Creative Commons

"Creative Commons", a new way of offering limited copyright exemptions for non-commercial use is gaining ground, reports The Guardian.

National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo)

NaNoWriMo starts on Monday...

National Novel Writing Month is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing November 1. The goal is to write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel by midnight, November 30.

Valuing enthusiasm and perseverance over talent and craft, NaNoWriMo is a novel-writing program for everyone who has thought fleetingly about writing a novel but has been scared away by the time and effort involved.

Because of the limited writing window, the ONLY thing that matters in NaNoWriMo is output. It's all about quantity, not quality. The kamikaze approach forces you to lower your expectations, take risks, and write on the fly.

Make no mistake: You will be writing a lot of crap. And that's a good thing. By forcing yourself to write so intensely, you are giving yourself permission to make mistakes. To forgo the endless tweaking and editing and just create. To build without tearing down.

As you spend November writing, you can draw comfort from the fact that, all around the world, other National Novel Writing Month participants are going through the same joys and sorrows of producing the Great Frantic Novel. Wrimos meet throughout the month to offer encouragement, commiseration, and -- when the thing is done -- the kind of raucous celebrations that tend to frighten animals and small children.

In 2003, we had about 25,000 participants. Over 3500 of them crossed the 50k finish line by the midnight deadline, entering into the annals of NaNoWriMo superstardom forever. They started the month as auto mechanics, out-of-work actors, and middle school English teachers. They walked away novelists.

You could even blog your novel as you write it.

Movieanalyst.com

Movieanalyst.com is a interesting site for anyone interested in feature films. Scripts are analaysed and discussed with industry experts including Linda Seger.

All the screenwriting books you could ever need

And probably more.

Warning: if you hate "how to" screenwriting books do not visit this Amazon list.

Yorke set for BBC return

There is increasing speculation that John Yorke is set to leave Channel 4 to run continuing series for the BBC, reports Media Guardian (free registration required). His return - he was previously executive producer of EastEnders - is likely to come as part of a major re-organisation.

The BBC drama department - and other areas of the corporation's TV commissioning and production operation - face the biggest restructure since the John Birt era in the late 90s, when many long serving corporation programme-makers left to join the independent sector.

Children's BAFTAS

Nominations have been announced for the Children's BAFTA awards, to be presented on 28 November.

In the animation category the nominees are The Blue Dragon, Brush Head, Grizzly Tales for Gruesome Kids and Metalheads.

For pre-school animation the nominees are The Koala Brothers, Peppa Pig, Fireman Sam and Yoko! Jakamoto! Toto!

Drama nominations are Bus Life: Bad Hair Day, Featherboy, My Parents Are Aliens and Tracey Beaker: The Movie of Me.

School drama nominations are The Illustrated Mum, I'm A Juvenile Delinquent Jail Me!, The Personal History of Charles Dickens and A Flicker At The Fairground.

George S Kaufman

Woody Allen's tribute to a great American comedy writer, in the New York Times.

Is there any better opening line to delineate a character and foreshadow a promisingly delectable situation than the one delivered by Sheridan Whiteside, The Man Who Came to Dinner? The worthy small-town folk fuss nervously, hoping to please the great public figure forced to convalesce in their honored midst. Whiteside, entering in a wheelchair, surveys his adulating hosts and says, ''I may vomit.''

Great plays are written, not re-written

A strong defence of writers from theatre director Dominic Dromgoole in The Guardian.

He argues that contrary to the prevailing culture of re-writing and dramaturg-led development, great plays are almost always written in days or weeks.

You can't teach playwriting. You can work in the theatre, preferably as an actor. And you can live a rich life - whoring, drinking, hurting, being hurt. They might help you towards a play. Preparing for a scheduled discussion on narrative structure will give you nothing but brainache and an inferiority complex.

Improv on ITV

In a rare sign of boldness in ITV comedy commissioning, the network is making a pilot for Dream Date, an improvised stand-up show in which a group of comedians act out the ups and downs of a fictional relationship between two single audience members who have not met before.

As Media Guardian (free registration required) reports, ITV controller of comedy Sioned Wiliam commissioned the pilot after seeing the improv show at the Latchmere pub in Battersea, south London.

National Television Awards

The Bill was voted most popular drama at the annual National Television Awards last night.

Coronation Street was names most popular serial drama.

The results were based on more than one million public votes cast via the post office, Heat magazine, the Sun newspaper, telephone and email.

Interactive TV

The prospects for more interactive TV drama have been boosted by £5m funding from the EU for a new initiative to develop interactive technology, reports BBC News.

New Media for a New Millennium (NM2) will have as its endgame the development of a completely new media genre, which will allow audiences to create their own media worlds based on their specific interests or tastes.

Booker insight

There's an enjoyable insight into the life of a Booker judge, by Fiammetta Rocco in The Economist.

Reading 132 books in 147 days is like taking a course in kick-boxing; you quickly lose any flabby concentration and wishy-washy standards, becoming fitter and leaner and more demanding. In the process, you learn a great deal about why so many novels—even well written, carefully crafted novels as so many of those submitted were—are ultimately pointless.

Samuel West takes over in Sheffield

Actor and director Samuel West has been appointed as Michael Grandage’s successor at Sheffield Theatres, reports The Stage.

The Crucible, Lyceum and Studio Theatres which make up the group are the largest theatre complex outside London.

Sarah Kane

Five years after her suicide at the age of 28, Sarah Kane is one of Europe's most performed playwrights, writes Jess McKinley in the New York Times.

Whether she would have anticipated her popularity or not, what is certain is that Ms. Kane's determination to kill herself was evidently matched by a desire to see her work live: among her possessions, she left behind definitive versions of each of her five plays (hard copies and on disk), including "Psychosis" which she had only just finished, and instructions to her agent to make sure her plays got out there.

Hydroponic

Are you committed to a career in playwriting? Fancy being given access to industry professionals, networks and producing companies? writernet, the UK's support organisation for dramatic writers, in association with Reading Borough Council are seeking four UK-based culturally diverse writers for the privilege.

Full details are on the writernet website.

(For anyone wondering, my dictionary defines hydroponics as "The technique of growing plants without soil, in beds of sand, gravel etc, flooded with nutrient solution". See what they've done there?)

Silver Street writer in residence

BBC writersroom and Silver Street are looking to place a writer in residence for six months from January '05, or sooner if available.

Silverstreet is the new daily ten-minute radio soap on the Asian Network. The successful writer will be given a bursary of up to £6,000, and will work in BBC Birmingham for two days a week.

Full details are on the BBC writersroom website.

All change at BBC drama

With top producer Gareth Neame set to leave, and John Yorke expected to return, it's all change at BBC TV drama HQ, reports Media Guardian (free registration required). All this in the wake of Mal Young's announcement that he will leave his job as Controller of Continuing Series at the end of the year.

Mr Yorke is understood to have held talks with BBC executives about returning to TV Centre. But it is not clear if he would be a direct replacement for Mr Young - who oversees shows including EastEnders, Casualty and Silent Witness - or take on slightly different responsibilities in the BBC drama department.

The BBC is thought to be considering splitting Mr Young's job, with one executive taking responsibility for the four year-round series and serials - EastEnders, Casualty, Holby City and daytime soap Doctors.

That would mean a second executive would oversee the long-running series Mr Young was responsible for, including Silent Witness, Judge John Deed and Waking the Dead.

UK Writer (Top 10 Films)

More feedback from the first issue of the Writers' Guild magazine, UK Writer. This time on the subject of Members' Top 10 films, which were:
1. Citizen Kane
2. Pulp Fiction
3. Some Like It Hot
4. Lawrence of Arabia
5. The Ladykillers (original version)
6. Witness
7. Memento
8. Apocalypse Now
9. The Searchers
10. 2001: A Space Odyssey

Ian Craine writes:

Oh dear dear. Do I really belong to an organisation whose members think that Pulp Fiction is the second best movie of all time. I almost choked on my porridge. The best thing about Pulp Fiction is that it gave a very good actor, Samuel L. Jackson, the opportunity to produce and star in that wonderful and neglected little masterpiece Eve's Bayou.

Apart from Pulp Fiction I can respect (in some cases grudgingly) the entries though I think there are better films that have been neglected. Memento and Witness but no Vertigo? Oh dear again.

Is this restricted to English language films? I don't expect readers to nominate my favourite "foreign" film ( Jean Pierre Melville's reverie on the Resistance L'Armee des Ombres with a bravura performance from Lino Ventura) but I do question a list that omits Tokyo Story.

I have paid my dues and watched Citizen Kane- I don't intend to see it again. Touch of Evil is a more rewarding film. For a British film I would choose Kes over Lawrence of Arabia or The Ladykillers though both are excellent films. I have a lot of time for Apocalypse Now and 2001 but these days I find The Conversation and Bladerunner more interesting. To me Memento hoists itself on the petard of its limiting givens and I much prefer Mulholland Drive, which I think may be a modern masterpiece.

I love Westerns but I no longer buy The Searchers being the best of the genre. Ford and Wayne had to me a limited view of the world and were incapable of making truly great work. Once Upon a Time in the West raised the bar, Leone's vision, Morricone's haunting score, wonderful performances particularly from Cardinale and Robards. And I was deeply impressed by a very late addition to the canon- Ang Lee's superb Ride with the Devil.

But I do agree on Some Like it Hot.

Comments? Your own top 10?

Something's Gotta Give screenplay

The latest free screenplay download from the Screenwriter's Store is Something's Gotta Give by Nancy Myers.

BBC "should do more for British films"

The BBC says it should look at whether it is doing enough to support the UK film industry, reports BBC News.

At a select committee hearing in the House of Commons on Tuesday, the BBC said it was time to "rebalance" the schedule in favour of UK films.

BBC Director General Mark Thompson said the corporation should also think about giving more money to the industry.

The UK Film Council welcomed the BBC's comments, but said any improvements were "long overdue".