Paperback Writer

Every Saturday a novelist writes in The Guardian about writing. The feature is called Paperback Writer.

Hollywood's slump

The American film industry is facing up to a box office slump, reports Sharon Waxman in The New York Times.

Multiples theories for the decline abound: a failure of studio marketing, the rising price of gas, the lure of alternate entertainment, even the prevalence of commercials and pesky cellphones inside once-sacrosanct theaters. But many movie executives and industry experts are beginning to conclude that something more fundamental is at work: Too many Hollywood movies these days, they say, just are not good enough.

American reality writers sue Fox

The Writers Guild of America, west announced today that ten reality-TV writers and editors, with the assistance of the WGAw, have filed a class-action lawsuit charging Fox Broadcasting Company and Rocket Science Laboratories with violations of California's labor laws governing payment of overtime, wages, and meal periods. The suit was filed Tuesday, August 23, 2005, in the Superior Court of Los Angeles.

More from the WGAw.

ITV commits to more drama

ITV will broadcast more drama in the early evening and on Saturdays, in an overhaul of how the genre is presented on the channel.

Controller of drama Nick Elliot has promised a move away from the network’s traditional topics and time slots as part of the bid to boost flagging viewing figures. He told The Stage: “There is a lot of police drama and detective drama, which is fine, but we have started to look at a wider range of subjects or new ways of presenting old ones.

“We have a lot of good returning series, such as Doc Martin or Foyle’s War, that people come to the channel for but ideally we will mix new programmes into the schedule at different times, both single dramas and series. We spend around £1 million a day on drama and we have got British stars, British productions and British talent in way that no other channel can really match.”

More from Liz Thomas in The Stage.

Mike Leigh sells out

How many writers could sell out the National Theatre in advance despite no one knowing what their play is about, or even what the title is? Guild member Mike Leigh for one, as BBC News reports.

Too many novelists

It is quite wrong to portray publishing as an impenetrable cartel, argues Tim Clare in The Guardian - if anything it's too open to unknown writers.

The truth is a disproportionate number of publishers are wide-eyed idealists with a frightening propensity for chucking good money after bad. As much as agents and editors may feign a cool professional insouciance, most dream of stumbling across The Next Big Thing and securing their place in industry history. While veteran authors languish in the mid-list doldrums, jammy first-timers rake in vast advances on the promise of long and lucrative careers, which frequently fail to materialise. Publishers act with one eye on posterity, leaving their accountants with ulcers the size of kumquats, and the UK book market saturated with newcomers brawling over a limited readership.

William Corlett dies

Novelist William Corlett has died at the age of 66. He is probably best known for his Magician's House novels which were adapted by BBC Television in 1999.

There are obituaries in The Guardian and The Independent.

A leading children's writer, in his novels for older readers William Corlett constantly pushed at the boundaries still existing between teenage and adult fiction. Original but always readable, many of his stories often reached a wider audience after he had adapted them for television. Unafraid to write about male attraction to other males before this became a more acceptable theme in teenage fiction, in his later life he came out as an openly gay writer with a devoted following in America as well as in Britain.

WGGB & List Magazine Fringe Awards 2005

The winners have been announced for the Writers’ Guild and The List magazine Edinburgh Fringe Awards 2005.

They are:

• Dan Tetsell - Best Comedy Writer
  
• Jason Manford - Best Comedy Newcomer
  
• Mark Doherty - Best Theatre Writer
  
• Martin J. Taylor - Best Theatre Newcomer

National Short Story Prize

The world's largest award for a short story will be unveiled at the Edinburgh International Book Festival this week.

The winner of the National Short Story Prize will receive a windfall of £15,000 with the runner-up pocketing £3,000.

In what organisers hope will one day grow to the size and prominence of the Booker Prize, the competition aims to honour the country's finest writers of short stories so is only open to authors with a previous record of publication who are either UK nationals or residents.

More from William Lyons in The Scotsman.

The shortlist of five stories will be broadcast on Radio 4 next March ahead of the winner being announced in May. The winning stories will be published and distributed free by Prospect magazine.

The new award will also be the centrepiece of a UK-wide campaign 'story' that will be launched in conjunction with the prize. The campaign is a joint venture managed by Booktrust and the Scottish Book Trust, the national agency for readers and writers.

I can't yet find a web link for the Award itself - but will post any further information as soon as possible.

Update: Thanks to Scott Mathewman (see comments) for finding the link.

Also, there was an interesting article about short stories by Aida Edemariam in The Guardian yesterday.

The British attitude to the short story - that it is somehow lesser, a practice space for the real thing, which is, of course, the novel; that you can perhaps start out writing a collection of stories, but you have somehow failed if you don't graduate to a minimum of 200 pages - has always baffled me. I cannot comprehend the underlying assumption that a particular kind of stamina is somehow better, of more value. It's like privileging the marathon, or the 1,500m, over the 100m.

Writer sues over Lost

A writer is suing ABC Television for allegedly stealing his idea for its hit show Lost, according to reports.

Anthony Spinner filed a legal action in Los Angeles claiming he was contracted in 1977 to write a script for a show called Lost about a plane crash.

He alleged he was hired to produce and direct the programme which was to be produced by ABC.

The action cites ABC and Touchstone Television, according to Hollywood Reporter. Both declined to comment.

More from BBC News.

Amazon Shorts

As predicted, online retailer Amazon has expanded into publishing short fiction.

Stories from a wide-rage of authors can be downloaded from Amazon.com/shorts for 49 cents.

Agents for game developers

Talent agents are a common sight in Hollywood but a rarity in the video game industry. However, as the size of deals with game publishers inflate - especially for next-generation console titles - development companies are coming to realize that representing themselves may not be as lucrative as having a really good agent.

More from Paul Hyman in The Hollywood Reporter.

Nighty Night previews online

In a first for the BBC, clips of Nighty Night by Julia Davis are being made available for video-enabled mobile phones and online.

Festival succession row

Next year will be Sir Brian McMaster's last Festival as director, but critics are not intending to wave him off kindly into the sunset.

The director of the Edinburgh International Festival was forced to defend himself as his programme began yesterday after he was accused of running the event “like a Mickey- Mouse operation”.

Sir Brian McMaster, who will retire after putting on his fifteenth festival next year, has dismissed critics of his management as “opportunists” who want to succeed him.

More from Jack Malvern in The Times.

ITV to launch children's channel

ITV will launch a children's channel on the Freeview digital platform within the next six months, reports

The Independent. The schedule will be made up from existing programming. The company said the new channel will feature ITV's existing slate of children's programming.

Some have questioned whether there was room for ITV to enter this sector, given that the BBC already has two dedicated children's stations available on digital television platforms.

Nigel Pickard, director of programmes at ITV said: "This is a great opportunity for ITV to reinforce its position as a valued and trusted provider of children's programming in an increasingly competitive market and to bring ITV to a new generation of viewers."

Economic benefits of theatre

Theatre in the West Midlands creates £264 million for the local economy every year, more than a tenfold increase on its initial public investment, according to a survey by Arts Council England.

More in The Stage.

The Stage news blog

The Stage has supplemented its already excellent website with a news blog. Lots of comment and analysis, and well worth bookmarking.

BBC Writersroom in Edinburgh

BBC Writersroom, the new writing initiative, will be hosting an open session for writers on 25 August as part of the Edinburgh Festival. Full details are on the Writersroom website.

Literary Ventures Fund

In America, reports Alex Beam in The Boston Globe, venture capital has come to publishing.

Here's the idea. [Jim] Bildner wants to apply venture capital rules to book publishing. LVF will make small investments, and thus own portions of, promising novels, nonfiction works, and even book series. It's the spread-your-bets-and-hope-for-a-hit VC model. If one out of 10 investments pays off big, you get rich. In this case, the LVF [Literary Ventures Fund] gets rich, as any gains will be plowed back into the nonprofit for reinvestment in future projects.

Publishing - the long tail

Chris Anderson on Wired.com examines the phenomenon of "the long tail" - whereby online book retailers find that more than half of their sales come from books that would normally struggle for space on the shelves of high street stores.

This is not just a virtue of online booksellers; it is an example of an entirely new economic model for the media and entertainment industries, one that is just beginning to show its power. Unlimited selection is revealing truths about what consumers want and how they want to get it in service after service, from DVDs at Netflix to music videos on Yahoo! Launch to songs in the iTunes Music Store and Rhapsody. People are going deep into the catalog, down the long, long list of available titles, far past what's available at Blockbuster Video, Tower Records, and Barnes & Noble. And the more they find, the more they like. As they wander further from the beaten path, they discover their taste is not as mainstream as they thought (or as they had been led to believe by marketing, a lack of alternatives, and a hit-driven culture).

WGGB anti-censorship committee

This week the Writers' Guild of Great Britain revived its anti-censorship committee which had been closed down some years ago.

"Writers are finding themselves in a very difficult situation," said Lydia Rivlin, Chairman of the new committee. "Religious pressure groups have recently started to use increasingly belligerent tactics to stifle expression, as can be seen by the riot which closed down a play in Birmingham in December. The police do not seem to have done very much to pursue the ringleaders and the writer is still in fear for her life.

"This phenomenon is by no means confined to ethnic minorities, either. A radical Christian group forced the cancellation of Jerry Springer - The Opera in at least one provincial theatre and has even compelled a charity to return the money donated by its producers. In this atmosphere, the Government intends to push through Parliament the Religious Hatred Bill, which we believe was formulated purely for short-term political gain.

"Whatever the reassurances, it will put writers under the threat of causing someone offence and finding themselves in the iniquitous situation of having to prove their
innocence. Whether it results in a prosecution or not, the experience will be unpleasant and the tendency will be to avoid it by playing safe. The effect on writing and entertainment and even our ability to exchange ideas could be calamitous. We are calling upon all writers and media workers to join us in resisting this attack on freedom of speech."

Graham Lester-George, Chairman of the Writers' Guild, explained: "The Writers' Guild started an Anti-Censorship Committee in the 1960s but when politicians stopped setting themselves up as our moral guardians, it was deemed surperfluous and wound up. It is to our great regret that we find ourselves compelled to reopen it."

Scenes Of A Sexual Nature

A-list actors including Ewan McGregor are taking a fraction of the fees they can command in Hollywood to star in a low-budget film by a writer and a director who have never made a feature film before.

Every actor approached by Edward Blum and Aschlin Ditta, whose careers have been limited until now to Crimewatch reconstructions and television dramas, wanted to be involved with Scenes of a Sexual Nature. They included Sophie Okonedo, the Oscar-nominated Royal Shakespeare Company actress who starred in Dirty Pretty Things and Hotel Rwanda, Dame Eileen Atkins, whose films include Gosford Park and The Hours, and Adrian Lester, the Olivier award-winner.

A British film success story in the making, reported in The Times. Blum's big break in film came when he won a pitching contest at Cannes.

Stuart Murphy interviewed

Stuart Murphy, Controller of BBC Three, interviewed on BBC News.

Mr Murphy denies that BBC Three is just a comedy lab for BBC One and Two.

"What was clear six months after we launched was that we were never going to have any real breakthroughs unless we concentrated on a specific genre. And so we absolutely piled into comedy.

"We have had a real run in drama and because the quota is less people don't clock that yet."

"I hope that in 18 months' time people will get the same sense about our drama as they do our comedy - that we do cutting edge British drama."

The Zoetrope: All-Story Short Fiction Contest deadline is October 1. Pulitzer Prize-winner Robert Olen Butler will judge and award a top prize of $1,000, second-place prize of $500, and third-place prize of $250. Past finalists include Jonathan Safran Foer and Pauls Toutonghi. Winners and seven honorable mentions will be announced at the website December 1, 2005, and in the Spring 2006 issue of Zoetrope: All-Story.

All genres of literary fiction accepted. Entries must be: unpublished; 5,000 words or less; postmarked by October 1, 2005; clearly marked "Short Fiction Contest" on both the story and the outside of the envelope; accompanied by a $15 entry fee per story (make checks payable to AZX Publications). Please include name and address on first page or cover letter only.

Multiple entries welcome ($15/story) and entries from outside the U.S.; please send entry fee in U.S. currency or money order. Entrants retain rights to their stories.

Mail entries to:
Zoetrope: All-Story
Short Fiction Contest
916 Kearny Street
San Francisco, CA 94133

More info: contests@all-story.com

Iron mask - a critical massacre?

“Ferocious critics kill off show put on for dying wife,” trumpeted London’s Evening Standard last Friday when, just three days after the opening night of Behind the Iron Mask, it was announced that the show would close.

The headline contains two interesting ‘facts’ but only one of them actually helps to explain why the show has failed so spectacularly. It was not due to the alleged ferocity of the reviews - we were only reporting what we were seeing, and would be failing in our duty if we did not do so before our readers might have been tempted to spend up to £43.50 a ticket to see it for themselves.

Mark Shenton in The Stage defends the critics.

Comedy - Terrorble Puns

A few weeks ago I entered a Channel 4 comedy writing competition. You had to submit three sketches and a topical monologue.

I decided to leave writing the monologue until shortly before the deadline hoping it would still be fresh when the judges looked at it. Five days before the deadline for entries the 7th of July London bombings happened.

Being a Londoner I was left in a difficult position. Should I play safe and talk about other issues? Or should I tackle them head on? It seemed to me it was more offensive to figuratively plug my fingers in my ears and say "oh, I haven't noticed the bombings, here's my monologue about Sebastian Bloody Coe."

I decided, instead, to write something that makes a bit of fun of Al-Qaeda (not Islam, mind) and - I hoped - would get people to have a nervous giggle in the face of adversity.

Here's an article from the Sunday Times about Edinburgh Fringe comedians facing the same kind of decision.

Speaking of The Fringe, a dedicated radio station, Festival FM (available, streamed on the web), will be broadcasting from tomorrow.

Britlitblogs.com

Britlitblogs.com is a new blog aggregator, bringing together posts from six British literary blogs in one place.

Editors cut out

Blake Morrison in The Observer laments the declining role of the editor, and argues that the quality of novels is falling as a result.

Perhaps I've been unusually lucky, but in my experience, editors, far from coercing and squashing writers, do exactly the opposite, elucidating them and drawing them out, or, when they're exhausted and on the point of giving up (like marathon runners hitting the wall), coaxing them to go the extra mile. And yet this myth of the destructive editor - the dolt with the blue pencil - is pervasive, not least in academe. Perhaps the antipathy stems from the perceived difference between the publisher and the scholar: for whereas a scholarly editor, appearing late in the day and with the wisdom of hindsight, seeks to restore a classic, the publisher's editor is the idiot who ruined it in the first place.

Broadcast Freelancer

Broadcast magazine are launching a new work-finding service for the TV industry, Broadcast Freelancer.

Freelancers, including writers, can register for free weekly freelancer news alerts and a free 3-month free trial worth £45 starting when the service launches fully in October.

Behind the Fringe

This year the Writers' Guild is organisingAwards at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in conjunction with the List magazine.

We've joined forces to set up a blog so that you can follow all the news and gossip as it happens.

Green publishing

It's not easy being green, but a small and growing number of authors are asking publishers to print their books on environmentally friendly paper.

While no one keeps count, well-known writers, including Barbara Kingsolver, Alice Munro, Margaret Atwood and Alice Walker, are part of the trend.

More from USA Today.

Note: Greenpeace is running a campaign to encourage publishing on recycled paper.

The People's Play Award

BBC Writersroom has details of The People's Play Award, a competition for North East-based aspiring playwrights. The winner will receive an award of £2,000 and a studio run, courtesy of New Writing North and The People's Theatre Company.

The award is open to writers who have not yet received a professional production of their work on stage and who live and work within the Arts Council North East region (Tyneside, Northumberland, Tees Valley and County Durham).

The closing date is 14 November 2005.

Alfred Fagon Award

Entries are invited for The Alfred Fagon Award, open to any playwright of Caribbean descent, resident in the UK, for the best new Stage Play in English, which need not have been produced.

Each entrant may submit only one play. (Television, radio and film scripts will not be considered). The first prize is £5,000.

Closing date: 30 August 2005.

Pub theatre award in memory of Dan Crawford

A new award has been created for pub theatres in memory of the founder and artistic director of the King's Head theatre in Islington, Dan Crawford, who died last month. As The Stage reports, The Dan Crawford Pub Theatre Award, which will be presented at this year’s Empty Space Peter Brook Awards, is open to venues nationwide, with the winner to be decided by a panel of theatre critics.

Theatre discounts for Guild members

The Hampstead Theatre in London has become the latest theatre to offer discounts to members of the Writers' Guild.

Current members can book at the main concession rate, which is currently £6 off tickets for Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday evenings and Saturday matinees. They will need to show their membership cards to qualify.

There is a full list of theatres offering concessions on the Writers' Guild website.

Five axes Family Affairs

Five has axed home-grown soap Family Affairs, which is believed to be the last surviving show from its launch schedule in March 1997.

The long running soap, which is made by Talkback Thames, will come off air at the end of the year, after eight- and three-quarter years on Five.

Axing Family Affairs will provide Five with a saving of more than £10m a year to invest in other programming.

But its director of programmes, Dan Chambers, will have to find other programming to run in Family Affairs' 6.30pm weekday slot and midday repeat berth.

The Family Affairs crew, based in Merton, south London, were told about the decision last night.

More from Media Guardian (free registration required)

Gus Van Sant interviewed

Director and screenwriter Gus Van Sant talks to Dylan Callaghan on wga.org about the relative merits of scripted and ad-libbed dialogue.

I think the overriding interest is to make something that resembles the way we live or think. There used to be all these rules of how to do things that slowly get eaten away by innovations that usually make the experience "life-like." It's all part of trying to get something that's more representative of our lives. That's usually what guides me. There are conventions that we stick with almost stubbornly because we also want it to be like a movie. We don't want it to be too real.

London residency

A three-month moving image residency opportunity for London-based visual artists interested in developing film based projects, acquiring techniques and learning technical processes.
The residency will take place at no.w.here, in partnership with Artquest and Film London, culminating in a showcase event.
There are three places available – information on application process and forms available next month. To be notified of the deadline and submission requirements, please sign up to e-bulletins at no.w.here, Film London or Artquest.

Updating fairytales

Jeanette Winterson in The Sunday Times questions the need to bring fairytales bang up to date.

Relief, unease. Familiarity, strangeness. Art trades in these paradoxes. The art of the fairytale does the same, and it does it best in its own language. The carpet flies, the solid hillside reveals a door, statues speak and puddings multiply. Who needs tonight’s TV and a telephone?

Pratchett versus Rowling

As BBC News reports, Terry Pratchett has hit out at J.K. Rowling for saying she did not realise Harry Potter was fantasy until it was published.

In a recent interview with Time magazine, Rowling said she was "not a huge fan of fantasy" and was trying to "subvert" the genre.

The magazine also said Rowling reinvented fantasy fiction, which was previously stuck in "an idealised, romanticised, pseudofeudal world, where knights and ladies morris-dance to Greensleeves".

Pratchett, whose first fantasy novel was published 34 years ago, wrote to the Sunday Times saying the genre had always been "edgy and inventive".

"Ever since The Lord of the Rings revitalised the genre, writers have played with it, reinvented it, subverted it and bent it to their times," he wrote.

"It has also contained come of the very best, most accessible writing for children, by writers who seldom get the acknowledgement they deserve."

Mark Ravenhill interview

Playwright and Guild member, Mark Ravenhill, interviewed by Miranda Sawyer in The Observer.

It's almost a decade now since Mark Ravenhill's blistering first play, Shopping and Fucking, was first unleashed at the Royal Court. Yet as he says himself: 'I might as well have it on my passport. Name: Mark 'Shopping and Fucking' Ravenhill.' Though he's written nine successful plays since (two about to be performed), including the ambitious National Theatre musical Mother Clap's Molly House, Mark is still defined by his debut. 'It's like,' he muses, 'being Kylie. She had I Should Be So Lucky, and it took her 15 or 20 years to match that with Can't Get You Out of My Head, even though she was having hit after hit after hit.'

Coronation Street - the 1970s

True Corrie fans can now buy a 10 DVD box set of episodes from 1970-79. In The Guardian, Grace Dent says that this is the period when the show began to really shine.

Although Coronation Street first hit our screens in December 1960, its wasn't until the 1970s that it truly began to shine. With its reliable blend of steely, gobby northern women (Bet Lynch, Elsie Tanner, Rita Fairclough), downtrodden blokes (Stan Ogden, Eddie Yates, Len Fairclough) and its ambling tales of everyday mundanity, Corrie painted a picture of 70s working class life that Britain simply "got". A land where women had big lacquered hair-dos, fake-fur coats and endlessly nudged bosoms. Where, for the average man, heaven was a pint of Newton & Ridley, chips out of the newspaper and an hour's rest from his wife's endless quacking.

If you prefer the very early days, you can also buy a DVD of the first twelve episodes.

Treasury consults on film tax breaks

The Treasury has published a consultation document on the future of tax incentives for the British film industry.

The consultation, Reform of Film Tax Incentives: Promoting the sustainable production of culturally British films, reflects the Government'’s view that more can be done to encourage effective and sustained investment while providing better value for money for the British taxpayer and the film-going public. The proposed new reliefs are designed to meet their core aim of promoting the sustainable production of culturally British films more effectively while creating an attractive environment for international studios to invest in UK talent and production. They also reflect the need to comply with EU requirements on state aid in relation to the promotion of culture.

UK Film Council Chief Executive Officer John Woodward said the proposals represent a "totally new approach" to tax relief for film.

"The new tax credit system will continue to provide a subsidy for British films but also offers the potential to help build British film businesses by encouraging investment in slates of films rather than single projects."

101 greatest screenplays

The two American writers' guilds have joined forces to create a poll to find the 101 greatest screenplays of all time, as voted for by their membership.

Members may vote for up to ten screenplays, and any produced screenplay, English-language or otherwise, is eligible. Results will be tabulated and released in October 2005 at ceremonies in New York and Los Angeles.

More details fro the Writers Guild of America, west. or the Writers' Guild of America, East.

WGAw launches "showrunner school"

With support from major television networks and studios, the Writers Guild of America, west (WGAw) announces the launch of the first-ever Showrunner Training Program to help promising writers develop the skills necessary to become successful showrunners. Providing an overview of key principles and practices of effective showrunning by industry experts, the program will address the wide range of issues and challenges involved in steering a television series from pre-production through post. The new program aims to promote an industry culture that supports training newer writers in the behind-the-scenes knowledge necessary to emerge as effective showrunners.

More from the WGAw.

Avignon theatre festival

This year's Avignon theatre festival is taking a beating from critics and audiences alike, reports The New York Times.

In an editorial, Figaro declared the festival in crisis. "It is chic, it is hip, it is conceptual," the paper said, "and it is totally cut off from the real country."

Slush pile superstars

The Daily Telegraph (free registration required) looks at how the big publishers are trying to widen their search for new talent.

On the first day of my new job in the editorial department of a small publishing house, I found a note from my predecessor. "Open all unsolicited manuscripts," it read. "Log them in the slush pile book. Read them and reject them." It was 1984.

Twenty-one years later, the climate appears to be changing. Publishers are increasingly alert to sources of undiscovered gems that in the past might have slipped through the net. The slush pile is one, word of mouth another, as well as books being launched by risk-taking small or independent publishers. Some of these titles are successful in their own right, while others are taken up by mainstream publishers.

Tarantino on CSI

Quentin Tarantino has been nominated for the Best Drama Director Emmy Award for his episode of CSI. Ray Richmond in The Hollywood Reporter, talks to him about directing and writing for TV.

"I wanted to make the 'CSI' feel like a movie, but it was also important that I not take more time than any other director," Tarantino, who also had a hand in writing the script and who came up with the story idea, says. "TV is a lot less precious about stuff. In a series, if you like the first take, that's it, move on. It's also such a different dynamic to be working with actors who have been playing the same characters for five years and know them inside-out."

He was surprised that his input was welcomed so readily. "I'd see the script for a scene and I'd take it, do some rewriting and kind of sheepishly sneak it back in. Then they'd be really excited to have me rewriting. That was, like, their game plan all along."

Disability on screen

Over on the main Writers' Guild website Sophie Weaver reports from a seminar about writers and disability.

When it comes to content, at the crux of it all is the issue of representation and portrayal of disability. In response to the question of whether disability should be shown full on, or in the background, most felt that disability is never about one thing. Disability can be a catalyst for other issues within a storyline.

It was generally felt that although it would be great if disability could be shown incidentally, there is still a need to write specifically about disability in order for us to move forward towards disability being more mainstream. At present the industry is in a transitional stage trying to move forward.

Emmerdale closing on EastEnders

ITV1's Emmerdale is closing in on BBC1's EastEnders in the battle to be the UK's number two rated soap behind Coronation Street, reports Media Guardian (free registration required).

On Monday an email was sent round to all ITV staff by the Granada head of drama, John Whiston, which highlighted the fact that in the battle of the soaps, Emmerdale was closing the gap on its BBC1 rival.

"About three years ago we said that there would come a day when Emmerdale overtook EastEnders and became the number two soap in Britain. It was just one of those things you say, like I bet Liverpool are going to win the Champions League. Be nice, but you don't really expect it to actually happen," he said in the leaked memo.

"Well, with the story team on fire, the writers charging along brilliantly, a fantastic production team and a cast to die for, all I can say is... watch this space."

According to official audience figures, in June 2004 there was a difference of six percentage share points between the performance of Emmerdale and EastEnders. But by June 2005 this had been reduced to less than two.

And for the last month Emmerdale has been running at an average of one percentage share point behind EastEnders.

Godot almighty

Fifty years after the first production, Simon Callow in The Guardian looks at the history and influence of Samuel Beckett's Waiting For Godot.

Now that its influence has begun to wane, and it ceases to remind us of its imitations, we can again see the most influential play of the second half of the 20th century for what it is. Waiting for Godot has lost none of its power to astonish and to move, but it no longer seems self-consciously experimental or obscure. With unerring economy and surgical precision, the play puts the human animal on stage in all his naked loneliness. Like the absolute masterpiece it is, it seems to speak directly to us, to our lives, to our situation, while at the same time appearing to belong to a distant, perhaps a non-existent, past.

Lulu - online self-publishing

Lulu is the latest venture of Bob Young, the Canadian entrepreneur who founded Red Hat, the Linux software company that has mounted a serious challenge to Microsoft. Lulu’s website allows authors to upload their manuscripts and edit them on-screen. When they are happy with the text, they can publish it, either electronically or as a conventional book.

The key is technology from Xerox that allows authors, via Lulu, to print single copies of books at a time. This avoids the risks of inventory and remainders. Young said authors would receive 80% of the profit on any sales made via the website — far more than the royalties a conventional publisher would offer them.

More from Paul Durman in The Sunday Times.

Online marketing for books

More success stories about low budget online marketing campaigns, in The Book Standard.

Arthur Crook 1912-2005

Arthur Crook, former editor of The Times Literary Supplement (TLS), has died. There is an obituary in The Times.

From 1945 the TLS was edited by Stanley Morison, whose friend and executor Crook became. Morison, having given the TLS a new authority and taken its circulation up to about 49,000, retired in 1947 in favour of his nominee, Alan Pryce-Jones, and in 1951 Crook was promoted to assistant editor. Morison’s policies were carried on, but with greater light-heartedness and in a more international context: something that entailed frequent foreign excursions by Pryce-Jones, who left his assistant more and more in charge of the paper. Crook’s own appointment as Editor came in 1959.

Crook set out to be a non-writing editor, and he widened and strengthened the team of outside reviewers. Recognising the growing specialisation of scholars, as well as the swelling output of serious books, he started finding experts to cover even the most obscure fields. They in turn found an editor who was scrupulous and tactful, who saw that their corrections were made and their libels painlessly removed. Their own books were reviewed and their reviews, if likely to be a shock, were sent to them before the public saw them.

Amazon "Search Inside!"

There's been a lot of controversy recently about Amazon.co.uk's Search Inside facility, which allows searches of the text of more than 125,000 books.

There's been a lot of controversy about the service (see Robert McCrum in The Observer) with some warning that if people can search the text of books online for free then they will have no incentive to buy that book.

Grade: no more repeats

BBC chairman Michael Grade has pledged that there will be no repeats on BBC1 or BBC2 in ten years time, reports BBC News. Licence payers expect new programmes for their money, he said.

However, repeats are likely to survive on digital channels.

TMA Awards expanded

Managers, backstage and front of house staff will for the first time be recognised at this year’s restructured Theatrical Management Association Awards.

The awards, which have been running since 1991, will now be split into two separate categories - the TMA Theatre Awards and the TMA Management Awards. The theatrical prizes will continue to be presented at the annual ceremony in October, while the new set, for those involved offstage, will be allocated at the organisation’s conference in November.

More from Alistair Smith in The Stage.

50 years of the theatre that inspired Ayckbourn

He nurtured one of Britain's most prolific playwrights and breathed new life into the dying art of theatre. Fifty years ago this week, the maverick director Stephen Joseph opened a theatre in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, which had a far-reaching impact on the dramatisation of plays across the country.

More from Louise Jury in The Independent.

The BBC in Birmingham

In The Stage, Maggie Brown goes behind the scenes at the new BBC "drama village" in Birmingham.

While the BBC centrally is agonising over the right development deal for its strategic move for sport, new media and children's television to Manchester by 2009, the much less high-profile executives in Birmingham have forged a creative partnership with Birmingham University and just got on with it.

They are patently pleased with their “very accessible” new headquarters, on a previously under-used part of Birmingham University'’s more far-flung college campus, West Hill, off Bristol Road, in Selly Oak, a £10 taxi ride from New Street station.

King’s Head founder Crawford dies

Dan Crawford, the founder and artistic director of the King's Head Theatre in north London has died aged 62. There's a brief obituary by Jeremy Austin in The Stage.

The eccentric, maverick personality is thought of by many as the father of the capital city's fringe theatre scene. The Islington venue became the first pub theatre when it was set up in 1970. It became an important first step in the careers of many of todayÂ’s finest performers - John Sessions, Hugh Grant, Victoria Wood and various members of the Monty Python team all performed there early on in their careers.

Under Crawford's guiding hand, the venue has won numerous awards and has transferred more than 30 productions to the West End, eight national tours and six Broadway transfers - meaning more than one in ten shows transfers.

"Not All Of Us Are Rowling In It"

One hard-up group of literary toilers said "Huh?" when the bookshop chain Waterstone's waxed lyrical this week about how the Harry Potter phenomenon had helped to make their fortunes.

The group was JK Rowling's fellow children's authors, a third of whom earn less than the national minimum wage of £8,827 a year. And yesterday they published a survey of their own, claiming that some work for about 2p an hour.

Their survey, headed Not All Of Us Are Rowling In It, is released as talk of mega-million incomes was being bandied about in the build-up to Saturday's publication of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince.

More from John Ezard in The Guardian.

Fiction selling fiction

How publishers are using fake websites to sell novels, by Vauhini Vara in The Wall Street Journal.

The top results in a Google search for "Jayne Dennis" are a Web page with a photo of the B-list actress posing on a red carpet, and a fan site full of snapshots and gossip about Ms. Dennis's relationship with actor Keanu Reeves.

The twist: Jayne Dennis doesn't exist -- not in the real world, at least. She is a figment of writer Bret Easton Ellis's imagination and a character in his upcoming novel, "Lunar Park." The woman pictured on JayneDennis.com is actually a model, and readers who click around on the site can eventually find a link to the publisher's official site for the book.

Plug pulled on black theatre plan

Plans to build the UK's first black theatre centre have stalled after millions of pounds worth of essential funding was pulled by the Arts Council.

The organisation said it withdrew £4m from the Talawa Theatre company's scheme due to "organisational weakness and financial viability".

Talawa, which has been in existence for 21 years, said they were "disappointed and dismayed" with the decision.

The Arts council say they will redirect the funds to help black theatre.

A report into the best way of funding a theatre in the future has been commissioned by the organisation.

More from BBC News.

WGGB & The List magazine Fringe Awards 2005

Top comedy writers Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran (Goodnight Sweetheart, Birds Of A Feather) will be among the judges of three new awards designed to celebrate the best writers on the Edinburgh Fringe 2005.

The Writers’ Guild of Great Britain and The List magazine will be presenting the awards with cash prizes and first option TV deals to the winners.

The awards will be for Best New Drama (this will be a narrative theatre show), Best New Comedy (this could be a play, a new stand-up show or a sketch show) and Best Newcomer (this could be the writer and/or performer of any of the above.)

The winners will be announced on Tuesday 23 August. Eligibility is defined by Fringe brochure entry.

Rules

1. The show must be a World or European premiere as defined in the Fringe programme.

2. No show can be considered unless it appears in the Fringe programme.

3. It must be on for at least 14 days of the Festival (including previews)

4. It must be on at least once between August 1 and 13.

5. Free shows are ineligible.

6. Shows featuring more than one stand-up are ineligible, where solo-stand-up is the main component of the show.

7. Whilst every effort will be made to see every show that qualifies, we cannot guarantee that this will be achieved in the small amount of time we have to do this.

8. The Writers’ Guild of Great Britain and The List magazine are unable to enter into any correspondence with anyone representing the eligible shows.

Mass resignations at the Open College of Arts

There has been a mass resignation of 30+ writers, creative writing tutors at the Open College of the Arts (OCA), ahead of tomorrow’s deadline for the signing of new – and totally unacceptable - annual contracts.

Many of those refusing to renew their contracts with the OCA cite the organisation’s lack of respect for them as writers and experienced tutors, and the management’s refusal to discuss issues of concern as the reason they no longer feel valued by the distance learning college.

Today’s dramatic demonstration of frustration and disappointment – some of the tutors concerned have been with the OCA since its inception over fifteen years ago – has come at the end of a protracted period during which concerted attempts have been made to resolve these issues.

Many letters, including from the Guild and the National Association of Writers (NAWE), have been sent conveying the grave disquiet expressed by many of these tutors and attempting to open discussions with the OCA.

All to no avail.

Yesterday the Writers’ Guild sent a joint letter with NAWE and the Society of Authors to OCA board members supporting the decision of the tutors concerned, expressing our disappointment that such drastic action has been the end result, and hoping that the OCA will be able to apply procedures to avoid such action being required in the future.

Any Guild members considering working for the OCA are advised to contact Christine Paris at the Guild office.

BBC1 Autumn season

Adaptations will play a major part in the BBC 1 schedules this autumn, with Shakespeare and Dickens to the fore.

Bleak House, adapted by Andrew Davies, will be shown twice a week in half-hour episodes - "giving today's viewers all the pace, multiple storylines and gripping cliff hanger endings of the original text."

David Nicholls has adapted Much Ado About Nothing, Peter Bowker has re-imagined A Midsummer Night's Dream as a surreal weekend away at a holiday park, Peter Moffat has tackled Macbeth, while Sally Wainwright has written a version of The Taming Of The Shrew where Kate is a scheming MP.

However, Media Guardian (free registration required), says that the schedule is open to criticism for being overwhelmingly white and middle class, just days after the
BBC governors' criticism of BBC1 for being "too focused on middle-class suburbia".

BBC Execs get 25% pay rise

BBC executives accepted bonuses of up to 25% of their salaries last year, despite the threat of redundancy looming over thousands of BBC workers.

Director general Mark Thompson waived his right to a bonus, saying "it just wouldn't have felt right".

Broadcasting unions accused the BBC of "corporate greed" amid the cutbacks.

More from BBC News.

IFTA 2005 - call for entries

The Irish Film & Television Awards (IFTA) 2005 call for entries is now open. For downloads & details visit www.ifta.ie

Deadline for nominations 2 August 2005. Awards Ceremony 5 November 2005.

TAPS in Wales

TAPS (Training and Performance Showcase), the national charitable scheme, is looking for writers from Wales for their Regional Shorts Workshop course.

From all scripts submitted, TAPS chooses 30 writers to attend a weekend workshop where their scripts will be assessed and they will be tutored by industry professionals.

The 30 writers are then given the chance to rewrite their scripts from which 6 writers are invited to have their work Showcased. The Showcase element of the course will allow the writer to see their developed script come to life as it is performed and recorded by a professional Director, Producer, Actors and Studio Crew.

The filmed showcase is then screened later in the year in London, at no further cost to the writer, and is eligible for consideration for the TAPS Writer of the Year Awards.

Submission deadline for writers to apply to the course is July 25th, with the workshop to be held in September. Scripts may be submitted in English or Welsh.

For an application form or further information go to www.tvarts.demon.co.uk or
call Mark Brennan on 01932 592151.

The inclusive Course Fee is £100 + VAT

Beyond the DVD

Hollywood is split over which pst-DVD technology to support, reports Ken Belson in The New York Times. Should it be Blu-ray or HD DVD?

To everyone's regret, the studios are split over which group to support. Sony's studio and Disney, with 39 percent of the DVD market, back the Blu-ray group that includes Sony, Panasonic, Hewlett-Packard and others. Warner, Universal and Paramount, with 43 percent of the market, support the HD-DVD standard developed by Toshiba and NEC.

The Godfather game

Behind the scenes of The Godfather computer game, with Seth Schiesel in The New York Times.

Certainly, accumulating respect will be a key part of the game play. (The team's internal distillation of the game is: "Join the Family. Earn Respect. Become the Godfather.") But more broadly, the Godfather team seems to be approaching this multimillion-dollar project as a high-stakes opportunity to earn some respect not only for itself but also for the entire notion of gaming.

What ultimately sets gaming apart from prefabricated media like television and books is that the consumer is in control of the action; the consumer is the protagonist of whatever story the game might tell. So rather than slavishly direct the player through a linear recreation of the first "Godfather" film, the E.A. team is essentially using the famous scenes and characters to create a wide-ranging virtual universe in which players can create their own narratives.

"We are well aware that we are dealing with probably the most beloved, most iconic film of all time," said Nick Earl, general manager of the Redwood City studio. "We are also well aware that some people get nervous when you start messing with something they love so much, and that a lot of games based on movies have been poorly received by hard-core gamers. We want to show that you can make a great game that stands on its own merits that also draws from such a rich book and movie like 'The Godfather.' "

Lloyd Webber sells and refurbishes

Theatre impresario Andrew Lloyd Webber is to spend £10m on refurbishing his West End theatres after selling part of his stage empire.

He has sold four of his London theatres to Broadway producer Max Weitzenhoffer.

The 56-year-old composer plans to spend £10m on his eight remaining theatres, which include the Theatre Royal Drury Lane and the London Palladium.

The theatres are part of Lloyd Webber's Really Useful Group, which produces and controls his shows around the world.

Weitzenhoffer and Nica Burns - who is currently production director of Really Useful Theatres - will take over the ownership and management of the Apollo, the Duchess, the Lyric and the Garrick theatres from 1 October.

More from BBC News.

New BBC comedy will debut on broadband

BBC Three is to premiere comedy series The Mighty Boosh [ written by and starring Julian Barratt and Noel Fieldin] on the internet before it is broadcast on television.

The second series of the show will premiere via broadband from 19 July - a week before it is shown on television.

It will be the first in a number of BBC Three comedies that will be shown first via the internet.

Jana Bennett, director of television at the BBC, said it was a "significant step" in offering audiences greater value in a changing television world.

The full story is on BBC News.

Guild offices

The Guild's offices are closed today, due to the major terrorist incident in London earlier this morning.

All staff are safe and fully accounted for, thankfully.

Update 08/07/05: The office is now open and almost back to normal. However, the e-bulletin might be delayed until Monday.

Written By - Summer 2005

The Summer 2005 issue of Written By, the magazine of the Writers Guild of America, west, has been published.

Selected contents are available online, including selected scripts submitted by WGAw members for Written By's annual Unproduced Comedies collection.

Equal opportunities charter

The Writers' Guild has joined organisations including Channel 4, BBC Films, Pact, and Skillset in signing up to the UK Film Council's new charter promoting equal opportunities both behind the camera and on-screen.

The UK Film Council has set up a Leadership on Diversity forum to help producers, distributors, financiers, cinema owners and film agencies set out a framework for action to realise the opportunities from diversity in the film workforce, whilst encouraging more audiences to enjoy a greater range of films.

Ernest Lehman

The screenwriter Ernest Lehman has died at the age of 89.

Lehman's credits include original screenplays for North By Northwest and Sabrina and adaptations of West Side Story, The Sound Of Music and Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?

Lehman received six Academy Award nominations - four for his screenplays and two in the category of best picture - and also earned nine WGA Award nominations, winning the guild's top honor five times. In 2001, Lehman was recognized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences when he became the first screenwriter awarded an honorary Oscar, for his "varied and enduring work."

"I accept this rarest of honors on behalf of screenwriters everywhere, but especially those in the Writers Guild of America," he said onstage. "We have suffered anonymity far too often. I appeal to all movie critics and feature writers to please always bear in mind that a film production begins and ends with a screenplay.

More from The Hollywood Reporter.

Film academies

A new network of film academies to educate and train new filmmaking talent was announced today by Skillset, the Sector Skills Council for the audio visual industries, reports the UK Film Council.

Seven academies in England, Scotland, and Wales, will share over £5m funding and will work together to provide new courses (including the first ever film MBA), summer schools, work placements, master classes, bursaries, online learning resources and a talent scout programme to help develop the brightest and the best from the next generation.

The Network is made up of:

• The Screen Academy at the Arts Institute Bournemouth & Bournemouth Media School
• The Screen Academy at London College of Communication / UAL and Ealing Institute of Media / EHWLC
• The Screen Academy at Napier University & Edinburgh College of Art
• The Screen Academy at The Film Academy (University of Glamorgan) & International Film School Wales (University of Wales Newport)
• The Screen Academy at the London Film School
• The Screen Academy at the National Film & Television School
• The Film Business Academy at Cass Business School

Radio indies can keep copyright

In a ground-breaking deal the BBC has handed independent radio production companies the copyright to their own programmes in new terms of trade.

Until now the BBC has owned programmes commissioned from independents - such as Somethin' Else and Unique - outright. But in a reversal of its terms of trade the BBC will now license programmes for 10 years.

The companies got together to form a trade body - the Radio Independents Group - specifically to renegotiate terms of trade with the BBC, in a bid to get on a equal footing with the television sector.

RIG was unable to negotiate the five-year licence period the BBC has in place for TV indies - although there will be a break clause after five years if the BBC does not intend to use programmes for any public service use.

The trade body said the 10-year-deal was "fair" and "very exciting". It took six months to negotiate.

The BBC deal will only cover the UK so radio independents will be able to sell their programmes and formats abroad, creating new revenue streams.

More from Julia Day on Media Guardian (free registration required)

National TV Awards

Voting has opened for the National Television Awards. There are 13 categories, including Best Drama and Best Serial Drama.

Legal film downloads

After years of avoiding it, Hollywood studios are preparing to let people download and buy electronic copies of movies over the Internet, much as record labels now sell songs for 99 cents through Apple Computer's iTunes music store and other online services.

The movie industry has in years past made half-hearted attempts to let people rent a small number of movies online, but the rapidly growing use of Internet video, both legal and pirated, is prompting it to create more robust download options and to consider online business models it dismissed as recently as a year ago.

The studios have been working for months to confront the technological and business challenges of digital sales. Those initiatives gained new urgency on June 27 when the Supreme Court ruled that companies distributing software that allows users to trade pirated copies of audio and video files are liable for copyright infringement only if they induce users to break the law.

Sony, for example, is converting 500 movie titles to a digital format that can be downloaded and sold. Universal Pictures, a unit of NBC Universal, which is 80 percent owned by General Electric and 20 percent owned by Vivendi Universal, is preparing nearly 200 titles for digital online sale. And Warner Brothers, a division of Time Warner, says it has already digitized most of its library of 5,000 films and will start selling some of them online later this year.

More, from Saul Hansell in The New York Times.

Gordon Wainwright

Gordon Wainwright, a long-standing member of the Writers' Guild who served on the Executive Council, died in his sleep on Thursday 30 June 2005, aged 68.

Gordon wrote about a dozen books, mostly dealing with business practices and self-help techniques, such as Headless Chickens Laidback Bears, Tricky Business Letters and Read Faster Recall More.

He lived in Sunderland and organised several Guild events for members in the North-East. He joined the Guild EC in 2004 and resigned only a few weeks ago.

The funeral will take place on 7 July. For more information please contact the Guild office.

Jon East appointed CBBC Head of Drama

Jon East has been appointed the new Children's BBC (CBBC) Head of Drama, it was announced today by CBBC's Controller Alison Sharman.

East's previous work has mainly been as a producer and director of series drama including EastEnders, Brookside, Bodies, New Tricks and Beaten. He replaces Elaine Sperber who left to join Disney last month.

More information is available from the BBC Press Office.

Alison Sharman herself is interviewed today in Media Guardian (free registration required).

A big priority for Sharman is more children's drama. "This is a golden age of drama - I think our drama has been good enough, but we can be even better. I want us to be world class. We have the opportunity to do that."

She says that CBBC has done well with Tracy Beaker, the adaptation of Jacqueline Wilson's care home heroine - about to have a fifth run - and with Kerching, and adaptations from Feather Boy to Stig of the Dump. "I will move the money around, to make more drama. I feel passionately about it."

Shan Khan interviewed

Playwright and scriptwriter Shan Khan is interviewed in The Independent ahead of the opening of his new play, The Prayer Room, in Edinburgh next month.

Khan's first play, The Office – a grubby comedy about drug dealers operating out of a phone box in King's Cross, which won a Verity Bargate Award in 2001 – also premiered at the Edinburgh Festival, but he has upped the stakes with the satirical tone of Prayer Room. The play can partly be seen as an inverted analogy for events in the Middle East – in the course of promoting their cause, everyone is guilty of religious intolerance and, to a degree, moral hypocrisy. Essentially, though, Khan wanted the play to do two crucial things. By placing three different cultures side by side in a hot-house environment, he wanted to present a vivid portrait of multicultural Britain living not in discrete ethnic ghettos but cheek by jowl. "TV execs [Khan is also a Bafta nominated scriptwriter] ask me to write a multicultural play; what they actually want is a drama about a black barbershop in Hackney," says Khan, who was born in Scotland to Asian parents and lives in London. "That's not multicultural: that's about one culture living inside another country. All that does is feed the goldfish-bowl mentality. Look on the Tube, look at where you live: the real drama lies in how different cultures interact."

Blogging while you work

Rather than work in isolation, some writers are maintaining blogs about books-in-progress, reports Tania Ralli in The New York Times.

Authors who have experimented with blogging in this way - and there are still only a handful - say they hope to create a sense of community around their work and to keep fans informed when a new book is percolating. The novelist Aaron Hamburger used his blog to write about research techniques he employed to set his coming book in Berlin (www.aaronhamburger.com). Poppy Z. Brite, another novelist, has written about her characters on her blog as though they have a life of their own, not just the one springing from her imagination (www.livejournal.com/users/docbrite).

Christopher Fry 1907-2005

Christopher Fry, who has died, aged 97, was, with TS Eliot, the leading figure in the revival of poetic drama that took place in Britain in the late 1940s. His most popular play, The Lady's Not For Burning, ran for nine months in the West End in 1949. But although Fry was a sacrificial victim of the theatrical revolution of 1956, he bore his fall from fashion with the stoic grace of a Christian humanist and increasingly turned his attention to writing epic films, most notably Ben Hur (1959).

More from Michael Billington in The Guardian.

The Daily Telegraph also has an obituary.

Godfather script sells for £175, 418

Marlon Brando's annotated script from his 1972 film The Godfather has been sold for $312,800 (£175,418) at a New York auction.

The script fetched more than 20 times its estimated price, and is the highest amount paid for a film script, auction house Christie's said.

More from BBC News.

The Wow Factor

Waterstones and Faber and Faber have launched The Wow Factor (PDF file), a competition for aspiring children's writers.

The closing date is 31 July 2005.

TMA rates increase

The Writers' Guild has agreed a 2.9% cost-of-living increase in the minimum rates for writers under TMA (Theatre Management Association) and Scottish Society of Playwrights agreements.

The details of the rates, and other theatrical agreements for writers, can be downloaded from the Guild website.

The Culture Commission

In the Sunday Herald Chris Ballance, Guild member and MSP, assesses the report of the Culture Commission into the future of the arts in Scotland.

The Cultural Commission report was finally published last Thursday, after a year of consultation. It is more than 500 pages long and has a standard structure. On issue after issue there is a brilliant and passionate appeal for the potential of the various sectors to be realised, an authoritative analysis of the problems – followed by a call for another review, another strategy and/or another new institution.

Commission chairman James Boyle champions the arts magnificently, but depressingly misses the point. Support for the creative individual is not, as Boyle says “a key factor in delivering cultural opportunities” – it is the key factor. The issue is not the delivery structure, it is the centrality of the artist within that structure.

Variety Night

Another enjoyable Writers' Guild Variety Night in the bar at RADA last night.

Where else could you hear poetry (Dave Morgan, Jonathan Asser), an extract from a screenplay about Robert Burns (Barry Grossman), comic songs (Julie Spitler), a short story (Mathew Friday) the opening scene of a one-act play (Benita Cullingford) and a darkly comic memoir (Janice Day) all in the same evening?

In the interests of shameless self-promotion I should also mention that Madeleine Howard performed an extract from my one-woman play, Katherine (opening at the end of July at The Finborough Theatre, tickets available now...)

Variety Nights happen every few months, and are open to all. Keep an eye on this blog and the Guild's e-bulletin for details.

US Supreme Court rules against file-sharing

In a decision that surprised many commentators, the US Supreme Court has ruled that the firms behind file-sharing networks are responsible for what people do on these systems, reports BBC News.

The US Supreme Court has said that Streamcast Networks - which created the software behind Grokster and Morpheus file-sharing systems - can be held responsible for the rampant piracy on those networks.

Streamcast had argued that it could not be held responsible for the uses its software was put to, but the Supreme Court justices did not agree. They said there was "substantial evidence" that Streamcast had profited by promoting copyright infringement or piracy.

The Supreme Court has not outlawed legitimate file-sharing. It has simply called Streamcast to account for encouraging the infringement of copyright.

The case will now be sent back to a lower court where the media firms that filed the original complaint are expected to press for substantial damages.

While most focus has been on illegal sharing of music, it is a rapidly increasing problem for TV drama and films. It remains to be seen what the ramifications of the US Supreme Court ruling are, but it looks like a strong below in defence of copyright holders (including, obviously, writers).

Monsterist manifesto

Led by David Eldridge, a group of playwrights is campaigning for theatres to commission more large-scale work from new writers. They call themselves the Monsterists. David Eldridge explains why in The Guardian.

Monsterism may have started out as a moan but it is a positive, forward-looking campaign by writers to ask British theatre to raise its game. [Moira] Buffini speaks for all of us when she says: "Deluded though I may be, I am an optimist. If we playwrights work together we may effect a change. If we are allowed to give our imaginations free reign, if we have use of the same resources, the spaces, budgets, casts and directors that are usually reserved for the deceased, we may write the kind of plays that will attract a new audience. We all moan about tired old productions and dead theatre. We can only try to bring it back to life."

Like all good revolutionary groups, the Monsterists have a manifesto.

Monsterism is a theatre writers' campaign to promote new writing in the British theatre. It is a positive, forward looking movement that aims to create opportunities for British theatre writers to create large scale plays, for large stages.

The key aesthetic tenets of a monsterist work are:

· Large scale, large concept and, possibly, large cast

· The primacy of the dramatic (story showing) over storytelling

· Meaning implied by action (not by lecture)

· Characters caught in a drama (not there to facilitate a polemic)

· The exposure of the human condition (not sociology)

· Inspirational and dangerous (not sensationalist)

On a practical level the implications of the manifesto are:

· The elevation of new theatre writing from the ghetto of the studio "black box" to the main stage

· Equal access to financial resources for plays being produced by a living writer (ie equal with dead writers)

· Use of the very best directors for new plays

· Use of the very best actors for new plays

WGAw campaigns for reality writers

The Writers Guild of America, west (WGAw) is going public with an industry-wide campaign to organize reality TV writers, producers, and editors. "This is the most aggressive organizing effort the Guild has undertaken since its founding," said Daniel Petrie Jr., president. "The secret about reality TV isn't that it's scripted, which it is; the secret is that reality TV is a 21st-century telecommunications industry sweatshop."

The full story is on the WGAw website.

JG Ballard on CSI

Author JG Ballard thought TV was an "ageing theme park, which we visit out of habit rather than in hope of finding anything fresh and original" until he discovered C.S.I: Crime Scene Investigation. In The Guardian, he examines the shows appeal.

Given that there are no interesting characters, no car chases or shoot-outs, no violently stirred emotions and no dramatic action, why is the C.S.I. series so riveting? What is it that grips us to the end of the episode, which is scarcely more than an elaborate crossword puzzle with human tissues in the place of clues? My guess is that the answer lies in the inner sanctum at the heart of all three series - the autopsy room. Here the victims surrender all that is left of their unique identities, revealing the wounds and medical anomalies that led to their demise. Once they have been dissected - their ribcages opened like suitcases, brains lifted from their craniums, tissues analysed into their basic components - they have nothing left, not even the faintest claim on existence.

Film Archive Action

A report in Private Eye (not online) last week highlighted concerns among National film and Television Archive "insiders" about new policies by The British film Institute.

A campaign group has been set up, Film Archive Action.

Film Archive Action is the website of the Custodes Lucis Group.

The Custodes Lucis (The Guardians Of Light) are campaigning against the changes being imposed on the National Film and Television Archive by its parent body, the British Film Institute.

These changes mean that the NFTVA will no longer be the national heritage moving image collection, but is being reduced to the status of a film library to be used by the BFI for its own purposes. Acquisition and preservation policies will be designed to suit the BFI's as yet undefined 'cultural plan'. The needs of researchers will be ignored: cataloguing the Archive's holdings in order to provide good documentation has already been reduced to virtually nothing. A third of the film technicians at the Archive's Conservation Centre were made redundant last year; the BFI has not yet replaced their work with any alternative procedures for conserving and preserving the films. This world-renowned collection is now threatened with destruction through ignorance and neglect.

Catherine Bailey interview

Producer Catherine Bailey interviewed by Nick Smurthwaite in The Stage:

In her quiet, unassuming way, Catherine Bailey has become a dynamic force in British drama. As well as 150-odd radio plays and serials, including this year’s gold and silver award winners in the Sony Radio Awards, she has produced the feature film Spider, directed by David Cronenberg, a dozen or so TV documentaries, a children’s TV series, and now looks set to launch herself into mainstream TV drama.

Elaine Sperber to leave CBBC

From the BBC Press Office:

Elaine Sperber has decided to leave the BBC after six and a half years as CBBC's Head of Drama.

During her time with CBBC she has been instrumental in producing and commissioning some 53 series, serials and single dramas including the highly successful Tracy Beaker, Kidnapped, Feather Boy, Stig Of The Dump, Pig Heart Boy and Mark Haddon's original comedy, Microsoap.

Elaine said: "When I arrived at the BBC I wanted to make children's and family dramas which were more contemporary and reflected the lives of the audience who watch our shows.

"I was committed to expanding the range of content and style for the viewers, treating them as the sophisticated consumers of programmes they truly are. I think I have achieved that."

In praise of short books

William Grimes in The New York Times looks at a growing trend for bite-size publishing.

The Modern Library, in its Chronicles series, expands the short-take concept to just about everything. It has included titles by A. N. Wilson on London, Jeffrey Garten on globalization, Colin Renfrew on prehistory and Pankaj Mishra on the rise of modern India. My introduction to the series came with "The Company," the snappily told history of an idea that today rules all our lives. The authors, John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge, who both work for The Economist, begin with simple barter exchanges in ancient Mesopotamia and in a little less than 200 pages arrive at their final destination, the multinational corporation. In a couple of hours, the reader travels through all of recorded history and comes out the other end, stuffed with valuable information and pointed toward the future.

Give me more. I mean, less.

Writing for computer games

More than 150 people packed into BAFTA last night for a Guild event looking at the role of writers in developing computer games.

On a panel chaired by Andy Walsh (who has written for games, TV, film, radio and stage) everyone agreed that writers were, or at least should be, central to the process.

Lydia Andrew and Guy Miller

Lydia Andrew (Sound Supervisor) and Guy Miller(Creative Director for the Harry Potter games franchise), both from EA, kicked off by arguing that computer games need scriptwriters for:

• original stories
• structure
• character depth and evolution
• high quality dialogue
• to assist with adaptations

Ideally, they said, the writer should be involved right from the start helping to develop original ideas. But this doesn't happen much at the moment.

Lydia outlined some of the difficulties of writing for computer games:

• non-linear narrative
• the amount and type of dialogue
• the need to learn a new set of techniques and technologies
• the undpredictability of the player
• the constantly evolving nature of the game development cycle.

The challenge for the future, Guy argued, was to redefine the process of storytelling. Games needed to be more emotionally compelling, while retaining gameplay. No one quite knew how it would be done, he said. But writers will be in the lead.

Chris Bateman

Chris Bateman, Managing Director of game design and scripting company International Hobo, began by stating that the overall quality of narrative in the games industry is currently poor. But it is improving.

The script budget is normally about 2% of the total, he said. Which, although low, is still an improvement on the 0% of a few years ago. The problem is that writers are still being brought into the process too late.

Chris suggested that writers without prior experience in the games industry were most likely to find work either writing 'cut-scenes' (the set pieces where the narrative is spoon-fed to the player) or technical writing for documentation that accompanies games. The more complicated narrative design required more understanding of how games work, he said.

As examples of games with competent narrative he suggested:

• Grand Theft Auto San Andreas - simple narrative structure but some nice touches, such as the players actions being referred to on the car radio
• Silent Hill 2 - a bold attempt at integrating narrative into gameplay
• Discworld Noir (for which Chris led on design and script) - a simple script but complicated structure that allowed players to choose their own route through the game.

James Leach

Next up was James Leach, Head of Writing at Lionhead Studios.

His main concern was that professional writers who get involved in computer games should stand up for what they believe in. Too often, he argued, story points get over-explained and repeated. Stories get cut to pieces and actors, rather than recording dialogue together, never meet.

Less is more, he insisted. With dialogue and plot points, the key is to get as much information over using as few words as possible.

Katie Ellwood

The final speaker on the panel was Katie Ellwood, Narrative producer and director on Sony's The Getaway and the forthcoming The Getaway 2.

As an example of a game where good writing supported the gameplay, she suggested Ico, a game so emotionally involving that it can make players cry.

At Sony, Katie explained, they have been spending a lot of time thinking about the role of writers in games and on The Getaway they had a writer involved right from the start.

Katie ended by showing a scene from The Getaway 3, running on a PS3. It was an almost photo-realistic recreation of Piccadilly Circus. Apart from the people. Who, as several panel members commented, can still not be rendered convincingly.

Writers and theme

A questioner from the floor suggested that writers should be used more to generate the theme of a game - that, after all, is what writers do in other mediums.

Guy pointed out that for Harry Potter games they use JK Rowling's themes, and Andy Walsh said that in four of the last five games he has written the question of theme has emerged in discussions.

However, talking to writers in the bar after the event, it was clear that many felt that the industry was still not looking to writers to pitch original ideas. Why shouldn't it be more like film, when spec proposals are submitted, options bought etc? That, several people said, is what would really take the games industry forward.

How writers are found

While Chris and James said that they have plenty of CVs sent to them by potential writers, Lydia said that she had never been approached (writers flocked to her in the bar afterwards). Katie said that she tended to use agents to find writers, but there was a lack of knowledge about the games industry among agencies.

Where next?

As Chris pointed out, story and dialogue are worth 10-15% in the all-important games reviews, so producers should be willing to invest in writers and story development. If they don't, Katie said, they will be left behind.

The Writers' Guild is keen to represent the interests of games writers as their role in the industry develops and, as a starting point, has designed surveys for games writers, aspiring games writers and games producers.

Guild Events and Communications Manager, Naomi MacDonald, said she was hopeful that more games writers will join the Guild and that last night's event can be followed up with more in the future.