Day 1 recap is here. Caught up? Good.
Technically we’re staying on Day 1 for a bit longer as we were set homework to complete for the next day. We were asked to finish a scene that had been started by Susannah Grant and we had only two pages to do it! Sadly in the evening inspiration never hit me so I opted to go to the pub instead and hoped that I would find inspiration at the bottom of a bag of pork scratchings.
It worked. Saturday morning I woke up early and checked out then headed to the first coffee house I saw. One disadvantage I had though was I didn’t have a printer with me. Or a laptop. So I was forced to write it out by hand. This is problematic because my handwriting makes a doctor’s look like the work of some caligraphy master. I admit I found the exercise challenging (which I guess is partly why it was called “Susannah Grant’s Screenwriting Challenge”) because you had to finish the story in two pages so there was no room for any extraneous scene description or lengthy dialogue. But I found working to such constraints immensely enjoyable and, bizarrely, quite liberating. Alas it didn’t win — it was beaten by three much more imaginative and very, very dark pieces which we had the pleasure of seeing performed at the end of the day by two actors, one of which was the very wonderful Sally Hawkins!
Frank Cottrell Boyce – ‘Failure is Your Friend’
The art of creativity, the process of screenwriting and how failure can be the best tool in any writer’s box.
- Creativity is different from skill.
- “marshmallow challenge” – teams have 20 minutes to build the tallest tower of spaghetti that can support a marshmallow. Teams that do best are, not surprisingly – architects. Teams that do worst are business graduates – too much planning and not enough time building. Teams that come second best are usually primary school children – they don’t plan, they just get stuck in. Kids also like marshmallows so are committed to the goal rather than the spaghetti what is the focus of adults.Having faith in yourself and just having a go is the kids philosophy but writers seem to have lost this.
- Externally failure can be useful. Maybe not to you if you’ve failed but can be an opportunity to everybody else.
- Failure not good in the automotive industry but can be good in the creative industry.
- Failure is your friend – Frank was notorious when he was younger for being in the “worst band in Liverpool”.
- Doesn’t agree with the term “development hell” — it’s an opportunity to do it again. How many other professions get such an opportunity? Footballers if they miss the penalty in the World Cup can’t retake it.
- Don’t be negative about re-writes. Embrace it. In the re-write process, producers will try to take the “marshmallow” away from you.
- The “marshmallow” is a treat. It’s fun – although fun can also be tiring.When you turn professional — you may do more meetings, more committees and therefore not have more time for writing. You’ve got to remember that turning pro doesn’t mean more fun.
- Chekhov is the greatest writer ever. And if you disagree with Frank you’re wrong. Chekhov wrote while still working as a doctor and said “Medicine is my lawful wife, and literature is my mistress“
- Danny Boyle when he sets up production creates a little corner in his office of what inspires him – like a little library.
- Believes that he doesn’t generate ideas but they are visited upon him. Frank gave the example of being an astronaut and walking on the moon and then going back to Earth and knowing that you can never return. Writers should think how lucky they are to have a creative moment as you’ll never know when it will happen again.
- Doesn’t get writers block but has days, months, years when his writing isn’t very good so he just keeps working through it.
- “Visions don’t come by asking, but they do come if you ask.” C. S. Forester
- Writing still feels like an opportunity of stolen moments.
- What you take from films is the giant memorable characters.
- He doesn’t have the ending in mind when he writes the script. But will give an “ending” to a verbal pitch. Writing should be exploratory. The ending should be surprising – even to you.
- Believes collaboration is the crucial thing in screenwriting. Film is about meeting people who push you. Finding people who you want to work with is the most rewarding.
- He thinks there is a thin line between originality and novelty. Originality is overrated, it’s about finding the spin… His screenplay Millions is about children who find money. Shallow Grave was about a group of friends who found money. A Simple Pan was about brothers who found money. Treasure of Sierra Madre… But in Millions no one had done the spin before of it being children who found the money.
Michael Carlin – Creating the Story World
The script and its relation to production design
- Gets enthused about scripts he can’t put down because you always want to work on something you love. In Bruges, turned down opportunity for bigger scripts because he loved the screenplay so much.
- Screenwriting is the opportunity to create worlds that don’t exist. His job is to the make that world real.
- Logistically he may change the setting of a scene just because there’s a 150 different scenes in the script and it’s not possible to shoot in them all over a 50 day shoot. This decision is usually taken out of the writer’s hands. Can be tricky sometimes as Martin McDonagh didn’t want to change a thing on the page and would even pick up on actors if they added an “um”.
- Exciting to work on a period piece like The Duchess in imaging what you could do. The horror is when you speak to the line manager and find out how much your budget is.
- Always tries to use a location rather than build it. Actors prefer it too because it’s more natural. Therefore directors prefer it.
- New writers shouldn’t worry about limiting locations, should just write a fantastic script as that’s what excites people – sky’s the limit.
Guest Session – New Voice but No Budget
New voices in British screenwriting talk about staying true to their vision when budgets are low. Guests: Jack Thorne, Stuart Hazeldine, Helen Elizabeth, J Blakeson
- JB and SH – find the barrier to become a director difficult because they were considered writers.
- HE – still wants to be an actor rather than a writer. She wrote a screenplay for her to star in.
- JB – fitted a story around the limitations of having no budget. Budget informs the ideas.
- HE – comes from theatre background therefore found she had to pare down the dialogue.
- JT – had got lots of knock backs on Scouting script but came 2nd on the Brit List and got interest again. Produced a new draft based on the interest generated.
- JB – you have to be as careful at the end as you are at the beginning. Don’t be tempted to race across the finish once you see the posts.
- JB – when receiving idiot notes, just don’t mention them in meetings and don’t include them hopefully they’ll just be forgotten.
- JB & SH – found it totally liberating by having budget restrictions.
- JB – downside is you don’t get much of a cut if he’d been just the screenwriter.
- HE – doesn’t matter if you’ve got a 100, 000 or 100 Million – you’ve still got the same problems – not enough time and not enough money.
- JB – thinks going into screenwriting is a great background for directing as unlike those from an Ad directing background, you have experience of telling a story over 90 pages. You know pacing, tone, etc.
Guest Session – Masterclass with Neal Purvis & Robert Wade
- They met at university where they shared a bunk bed and have been writing together for 26 years.
- They don;t have massive disagreements because scripts change so much in development. You can’t be precious. Scripts will never be perfect but if you fiddle too much it falls apart.
- The bigger the budget, the more notes you’ll get.
- About an 8 year gap between Let Him Have It and Plunkett & Macleane. Spent the intervening years doing uncredited rewrites on Hollywood but didn’t enjoy the experience.
- When they tackled the Plunkett & Macleane script, it was more like Carry on Dick before they redrafted it. It was that screenplay that got them the Bond gig.
- Have been fired a lot. Once by pager.
- The producers wanted a Bond movie after Tomorrow Never Dies that was a change in direction – something more character-driven. Met with Barbara Broccolli and she asked “What James Bond should do next?”. They were given carte blanche and would suggest ideas based on current affairs. However would collaborate with Broccolli.
- Always perceived Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace as two parts. But Paul Haggis came in and changed a lot of the script and it lost that emphasis.
- Although happy with Casino Royale now, they were at first disappointed because it didn’t quite match up to what they’d imagined.
- They get paid as if they were one writer but feel the studios are getting two drafts for their money.
- Use to work together but now write scenes separately and exchange via e-mail and edit each other’s work.
- When things are going bad you can always go the pub together and play pool. When thing are going great, you can go to a bar in Hollywood and play pool.
- Thought Quantum of Solace was too one note because Bond was too consumed with vengeance.
Overall I had a terrific time at Serious Screenwriting. It was more intensive than the Cheltenham Screenwriters Festival and for me, as a feature writer, a lot more relevant. My favourite session was Frank Cottrell Boyce which sadly my write-up does not do justice. The man is just a wonderful ball of energy and enthusiasm (which was even more remarkable considering he’d came in on the 5am train from Carlise). Extremely funny and fiercely intelligent it was inspiring to be in the room with him.
However all the guests where great and what I enjoyed most about them was the degree of honesty they spoke with when describing their experiences. It was also just a pleasure to hang-out with other writers. Networking was greatly aided by a free-bar.
So if I’m still a serious screenwriter next year, then I’ll definitely be returning in 2011.
