Definitely a personal career choice and not a view at SWF that spec features were the way to go (In fact novels is what Julian Friedman is advising screenwriters to write!). I went to two talks that made me think that focusing on feature writing is the way for me to go. One was Janice Day’s “How To Make A Living As A Writer” and she said writers need to think where thir compass is set i.e. what’s our ultimate goal and then work back through the stages involved in getting there. Without sounding too pompous, my ultimate goal has always been to make a living writing Hollywood features (yep, that sounded pompous) and if I work back the stages that are needed to get there I honestly don’t think writing for TV/radio is necessary.

The second talk, and career-wise the most useful I attended, was on marketing yourself with “PR and marketing guru” Kate Adamson. I won’t do Kate’s talk justice here (so I’ll probably post it on the blog next week) but her argument is that screenwriters need to establish themselves as a brand — so become known as the go-to-guy for a particular type of script. Consequently if you write children’s dramas, radio plays, features, etc. you dilute the brand.

So these two sessions got me thinking and I realised that I’m interested in creating a world that exists only for two hours not one that I revisit week after week.

Finally I should also point that a part of this decision is purely down due to the time I have available to me. When you add up all the time that’s needed for a screenwriter to spend on just the things that aren’t even the screenwriting (blogging, networking, reading other people’s blogs, reading scripts, reading books. watching movies) you do have to be smart with your time and think how’s it best spent.

Does this mean I’ll never try and write another sitcom, TV script… depends if Bain and Armstrong are asking.

Guiding lights deuxieme for me too. fingers crossed buddy

“I can’t believe this macho bullshit!”

Why didn’t he just put the bunny back in the box?

I also really love the ‘Put the bunny in the bag’ exchange in Con Air. LOVE that movie.

Rainier Wolfcastle perfectly captures the genius of the action movie one-liner. However my favourite quote of his is this one…