Script coverage: a few awful truths

On his blog, Billy Mernit gives the inside scoop on Hollywood script reports.

...the awful truth about scripts and coverage is that Concept/Premise is often all that matters. So what's the hook in your movie? What inventive idea will move those top line marks to the left? What unique angle on a same-old subject will get your script read by anyone other than, well... me?

What Guild members are getting up to

MARTIN ALLEN wrote the episode of Coronation Street going out on ITV1 at 7:00pm on Monday 31st May.

SEBASTIAN BACZKIEWICZ'S radio play Pilgrim goes out in four parts on Radio 4 with the first part, He Who Would Valiant Be, going out at 2:15pm on Monday 31st May.

RICHARD BURKE wrote the episode of Hollyoaks going out on C4 at 6:30pm on Tuesday 1st June.

CHRIS CHIBNALL wrote the episode of Doctor Who "Cold Blood" going out on BBC1 at 7:00pm on Saturday 29th May.

ANNA CLEMENTS wrote the episode of Hollyoaks going out on C4 at 6:30pm on Monday 31st May.

DAVID CROFT and JIMMY PERRY wrote the episode of Dad's Army "The Showing Up of Corporal Jones" going out on BBC2 at 6:30pm on Saturday 29th May.

MARY CUTLER wrote the episodes of The Archers going out on Radio 4 at 7:00pm from Sunday 30th May till Friday 4th June, with each episode being repeated the day after it's original broadcast.

KATIE DOUGLAS wrote the episode of Waterloo Road going out on BBC1 at 8:00pm on Wednesday 2nd June.

JIM ELDRIDGE has written the novelisation of Noel Clarke's new movie 4321, which is out in early June. The novel is published by Bloomsbury. In the same month Jim also has two new books out: Disgusting Dave and the Flesh-Eating Maggots published by Hachette-Hodder, this is the 2nd book in Jim's new Disgusting Dave series and Black Ops: Jungle Kill - the first in a new series of Action Adventure books for teenagers created and written by Jim, published by Egmont.

CHRIS EVANS wrote the episode of EastEnders going out on BBC1 at 8:00pm on Friday 4th June.

CHRIS FEWTRELL wrote the episode of Coronation Street going out on ITV1 at 9:00pm on Thursday 3rd June.

TOM GREEN'S new short play Is There Anything I Could Wear? will be performed at Theatre 503 on Monday 31st May as part of the Rapid Write Response to the play Madagascar by JT Rogers.

TONY GREEN wrote the episode of Hollyoaks going out on C4 at 6:30pm on Wednesday 2nd June.

JONATHAN HARVEY's new play Canary is on at the Hampstead Theatre from 19 May - 12 June. In 1960s Liverpool, two lovers hide in the closet, then are forced to go their separate ways. While pits close and dole queues grow, a couple of runaways find Heaven in 1980s London. In 2010, despite civil partnerships and an equal age of consent, the paparazzi chase a love story that could tear a family apart. Laced with surreal touches and pitch-black humour, Canary is an unflinching story about love, honesty and being brave enough to sing out www.hampsteadtheatre.com

Mercury Musical Development, with a grant from Arts Council England, has just commissioned six new 30-minute musicals (two each for the Watermill in Newbury, the Lowry in Manchester and the Jermyn Street Theatre in London). There were over 30 submissions. Three bookwriters from DAVID JAMES'S Book Music & Lyrics librettists workshop have (with their collaborators) received four of the six commissions.

NEIL McKAY co-wrote the episode of Dunkirk "Retreat" going out on BBC2 at 11:20pm on Tuesday 1st June.

JAN McVERRY wrote the episode of Coronation Street going out on ITV1 at 9:00pm on Monday 31st May.

LESLEY CLARE O'NEILL wrote the episode of Emmerdale going out on ITV1 at 6:30pm on Thursday 3rd June.

NINA RAPI'S new play Kiss the Shadow, directed by Anastasia Revi, is having a workshop production at Soho Theatre Studio, June 10th at 7.30.
For one night only. Tickets £3 Book now: kisstheshadow3@aol.com

STEPHEN RUSSELL wrote the episode of Coronation Street going out on ITV1 at 9:00pm on Wednesday 2nd June.

DAVID STAFFORD co-wrote the dramatisation of Norman Birkett and the Case of the Coleford Poisoner going out on Radio 4 at 2:15pm on Tuesday 1st June.

JOE TURNER wrote the episode of Coronation Street going out on ITV1 at 9:00pm on Friday 4th June.

NICK WARBURTON dramatisation of The Snow Goose goes out on Radio 4 as part of the Neglected Classics series at 9:00pm on Saturday 29th May.

DOUGLAS WILKINSON co-wrote the episode of New Tricks "Spare Parts" going out on BBC1 at 9:00pm on Friday 4th June.

Lessons in storytelling from Derren Brown

On The Guardian Books Blog, AL Kennedy argues that writers can learn from perfomers like issulionist Derren Brown.

The story [within Brown's stage show] is both an unlooked-for beauty and a lovely misdirection and – along with many other secretive and sneaky elements – it means that, for a while, we can believe in miracles and people who've never existed and a range of exhilarating and puzzling and moving possibilities. As an audience member, this makes me jump up and applaud like a happy sea lion. As a writer, this reminds me that the magical fraternity have rather deftly (and typically) pocketed the term thaumaturgy – the working of wonders – for themselves, when really all the arts should have access to it, including the writers and – for goodness' sake – shouldn't I be trying to learn from those stories, from those illusions, when I'm in the business of making my own? I would say so.

Guild response to BBC Trust Strategy Review

The Writers' Guild has submitted its response to the BBC Trust Strategy Review as part of the consultation process that closed today. The full text of the submission is published on the WGGB website.

New developments for BBC iPlayer

While Google wants to bring the web to TV, the BBC has already succeeded in bringing TV to the web via the hugely popular iPlayer.

Today the Corporation announced the launch of a new beta version of the BBC iPlayer, with functionality to allow more personalisation and links with social networking sites including Facebook and Twitter.

BBC Director of Future Media and Technology, Erik Huggers, said: "The launch of this version of the BBC iPlayer is part of our strategy to do fewer things even better and make it more simple, personal and connected. We must no longer try to do everything online, but focus on delivering genuinely world-class products like BBC iPlayer – which audiences love and which really embodies the BBC's core mission in a digital age.

From games writer to scriptwriter

In The New York Times, Charles McGrath explains how the creator of the Prince Of Persia videogame, Jordan Mechner, became involved in the subsequent movie version.

He is the first video game creator to be involved in a subsequent movie version, and he pitched the project to [Jerry] Bruckheimer by showing him a “trailer” he had put together of clips from PlayStation 2 game footage: lots of wall-jumping and ledge-walking interspersed with shots of a scantily clad princess. Keith Boesky, a video game agent and intellectual property lawyer who helped broker the deal with Mr. Bruckheimer, said recently, “Everybody these days is talking about transmedia, but Jordan is the first guy to actually do it.”

Jake Gyllenhaal in Prince of Persia

Television Drama - The Writers' Festival 2010

From BBC Writersroom

By writers for writers
Leeds, June 30th 2010 - July 1st 2010

Agenda created by Tony Marchant, Jack Thorne, Alice Nutter, Toby Whithouse, and Stephen Butchard.

Be part of the first Television Writers' Festival, covering topics including the politics of notes, the balancing act of running a show, the challenges of making the transition from writer-for-hire to getting original work onscreen, and the place for political drama today.

With seminars headed up by the country's best writing, producing, and commissioning talent, including Kay Mellor, Ben Stephenson, John Yorke, Nicola Shindler, Jed Mercurio, Adam Curtis, Polly Hill, Peter Bowker, Sally Wainwright, and Peter Flannery, it will be an opportunity to be inspired, challenged, and to have your say.

Places are limited to writers with a television broadcast credit.

Full details: BBC Writersroom

DCMS announces cuts

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport has announced that all grant recipients will receive a 3% funding cut this financial year as part of the government's attempt to cut the public sector spending deficit. Arts Council England will lose a further £5 million funding on top of the 3%.

Jeremy Hunt, the Culture Secretary said: "I have been clear that all parts of DCMS’s areas would need to play their part in meeting the challenge of reducing the deficit. I will be doing all I can to help our sectors through the next few difficult years, and want to do all I can to ensure that never again are our sectors as vulnerable to sudden booms and busts in public funding."

He added that more money for the arts and sport would become available through funds raised by the National Lottery.

In a press release, Dame Liz Forgan, Chair of Arts Council England said:

"We all knew this year would be tough. We do not understand why we have received a higher percentage cut than other DCMS funded bodies.

“Making cuts within the financial year is very difficult. We will now need to carefully assess what this figure of £19m means. The Arts Council has already trimmed its own budgets by £4 million in 2010/11 so this takes our total reduction this year to £23 million.

“We will do our utmost to minimise the impact on the frontline but we cannot guarantee that there will be no effect. Only £23m (5%) of our overall grant-in-aid budget goes on running costs so the vast bulk of our income goes straight to art. It would therefore be impossible to meet a cut of this size from running costs alone. Use of our historic reserves, which the Department has not allowed us to use to date, will have to be agreed with our Trustees and the Charity Commission and their use will need to be in the best interests of the arts.

“What is most important is that we do our best to protect art and artists and that we get our decisions out as quickly as possible to give our organisations a chance to plan. We have a tough Spending Review ahead so we need to work closely with our Ministers and our arts organisations to make the best possible case.”

Guy Hibbert wins BAFTA TV writer award

Congratulations to Guild member Guy Hibbert (pictured, above) who was named best writer at the BAFTA TV Awards last night for Five Minutes Of Heaven.

There's an interview with Guy on the Writers' Guild website in which he discusses the project.

After Omagh (written by Guy Hibbert and Paul Greengrass), I was asked by BBC Northern Ireland to write something about the legacy of violence. I wasn't sure how to approach it but then came across a BBC documentary about the Troubles in which the perpetrators of crime were to meet the families of their victims. Through this I heard about Joe and Alistair. In 1975 Joe Griffin was 11 when Alistair Little, who was then himself just 17, drove up to Joe's parents'; house and shot Joe's brother three times in the head. Joe witnessed the killing. Thirty years later both men were asked to appear in this documentary; Joe refused saying that "if I am ever in a room with that man I will kill him". I immediately knew this was my story and so set about meeting both men.

Google TV launch

Despite the rise of the internet, television viewing is actually on the rise. So, rather than replacing TV, might the future be to combine it with online services?

Many attempts to do that have already been made of course, including by major players in the computing industry - but neither Apple TV nor Windows Media Center have 'changed the game'.

Perhaps Google TV, launched last week, will.

Google TV is a new experience made for television that combines the TV you know and love with the freedom and power of the Internet.

The motivation for Google to make the service work is clear: there's an estimated $70 billion dollars annual advertising to play for. And, with an open-source operating system already working successfully on Android phones, and a partnership with major high street brands including Sony, the launch of the service has received some rave reviews.

There's an overview of what Google TV could offer by Erick Schonfeld for TechCrunch.

Sony CEO Howard Stringer, who is “fairly giddy with excitement” about introducing a new kind of TV to the market, calls it “active television.” The Google TV experience as demoed today, includes a universal search box which scours both TV and the Web and delivers video from either source in the same user interface. That will be key to getting adoption.

What Guild members are getting up to

SALLY ABBOTT wrote the episode of EastEnders going out on BBC1 at 8:00pm on Monday 24th May.

CAREY ANDREWS wrote the episode of EastEnders going out on BBC1 at 8:00pm on Friday 28th May.

MARK BURGESS has written A Modern Love Story, part of the Three Tales From Tate Modern series of short stories on BBC Radio 4. Written to celebrate ten years of Tate Modern it is being broadcast at 3.30pm on Tuesday 11th May and is read by Clare Corbett. A Modern Love Story is a Pier Production for BBC Radio 4 and is directed by David Blount.

MARK BURT wrote the episode of Coronation Street going out on ITV1 at 7:00pm on Monday 24th May.

CHRIS CHIBNALL wrote the episode of Doctor Who "The Hungry Earth" going out on BBC1 at 6:15pm on Saturday 22nd May.

DAVID CROFT and JIMMY PERRY wrote the episode of Dad's Army "Enemy within the Gates" going out on ITV1 at 7:45pm on Saturday 22nd May.

SIMON CROWTHER wrote the episodes of Coronation Street going out on ITV1 at 7:30pm and 8:30pm on Friday 28th May.

MARY CUTLER wrote the episodes of The Archers going out on Radio 4 at 7:00pm from Sunday 23rd till Friday 28th May with each episode repeated at 2:00pm the day after its original broadcast.

BILL GALLAGHER wrote the concluding episode of The Prisoner "Checkmate" going out on ITV1 at 10:10pm on Saturday 22nd May.

ROB GITTINS wrote the episodes of EastEnders going out on BBC1 at 7:30pm on Tuesday 25th and Thursday 27th May.

JONATHAN HARVEY's new play Canary is on at the Hampstead Theatre from 19 May - 12 June. In 1960s Liverpool, two lovers hide in the closet, then are forced to go their separate ways. While pits close and dole queues grow, a couple of runaways find Heaven in 1980s London. In 2010, despite civil partnerships and an equal age of consent, the paparazzi chase a love story that could tear a family apart. Laced with surreal touches and pitch-black humour, Canary is an unflinching story about love, honesty and being brave enough to sing out. www.hampsteadtheatre.com

NICOLA JONES'S radio play Scorched goes out on Radio 4 at 2:15pm on Tuesday 25th May.

PETER KERRY wrote the episode of Emmerdale going out on ITV1 at 7:00pm on Wednesday 26th May.

JESS LEA wrote the episode of Hollyoaks going out on C4 at 6:30pm on Tuesday 25th May.

MYLES McLEOD co-wrote Sticks, the new short animated series by The Brothers McLeod Sticks has launched on the BBC Comedy website with episode Prisoner.
More information here: http://www.brothersmcleod.co.uk/posts/view/315
First video is here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/clips/p007yfb0

ABI MORGAN is working on an adaptation of The Invisible Woman, Claire Tomalin’s award-winning biography of Ellen Ternan, a young actress who has an affair with Charles Dickens. It is being produced by Stewart Mackinnon at Headline Pictures for BBC Films.

TOM NEEDHAM wrote the episode of The Bill "Ultimatum" going out on ITV1 at 9:00pm on Tuesday 25th May.

CHRIS THOMPSON wrote the episodes of Emmerdale going out on ITV1 at 7:00pm and 8:00pm on Thursday 27th May.

PETER VINCENT co-wrote the episode of When the Dog Dies "Squeaky Shoes" going out on Radio 4 at 11:30am on Friday 28th May.

NICK WARBURTON'S dramatisation of The Snow Goose goes out on Radio 4 at 3:00pm on Sunday 23rd May as part of Radio 4's Neglected Classics season.

E-books are rewriting bookselling

By Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg in The Wall Street Journal :

...the digital revolution sweeping the media world is rewriting the rules of the book industry, upending the established players which have dominated for decades. Electronic books are still in their infancy, comprising an estimated 3% to 5% of the market today. But they are fast accelerating the decline of physical books, forcing retailers, publishers, authors and agents to reinvent their business models or be painfully crippled.

"By the end of 2012, digital books will be 20% to 25% of unit sales, and that's on the conservative side," predicts Mike Shatzkin, chief executive of the Idea Logical Co., publishing consultants. "Add in another 25% of units sold online, and roughly half of all unit sales will be on the Internet."

New government publishes plans

The new Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government published its joint programme for government today, including a section on Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport.

There appear to be few surprises and the new Digital Economy Act, which the Writers' Guild supported but some members did not, is not mentioned. The Lib Dems are reported to be planning to repeal some elements of it, but the Minister in charge of the Act's implementation is a Tory, Ed Vaizey.

According to The Register:

It's not clear what sections of the Act the LibDems will call on the coalition government to repeal, but some opposition from the yellow side of the House can probably be expected.

Why cuts to S4C must be resisted

A guest post by Roger Williams, Deputy Chair of the Writers' Guild

Today’s announcement by Welsh language broadcaster S4C that they’re braced for cuts in their £100million grant from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) will not come as a surprise to anyone working in television. The cuts will however – should they come to pass – be a blow not only to the industry in Wales but also to Welsh cultural life in general.

S4C was established in 1982 in order to commission and broadcast Welsh language television programmes. It was born at the same time as Channel 4 in an age when there were only three channels, and now sits in a digital landscape that has been transformed in the 28 years of S4C’s existence.

S4C is now one of hundreds of digital channels. It has grown into a fully digital station broadcasting within Wales on Freeview and Virgin, across the UK via Sky and on its website www.s4c.co.uk. Viewers today have far more choice and as a result viewing figures have fallen (as indeed have viewers for other ex-analogue channels.) While channels are born in this digital landscape to cater for target audiences S4C somehow has to cater for everyone with one channel. It’s a difficult job which wasn’t made easier by the DCMS’s refusal to award S4C additional funding to prepare for the digital switchover which was completed in Wales in March 2010. A standstill grant has meant more repeats and a further reduction in viewers as the audience for a programme is spread more thinly still.

The establishment of S4C marked the birth of the independent television industry. Small companies such as Tinopolis and Boomerang, set up around kitchen tables, have developed into major players in the UK industry.

Without S4C’s sustained investment in writers, actors, directors and technicians I doubt the BBC would have been able to bring Doctor Who and other major productions to Wales. It was largely because of the wealth of talent that had been nurtured and supported by the Welsh language broadcaster that the production of big name shows was possible.

While S4C’s programme budgets are smaller than those offered by English language broadcasters (an hour of original drama will be made for £220,000 for example), the quality of programming on the channel is consistently high.

S4C’s investment in children’s programming is second only to the BBC’s and its children’s programmes are sold around the world. (Fireman Sam, Superted, Hannah’s Helpline etc. were all originally commissioned by S4C and made in Wales.) It has launched actors such as Matthew Rhys and Ioan Gruffudd and supported film-makers like Marc Evans and Joanna Quinn. S4C programmes win awards internationally and its films have been nominated for Academy Awards.

Most importantly, perhaps, the channel is a platform for Welsh voices. While the BBC and other broadcasters consistently fail to represent modern Wales in its output, S4C does so in the Welsh language 18 hours a day, seven days a week. Programme makers are given a space in which to reflect Welsh society in ways no other TV channel does. When did the BBC for example last reflect modern Wales in a major network series? While Gavin and Stacey is partially filmed in Wales, it isn’t a reflection of life here. The recent BBC single drama A Royal Wedding was inexplicably made with non-Welsh actors struggling to capture a Welsh accent. Where is the coverage of Welsh politics? Where are the programmes reporting on the National Eisteddfod, one of Europe’s largest and oldest annual cultural festivals?

UK-wide broadcasters have failed us and it’s been left to S4C to quietly do this work for the 600,000+ fluent speakers of Welsh, its learners and non-Welsh speakers viewing with subtitles.

S4C was created after a long fight by a Thatcher administration. It would be ironic therefore should it be a Conservative administration that started to take an axe to the channel and stifle the work the channel has done not only in broadcasting terms, employment in the creative sector but also in its fundamental support of Welsh as a living language. The last census recorded a rise in the number of Welsh speakers for the first time in over 100 years. Not an accident, but a sign that bodies like S4C are working to protect and promote a minority language.

Update (24.05.2010): S4C has had its grant cut by £2 million this financial year, reports BBC News.

Paul Laverty on Route Irish

In The Guardian, Guild member Paul Laverty writes from Cannes about his new film Route Irish (above), directed by Ken Loach. It's about private security contractors in Iraq.

The business of war is being privatised slowly and deliberately before our eyes. Award-winning journalist Patrick Cockburn, a well respected commentator on Iraq, estimated that there were around 160,000 foreign contractors in Iraq at the height of the occupation, many of whom, perhaps as many as 50,000, were heavily armed security personnel. The conduct of the war, and occupation afterwards, would have been impossible without their muscle. And thanks to Paul Bremer, the US-appointed head of the Coalition Provisional Authority, each and every one of those contractors was given immunity from Iraqi law. Order 17 was imposed on the new Iraqi parliament in 2003 and lasted until the beginning of 2009.

PFD agency taken over

The talent and literary agency Peters Fraser & Dunlop (PFD) is being taken over by Matthew Freud and the agent Michael Foster, reports The Guardian.

PFD, from whom many agents and clients moved to form a new agency, United Agents, in 2008, will be part of a new agency, The Rights House.

The move represents the denouement of a series of internal upheavals, more labyrinthine perhaps than any that could have been devised by one of its distinguished authors. PFD, based in Covent Garden, London, was rocked three years ago by the mass defection of many of its agents amid accusations of bad faith following a long-simmering row with its then CSS Stellar, a US sports agency. It has struggled to recover ever since.

Writers' Guild AGM - Friday 4th June

The keynote debate at the Writers’ Guild Annual General Meeting next month will be a new structure for the digital age. This will put the Guild at the centre of an organisation including a writers’ charity, a new collecting society and the recently launched Books Co-operative.

A series of AGM motions will, if passed, establish a group of related bodies including:

• A charity that will carry on the benevolent work of the Writers’ Guild Welfare Fund, but also enhance the status of writers by arranging educational and cultural events such as seminars, showcases and awards.
• A new collecting society to receive payments for online use of television programmes – such as iPlayer and video-on-demand – and distribute the money to writers.
• The Books Co-op, which will help members to produce and market self-published books, concentrating on print-on-demand and ebooks.
• A new trustee company, with the existing trustees as directors, to take responsibility for the Guild’s finances, assets, premises and its responsibilities relation to the new companies.
  

The plan is set out in a detailed report to the AGM by Guild Chair Robert Taylor and is summarised in the new Guild Annual report, published today.

The AGM takes place on Friday 4 June 2010 from 10.30 a.m. to 5.00 p.m. at the Free Word Centre, 60- Farringdon Road, London EC1R 3GA. As required by Guild rules, details of the meeting and proposals have been posted to every member, along with the Summer 2010 issue of UK Writer magazine.

Documentation for the AGM is also available online at the Guild website.

We hope there will be a strong turnout of members to discuss these far-reaching proposals, and to hear this year’s guest speaker — Nick Yapp, author of The Write Stuff, the new history of the Guild marking its 50th anniversary.

Please note that as a cost-saving measure we will not be serving lunch at this year’s AGM, but there is a good cafe in the Free Word Centre plus numerous eating places nearby.

Taking children's theatre seriously

On The Guardian theatre blog, Bella Todd examines the issues raised by Tim Crouch's new show, I Malvolio, for both children and adults.

...one girl started sobbing into her dad's shoulder at the sight of Malvolio with a noose in his hand … Had Crouch pushed it too far? When I spoke to him afterwards, he didn't reckon so, arguing that the world is full of adult things, and children deal with them every day – guided by sympathetic, supportive adults, on hand to help them make sense of it all. Crouch's work for children presents the adult world, and the guide too. So, on stage, when the girl started crying, Crouch was able to step out of character, smile, and say: "It's alright, it's OK, I'm not really going to go through with this."

Save Kids' TV urges BBC to invest in homegrown programming

The Save Kids' TV campaign has made representations to the BBC Trust in relation to the BBC’s Strategy Review, which envisages additional funding for children’s programmes. The campaign, which the Writers' Guild supports, feels that the proposed £10m extra from a potential budget of £600m is just not enough.

In a letter to the Trust Chair, Sir Michael Lyons, Anna Home, Chair of the Save Kids’ TV Executive Committee, says:

We write to you as a group of organisations and individuals concerned about the level of provision of home-grown, public service children’s content in the UK.

The BBC has rightly identified this as one of the five content priorities in its current strategic review.

UK-made programming reflects the diverse lives British children lead today, representing society and the world around them in a way imported shows never can. Yet home-grown programming faces a well-documented crisis. Colette Bowe, Chair of Ofcom, recently told MPs that “We are sleepwalking into a situation where we do not have UK-generated content of a high quality for our kids.”

The BBC's own research, as well as Ofcom's, shows that parents strongly support having UK children's programming on the trusted, advertising-free services of the BBC.

However, BBC management proposes an increase of only £10m a year in the budget for children’s content – less than 2% of its total £600m re-prioritisation proposals. We call on the BBC Trust to ensure the BBC genuinely prioritises UK children’s content, and provides a significant financial commitment over the long term. To fund a substantial increase, the BBC could reduce imports such as Hollywood movies, over and above management’s modest proposal of a 20% cut. This would free up to £100m a year for British content, of which children's should be a priority.

Guild Chair, Bernie Corbett, is one of the signatories of the letter.

WGGB/ BBC Drama Event: another reminder

By Gail Renard, Chair of the Guild's TV Committee

Wednesday 2nd June, 6:30 - 9:00pm

The Free Word Centre, 60 Farringdon Road, London EC1

The Guild will be holding our event about in-house BBC drama production with special guests Ben Stephenson, John Yorke, Kate Harwood and others. Important new initiatives will be announced.

A lot of available places have already gone, so priority will be given to Guild members writing for those series. Non-members are welcome if there's room.
Tickets are £10 for members; £15 for non-members.

To book, contact Susan in the Guild office: susan@writersguild.org.uk.

Sphinx Theatre event

From Sphinx Theatre:

Following the success of the 2009 National Theatre conference Sphinx presents their latest event, discussing the strategy for achieving equality for women in the performing arts.

WHY ARE WOMEN STILL THE SECOND SEX?

The Shafesbury Theatre, 12th June, 1.30pm - 5.30pm.

Tickets: £10

Constance Borde and Sheila Malovany-Chevallier present their long-awaited new translation of the iconic feminist text, The Second Sex, by Simone de Beauvoir.

Tickets are available now at: http://www.wegottickets.com/event/82190

What Guild members are getting up to

SARAH BAGSHAW wrote the episodes of Emmerdale going out on ITV1 at 7:00pm on Monday 17th Tuesday 18th May.

MARTIN BAUM'S new book Oi Mate, Gimme Some More! a Yoof-Speak Guide to the Complete Novels of Charles Dickens, Innit is out on June 9th to coincide with the anniversary of Dickens's passing. www.yoofspeak.net

STEPHEN BENNETT wrote the episodes of Emmerdale going out on ITV1 at 7:00pm and 8:00pm on Thursday 20th May.

MOIRA BUFFINI wrote the screenplay for Tamara Drewe, based on the graphic novel by Posy Simmonds and directed by Stephen Frears, which will be premiered at the Cannes Film Festival next week. She will be in conversation with journalist Jason Solomons on Wednesday 19th May, 9.30pm- 10.30pm at the UK Film Centre, in the International Village, pavilion no. 121. The event is free but booking essential www.ukfilmcouncil.org.uk.

BFI is mounting a retrospective of BRIAN CLEMENS'S work from July 2nd through to July 28th. He will be on stage on July 22nd to talk exclusively about The Avengers - and again on July 28th to talk about his other movie and TV work.

BILL GALLAGHER wrote the episode of The Prisoner "Schizoid" going out on ITV1 at 9:00pm on Saturday 15th May.

MATTHEW GRAHAM wrote the series finale of Ahses to Ashes going out on BBC1 at 9:00pm on Friday 21st May.

JAYNE HOLLINSON wrote the episode of Coronation Street going out on ITV1 at 7:30pm on Monday 17th May.

JULIE JONES wrote the episode of Coronation Street going out on ITV1 at 8:30pm on Monday 17th May.

JOHN KERR wrote the episode of Coronation Street going out on ITV1 at 8:30pm on Friday 21st May.

PAUL LAVERTY wrote the screenplay for Route Irish which will be premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on Thursday 20 May at the Grand Theatre Lumiere. Directed by Ken Loach and produced by Rebecca O'Brien, Route Irish is a tense triangular love story of two friends and the woman they both love. The men work as private security contractors in Iraq. Together they risk their lives in a city awash with violence and greed. When one of them is killed on Route Irish (the notoriously dangerous stretch of road linking Baghdad airport with the Green Zone) his friend rejects the official explanation and is determined to investigate the truth. Route Irish is a Sixteen Films Why Not Productions and Wild Bunch production made with the support of Les Films de Fleuve, BIM, Diaphana, Tornasol and Alta. Other financiers are France 2 and North West Vision Media. Wild Bunch is handling international sales.

MIKE LEIGH's new film, Another Year, starring Jim Broadbent and Imelda Staunton, will premier at the Cannes Film Festival next week. He will be in conversation with Stuart Kemp, U.K. Bureau Chief, Hollywood Reporter Tuesday 18th May, 9.00pm-10.00pm at the UK Film Centre, in the International Village, pavilion no. 121. See www.ukfilmcouncil.org.uk for more information.

DAVID NOBBS'S new novel Obstacles To Young Love is coming out, paperback only, published by Harper, on June 10th. The novel after that, Life After Deborah, is written.

ALAN PLATER wrote the episode of Lewis "Your Sudden Death Question" going out on ITV1 at 8:00pm on Sunday 16th May.

GILLIAN RICHMOND wrote the episode of EastEnders going out on BBC1 at 7:30pm on Tuesday 18th May.

RICHARD STEVENS'S radio play Left At Marrakesh is going out on Radio 4 at 2:15pm on Friday 21st May.

STEVE TRAFFORD wrote the episode of The Bill "Walk on My Grave" going out on ITV1 at 9:00pm on Tuesday 18th May.

PETER VINCENT co-wrote the episode of When the Dog Dies "Portrait of the Artist As an Old Man" going out on Radio 4 at 11:30pm on Friday 21st May.

PETER WHALLEY wrote the episode of Coronation Street going out on ITV1 at 7:30pm on Friday 21st May.

Edinburgh TV Festival will celebrate soaps

From BBC News:

A "landmark year" for British TV soaps will be celebrated at the this year's Edinburgh Television Festival.

The festival will mark 50 years of Coronation Street and 25 years of EastEnders with writing masterclasses and other events.

Guild members Stephen Moffat and Paul Abbott will be among the speakers at the event, which takes place from 27-29 August at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre.

Record ratings for The Archers

Of course, ratings are never a full measure of a programme's success...but they help. So congratulations to writers of The Archers, which, according to the latest listening figures, as reported by BBC News has 'a record 4.9 million listeners a week'.

New Culture Secretary looks for £66 million cuts

From Alistair Smith in The Stage:

Newly appointed culture secretary Jeremy Hunt has asked civil servants at the Department for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport to investigate how the department can make savings to cover £66 million of cuts.

Hunt was appointed as Secretary of State to the renamed department yesterday. Speaking last night, he told the BBC: “If [planned spending] cuts were done evenly across all departments, then in my department that would mean about a £66 million cut. And I have had discussions with civil servants in my department today, one of the first things I did, to ask how we can best find those savings without affecting the frontline services for which we’re responsible."

Guild members at Cannes

Guild members with films at Cannes this year include:

MOIRA BUFFINI, who wrote the screenplay for Tamara Drewe, based on the graphic novel by Posy Simmonds and directed by Stephen Frears, which will be premiered at the Cannes Film Festival next week. She will be in conversation with journalist Jason Solomons on Wednesday 19 May, 9.30- 10.30 at the UK Film Centre, in the International Village, pavilion no. 121. The event is free but booking essential www.ukfilmcouncil.org.uk.

PAUL LAVERTY, who wrote the screenplay for Route Irish which will be premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on Thursday 20 May at the Grand Theatre Lumiere. Directed by Ken Loach and produced by Rebecca O'Brien, Route Irish is a tense triangular love story of two friends and the woman they both love. The men work as private security contractors in Iraq. Together they risk their lives in a city awash with violence and greed. When one of them is killed on Route Irish (the notoriously dangerous stretch of road linking Baghdad airport with the Green Zone) his friend rejects the official explanation and is determined to investigate the truth. Route Irish is a Sixteen Films Why Not Productions and Wild Bunch production made with the support of Les Films de Fleuve, BIM, Diaphana, Tornasol and Alta. Other financiers are France 2 and North West Vision Media. Wild Bunch is handling international sales.

MIKE LEIGH, whose new film, Another Year, starring Jim Broadbent and Imelda Staunton, will premier at the Cannes Film Festival next week. He will be in conversation with Stuart Kemp, U.K. Bureau Chief, Hollywood Reporter Tuesday 18 May, 9.00-10.00 at the UK Film Centre, in the International Village, pavilion no. 121. See www.ukfilmcouncil.org.uk for more information.

Writers' Guild BBC TV Drama Event - reminder

By Gail Renard, Chair of the Guild's TV Committee

Wednesday 2nd June, 6:30 - 9:00pm

The Free Word Centre, 60 Farringdon Road, London EC1

The Guild will be holding our long-awaited event with the BBC about continuing drama series on June 2nd. This event is in answer to the many complaints that the Guild has had from members in the past year about continuing drama series. This has resulted in the Guild having productive meetings with the BBC, who’ve been as eager to resolve the issues as we are.

The panel will consist of Ben Stephenson, BBC Controller of Commissioning; John Yorke, Controller of BBC Production; and Kate Harwood, Head of Series and Serials; as well as some of the producers and/or production personnel of various CDS series. I’ll be chairing.

This is your chance to hear the improvements the BBC are making to writers’ working conditions. The execs will also be discussing what they’re looking for in new programmes. Questions will be welcome. For those of you who aren’t able to attend or are shy, you can e-mail anonymous questions for me to read out to: susan@writersguild.org.uk

There’ll also be an opportunity to mingle informally with the executives afterwards, over a glass of Chateau Guild and canapés. The evening is open to both members and non-members. We strongly encourage people who write on BBC continuing drama series to attend. Tickets are £10. Book via susan@writersguild.org.uk

This is the event you’ve been waiting for. Come one; come all!

Furio Scarpelli 1919-2010

Italian screenwriter Fuiro Scarpelli died at the end of April at the age of 90.

His credits include Il Postino and the spaghetti western The Good, The Bad And The Ugly but much of his work was on comedies, written with his writing partner Agenore Incrocci. Together the duo won three Oscar nominations and numerous other awards.

There are obituaries in The New York Times and The Times.

The work of the Italian screenwriter Furio Scarpelli is probably best known to English-speaking cinemagoers through two international successes 30 years apart, the sentimental drama Il Postino (1994) and the spaghetti western The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966).

Yet while these successes were testimony to the versatility of his talent, neither was especially representative of either the bulk or the best of the 140 films to which he contributed, a tally that made him one of the architects of the defining genre of his native cinema in its heyday, commedia all’italiana.

Sony Gold for Jack Thorne

Guild member Jack Thorne won the Gold Award at the Sony Radio Academy Awards last night for his Radio 3 drama People Snogging In Public Places, produced by Steven Canny.

The judges described this as a wonderfully written and performed, highly original piece of radio drama in which the production perfectly mirrored the subject. Painful and funny, it was a bold exciting listen.

BAFTA TV Awards shortlists

The shortlists have been announced for the 2010 BAFTA Television Awards.

Despite lobbying by the Guild and several Guild members, the 'writer' award remains in the 'TV Craft Awards' rather than the main BAFTAs. The nominations are:

Peter Bowker – Occupation
BBC One/Kudos Film and Television

Heidi Thomas – Cranford
BBC One/BBC Productions/WGBH Boston in association with Chestermead

Guy Hibbert – Five Minutes Of Heaven
BBC Two/Big Fish Films/Ruby Films

Writing Team – The Thick Of It
BBC Four/BBC Productions
(The official announcement doesn't name the writing team but it is normally credited as Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Roger Drew, Sean Gray, Armando Iannucci, Ian Martin, Will Smith, Tony Roche)

Getting Fast Romance up to speed

On the Writers' Guild website, James McCreadie on co-writing a film about love, life and speed dating.

The highlight of the shoot, for both (co-writer) Debbie (May) and me, was the speed-dating event, where our seven characters meet. It was a tough weekend, which, at its busiest point, had 80 extras on set. Over the two days I, along with other willing volunteers, made sure no one wanted for anything. I’ve never made so much tea and coffee in my life. Thankfully by 10pm on Sunday night, everyone was still smiling, and when the director asked for volunteers to film the exteriors the next evening there was no shortage of takers. This was the day the team truly experienced the spirit of low budget film-making.

Actress Suzanne Bonnar and crew on the Fast Romance set

The short film route to feature success

In The LA Times, Steven Zeitchik says that short films are increasingly seen as a good route to Hollywood success

...to contemporary Hollywood, shorts are serious business — or at least a serious fad. The massive success last year of the shorts-derived "District 9" — and the power of YouTube to spread word quickly — has transformed how Hollywood views these mini-movies. "Studios and financiers have always said they'd like to see as much of the movie as they can, figuratively, before they develop it," says the veteran Hollywood producer Douglas Wick, who has been behind mega-hits such as "Gladiator." "With shorts, they literally can."

(Although screenwriter John August recently advised against turning your short into a feature.)

Drugs on film

For the Writers Guild of America, West, Dennis Faye talks to pharmacology professor Dr Cynthia Kuhn about the portrayal of drug and alcohol use in the movies.

There are two things I see that I don’t think are realistic. The way people drink alcohol and remain completely coherent. And it varies in both directions, but typically it’s people slamming shots and shots and shots and shots past the point at which an adult would be unconscious.

The other thing that they get wrong...is when people are very anxious and they fumble with the bottle of pills and they can’t get the top off and they drop them and then they take one, and they’re still anxious two minutes later they take another one. I don’t know if anyone actually does that.

Typos in the Kindle Age

For Wired, Steven Levy considers the state of copy editing for e-books.

Before a recent trip, I downloaded the latest Stephen Hunter novel to my Kindle. Hunter writes about shooters, so it’s not surprising that the name of the book is I, Sniper.

Not that you’d know it from the title screen. The only words on that e-ink page were “I, Snipper.” Snipper! I thought I was about to nestle into a tale of tough guys who take out human targets from hundreds of yards away. But this promised to be the autobiography of a mohel.

What Guild members are getting up to

STEPHEN CHURCHETT wrote the episode of Lewis "Dark Matter" going out on ITV1 at 8:00pm on Sunday 9th May.

PAUL COATES wrote the episode of Hollyoaks going out on C4 at 6:30pm on Tuesday 11th May.

DAVID CROFT and JIMMY PERRY wrote the episode of Dad's Army "Museum Piece" going out on BBC2 at 7:10pm on Saturday 8th May.

SIMON CROWTHER wrote the episode of Coronation Street going out on ITV1 at 7:30pm on Friday 14th May.

RICHARD DAVIDSON wrote the episodes of EastEnders going out on BBC1 at 7:30pm on Tuesday 11th and Thursday 13th May.

LISA EVANS'S play The Day the Waters Came is on a national tour from 16th September till 28th November.

CHRIS FEWTRELL wrote the episode of Coronation Street going out on ITV1 at 8:30pm on Monday 10th May.

ALISON FISHER wrote the episode of EastEnders going out on BBC1 at 8:00pm on Monday 10th May.

BILL GALLAGHER wrote the episode of The Prisoner "Darling" going out on ITV1 at 9:00pm on Saturday 8th May.

CAROLINE HARRINGTON wrote the episodes of The Archers going out on Radio 4 from Sunday 9th till Friday 14th May with each episode being repeated at 2:00pm the day following its original broadcast.

MARTIN JAMESON'S radio play Can You Tell Me the Name of the Prime Minister? is going out on Radio 4 at 2:15pm on Friday 14th May.

JOHN KERR wrote the episode of Coronation Street going out on ITV1 at 8:30pm on Friday 14th May.

HILAIRE McLIESH has had short stories published in the Australian literary magazines Wet Ink (issue 17) and [untitled] (issue 2).

RICHARD MONKS wrote the first episode of The Donor Trail "Steven" going out on Radio 4 at 7:45pm on Monday 10th May.

SUE MOONEY wrote the episode of Emmerdale going out on ITV1 at 7:00pm on Monday 10th May.

DEBBIE OATES wrote the episode of Coronation Street going out on ITV1 at 8:30pm on Thursday 13th May.

JANE PEARSON wrote the episodes of Emmerdale going out on ITV1 at 7:00pm and 8:00pm on Thursday 13th May.

JULIE PARSONS wrote the episode of Emmerdale going out on ITV1 at 7:00pm on Wednesday 12th May.

ANDREW PAYNE wrote the episode of Midsomer Murders "The Made-to-Measure Murders" going out on ITV1 at 8:00pm on Wednesday 12th May.

ASHLEY PHAROAH wrote the episode of Ashes to Ashes going out on BBC1 at 9:00pm on Friday 14th May.

ROSEMARY ANN SISSON'S adaptation of The Wind In The Willows is on at the Barbican centre at 11:00pm on Saturday 8th May as part of the Family Film club. The cast includes Michael Hordern as Badger, Ian Carmichael as Ratty, Richard Pearson as Mole and - the then almost unknown actor - David Jason, as Toad.

CHRIS THOMPSON wrote the episode of Emmerdale going out on ITV1 at 7:00pm on Friday 14th May.

PETER VINCENT co-wrote the episode of When the Dog Dies "The Rival Grandad" going out on Radio 4 at 11:30am on Friday 14th May.

TOBY WHITHOUSE wrote the episode of Doctor Who "The Vampires of Venice" going out on BBC1 at 6:00pm on Saturday 8th May.

Google to launch e-book store

By Maggie Shiels for BBC News:

Google is set to launch its own online e-book store in 2010.

Google Editions books will not be tied to a specific device, unlike rival e-book company Amazon.

The Amazon Kindle is linked to books from the company's own store and similarly with Apple's iBookstore.

"It is a different approach to what most readers today have and the vision is to be able to access books in a device agnostic way," said Google spokesperson Gabriel Sticker.

Funding boost for Film4

By Jason Deans for Media Guardian:

Channel 4 is increasing its movie production arm Film4's annual budget by 20% to £10m.

This budget increase for 2010 returns Film4's budget for film development and financing to the level it was before the economic downturn.

Hindell vows to protect radio drama

By Matthew Hemley for The Stage:

BBC head of radio drama Alison Hindell has moved to reassure actors, writers and producers that there will be “no more significant cuts for some time to come”, following Radio 4’s decision to axe the Friday Play from next year.

Hindell, who is responsible for all in-house drama production in her role and who was involved in the discussion to cut Radio 4’s Friday Play strand, said the Corporation is still the “biggest broadcaster of radio drama in the world by miles”, and vowed to guard the genre going forward.

Update: The Stage also reports that Radio 4 commissioning editor for drama Jeremy Howe is to take a nine-month break from the role and join the BBC’s editorial policy team. Caroline Raphael, commissioning editor for comedy and entertainment, will cover during his absence.

Hibbert urges fellow writers to create more lead roles for older actresses

By Matthew Hemley for The Stage:

Acclaimed screenwriter [and Guild member] Guy Hibbert has called on his industry counterparts to create more roles for women in television dramas, urging them to “argue the case” for more female protagonists with broadcasters and commissioning executives.

Hibbert, whose credits include Five Minutes of Heaven and the recent BBC programme Blood and Oil, revealed he was currently working on a new show for the Corporation that has women in the lead roles and described parts for females in television dramas as “sideline” ones that are not “psychologically interesting”.

Ayckbourn to receive Tony Award

From Westendtheatre.com:

Sir Alan Ayckbourn, one of the UK’s greatest living playwrights [and Guild member], is to be awarded a special Tony award in June to recognise his life’s work.

The Special Tony Awards for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre will be presented to Alan Ayckbourn at the ceremony in New York on 13 June. Ayckbourn, who is 71, has written 74 full-length plays, and saw a revival of his play The Norman Conquests win a Tony Award last year. His 1975 play Bedroom Farce is currently playing at the Duke of York’s Theatre in London.

'Don't make a feature from your short'

On his blog, screenwriter John August has some straightforward advice that might seem surprising: 'don't try to make a feature film from your short'. He concedes that some good features have come from shorts, but argues that they are the exception.

Your first feature project should ideally be in the same class or genre as your acclaimed short, but not a retread. If you made a charming short about blind leprechauns, write a feature about kleptomaniac crows. Let the connection between projects be your ambition and sensibility, not a single storyline.

Go was originally written to be a short film — but we never shot it. Had the short version been made, I can’t imagine going back to write the full thing. I would have been too hamstrung by my original choices, and the scenes that had already been shot.

Worse, I wouldn’t have felt the same things the second time through. You don’t get your first kiss twice.

The cost of quoting song lyrics

Planning to quote some song lyrics in your next book? Beware, says Blake Morrison in The Guardian, it will cost you. He still has the invoices for quotes used in his recent novel South Of The River:

For one line of "Jumpin' Jack Flash": £500. For one line of Oasis's "Wonderwall": £535. For one line of "When I'm Sixty-four": £735. For two lines of "I Shot the Sheriff" (words and music by Bob Marley, though in my head it was the Eric Clapton version): £1,000. Plus several more, of which only George Michael's "Fastlove" came in under £200. Plus VAT. Total cost: £4,401.75. A typical advance for a literary novel by a first-time author would barely meet the cost.

Guild TV drama event - Wednesday 2nd June

Writers' Guild BBC TV drama event

Wednesday 2nd June, 6:30 - 9:00pm

The Free Word Centre, 60 Farringdon Road, London EC1

The top people in BBC TV drama will be taking part in a major event for Guild television members.

There will be a presentation and a panel session with questions and answers, followed by networking over wine and canapés.

The main speakers will be :

• Ben Stephenson, Controller of Commissioning
• John Yorke, Controller of BBC Production;
• Kate Harwood, Head of Series and Serials.
  

Other participants will be announced later. Please put the date in your diary. Tickets will be limited and priority will be given to Guild members who have written for BBC TV in-house productions in the past couple of years. Booking opens next week: Tickets £10, including a wine and canapé reception afterwards supplied by the renowned Clerkenwell Kitchen. Book via susan@writersguild.org.uk

What Guild members are getting up to

SALLY ABBOTT wrote the episode of Holby City "Apply Some Pressure" going out on BBC1 at 8:00pm on Tuesday 4th May.

MARTIN ALLEN wrote the episode of Coronation Street going out on ITV1 at 7:30pm on Monday 3rd May.

PETER BILLINGHAM'S play Gifted is being produced by Fallen Angel Theatre Company in association with The White Bear Theatre from 27th April till 16th May 2010, Tuesday - Saturday at 7:30pm, Sunday at 5:30pm. Tickets cost £12 (£10 conc.), contact the box office on 0207 793 9193 or book online at www.whitebeartheatre.co.uk.

LESLEY CLARE O'NEILL wrote the episode of Emmerdale going out on ITV1 at 7:00pm on Friday 7th May.

DAVID CROFT and JIMMY PERRY co-wrote the episode of Dad's Army "The Man and the Hour" going out on BBC2 at 5:30pm on Saturday 1st May.

JULIE DIXON wrote the episode of The Bill "That Type of Cop" going out on ITV1 at 9:00pm on Tuesday 4th May.

MARK EVANS wrote the episode of EastEnders going out on BBC1 at 8:00pm on Monday 3rd May.

JOHN FLEMING financed and executive produced Alex Reid's controversial debut movie Killer Bitch released on DVD on Bank Holiday Monday 3rd May. The movie's first two reviews were a 5-star and 1-star; it has been called "a violent 21st century British pantomime for the MTV generation" and "the worst film ever made". www.killerbitch.co.uk

BILL GALLAGHER wrote the episode of The Prisoner "Anvil" going out on ITV1 at 9:00pm on Saturday 1st May.

JONATHAN HARVEY wrote the episode of Coronation Street going out on ITV1 at 8:30pm on Monday 3rd May.

JAYNE HOLLINSON wrote the episode of Coronation Street going out on ITV1 at 8:30pm on Friday 7th May.

IAN KERSHAW wrote the episode of Shameless going out on C4 at 10:00pm on Tuesday 4th May.

NEIL MCKAY'S radio play RIP Boy goes out on Radio 4 at 9:00pm on Friday 7th May.

STEVEN MOFFAT wrote the episode of Doctor Who "Flesh and Stone" going out on BBC1 at 6:25pm on Saturday 1st May.

RICHARD MONKS wrote the episode of Casualty "New Beginnings" going out on BBC1 at 9:00pm on Saturday 1st May.

BRENDAN MURRAY presented a cheque to Paula B Stanic, the winner of TC Adrienne Benham Award 2010. The award is in memory of Adrienne Benham and is awarded to emergent playwrights annually.

DEBBIE OATES wrote the episode of Coronation Street going out on ITV1 at 8:00pm on Sunday 2nd May.

JAMES PAYNE wrote the episode of Ashes to Ashes going out on BBC1 at 9:00pm on Friday 7th May.

TIM STIMPSON wrote the episodes of The Archers going out on Radio 4 at 7:00pm from Sunday 2nd till Friday 7th May with each episode being repeated at 2:00pm the day following its original broadcast.

BILL TAYLOR wrote the episodes of Emmerdale going out on ITV1 at 7:00pm and 8:00pm on Thursday 6th May.

MARK WADLOW wrote the episode of Coronation Street going out on ITV1 at 7:30pm on Friday 7th May.

PETER WHALLEY wrote the episode of Coronation Street going out on ITV1 at 8:30pm on Thursday 6th May.

COLIN WYATT wrote the episodes of EastEnders going out on BBC1 at 7:30pm on Thursday 6th and 8:00pm on Friday 7th May.