Monday, August 25, 2008

John Esmonde obituaries

Comedy writer John Esmonde, who, with Bob Larbey, created and wrote sitcoms including The Good Life, Please Sir! and Ever Decreasing Circles died earlier this month.

There are obituaries in The Times, The Guardian and by Anthony Hayward in The Independent.
Having decided that Down To Earth (1995) would be their last series together, Esmonde and Larbey went their separate ways. Esmonde retired to the coastal village of La Herradura, in the Granada province of Spain, and concentrated on writing novels. "I haven't had one published yet, but being rejected makes me feel young again," he said.

David Hare on the state of TV drama

In The Times, David Hare lays into what he sees as the poverty of the BBC's ambition for drama.
The revival of Doctor Who sends the BBC into a well-merited orgy of delight, precisely because it inherits a known form and succeeds in regenerating it. It conforms, if you like, to the Trojan Horse model of drama, by taking something already familiar and cleverly smuggling in some exciting new ideas.

But with very few exceptions - inevitably, you think of Paul Abbott, the author of State of Play and Shameless - it is very hard to see the same commitment being brought to bear on wholly original work. The Wire and Heimat remain in their scale and ambition the two global television series the corporation seems least keen to emulate.

What Guild members are getting up to

Taken from the Guild's weekly e-bulletin. Guild members wanting to be included should contact Erik in the Guild office.

DAVID CROFT co-wrote the episode of Dad’s Army, The Making of Private Pike, going out on BBC2 at 7:00pm on Saturday 23rd August.

SARAH DANIELS’S adaptation of Doris Lessing's The Golden Notebook is going out on Radio 4 at 7:45pm on Monday 25th August.

PETER GIBBS wrote the episode of Heartbeat, Bully Boys, going out on ITV1 at 8:00pm on Sunday 24th August.

JULIE JONES wrote the episode of Coronation Street going out on ITV1 at 7:30pm on Wednesday 27th August.

ROY MITCHELL co-wrote the episode of New Tricks, Mad Dogs, going out on BBC1 at 9:00pm on Monday 25th August.

TOM NEEDHAM wrote the episode of The Bill, Before the Fall, going out on ITV1 at 8:00pm on Thursday 28th August.

CHRIS PARKER wrote the episodes of EastEnders going out on BBC1 at 8:00pm on Monday 25th and at 7:30pm on Tuesday 26th August.

JULIE PARSONS wrote the episode of Emmerdale: Unhappy Birthday going out on ITV1 at 7:00pm on Tuesday 26th August.

HEATHER ROBSON wrote the episode of Hollyoaks going out on C4 at 6:30pm on Monday 25th August.

CAROLE SIMPSON SOLAZZO wrote the episodes of The Archers going out on Radio 4 at 7:00pm from Sunday 24th until Friday 29th August. Each episode will be repeated at 2:00pm the day after its original broadcast.


JOHN SULLIVAN wrote the episode of The Green Green Grass, The Country Wife, going out on BBC1 at 7:30pm on Friday 29th August.


BILL TAYLOR wrote the episode of Emmerdale going out on ITV1 at 7:00pm on Monday 25th August.

Friday, August 22, 2008

Arts Council England Theatre Assessment 2008

Arts Council England is inviting contributions for its Theatre Assessment 2008, a study into the impact of the additional £25 million of public spending secured for theatre since 2003.

The Assessment will cover a wide range of theatre practice, including text-based work, experimental theatre, physical theatre, puppetry, musical theatre, street arts and circus; building based and touring organisations, work for children and young people, including youth theatre, participatory theatre and diversity.

It will be carried out by independent consultants Anne Millman and Jodi Myers, with the support of their advisors, Pippa Bailey, Patrick O'Kane and Kully Thiarai. They are working closely with Barbara Matthews and Isobel Hawson from Arts Council England's Theatre Strategy team.

Open meetings

There will be a number of meetings held to discuss these questions, which anyone is welcome to attend and for which no reservations are necessary. If you have access requirements you should email access@theatreassessment.org.uk

Manchester
Thursday 4 September 2008
10.30 – 1.30 Doors open 10.00
John Thaw Studio, Martin Harris Centre, University of Manchester
Bridgeford Street, Manchester M13 9PL

London
Monday 8 September 2008
2.00 – 5.00 Doors open 1.30
Young Vic, 66 The Cut, Waterloo, London SE1 8LZ

Bristol
Wednesday 1 October 2008
2.00 – 5.00 Doors open 1.30
Circomedia, St Paul's Church, Portland Square. Bristol. BS2 8SJ
Please note Portland Square location

Written responses
You can also send responses to the consultation questions, using the response form, at any time up until 31 October 2008.

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Guild Members' blogs

Highlights from Members' blogs this week include:
Record your sound separately

Seriously, this is the most important thing I learned. Always have a separate soundtrack.

I knew one sound guy, and he's no longer working in the business. I tried a couple of other leads, but time was getting short, and the DP swore blind that we could just run the sound from the boom mike into the camera and it would be fine.

Not having a separate sound guy is the worst mistake you can have.

Hamlet 2

The The L.A. Times, Mark Olsen talks to Andrew Fleming and Pam Brady the co-writers of Hamlet 2 (released in the UK at the end of November).
Having grown frustrated by the limitations being put on them by executives and the like, the newfound friends decided to just go for it on their own. The traditional limits of good taste would simply have to be moved aside. "We had been doing TV pilots together," said Fleming, "that's how we met each other, we worked on two pilots together. And there were so many rules, so many people saying, 'Oh, that makes us uncomfortable.' "

" 'It's too far; you'll alienate the audience,' " chimed in Brady, mimicking an overly cautious exec.

"Smoothing it out, we said, 'Let's just do this on our own,' " Fleming continued. "It's for us; it will make us laugh. So we didn't censor ourselves at all."

Sadie Jones interview

In The Guardian, Alison Flood talks to Sadie Jones about her journey from unsuccessful screenwriter to bestselling novelist.
It's possible that Sadie Jones just wasn't a very good screenwriter. After "clawing away" (her words) at the profession for 15 years, things weren't looking good – a "lovely romantic comedy", a thriller, and a "really nice coming of age story" all came to nothing. Then along came The Outcast, the film script of which became a bestselling novel, which in a twist of fate is now becoming a film script again.

"I often thought that if I could have given up, and done something else, I would have done," says Jones. "Retrospectively, I can see that I was learning all the time, but it was often difficult. I was employed sometimes, and I had things in development, but there were a lot of disappointments. It was not so much stubbornness, or even belief, I just carried on writing. To deal with disappointment, I had to write for the sake of writing, not some imaginary reward."

Is writing a form of self-help?

On her blog, Charlotte Higgins opens a debate as to whether writing is a form of self-help.
Speaking about his new novel, Deaf Sentence, he [David Lodge] said, "I find most writing therapeutic," adding that Graham Greene had once expressed bafflement that most people did not write, or paint, or do creative work of some kind as an outlet for anxiety.

Julian Barnes, on the other hand, expressed nothing but disdain about the writing-as-therapy notion when he spoke at the festival on Sunday. "In certain areas of misery-lit it might work," he told the audience. "You have a horrible life, you write about it, you make a lot of money; people start to love you; your life gets better. But it's just as likely to have the opposite effect. You have a miserable life; you write about it; nobody wants to publish it; you end up even more miserable."

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

YouTube developments

Whilst online window shopping recently, I happened across a couple of interesting articles on Camcorder.info

The first, YouTube and the Death of Short-Form Video, looks at developments at the online video site that allow for longer films to be uploaded, and links to various discussions about prospects for 'monetizing' YouTube films.
Even if you are a huge fan of YouTube shorts, you have to admit that Google is going to have to make lots of tweaks if it is ever going to make YouTube profitable. Google understands this and is working on the transformation. Screening Room is a reasonable first step to start competing with products like Hulu. YouTube Annotations provides new capabilities that will make YouTube a more viable business tool. I expect more changes soon.
The second article is about [Title Of Show], a new musical that built an audience on YouTube.
The [Title of Show] show never became a huge Internet hit, but with five to twenty four thousand viewers per episode it kept the musical fresh and built up a sizable base of new fans. Eventually a Broadway producer figured they would give Bowen and Bell what they were asking for. Last week [Title of Show] made its debut on Broadway at the Lyceum Theater.

Monday, August 18, 2008

Imison Award shortlist

In addition to the shortlist for the Tinniswood Award, announced earlier this month, the shortlist has also been announced for the Imison Award for the best original radio drama by a writer new to radio. It's judged by the Society of Author's Broadcasting Committee.

The shortlist is:
  • The Magician's Daughter by Adam Beeson
  • Chameleon by Vicky Meer
  • The Birth And Death Of Daylight by Stephen Riley
  • Excluded by Michael Stewart
  • Left At The Angel by Jack Thorne
  • Tin Man by Laurence Wilson

Both the Imison and the Tinniswood Awards will be presented at a ceremony at the British Academy in London on 21st October 2008.

Seth MacFarlane’s Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy

In The New York Times, Brooke Barnes looks forward to the launch of a new online venture from Seth MacFarlane, creator of Family Guy, an animated variety show that will be distributed solely through Google.
The Internet giant will syndicate the new program using its AdSense advertising system to thousands of Web sites that are predetermined to be gathering spots for Mr. MacFarlane’s target audience, typically young men. Instead of placing a static ad on a Web page, Google will place a “Cavalcade” video clip. YouTube will also devote a channel to the material.

Marketing messages will be incorporated into the clips largely through “preroll” ads, but Burger King took its involvement a step further. In a rare example of one of Hollywood’s top creative powers working hand-in-glove with a marketer, Mr. MacFarlane created and animated Burger King ads to play ahead of “Cavalcade” clips.

Sunday, August 17, 2008

London and South East Branch Social

Who: All Guild members resident in London and the South East

What: A drink and a chat

Why: To meet fellow Guild members...and to discuss what events the London & SE Branch might want to organise

Where: Royal Festival Hall Bar, on the South Bank (or outside if it's sunny)

When: From 6.30pm on Monday 15th September

If you'd like to come along, please contact erik@writersguild.org.uk so that we have an idea of numbers. All welcome. Feel free to bring any potential members, too.

What Guild members are getting up to

Taken from the Guild's weekly e-bulletin. Guild members wanting to be included should contact Erik in the Guild office.

MARTIN ALLEN wrote the episode of Coronation Street going out on ITV1 at 7:30pm on Monday 18th August.

SARAH BAGSHAW wrote the episode of Emmerdale: Trial by Fire going out on ITV1 at 7:00pm on 19th August.

RICHARD BURKE wrote the episode of Hollyoaks going out on C4 at 6:30pm on Thursday 21st August.

MARK BURT wrote the episode of Coronation Street going out on ITV1 at 8:30pm on Monday 18th August.

STEPHEN BUTCHARD co-wrote the episode of House of Saddam going out on BBC2 at 9:00pm on Wednesday 20th August.

PAUL COATES wrote the episode of Hollyoaks going out on C4 at 6:30pm on Friday 22nd August.

MARK EVANS’S radio comedy Bleak Expectations continues with the episode “Chapter the Third: a Recovery All Made” going out at 6:30pm on Thursday 21st August

MATTHEW EVANS wrote the episodes of EastEnders going out on BBC1 at 8:00pm on Monday 18th August.

LISA HOLDSWORTH wrote the episode of New Tricks, Communal Living, going out on BBC1 at 9:00pm on Monday 18th and Tuesday 19th August.

ALEX JONES’s play, I’m A Minger! will be at the 503 theatre 25th August - 30th August following the launch at the Arts Theatre, London and sell out performances at the Latitude Festival:

IAN KERSHAW wrote the radio play Alan and Jean’s Incredible Journey going out on Radio 4 at 2:15pm on Tuesday 19th August.

ANDREW KIRK wrote the episode of Emmerdale going out on ITV1 at 7:00pm on Monday 17th August.

DAVID LANE wrote the episode of Coronation Street going out on ITV1 at 7:30pm on Wednesday 20th August.

Congratulations to STEVEN MOFFAT who has won the Hugo award for his episode of Dr Who called Blink. The international Hugo awards are for excellence in fantasy and science fiction. It is his third time winning the best short-form drama Hugo award. He won it in 2006 and 2007 for his Dr Who episodes The Empty Child and The Girl in the Fireplace.

JULIAN PERKINS wrote the episode of The Bill, Game Plan, the first part of which goes out on ITV1 at 8:00pm on Tuesday 19th August. The second part goes out at the same time on Wednesday 20th August.

NICK SALTRESE wrote the episode of Hollyoaks going out on C4 at 6:30pm 18th Monday August.

JOANNA TOYE wrote the episodes of The Archers which will go out on Radio 4 at 7:00pm from 17th - 22nd August, with an omnibus edition on Sunday 24th.

JOE TURNER wrote the episode of Coronation Street going out on ITV1 at 7:30pm on Friday 22nd August.

PETER WHALLEY wrote the episode of Coronation Street going out on ITV1 at 7:30pm on Friday 22nd August.

SUSAN WILKINS wrote the episode of Heartbeat, Big Chill, going out on ITV1 at 7:00pm on Sunday 17th August.

VALERIE WINDSOR wrote the episode of The Inspector Lynley Mysteries, Deception In His Mind, going out on BBC1 at 8:20pm on Saturday 16th August.

KARIN YOUNG wrote the episode of Emmerdale going out on ITV1 at 7:00pm on Wednesday 20th August.

Friday, August 15, 2008

What's the point of literary agents?

On The Guardian Books Blog, Mark Liam Piggott wonders whether literary agents might be more of a hinderance than a help.
Aspiring writers are frequently told that the quickest route to getting published is via an agent. Having been on the books of two, neither of whom got my book on the shelves, and then secured a contract with a publisher myself, I wonder if that's really true.

Thursday, August 14, 2008

Radio drama rates 2008

Last year, the Writers' Guild and Society of Authors agreed a two-year deal with the BBC for increases to the Radio Drama rates.

In 2007, there was an increase of 4% and this year there has been an increase of 2% in line with the deal for the BBC staff.

Details of the new rates can be downloaded from the Rates and Agreements section of the Guild's website.

If you have any queries about these, or any other Writers' Guild minimum terms agreements and rates, please contact the office.

The history of Mills and Boon

For BBC News, Samanthi Dissanayake explores the 100-year history of romantic fiction publishers Mills and Boon.
Nowadays, Italians and Spaniards remain popular heroes and at least one sheikh romance a month is published. Even Russian oligarchs have made an appearance.

"As the world has become more globalised our settings have had to become more exotic, more luxurious and exciting. Where our heroes were once millionaires, now they have to be billionaires," says Clare Somerville, marketing director for Mills and Boon.
There's also a video guide to writing a Mills and Boon novel.

New Guild Members' blogs

Well, new to me at least:

Stolen stories

A guest post from Gail Renard, Chair of the Guild's TV Committee:

Many writers submit unsolicited storylines to television companies in the hope of getting work. It's a time honoured tradition, but a disquieting practice recently has sprung up. Writers are regularly receiving replies along the lines of, “What a wonderful storyline! We love it. But we just want you to know, in an amazing co-inky dinky, that our producer/ researcher/ Peruvian intern came up with almost an identical storyline, so we won’t be able to use yours.”

Allow me to translate: “Yes your story was good; so good in fact, we’re going to nick it and not pay for it.”

This appropriation of storylines by production personnel is being noticed all over the industry. A well-known agent observed, “They tell the lie before they steal the story.”

Of course certain ideas are in the ether and very much a part of our zeitgeist. Some of us do have similar ideas at the same time. I for one still haven’t forgiven Richard Curtis for writing Blackadder, Four Weddings and A Funeral, and Notting Hill, all of which were on the tip of my pen. But the number of times this is happening to writers now is getting worrying.

If you’ve received one of these letters or e-mails lately, we’d like to see it. Could you please alert the Guild office: erik@writersguild.org.uk

The rule is if someone likes your original storyline enough to use it, he/she must pay for it.

The Guild be launching our new Television Good Practice Guide shortly. But here’s a preview:

“Unsolicited storylines come free. So, too, do brief outlines which put down on paper the gist of an idea in which you have expressed an interest. If, after discussion, you ask a writer to prepare a full storyline to test the development of an idea, this is a storyline commission and you are bound by Writers’ Guild Agreements to pay for it.”

And hold the “coincidences.”

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Hugo Award for Moffat

Guild member Steven Moffat has another trophy to put on his mantelpiece after his episode of Doctor Who, Blink, won the 2008 Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form.

Saturday Night Live talent online

In The New York Times, Brian Stelter reports on how the writer-performers of American show Saturday Night Live created online comedy series The Line during the recent writers' strike.
The ability of “The Line” to attract name-brand talent reflects the increasing number of writers and actors who are showing interest in original Web video. “The Line” was the first straight-to-Internet series to be produced and financed by Broadway Video, the production company founded by the “SNL” executive producer, Lorne Michaels. But it won’t be its last: the company says it will produce other Web series created by and starring “SNL” cast members, and Mr. Michaels also intends to produce Web performances by Jimmy Fallon this fall, as that former “SNL” cast member prepares to replace Conan O’Brien on “Late Night” next year.

For the writers and stars of “The Line,” the Web was a proving ground. “We wanted to have an experience of shooting something on our own,” Mr. Hader said in an interview. “This is a good medium to do it in because it’s a very low-stakes medium.”

In praise of New Tricks

New TricksIn The Guardian, Stephen Armstrong sings the praises of BBC TV drama series New Tricks (created by Roy Mitchell and Nigel McCrery).
...as New Tricks has tottered to its fifth series, adding roughly one million viewers each time - with most of the newcomers in their 30s or younger - it has become correspondingly darker and more unsettling. Lane has obsessive-compulsive disorder and is a recovering alcoholic. Halford spent series one to four pursuing the man who murdered his wife only to see the crook walk free. Plots have revolved around pension-fund rip-offs, incest, corruption and MI5 assassinations of 1970s trade-union leaders. And this can upset commissioners. A forthcoming episode exploring racism was nearly canned by a nervous BBC until the cast mutinied.

Executive producer Tom Sherry says the show is designed to subvert expectations, pricking the conscience of viewers through drama where documentaries might struggle. It may not have CSI's $3m-an-hour budget, but New Tricks isn't just our most popular show - it's proper genre-mashing cutting-edge Brit TV. Of the old school.

Monday, August 11, 2008

The writers' doctor

howdunnitFor the Writers Guild of America West, Denis Faye speaks to cardiologist D.P. Lyle who has a second career as an advisor to writers.
What gaffs do you see in movies and on the TV that you roll your eyes at?

Several. One of them, I call the “instant death.” It's very hard to kill someone instantly, especially with a gun or a knife -- especially the guy who throws the knife across the room and it sticks the guy in the chest, and he falls down dead. Not going to happen. It's going to take hours, if not days, to die from a knife wound unless it hits something really, really vital and that's not likely. Same with a gun. Brain, heart or upper part of spinal cord, yeah, you can drop someone like a sack of potatoes. Short of that, they're going to bleed to death, or they're going to die of an infection.

How many times have you seen the guy shot, and he's written out of the script? Actually, what's going to happen is that he's going to be angry, and he's going to come after you. He's going to be bleeding, but now, he's going to take you with him.

The other thing is the “knockout punch.” You knock someone out, and they're written out of the script. In real life, think about the boxing matches you've seen. Guy gets knocked out and two minutes later, he's sitting on the stool in the corner saying it was a lucky punch. That's real life. If you knock someone out, they're unconscious for seconds or a very few minutes. They might be groggy for a few minutes, but after that, they're upset, and they're going to come after you. That doesn't happen in movies.

Friday, August 08, 2008

What Guild members are getting up to

Taken from the Guild's weekly e-bulletin. Guild members wanting to be included should contact Erik in the Guild office.

SIMON ASHDOWN wrote the episode of EastEnders going out on BBC1 at 8:00pm on Monday 11th August.

MICHAEL CHAPLIN’S two-part radio drama Two-Pipe Problems begins on Radio 4 with A Streetcar Named Revenge going out on Radio 4 at 2:15pm on Monday 11th August. The second part, The Trusty Valet and the Crusty Butler, goes out at the same time on Tuesday 12th August at the same time.

MARY CUTLER wrote the episodes of The Archers going out on Radio 4 at 7:00pm from Sunday 10th until Friday 15th August, with each episode being repeated at 2:00pm the day after its original broadcast.

RICHARD DAVIDSON wrote the episode of EastEnders going out on BBC1 at 8:00pm on Friday 15th August.

ANGHARAD DEVONALD and OTHNIEL SMITH are two of the writers of The Exquisite Corpse, being performed by the True/Fiction Theatre Company at C Venue 34, Chambers Street, Edinburgh, until 25th August

TIM DYNEVOR wrote the episode of Emmerdale: Better the Devil You Know going out on ITV1 at 7:00pm on Tuesday 12th August.

STEVEN FAY wrote the episode of Hollyoaks going out on C4 at 6:30pm on Monday 11th August.

CHRIS FEWTRELL wrote the episode of Coronation Street going out on ITV1 at 8:30pm on Monday 11th August.

ALISON FISHER wrote the episode of EastEnders going out on BBC1 at 8:00pm on Thursday 14th August.

JONATHAN HARVEY wrote the episode of Coronation Street going out on ITV1 at 7:30pm on Wednesday 13th August.

SEAMUS HILLEY wrote Coming Up: And Kill Them going out on C4 at 11:35pm on Wednesday 12th August.

TONY GREEN wrote the episode of Hollyoaks going out on C4 on Friday 15th August.

ANTHONY HOROWITZ wrote the episode of Foyle’s War, Bad Blood, going out on ITV1 at 8:00pm on Saturday 9th August.

PETER KERRY wrote the episodes of Emmerdale going out on ITV1 at 7:00pm on Wednesday 13th and Thursday 14th August.

ANDREW KIRK wrote the episode of Emmerdale going out on ITV1 at 7:00pm on Friday 15th August.

ANDREW MCCULLOCH co-wrote the episode of Heartbeat, Taking Stock, going out on ITV1 at 7:00pm on Sunday 10th August.


PAUL MENDELSON’S radio play Dover And The Unkindest Cut Of All is going out on Radio 4 at 2:30pm on Saturday 9th August.

Congratulations to GARETH MILES who won the Wales book of the year award for a book in the Welsh language for his book Y Proffwyd a’i Ddwy Jesebel (Gwasg Carreg Gwalch).

DOMINIC MINGHELLA co-wrote the episode of Doc Martin, Erotomania, going out on ITV1 at 9:00pm on Tuesday 12th August.

STUART MORRIS wrote the episode of The Bill, Getting Personal, going out on ITV1 at 8:00pm on Wednesday 13th August.

DEBBIE O’MALLEY wrote the episode of Holby City, The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea, going out on BBC1 at 8:00pm on Tuesday 12th August.

HOWARD OVERMAN wrote the episode of Harley Street going out on ITV1 at 9:00pm on Thursday 14th August.

LYN PAPADOPOULOS wrote the episode of Hollyoaks going out on C4 at 6:30pm on Wednesday 13th August.

JULIAN PERKINS wrote the episode of The Bill, Game Plan, the first half of which is going out on ITV1 at 8:00pm on Thursday 14th August.

TONY READ is appearing at the Edinburgh International Books Festival on Wednesday 13 August, to talk about his last adult non-fiction book The World On Fire: 1919 And The Battle With Bolshevism. He will also be reading from the work of Russian poet Anna Akhmatova in Scottish PEN's session for Imprisoned Writers that day.

DAMON ROCHEFORT wrote the episode of Coronation Street going out on ITV1 at 7:30pm on Monday 11th August.

MARK TAVENER’S comedy High Table, Lower Orders will be concluding on Radio 4 at 11:30am on Friday 15th August.

BILL TAYLOR wrote the episode of Emmerdale going out on ITV1 at 7:00pm on Monday 11th August.

ITV threatens children's programming

From Dan Sabbagh in The Times:
Michael Grade, the chairman of ITV, said yesterday that it was prepared to abandon its obligations to show regional news and children’s programmes.

ITV also wants the right to transmit more adverts per hour and to introduce product placement and Mr Grade said that if the rules were not eased by regulators he would do so unilaterally. “I want to retain our status as a public service broadcaster, but not at any price,” Mr Grade said. “I’m not sure that the regulator understands the urgency of the need for reform.”

Simon Gray obituaries

Playwright (and memoirist) Simon Gray died this week, and there are obituaries in all the major newspapers, including The Times, The Telegraph, The Independent and by Lyn Gardner in The Guardian.
Perhaps more than any other modern British playwright, other than his great friend and champion Harold Pinter, Gray was a chronicler of what is unsaid. His plays are full of highly educated, highly literate, professional people who find that words fail them and retreat into irony as a defence.

Thursday, August 07, 2008

Members' blogs

In the sometimes weird and sometimes wonderful (and sometimes both) world of Guild Members this week:



(If you've got a blog that's not listed in our 'Members' blogs' (right), let me know.)

Tinniswood Award 2008 Shortlist

The Writers' Guild of Great Britain and the Society of Authors have announced the shortlist for this year's Tinniswood Award for radio drama:
The Tinniswood Award honours the best original radio drama script broadcast in the UK during the period 1 January – 31 December 2007. A prize of £1500 will be awarded to the winner.

The judges for this year's Tinniswood Award are:
  • Jane Anderson, Radio Editor of the Radio Times
  • Shelley Silas, whose radio plays include, The Sound of Silence, Ink, Calcutta Kosher, The Magpie Stories, Collective Fascination, as well as adaptations of Hanan Al-Shaykh’s novel Only in London and a co-adaptation with John Harvey of Paul Scott’s The Raj Quartet
  • John Tydeman, who played a key role in BBC radio drama for nearly four decades, as producer, Assistant Head and then Head of Radio Drama.
The Tinniswood Award will be presented at a ceremony in London on Tuesday 21st October 2008.

Last year's winners were Rachel Joyce for To Be A Pilgrim, produced by Tracey Neale (BBC) and Mike Bartlett for Not Talking, directed by Steve Canny and produced by Claire Grove (BBC).

Wednesday, August 06, 2008

Gannon attacks BBC commissioning

By Matthew Hemley for The Stage:
Peak Practice and Soldier Soldier creator Lucy Gannon has launched a scathing attack on the BBC, claiming that the Corporation’s drawn-out commissioning process is threatening the livelihoods of writers and independent drama producers.

Gannon, whose BBC credits include the series Servants, said the period between an idea being developed for the Corporation and then either commissioned or rejected was often as long as two years.

She said that this overlong process made it difficult for writers and companies relying on commissions to cope financially, and claimed the situation was being compounded by clauses in BBC contracts which prevent scripts being taken to other broadcasters for a certain period.

The 5-2 draft

On his blog, comedy writer Ken Levine explain s the principles of the 5-2 draft.
So my partner and I have written the script. We’re very happy with it. Been over it several times. It’s ready to turn in.

But first –

The 5-2 draft.

We always make one final pass and do the following – add 5 great jokes, take out 2 pages.

Wales book win for Gareth Miles

Gareth Miles and Dannie AbseCongratulations to Guild member Gareth Miles who won the Welsh-language category in the Wales Book Of The Year award last month with his novel Y Proffwyd a’i Ddwy Jesebel.

Dannie Abse, pictured (right) with Gareth, won the English language category for his book, The Presence.

Tuesday, August 05, 2008

US novelist sells shares in next book

By Matthew Moore in The Daily Telegraph:
A young novelist is selling shares in his next book, to allow him to quit work and concentrate on his writing.

Investors can pay $2,000 (£1,000) in return for a 10 per cent share of the royalties of Tao Lin’s as-yet-unfinished second novel.

Tao posted details of his “initial public offering” on his popular literary blog last week and claims to have already lined up buyers for five of the six shares.

Monday, August 04, 2008

Paulo Coelho's self-piracy

In The Guardian, Jeff Jarvis reports on best-selling novelist Paulo Coelho's surprising strategy for boosting foreign sales.
Coelho discovered the power of free when a fan posted a Russian translation of one of his novels online and book sales there climbed from 3,000 to 100,000 to 1m in three years. "This happened in English, in Norwegian, in Japanese and Serbian," he said. "Now when the book is released in hard copy, the sales are spectacular." So Coelho started linking to pirated versions of his books from his own website.

Enda Walsh interview

In The Times, Brian Logan talks to Enda Walsh about his new play The New Electric Ballroom.
Walsh isn’t interested in writing about you or me. This is a man who, when hearing of the Josef Fritzl case in Austria, didn’t so much recoil in horror as proclaim a vindication of his dramatic priorities. “This is my territory,” says Walsh. “What motivates me in theatre has always been to get close to characters who’re on the edge of madness, or have entered it. It invigorates me to think that we’re all the same . . . The job of a playwright is to bring an audience close to characters they don’t want to feel close to.

Self-published success

In The Times, Jasper Rees meets authors who've made a success of self-publishing.
Is self-published prose quite as stigmatised as it used to be? The old assumptions that attach themselves to books written, designed, printed and sold by one and the same person are ruthlessly one-tracked: nobody else wanted it; there must be something wrong with it; it’s that lower-caste untouchable, a vanity project. Increasingly, however, it seems that self-published novels can create elbow room for themselves in a market dominated by Tesco, Amazon, the three-for-two table and Richard & Judy.

[Chalres] Boyle’s 24 for 3 has just won the 2008 McKitterick prize, awarded to first-time novelists over the age of 40, and is being brought out in a more ostentatiously jacketed hardback by Bloomsbury. And Sade Adeniran’s Imagine This, a self-published novel about an Anglo-Nigerian girl uprooted from London to the old country, recently won the best-first-book category for the Africa region of the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize. “I did the usual thing that most writers do when they first start out — sent it to agents and publishers,” Adeniran says. “I didn’t get the greatest response, but the response from friends and acquaintances was really positive, so I decided to do something about it.”
We'll be covering four Guild members' experiences of self-publishing in the next issue of the Guild's magazine, UK Writer, out later this month.

Friday, August 01, 2008

What Guild members are getting up to

Taken from the Guild's weekly e-bulletin. Guild members wanting to be included should contact Erik in the Guild office.

DAVID BARRY, whose crime novel, Willie The Actor, was published by Libros International, has had a children's book accepted by the same publishers. The book, aimed at the 9-12 age category, is called The Ice Cream Time Machine and it will be published before Christmas.

LUCY BLINCOE wrote the episode of Doctors, One Dog Day, going out on BBC1 at 1:45pm on Monday 4th August.

TONY BURGESS wrote the episode of The Visit going out on BBC1 at 10:45pm on Wednesday 6th August.

JADEN CLARK wrote the episodes of EastEnders going out on BBC1 at 8:00pm on Monday 4th and Tuesday 5th August at 7:30pm.

ANNA CLEMENTS wrote the episode of Hollyoaks going out on C4 at 6:30pm on Thursday 7th August.

PAUL COATES wrote the episode of Hollyoaks going out on C4 at 6:30pm on Tuesday 5th August.

DAVID CROFT co-wrote the episode of Dad’s Army: Jimmy Perry’s Favourite Episode going out on BBC2 at 8:00pm on Saturday 2nd August.

NICK DEAR’S dramatisation of Agatha Christie’s Poirot: Cards On The Table is going out on ITV1 at 9:00pm Friday 8th August.

KEVIN ELYOT wrote the episode of Agatha Christie’s Marple: Towards Zero, going out on ITV1 at 8:00pm on Sunday 3rd August.

FIONA EVANS wrote the episode of EastEnders that went out on Monday 21st July.

STEVEN FAY wrote the episode of Hollyoaks going out on C4 at 6:30pm on Monday 4th August.

JAYNE HOLLINSON wrote the episode of Coronation Street going out on ITV1 at 8:30pm on Monday 4th August.

JANE HOLLOWOOD wrote the episode of Heartbeat, Missing Persons, going out on ITV1 at 7:00pm on Sunday 3rd August.

ANTHONY HOROWITZ wrote the episode of Foyle’s War, Invasion, going out on ITV1 at 9:20pm on Saturday 2nd August.

PENNY LEICESTER’S episodic adaptation of Inside The Whale continues with the episode Was I Delusional? going out on Radio 4 at 7:45pm on Monday 4th August.

BILL LYONS wrote the episode of Emmerdale: Behind Closed Doors going out on ITV1 at 7:00pm on Tuesday 5th August.

GRAHAM MITCHELL wrote the episode of Holby City, Eighteen And A Half, going out on BBC1 at 8:00pm on Tuesday 5th August.

ROY MITCHELL wrote the episode of New Tricks, Couldn’t Organise One, going out on BBC1 at 9:00pm on Monday 4th August.

ROLAND MOORE wrote the episode of Doctors, Love Rat, going out on BBC1 at 1:45pm on Thursday 7th August.

JESSE O’MAHONEY wrote the episode of Hollyoaks going out on C4 at 6:30pm on Wednesday 6th August.

KATIE PRICE’S play An African’s Blood is playing at The Henley Fringe Festival next week for 3 nights.

MARK RAVENHILL'S epilogue to his play, Shoot/Get Treasure/Repeat Cycle, Paradise Regained, is being performed at The Royal Court Theatre from 30th September until 4th October.

CHRISTOPHER REASON wrote the episode of EastEnders going out on BBC1 at 7:30pm on Thursday 7th August.

NICK SALTRESE wrote the episode of Hollyoaks going out on C4 at 6:30pm on Friday 8th August.

SHELLEY SILAS’S new play Eating Ice Cream on Gaza Beach is being performed at The SOHO Theatre from 21st August until 11th September at 7:30pm.

ANDREA SOLOMONS wrote the episode of After You’ve Gone, Silence Of The Clams, going out on BBC1 at 7:30pm on Monday 4th August.

SI SPENCER wrote the episode of The Bill, Street Kid, going out on ITV1 at 8:00pm on Wednesday 6th August.

RICHARD STEVENS’ radio play Left At Marrakech will be going out on Radio 4 at 2:15pm on Thursday 7th August.

CHRIS THOMPSON wrote the episode of Emmerdale at 7:00pm on Wednesday 6th August.

JAKE YAPP is at the Edinburgh Festival this year where he will be performing his new show, Jake Yapp’s Bum Notes.

Members' blogs

Recent blog posts by Guild members include:
Predictably, McKee took a few verbal beatings in different sessions at the Screenwriters' Festival, but I like his book 'Story' - it has some useful practical advice, and it's clear and well-argued with good examples. I also loved the lampooning of some of his excesses in 'Adaptation' too. As, I'm pretty sure, did McKee himself.

I don't agree with anyone who says 'Don't read any of the screenwriting manuals'. Read them all: Vogler, Field, Parker, etc., etc. All of them. And ignore them all if you want, or ignore bits of them, and use other bits.