately about the number of graduates students who can’t get work, and the number of school leavers who are not going to get into university, one should perhaps try to draw some conclusions from this.

Writing is, as George Orwell said, egotistical. Which is a very good reason why anyone who really wants to do it should be encouraged to do so. However encouraging people to express themselves and encouraging them to spend money on higher education and training when there is very little evidence of talent (and a severely limited job market) are two different things.

Encouraging very large numbers to have a go in the hope of discovering one or two who are brilliant is probably as detrimentally egotistical as anything else that takes place in the industry. It effectively implies that those who are taking people onto courses to train don’t really have the ability to make judgements based upon reading scripts, interviewing applicants and putting them through some paces.

I recall being told that when the NFTS made its selections the shortlisted candidates spent two whole days there getting known by the tutors before the final selection was made. This might appear to be rather labour-intensive but I bet it ensured higher-calibre students enrolled on the course.

The problem really stems from the fact that writing is a very personal and idiosyncratic creative performance that has to slot into a fairly industrial process. The usual chicken and egg situation also applies that when you need most to be working with in a team of producer, script editor, director and actors you can’t because you’ve never proved yourself. It’s a miracle, it would seem, that a significant number of new writers do manage to break in every year, but break in they do.

Also in the news this weekend, after James Murdoch’s attack on the BBC, were a number of interviews in defence of the BBC. Kate Harwood refers in her interview to the fact that the BBC tries to provide a broad range of drama, something suitable for everyone. She also talks about the BBC’s Writers’ Academy and I think that one of the most important contributions the BBC has made to national culture has been the opportunity it has afforded many writers to begin to find a voice to say something about the world we live in.

For any writer who wants to have a professional career, having a detailed understanding of the inner workings of the BBC is invaluable. You don’t have to know how a combustion engine works to drive a car but you do have to know the rules of the road.

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What has writing talent got to do with having dreams?

Saturday, August 8th, 2009

Been thinking a great deal about changes we want to make to TwelvePoint: mainly to make it more of a web resource and less pivoted around ‘magazine’ articles. This has led us to look at what our members could be getting from the website that they are perhaps not getting. In turn this raised the question about the role that talent plays in the making of a writer.

There is talent in being a good observer. There is talent in being a good interpreter of that which is observed. There is talent in being able to make the correct selection from all that has been observed. And then there is talent in being able to describe in words and pictures whatever you have chosen to describe. Then there is talent in how you use your imagination, since the process is not like a camera simply recording what is observed and selected.

When I look at the quality (or lack of it) of the vast majority of submissions we receive at the agency, it is immediately clear that the talent levels are insufficient to be saleable. We sometimes have real difficulty in selling talented writing. Maybe our judgements are sometimes off? Maybe it is because at the moment it is such a buyers’ market that producers and publishers take fewer risks than before.

Some promotion for scriptwriting courses, both short ones and degree courses, seem to imply that scriptwriting is a craft that can be learnt, but they make no or very little reference to whether or not the writer has talent. One such degree course, for which I was one of the external industry experts who were required to validate the course before it could begin, did not require applicants to submit a sample of their writing as part of their application. It did not get an unqualified blessing.

How could the academics know whether the students had even a basic ability to write? What really bothers me about all this is that it devalues talent. Not everyone can write well and just because someone is passionate about being a writer, I am not sure that they should be encouraged to invest in training and possibly waste years of their lives attempting to do something they are unlikely to be good at.

The arguments in favour of universal encouragement range from the important fact that they keep all the teachers employed to the possibility that after some years of trying a writer might find their voice and genre and format and finally be able to make a living from writing. Both of those are true but I still think that those who teach have a conflict of interests in wanting full classes even though the reality is that the majority of the students will not earn a living from writing.

But then the majority of people who study old English do not intend to learn a living from it. However the difference may be that the writing students sincerely hope that they will be able to do so. And to what extent are those of us who work with writers complicit in encouraging them to pursue their dreams?

How do you find out what other writers are like, what a wide range of producers look for from writers? Easy – come to the Cheltenham Screenwriters’ Festival in October – it might save you a fortune and years of your life. But if you have talent and passion and perseverance you could find the best short-cuts to turning your passion and talent into a living. And if you don’t know anyone in the business and are a member of TwelvePoint, we will give you a thorough preparation on how to network, who the speakers will be, what they have done and so on. The delegates list (which is very worth studying beforehand) will suggest which writers have interests similar to yours. It is easy to make contact with them.

Cheltenham is a unique opportunity in Europe, enhanced by speed dating with producers and agents, so that you get to sit face to face with several of each. By the end of four days you will have lived a professional year’s worth of experiences.

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Scriptwriters United

Tuesday, July 7th, 2009

Went to a meeting at the Writers’ Guild with the General Secretary Bernie Corbett, in their lovely new offices. What are the issues in the air at the moment? One that was mentioned at the recent AGM is why are writers treated so badly so often.

As an agent I must confess that it is not often we experience this with clients; other agents tell me the same. I can think of two outstanding cases of appalling treatment of clients: one an A-list writer writes a script, the producer takes it to the broadcaster who greenlights it (great script they said). Then a director is hired who fires the writer who now loses the principal photography payment.

The second was a big producer who buys an idea for a series episode from a client. It is such a strong idea they decide to make it two episodes, then prevaricate for a while and then decide it should be three episodes. The client can only write one episode now because there is not much time left as they have wasted time deciding and the episodes were scheduled for production and transmission.

But the third episode storyline was not resolved so in the end they gave him three (yes three) days to write it. He asked for the weekend as well which they grudgingly agreed to. He delivered an hour-long episode written in 5 days from an incomplete storyline and they said, well…it isn’t very good and you are fired.

I don’t know what war stories the Guild is being told. I also understand that in most cases producers do not want things like this to happen. But they do. Where can writers raise these issues? There are really only two places (apart from Forums like the TwelvePoint Forum): the Writers’ Guild and at the Screenwriters’ Festival. Both organizations are so approachable, both so keen to make the professional world for scriptwriters a better place.

But as in any organization: it only works if people who care become actively involved. Do you care? Not just about your own career but about your peers, colleagues, comrades, fellow-writers? Together you are all much stronger than you could ever be on your own: take part in the Guild, go to Cheltenham at the end of October, behave like a professional writer even if you are just beginning. If you are well-established as a writer and doing all right Jack, then give something back, you have so much to contribute.

Send your war stories to the TwelvePoint Forum if you are a member (if not join, it is so inexpensive), or to the Guild. Share your fears and triumphs at the Screenwriters’ Festival. Go on, be a mench!

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