Soderbergh's simultaneous release

It's a film that has the industry on tenterhooks. Is it the beginning of the end of the movies as we know them - or does it mark an exciting new departure into an almost unlimited future of digital entertainment?

The subject of this speculation is Steven Soderbergh's experimental new film Bubble, which comes out in the US on 27 January. A low-budget arthouse project, it has been shot with an entirely non-professional cast in and around an Ohio doll factory.

It's not the film itself that has the movie world in a lather but the way it is being distributed, for Bubble will be the first feature released simultaneously in cinemas, on pay-per-view television and on DVD. As such, it is widely being seen as a portent of things to come.

More from Andrew Gumbel in The Independent.

Mark Ravenhill seeks paradise

In The Guardian, Guild member Mark Ravenhill asks if British writers are still capable of creating meaningful visions of paradise.

When I say paradise I don't mean the Christian, snake-and-apple kind of place. Not the CS Lewis Narnia thing. I mean something more like those medieval paintings of the Land of Cockayne, a place where struggle and pain have been banished and all human needs are satisfied immediately and totally. There's plenty of bad genre stuff that does this kind of paradise. Sunday night television drama - "People's Friend" TV - where warm yokels bumble around Yorkshire or the Glens. Or pornography, which in its own sweet way cuts straight to the chase with a fantasy of immediately gratified human needs. But where's the good stuff?

David Edgar on local democracy

This time last year, I was finishing a play about a race riot in a fictional west Yorkshire town. The play was written for the National Theatre's late summer 'topical' slot, but I had no idea how timely it would prove to be.

We went into rehearsal three weeks after the July bombings. The day after the play opened, Trevor Phillips made his speech warning that Britain was 'sleepwalking into segregation'. On the evening of the play's last performance, riots broke out between Asians and Afro-Caribbeans in Birmingham.

More from Guild member David Edgar inThe Observer.

Publishers caught out?

The Sunday Times sent anonymised work by Nobel Prizewinner V.S. Naipul to leading publishers and agents, and it was rejected by all of them.

The Sunday Times sent out the opening chapter of In a Free State to 20 agents and publishers to find out. Only the names of the author and main characters were changed.

None of the agents or publishers spotted the book’s true pedigree. And instead of experiencing Potter’s exhilaration, they all sent back polite rejections.

Typical was the reply from PFD, a major London literary agency. “Having considered your material,” wrote a submissions department reader, “we do not feel, we are sorry to say, sufficiently enthusiastic or confident about it.”

Euro box office blues

A dearth of strong, local films severely dented box office revenue in most of Europe this year, with only Britain holding steady thanks to a stream of homegrown favourites such as "Pride & Prejudice" and the latest "Harry Potter."

German film executives expect a decline of as much as 20 percent even with end-of-year help from blockbusters "King Kong" and "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe," while France, Spain and Italy could end the year down more than 10 percent, according to industry estimates.

More from Jeffrey Goldfarb and Karin Strohecker at Reuters.

Theatre bemoans shortage of backstage workers

They dream of seeing their name in lights. They do not, it appears, fancy the graft and grime of life backstage. Young theatre recruits are so dazzled by the prospect of fame and fortune that many staff fear that essential behind-the-scenes skills are in danger of being lost.

In the face of a national shortage of skilled technical staff, one leading regional theatre has launched a more traditional apprenticeship scheme to train the wig makers and lighting designers of the future.

The Birmingham Repertory Theatre is giving six people, aged 16 to 21, training for 18 months in many departments including sound, lighting, make-up, wardrobe and stage management.

More from Louise Jury in The Independent.

Changes in the panto landscape

On The Stage Newsblog, Mark Shenton reflects on the seven (!) pantomimes he's seen this season.

...though my sampling may not in any way be definitive, each have been very handsomely produced; I did, however, spy a certain homogeneity between the two separate Cinderellas I saw, which may have had different writers credited to each, but seemed to oddly share some of the identical jokes and topical references.

Arts Council England peer review published

Arts Council England and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport have received a stern rebuke from the independent assessment body led by Genista McIntosh for allowing their relationship to deteriorate, creating a “climate of mistrust” that requires “urgent attention”.

The comments are contained in the so-called Peer Review report into the workings of the council, chaired by the baroness, who previously ran two of Britain’s leading flagship arts companies, the National Theatre and the Royal Opera House. It concludes that repairing the breakdown in communications between ACE and the DCMS following the 2004 Spending Review remains crucial if any progress is to be made in restructuring the council.

More from Alistair Smith in The Stage.

You can download the full Peer Review from the ACE website.

TV on mobile phones

TV on mobiles is being touted as the next big thing, with supporters predicting it will offer a new genre of programmes.

While some have expressed doubts about whether people will want to watch TV on their mobiles, handset giant Nokia and leading independent TV producer Endemol are convinced it will be a winner.

Initial signs, both say, are that mobile TV will be a huge hit with consumers, a big money-spinner for content providers and mobile operators as well as a means of transforming TV as it currently exists.

More from Jane Wakefield on BBC News.

Screenplay copyright in Hollywood

An interesting exposition of American copyright law from Craig Mazin at Artful Writer. Mazin is looking at "chain of title" - ie how the ownership of copyright is affected as a project in development moves from studio to studio and from writer to writer. Mazin also looks at the differences in copyright for a screenwriter and a playwright.

262 BBC execs earn more than £100,000

The number of top-level BBC executives earning six-figure salaries has more than doubled in the past five years, the corporation has confirmed.

A total of 262 executives are paid in excess of £100,000, compared with 122 in 2001. The BBC has attributed this rise to market forces and inflation.

More from BBC News.

WGGB office closed for Christmas

The Guild Office will be closed until Tuesday 3rd January.

If you have any urgent enquiries during this time, please contact the office by email. Guild staff will be checking regularly for messages. I'll still be updating this blog...if there's anything worth posting in the festive lull.

From everyone at the Guild, have a great Christmas and New Year.

Written Lives

The other day, a rather beautiful little book dropped onto my desk. Written Lives is a short collection of potted biographies of famous writers by the Spanish novelist and essayist Javier Marías. Ranging from Faulkner to Nabokov, Joyce to Rimbaud, each life story is no more than 10 or so pages, concentrating on a particular period or aspect of the subject’s life. Thus we find Oscar Wilde bloated and listless in his life after prison, and a posturing James Joyce comparing "the mystery of Mass" with his own work. Each piece mixes a little anecdote, some biographical fact and a brief explanation of the chosen writer’s greatness.

More from Paul Hamlos on the Culutre Vulture blog.

Work to begin on new NFT

Work on turning the redundant Museum of the Moving Image in London into a revamped, extended home for the National Film Theatre is to start next month after delays of more than a year.

The £4.5m project to refurbish the NFT on the South Bank, which is run by the British Film Institute, is due to be completed by autumn in time for the 50th anniversary of the British Film Institute's London Film Festival.

More from Louise Jury in The Independent.

Playwright Gary Mitchell in hiding

One of the most talked about voices in European theatre is in hiding - and his extended family have been forced to flee their homes - after a campaign of death threats and bomb attacks by loyalist paramilitaries.

Gary Mitchell, whose political thrillers have arguably made him Northern Ireland's greatest playwright, was told that every "Mitchell had to get out or be killed in four hours". His home was attacked by men with baseball bats and petrol bombs.

More from Angelique Chrisafis in The Guardian.

There is a lot of discussion about the story on Northern Irish politics blogs, such as Slugger O'Toole.

Update: Mitchell talks on BBC Radio 4's Front Row.

XXL Film Forum

Guild Film Committee Chair, Hugh Stoddart, reports from the XXL Forum in Vienna and from the recent Film Parliament in London. (Word document)

Where have all the howlers gone?

Just last summer the air was filled with anxiety about an apparent box-office slump, as journalists and studio executives alike wondered why fewer people seemed to be going to the movies. The most obvious explanation - or at least the one I favored at the time - was that the movies just weren't good enough. But now that the season of list-making and awards-mongering is upon us and the slump talk has quieted down, I find myself preoccupied with a slightly different, not unrelated worry: What if the problem with Hollywood today is that the movies aren't bad enough?

Which is not to say that there aren't enough bad movies. Quite the contrary. There is never a shortage, and there may even be a glut. The number of movies reviewed in The New York Times - those released in New York - grows every year; in 2005 it will approach 600. Given that so much human endeavor is condemned to mediocrity - like it or not, we spend most of our lives in the fat, undistinguished middle of the bell curve - it is hardly surprising that many of these pictures turn out not to be very good. But the very worst films achieve a special distinction, soliciting membership in a kind of negative canon, an empyrean of anti-masterpieces. It is this kind of bad movie - the train wreck, the catastrophe, the utter and absolute artistic disaster - that seems to be in short supply.

And this is very bad news. Disasters and masterpieces, after all, often arise from the same impulses: extravagant ambition, irrational risk, pure chutzpah, a synergistic blend of vanity, vision and self-delusion. The tiniest miscalculation on the part of the artist - or of the audience - can mean the difference between adulation and derision. So in the realm of creative achievement, the worst is not just the opposite of the best, but also its neighbor. This year has produced plenty of candidates for a Bottom 10 (or 30 or 100) list, but I fear that none of the bad movies are truly worthy of being called the worst. And this may be why so few are worthy of being considered for the best.

More from A.O. Scott in The New York Times.

There are some interesting reflections on this article from Billy Mernit.

Teachers of writing ... are always telling students to "dare to be awful." So I say that now's the time -- for the courage of convictions, for the taking of leaps. Maybe you'll interest the next Ed Wood... maybe you'll attract a James Cameron. Just know there's currently a slowly dawning awareness on the studios' part that the mainstream, that mythical beast, is shifting in its unconsciousness and changing up the rules. You've got them at a rare moment of vulnerability, a time when the William Goldman edict (Nobody knows anything) is more applicable than ever.

WGAw awards nominations

The nominations have been announced for the 2006 Writers Guild of America, west Awards.

On his blog, Ken Levine gives some tips to nominees.

Congratulations to all my colleagues nominated for Writers Guild Awards. Note to nominees: wear a tuxedo. David Isaacs and I were nominated several times, rented tuxedos and lost. We always noticed there were a few people in dark suits and felt even more like schmucks. So one year when we knew we’d lose we just went the dark suit route. And of course we won. We sheepishly walked up to the podium and David said, “Sorry, we dressed for nomination only”.

Later we took pictures with our presenter, Jimmy Smits. Click click and he was gone. A few minutes later the photographer wanted to take a few more shots. They said Smits had left so the photographer said, “Okay, then never mind.” Jesus, writers get no respect even at the Writers Guild awards.

Orhan Pamuk trial adjourned

The trial of best-selling Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk was adjourned on Friday amid mounting concern in the European Union that the case could challenge freedom of expression.

A judge in Istanbul said the trial would restart on February 7, 2006, to give the Justice Ministry time to decide whether the case was in line with judicial procedures.

Pamuk faces a possible three-year jail term for "insulting Turkish identity" by saying that a million Armenians were killed in massacres 90 years ago and 30,000 Kurds in recent decades -- issues he says are taboo in the country.

More from Reuters.

The future of books - online

Technology, often declared the enemy of literacy, has been called upon to save it. With hints of optimism and anxiety, publishers are counting on the digital text and digital channels to win over a public drawn to other media.

More from Hillel Italie on Yahoo.

Comedy Award for Abbott

Shameless, created by Guild member Paul Abbott, won Best Comedy Drama at the Comedy Awards last night. The Writer of the Year Award was won by David Walliams and Matt Lucas for Little Britain.

Update: forgot to mention that Guild member Victoria Wood, along with Julie Walters, won an outstanding achievement award.

Alfred Shaughnessy obituary

The Guardian has today published an obituary of former Guild member Alfred Shaughnessy, who died last month.

Alfred Shaughnessy, who has died aged 89, achieved his greatest success in 1970, when he became script editor and chief writer of the television series Upstairs, Downstairs. What he contributed was, literally, a class act. His stepfather, the Hon Sir Piers "Joey" Legh, was equerry to the Prince of Wales (later Edward VIII) and master of the household to George VI; Shaughnessy could boast that when staying at Windsor castle, he had entertained the king and queen and the young princesses, Margaret and Elizabeth, with an impromptu cabaret.

In praise of older playwrights

In The Guardian, Guild Theatre Committee Chair, David James, refutes David Mamet's argument that "Playwrighting is a young man's ... game."

The purpose of theatre is to illuminate people's lives, to bring a mirror to our own experience, our society and our reaction to that society - often to our discomfort. And that self-examination should never stop. It is as necessary at 80 as it is at 20. Of course young talent must be nurtured, but there must also be a place for the writer of life experience, maturity and wisdom, who burns to communicate his or her own prejudices of anger, outrage and heartbreak.

"The Myth Of The First Martyr...I Mean...Writer"

I’ve talked before about an apparently intractable schism in the professional writing community—one on side you’ve got so-called “first writer advocates”, and on the other side, you have so-called “rewriters”.

Putting aside the relative sloppiness of those names, I’ve decided to lower my lance and tilt firmly at one of the most persistent and inaccurate myths of screenwriting.

The “first writer” does not necessarily do anything special or more difficult than subsequent writers on a project.

Going first isn’t harder. Going first isn’t special. Going first doesn’t earn you a halo or a special place in writer heaven for your sacrifice.

Going first is just…going first.

More from Craig Mazin at The Artful Writer.

Blackpool nominated for Golden Globe

BBC TV's Blackpool, written by Peter Bowker, has received a nomination for the prestigious Golden Globe Awards. It will compete in the category of "Best mini-series or motion picture made for television", with the winner to be announced on 16 January.

Danny Stack accentuates the positive

Guild member and blogger extraordinaire Danny Stack, hates whingers...

It's sometimes surprising (and disappointing) to read the posts on Shooting People where people moan and gripe about how crap the system is here in the UK and that there are no opportunities or not enough support (or script competitions) to help identify new talent.

Danny suggests a list of competitions and organisations that do in fact provide opportunities in the UK.

Drama on BBC ONE daytime

Details of upcoming daytime drama on BBC ONE, including a new Afternoon Play from Guild President, Alan Plater.

Jermyn Street and the New Players to produce

Two of London’s leading Off-West End venues, the Jermyn Street and the New Players theatres, will relaunch themselves as producing houses in 2006. More from Alistair Smith in The Stage.

Coming soon: 101 Greatest Screenplays

The Writers Guild of America, East and the Writers Guild of America, west are pleased to announce a partnership with Premiere magazine to unveil the 101 Greatest Screenplays this spring, spotlighting the best of screenwriting in the history of film.

The guilds' 101 Greatest Screenplays will honor the greatest scripts ever - and the talented writers who wrote them - by compiling the ultimate ranking of best-written films as voted upon by guild members. The Writers Guilds' first-ever best-of-list is slated to be announced April 2006, with gala events scheduled on both coasts to fete influential writers and unforgettable screenwriting.

Premiere will feature the 101 Greatest Screenplays in a special editorial section in the May 2006 issue of the magazine, hitting newsstands April 2006. The WGAw, the WGAE, and Premiere will partner on several levels, collaborating on special events, radio/online promotion, and other projects, to bring the results and analysis of the guild's prestigious member poll to the public.

“For those of you tired of all those '100 Best' rankings, here's a list that goes one better. And what's more, it glorifies the very foundation of any great film - its screenplay,” said WGAw President Patric M. Verrone.

More from the WGAw.

Whitbread to end literary prize sponsorship

One of the literary world’s most prestigious prizes is looking for a sponsor after Whitbread pulled out of the awards it has funded since 1971. The company, once Britain’s best-known brewer, has decided literature does not fit with its status as a wide-ranging leisure conglomerate.

The decision is a blow to the literary world as the Whitbread is rivalled only by the Booker in terms of prestige and influence.

More from Richard Brooks in The Times.

Watch Pinter's Nobel lecture

You can now watch Harold Pinter's Nobel lecture in full, from the Nobel site. A strong argument for watching the video rather than just reading the text comes from Michael Billington in The Guardian.

There was something oddly Beckettian about Harold Pinter's Nobel lecture... It was Beckettian in that Pinter sat in a wheelchair, with a rug over his knees and framed by an image of his younger self, delivering his sombre message: memories of Hamm in Beckett's Endgame came to mind. But if Pinter's frailty was occasionally visible, there was nothing ailing about his passionate and astonishing speech, which mixed moral vigour with forensic detail.

My life as a woman

American screenwriter Billy Mernit has a secret.

It just slipped out. I didn't mean to say it, but...

I met a fellow writer at the Rose Cafe today. Laptop open, she was working on her first novel, and I was telling her about my novel, and she asked me if it was my first. And before I could stop myself, I told her -- a total stranger, about a secret identity I'd been keeping under wraps for years.

I was Leigh Anne Williams: a woman who published 20 romance novels.

US film school students turning to TV

There was a time, and not so long ago, that any talk about television at film school was considered crass — the low road to a higher calling. Film school was for budding auteurs, not TV hacks.

"Television has always been the redheaded stepchild of virtually any university's film program," said UCLA professor Tom Nunan, who produced the film "Crash" but spent most of his career as a television executive. "It's a hard medium to come out and just embrace right out of the gate. I don't know if it's because [television] is in your bedrooms and living rooms, but there's a lot less glamour in film school studying an appliance in your home versus going to the theater."

Then came "The Sopranos" and other TV shows that pushed the pop culture envelope, not to mention a burgeoning job market in the new cable and digital universe, and a downturn in the movie biz and suddenly studying television didn't seem like a bad option.

Nunan, who has taught television development and production at UCLA for eight years, sees a sea change among many, if not all, of his students.

"I've seen a definite trend toward people converting toward an interest in TV as a career, yet every spring there's that percentage that come in with their nose up into the air wanting to talk about their screenplays," he said. "Not only is there a lot more opportunity in television, but the material you get is much more mature and complex."

More from Merrill Balassone in the LA Times.

Songwriters in online royalties dispute

Songwriters and composers face losing 50% of their income from music downloads if a landmark tribunal case being brought by record companies, online music providers and mobile phone networks is successful.

A consortium worth $600 billion, including Apple iTunes, Napster, EMI, Sony BMG, O2 and Orange, is taking not-for-profit royalties collection agency the Music Alliance - formerly the MCPS-PRS alliance - to the tribunal to try to reduce the amount songwriters earn from a 79p download from 5p to 2.5p.

The MA, which represents 44,000 songwriters and composers, responded this month with a counter-claim calling for an increase in royalties to between 7p and 9p per download, which it says reflects the savings made by record companies by online distribution. It claims companies pocket more than 50p for the same 79p download.

The tribunal, which will be held next year, is expected to cost as much as £12 million. Online royalties currently amount to just £1 million a year, although the market is expected to more than double over the next 12 months and eventually overtake offline sales.

More in The Stage.

Comment: Music is a year or two ahead of drama and comedy in terms of online distribution. But is this the kind of battle that all writers could soon be facing?

Sundance Festival - behind the scenes

How the world's most famous independent film festival is run, by John Clark in The New York Times.

Every [submitted] film is seen in its entirety by at least one person, often more. Sundance employs more than a dozen people to go through the features, and then to write a report that rates them on a scale from 1 to 5. (Mr. [Geoffrey] Gilmore [the festival director] says he tries to get these screeners to distinguish between "the weird and the bad.") In fact, programmers will even review a few of the films rated 1 or 2, just to make sure nothing has been overlooked.

New drama on BBC TWO

BBC TWO has announced it's highlights for Spring 2006, with drama set to take a leading role.

Roly Keating, Controller of BBC TWO, said today: "Strong authorship and individual voices are the backbone of the channel and I'm pleased that we'll be launching the new year with some really bold drama in the heart of the schedule."

Harold Pinter's Nobel lecture

Pinter's Nobel lecture is available in full from The Guardian. You can also watch it on BBC News.

It's a strange moment, the moment of creating characters who up to that moment have had no existence. What follows is fitful, uncertain, even hallucinatory, although sometimes it can be an unstoppable avalanche. The author's position is an odd one. In a sense he is not welcomed by the characters. The characters resist him, they are not easy to live with, they are impossible to define. You certainly can't dictate to them. To a certain extent you play a never-ending game with them, cat and mouse, blind man's buff, hide and seek. But finally you find that you have people of flesh and blood on your hands, people with will and an individual sensibility of their own, made out of component parts you are unable to change, manipulate or distort.

Ricky Gervais podcast

Today Ricky Gervais launched his new series of podcasts, available for donwnload from The Guardian.

A giant leap in the development of online comedy?

Bellamy new head of BBC3

BBC Director of Television Jana Bennett has appointed E4 head Julian Bellamy as the new Controller of BBC THREE.

Bellamy, 35, who is also Head of Channel 4's Factual Entertainment commissioning, will join the BBC in the New Year.

Jana Bennett said today: "I'm delighted Julian will be joining us in BBC Television.

"He has fantastic experience of building channels and brands in a multi-platform digital environment, a very strong creative background and terrific relations with talent and the production community.

"His dual experience as both a commissioning editor of factual entertainment and innovative shows like Big Brother - and of running a mixed genre channel - will bring a new dynamic to BBC THREE as it evolves, grows and meets ever-changing audience expectations."

More from the BBC Press Release.

Mary Hayley Bell 1914-2005

Playwright, novelist and actress Mary Hayley Bell, best known for her book Whistle Down The Wind, has died at the age of 95. She was married to the late Sir John Mills. There is an obituary in The Times.

Summer Play Festival (New York)

Submissions sought of full-length plays and musicals from emerging writers for the Summer Play Festival 2006 in New York. Entry is free and can be done online. The closing date is 15 December 2005.

Bearded Ladies - unsolicited material

Radio 4 is accepting unsolicited material for the next series of its sketch show Bearded Ladies.

Full details from BBC Writersroom.

BBC comedy blog

It's been running since August 2004, but I've only just discovered the BBC Comedy blog. Design and functionality not much to get excited about (e.g. you can't leave comments) but worth a look. It will probably be revamped or ditched as part of the comedy site relaunch mentioned at the recent Guild event.

How to start a screenplay

Some thoughts from Josh Golding at The Screenwriters' Store.

Ernest Hemingway had an interesting method for getting himself started in the morning. At the end of each working day, he’d grab all his pencils in his big fist and slam them down on the desk, breaking all the points. When he came in the next morning, he’d pull out a penknife and start to whittle them. When he’d sharpened four or five – six, if he had a hangover – he’d find himself reaching for one and beginning to write.

Pinter unable to travel for Nobel

Harold Pinter has been forced to pull out of the lecture given by winners of the Nobel Prize for Literature due to poor health.

However, the Nobel Foundation said a lecture pre-recorded by Pinter will be shown on a big screen at their Stockholm academy on 7 December.

The British playwright, 75, has been treated for cancer in recent years.

He had already announced publisher Stephen Page will accept the prize on his behalf on 10 December.

"His doctors have forbidden him to travel at this time," the Nobel Foundation said.

More from BBC News.

The battle for free expression

Timothy Garton Ash, writing in The Guardian, meets writer Ayaan Hirsi Ali.

People are trying to kill her just for saying what she thinks. Last year, he was actually killed simply because he made a provocative work of art. Welcome to our brave new Europe, three centuries after the Enlightenment.

She is Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the Somalian-Dutch politician and writer, who wrote the script for the film Submission. He was Theo van Gogh, the Dutch director of that film, who as a result was murdered on an Amsterdam street just over a year ago. After slitting Van Gogh's throat, the murderer pinned a letter to his chest with a butcher's knife. "Ayaan Hirsi Ali," it said, "you will break yourself to pieces on Islam." "You, oh Europe, will go down ... " this rant concluded, "you, oh Netherlands, will go down ... You, oh Hirsi Ali, will go down."

Writers Guild website (update)

Following the major technical problem experienced by our hosting company on Sunday, we have now put up a holding page at www.writersguild.org.uk

This has all the main downloads for membership forms and Guild agreements.

We're now considering whether to restore the old site or bring forward planned developments and create a new site instead. We'll keep you updated.

Meanwhile, this blog will be the place to find Guild news and announcements.

Happy reading...

If you need an excuse for not writing, here's a long list of recommended recent writing blog posts from Complications Ensue.

Living the dream

Advice from Danny Stack on taking the plunge to be a freelance script-reader/writer.

...while script reading is great, it is poorly paid and it takes up a lot of time. When you first take the plunge, reading will be the only outlet to actually pay the bills (that is if you’re lucky enough to get work as a reader...). The standard rate nowadays for ‘coverage’ (a script report) in the UK is £45 and some pay £50 (like the Film Council). It's the £50 gig you want as reading 4 scripts in a week is £200. Not much but enough to pay the basic bills (very frugal living indeed). Reading 8 or 12 scripts is not uncommon, and more money obviously, but fatigue may set in especially if you're busy writing your own scripts or cursing level 22 of Crash Bandicoot on the PlayStation.

Writers' Guild of Great Britain website down

Due to serious technical problems experienced by our hosting company, Force 9, the Guild website is currently unavailable. We will post further information as soon as possible.

In the meantime, if you have a query about the Guild please contact admin@writersguild.org.uk

Writing Comedy on the Internet

Since we're still having technical problems with our main website, here's the report from the event last week.

The future for comedy writers is either incredibly exciting or incredibly depressing. There will be either a huge number of new opportunities or it will become impossible to make a living. The glass might be half-full, but equally everyone in the pub might have finished their drinks and be waiting for you to buy the next round.
That, at least, seemed to be the message coming from the Guild event in London on 23 November, ‘Writing Comedy on the Internet for Fun and Profit’. Organised by Dave Cohen, and attended by a packed house of Guild and non-Guild writers, it was a chance to take stock of new developments and hear about what the online future might hold for comedy writers.
The first speakers were Dougal Templeton and Tim Heming from E3 media and its subsidiary, Wildfire Communications.
In the summer they beat off fierce competition to win the contract to produce a new user-generated site called Soup that will form a major part of the BBC’s online comedy content.
The idea, as Tim, who will edit the site, explained, is that Soup will be “a showcase for original comedy material and will develop into breeding-ground and networking area for comedy talent.” The target audience will be 18-30 year-olds, people who perhaps don’t watch much TV but like viral comedy and sites like b3ta.
In fact b3ta seemed to be, in many ways, the inspiration for Soup since it will allow users to upload video (live action or animation), audio and visual gags. The big difference will be that content will be moderated so that it conforms to BBC Guidelines and, rather than being anonymous as much of this sort of content is on the web, the creators will be fully credited.
Also, there will be lots of tie-ins with other BBC comedy content and the BBC is promising to make at least some archive material available.
Soup will be launched in early 2006, and seed content is already being sought. Because it is seen as a user-created site, the plan is not, in the main, to make payments to contributors. However, Tim said that if people have content that he really wants to put on the site, especially if it is a series of pieces, he is open to negotiation. You can contact him on tim@wildfirecomms.co.uk for more information, but remember he is looking for produced audio, video or picture content, not scripts or ideas.
Both Dougal and Tim stressed that the BBC see the site as a showcase for new talent. Anyone who makes an impact on the site will attract the attention of producers, they said.

Podcasting

The second speaker at the event was Nick Hildred, a comedy writer who is currently producing a twice-weekly podcast, Whack My Bush
Podcasts are digital audio files that can be downloaded to computers and mp3 players. and, as Nick explained, the great thing is that it “provide a chance for writers to throw off the shackles and do it for themselves.” The audio comedy market is completely dominated by Radio 4, but anyone can, with a little bit of hard work, produce a podcast.
Well, in Nick’s case quite a lot of hard work, actually. “I have put in at least 50-hours a week since we started,” he said. And his writing partner has done about the same. The writing is just one part of the process. The recordings have to be arranged, recorded and edited – all of which is hard work.

However, each five minute podcast of Whack My Bush is currently receiving more than 10,000 downloads and the feedback, Nick said, had been excellent. The real test will come in the next few months as they try to persuade people to pay for what up until now they have received for free.
There was a high degree of consensus among the panel from the floor that the entertainment industry is undergoing rapid change. However, while everyone seems to agree that “content is king” it is not yet clear whether producers will be prepared to pay for it. People like Nick, who are doing it for themselves, might come to be seen as pioneers of a new and profitable way for comedy writers to reach a global audience. Or they might not.

'On demand' on the rise

On-demand media is certainly on the up, but are we really hearing the whole story? If high-consumption America can only offer an average of less than one on-demand TV show per day, then are we really talking about a fundemental shift? After all, I think it's probably fair to imagine that those people using PVRs to timeshift their viewing are actually relatively heavy consumers of the technology: this drives the average down among those who aren't dedicated users.

More from Bobbie Johnson at The Guardian's Technology Blog.

Children's BAFTAs

The winners of the 2005 Children's BAFTA Awards have been announced.

Drama on TV

The success of high quality, original TV drama series in America is having a knock-on effect on British TV, argues Benji Wilson in The Observer.

The sheer volume of goodies coming up on channels other than Channel 4 or BBC2 suggests a new mood in popular TV drama - the men and women who make our small screens glow, the suits in dark towers, appear to have realised that quality productions can get at least as good ratings as a C-list celeb masturbating a pig, and they won't go to hell in a handcart for commissioning it.

End of the movies?

The era of moviegoing as a mass audience ritual is slowly but inexorably drawing to a close, eroded by many of the same forces that have eviscerated the music industry, decimated network TV and, yes, are clobbering the newspaper business. Put simply, an explosion of new technology — the Internet, DVDs, video games, downloading, cellphones and iPods — now offers more compelling diversion than 90% of the movies in theaters, the exceptions being "Harry Potter"-style must-see events or the occasional youth-oriented comedy or thriller.

Anywhere you look, the news has been grim. Disney just reported a $313-million loss for films and DVDs in its fiscal fourth quarter. Sony has had a disastrous year, with only one $100-million hit ("Hitch") among a string of costly flops. DreamWorks not only has had theatrical duds but also saw its stock plummet when its "Shrek 2" DVD sales fell 5 million short of expectations. Even Warners, the industry's best-run studio, laid off 400 staffers earlier this month.

More from Patrick Goldstein in The LA Times.

Writing comedy for the internet

The future for comedy writers is either incredibly exciting or incredibly depressing. There will be either a huge number of new opportunities or it will become impossible to make a living. The glass might be half-full, but equally everyone in the pub might have finished their drinks and be waiting for you to buy the next round.

Read my report on the Guild's event looking at writing comedy for the internet. It includes details of the BBC's upcoming comedy website, Soup.

Shelf doubt

Susie Boyt in The Guardian agonises over how to organise her books...

No one in her right mind would display her wardrobe on open racks and shelves in the living room for all to see: the bad mistakes, the telling array of sizes, that dented tin of Doom to Moth, the smell of sweat deodorised. It would be more exposure than anyone could bear.

I've always felt a little like this about books too. Until now I have kept mine stowed away, around the walls in my office, in the bedroom, piled up on the landing out of sight, even under the beds. I've never felt books added much to any room visually, as long as you can always find one when you need one.

But recently I have had cause to revise my opinions: one of my daughter's friends asked her mother why we don't have any books in our home, and I'm not sleeping well because the stack of books next to my bed is so high that it is penetrating my dreams, where towers and precarious cliffs loom large. The upshot is that I now have 14 bookshelves near the front door where anyone who visits the house will see them, and I feel almost paralysed with indecision.

There's now a debate raging about the subject on The Guardian's Culture Vulture blog.

Unicorn Theatre

The Stage's Mark Shenton gets a sneak preview of the new theatre complex in London that is home to Unicorn Theatre for children.

Completed at a cost of £13.7m (of which £9.4m was construction cost), it contains two theatres – the main house Weston (seating 340) and a 120-seater studio, plus rehearsal studio and a purpose-built education space. The Weston offers a flexible thrust-stage configuration with blue bench seating curving round in amphitheatre style, on two levels (with a second circle for technical use only); it reminded me of Hampstead’s new theatre. The studio is simply a versatile black box.

BBC Writersroom Q&A

BBC writersroom are hosting a Q&A to tie in with the launch of this year's Dennis Potter Award at The Royal Court, London Monday 5th December 2005 at 5pm to 6.30pm.

On the panel will be Tony Grounds (writer of BBC dramas 'When I'm 64', 'Family Business' and 'Births, Marriages and Deaths'), Sharon Foster (last year's winner of the Dennis Potter award, and writer on 'Babyfather'), Kate Rowland (the BBC’s Creative Director of New Writing) and Jeremy Howe (Executive producer, BBC Drama).

The session not only ties in with the launch of the 2006 Dennis Potter Award but is an open discussion with the writers of their experience of writing original drama.

Entry for this event is free and is open to all writers, but please book early to avoid disappointment. If you would like to attend please contact the Royal Court Box Office on 0207 565 5000, for an unreserved ticket. To avoid queuing on the day, it’s advisable to collect tickets in advance from the Box Office (and/or to arrive half an hour before the start if possible). Tickets can only be reserved up to an hour before the event.

Censoring Marlowe

It was the surprise hit of the autumn season, selling out for its entire run and inspiring rave reviews. But now the producers of Tamburlaine the Great have come under fire for censoring Christopher Marlowe’s 1580s masterpiece to avoid upsetting Muslims.

More from Dalya Alberge in The Times.

Hacking Google Books

Despite reassurances to copyright holders, the new Google Books programme allows you to view (albeit in a roundabout way) more than 90% of many books online says Demir Barlas on Line56.

Download Funland Episode One

The script for Episode One of BBC TV's Funland, written by Simon Ashdown and Jeremy Dyson, is available for download from the BBC Writersroom.

BitTorrent strikes a deal

The movie industry and the man behind BitTorrent have signed a deal they hope will reduce the number of pirated films shared on the downloading network.

The deal covers films found via the bittorrent.com website run by Bram Cohen - creator of the download system.

It means bittorrent.com must remove any links to pirated films made by seven Hollywood movie studios.

As it only covers the bittorrent.com website it is unclear what overall effect it will have on net piracy.

More from BBC News.

New Radio Drama Agreement signed

The Writers’ Guild has signed a new Radio Drama Agreement with the BBC, coming into force on 1 January 2006 – after more than four years of negotiations.

Guild Radio Committee Chair Alan Drury said: “The previous agreement was for a pre-digital world. As developments such as internet streaming and BBC7 occurred, they were dealt with by further agreements and licences. The result was Jarndycian complexity. All the extras are now part of the new agreement, and attract an increased fee.”

The main anomaly is the digital channel BBC7 using programmes commissioned before the end of 2005, where the current, separate arrangement will continue. Under the agreement a Radio Forum will be set up which will meet twice yearly to deal with new developments in radio and any fine-tuning the new agreement needs. A lot of contractual complexities have been streamlined, and the BBC has accepted it has no claim on a number of subsidiary rights.

Procedures for the BBC’s further exploitation of material are clearer, and decision making times have been shortened. The question of format rights has, at last, been directly addressed.

The parties to the agreement are the BBC, the Guild, the Society of Authors and the Personal Managers’ Association, representing writers’ agents. The Guild will be issuing a lay person’s guide in the next few months. Drury commented: “For radio, it’s been an epic process.”

Writing Comedy on the Internet for Fun and Profit - 23 November (reminder)

Don't forget that if you can get to Camden People's Theatre on Hampstead Way (just over the road from Warren St and Euston Square tubes)tomorrow evening, the Guild is running an event looking at writing comedy for the web. All the details are inthis previous post.

Adapting Harry Potter

For six years, [screenwriter Steve] Kloves has left his own kids for weeks at a time to care for his magically challenged foster children in the U.K., put all his other projects on the backburner to take care of Harry. For six years, he has thrashed around in a world created by another writer, teasing movies from complicated books of increasing girth and violence then turning the scripts over to another fellow to direct.

The challenge of adapting JK Rowling's Harry Potter books for the big screen, by Mary McNamara in The LA Times.

Rachel Zadok

If you've never seen the point of entering writing competitions, Rachel Zadok (interviewed by Jasper Gerard in The Sunday Times) might change your mind. Earlier this year her unpublished novel was shortlisted in Richard and Judy's 'How to get published' contest. Now she's been shortlisted for the Whitbread First Novel Award.

Breaking the block

Advice on overcoming writers' block from romantic-comedy screenwriter, Billy Mernit.

Sometimes in my bleakest moments what I want to tell a writer who says he's got writer's block is, hey, who held a gun to your head and said, go be a writer? Hey, if you're having such a hard time of it, and you just can't write...

Stop. Give it up. Don't do it anymore. If it hurts, why bother? Like, do we need another writer? In this town?! Please - study medicine, join the peace corp, find something useful to do with yourself - more writing gigs for the rest of us, man, you'll be doing us a favor.

Writing feature film synopses

Advice on Complications Ensue.

When I write a synopsis, my goal is to tell a story. Not necessarily the same story as in the movie. It's more the story that the movie would be if it were that length of story. I take out stuff that's too complicated for the length. Sometimes I replace it with simpler stuff that's not in the movie.

US Guilds call for product placement controls

The Writers Guild of America west and East have called for a code of conduct to govern the growing use of product placement on TV and in films.

"The weaving of paid-for product advertisements into the storylines of television and film raises serious ethical questions,” said WGAw President Patric M. Verrone. “The traditional standards & practices governing commercial product placement are increasingly being swept aside in favor of product integration and branded entertainment. In their race to the bottom line to create the so-called new business model, network and advertising executives are ignoring the public's interest and demanding that creative artists participate in stealth advertising disguised as a story.

“The public has a right to be informed that they are viewing de facto subliminal advertising - and creative artists have a right to exercise their creative voices when required to participate in such advertising."

The LA Times has more coverage.

In response to the Monsterists

David Farr in The Guardian responds to the group of writers calling themselves Monsterists who want to see more writers commissioned to write large scale plays with big casts. Such plays, argues Farr, who is artistic director at the Lyric Hammersmith, are perhaps better left to collaborative work rather than the single writer.

As artistic director of a large-scale theatre, I am often engaging with a young audience who have a phenomenal visual sophistication and relatively little literary sophistication. My mission is to use one to help develop the other. The fragmentary, often self-referential narratives in film and music educate a modern audience to want similar formal complexity in theatre. This is much easier to explore in a rehearsal room than in a writer's office.

Sharman leaves CBBC

Alison Sharman, Controller of CBBC since June this year, is to join ITV as director of factual and daytime.

The post for Controller of CBBC will be advertised next week, following the announcement that Alison Sharman will be leaving shortly to join ITV.

Richard Deverell, currently Chief Operating Officer for CBBC, will care-take the role until the new appointment is made.

More from the BBC.

American Guilds reach new agreement

For a large portion of my first year on the Board of Directors of the Writers Guild of America, west, I was involved in an effort to mediate a serious dispute with the Writers Guild of America, East.

If the notion that there are two WGAs sounds stupid to you (much less the idea that they’re fighting), well, join the club called “everyone else in the world who is rational”.

Craig Mazin at Artiful Writer gives his verdict on a new agreement between the two American Guilds.
Meanwhile, The LA Times reports that "Unnerved by mounting anger within the unions representing actors and writers, Hollywood studios are already girding for potential strikes two years before the first contract even expires."

Non-linear storytelling

The growing trend for multi-narrative films, discussed by Stephen Farber in The New York Times.

Alfred Shaughnessy 1916-2005

Alfred James Shaughnessy, former Writers' Guild member and the principal writer of 1970s ITV hit Upstairs Downstairs has died. He was a Guild member for 40 years, joining in 1961.

Olivier nominations

Guild member Mike Leigh is among the writers nominated for Best New Play in the 2005 Olivier Awards. The full list of nominees is:

• 2,000 Years by Mike Leigh (National Theatre)
  
• Bloody Sunday Richard Norton-Taylor (Tricycle)
  
• Harvest Richard Bean (Royal Court)
  
• The Home Place Brian Friel (Gate Theatre, Dublin/Comedy Theatre)

Competing for the Charles Wintour Award for Most Promising Playwright are:

• Ryan Craig - What We Did to Weinstein (Menier Chocolate Factory)
  
• Nell Leyshon - Comfort Me With Apples (Hampstead Theatre)
• Simon Mendes da Costa - Losing Louis (Hampstead Theatre/ Trafalgar Studios)

The winners will be announced at a ceremony in London on 28 November.

"Daleks have feelings too"

British TV drama is suffering from an overwhelming need to preach, argues Mark Ranevhill in The Guardian.

[The] teaching of moral values is spreading across the TV drama spectrum. The wards of Holby City now live by the same principles, as do the cops at Sun Hill. Even Billie and the Doctor had to learn this time around, in a way that Tom Baker would never have done, that "Daleks have feelings too", and "you can travel in time but you mustn't forget your family". It seems there's nowhere in time or space, or the TV schedule, that can fully escape what they call in American sitcom script meetings "hugs and learning".

AOL to launch online TV

Internet giant America Online (AOL) has announced plans to launch a free online television service by early next year.

To be called In2TV, it will feature programmes from sister Time Warner company Warner Brothers.

The service will be organised into six channels, divided by genre, such as comedy, drama, and animation.

It is not yet known whether it will be available to AOL users outside the US. Rival internet firms Yahoo and Google plan their own online TV services. More from BBC News.

Lucy Lumsden named as BBC Controller of Comedy Commissioning.

Lucy Lumsden has been named as the BBC's Controller of Comedy Commissioning.

The newly created role will see comedy and entertainment commissioning separated for the first time.

Lucy takes on responsibility for commissioning comedy from both in-house and the independent sector.

Reporting directly to Jana Bennett, BBC Director of Televison, Lucy has a seat on the TV Management Board alongside Jon Beazley, recently named as Controller Entertainment Commissioning and responsible for the UK's largest entertainment slate.

Writing Comedy on the Internet for Fun and Profit - 23 November

More and more people are turning to the web to make their comedic mark - and some are finally making it financially worth their while.

On Wednesday 23 November, the Writers' Guild will host an event where you can meet three people who have already made their mark on the web.

• George Poles created the hugely successful Welcome To Albia blogsite, recommended by The Guardian under their 'top 10 comedy websites'.
• Nick Hildred writes, edits, produces and even occasionally performs in Whack My Bush, the weekly satirical online show that in a short space of time has attracted more than 30,000 listeners a week.
• Dougal Templeton runs a publishing company who have just won the contract to produce a new BBC comedy website - BBC Soup, that launches next year, and is actively seeking writers to work on it.

The evening will be hosted by Guild member comedian and writer Dave Cohen, there'll be plenty of time for questions and a chance to network.

The event takes place at Camden People's Theatre on Hampstead Way (just over the road from Warren St and Euston Square tubes). Meet for drinks from 6.30pm on Wednesday 23 November. Talk begins at 7.45pm. Tickets are £5 for Guild members and £10 for non-members. For further information, or to book, contact Naomi MacDonald on naomi@writersguild.org.uk

Davies defends Bleak House

Guild member Andrew Davies has defended his adaptation of Dickens's Bleak House after an attack from Philip Hensher (who said, basically, why bother with an adaptation when you can read the novel.) The Guardian has the full story, and lots of comment.

Meanwhile Davies continues his dominance in the world of classic adaptations. As BBC News reports, he will be writing at least one of ITV's upcoming Jane Austen dramas as well as a BBC version of Sense and Sensibility.

If your film comes out on DVD

Advice on recording interviews for DVD extras, from Charlie And The chocolate Factory screenwriter,John August.

We can all dream...

US Networks to launch video-on-demand reruns

In separate moves, the CBS and NBC Universal television networks said yesterday that they would start selling reruns of their top new shows within hours of their broadcast for 99 cents an episode through video-on-demand services on cable and satellite.

The move follows ABC's recent deal to make several of its shows available for paid downloads on Apple's latest iPod portable music and video player. This is the first time the CBS and NBC broadcast networks have tried to be paid directly for newly broadcast shows rather than just rely on advertising revenue.

More from The New York Times.

Update: There's some interesting commentary on this story on Complications Ensue.

Harry Thompson 1960-2005

Comedy producer Harry Thompson, well known to writers on shows including Have I Got News For You, has died at the age 45.

There are obituaries in The Guardian, The Times and The Independent.

Authors call for book fund for blind people

Leading authors have called for the government to act to help end the "book famine" faced by the blind.

Crime author Ruth Rendell and Gosford Park writer Julian Fellowes are backing a Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB) call for government funds.

More from BBC News.

riskybiz blog

The Hollywood Reporter has a new(ish) blog, RiskyBiz, by Anne Thompson. Trailers, reviews, links and plenty of industry gossip.

Lloyd Webber buys back theatres

Andrew Lloyd Webber is taking back full control of his theatre empire by buying out the venture capitalists who owned half of the business for the past five years.

And with total control over his fiefdom, he is set to press ahead with a five-year, £10m refurbishment of his eight theatres, which include the Grade I listed Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, and the London Palladium. (A ninth, the Gielgud, is leased from the impresario Sir Cameron Mackintosh.)

More from The Independent.

BBC plans interactive youth soap

The BBC is to launch Wannabes, an interactive web-based soap opera about young people in Brighton, in 2006.

Wannabes will follow the trials and tribulations of a group of youngsters attempting to start creative careers in music, television and film.

Two episodes will be available online each week, with interactive elements enabling viewers to influence content.

The project follows the launch of Jamie Kane, an online game involving a fictional pop star.

Produced by independent company Illumina Digital, the show - aimed at 14- to 18-year-olds - will begin in the spring and run for seven weeks.

More from BBC News.

John Fowles dies

Writer John Fowles, author of The Magus and The French Lieutenant's Woman, has died at the age of 79.

More from BBC News.

BBC comedy apprenticeships

Good Old Auntie. Never one to discourage new talent, she has set up a £150,000 apprenticeship scheme to nurture new TV comedy writers.

Writers will be chosen from candidates that have contacted the BBC with fresh ideas during the various Talent competitions.

Successful candidates will be paid £10,000 each for the pleasure of shadowing programmes during their entire production, during which time they will learn from the shows' writers as well as contribute to any discussions about scripts.

If this scheme is a success it is expected that every new in-house comedy will have an apprentice writer attached

More from Paramount Comedy.

Bruntwood Playwriting Competition launched

Further to reports last month, the Bruntwood Playwriting Competition was launched today.

Organised by Manchester Royal Exchange Theatre, the competition is open to all (entries are anonymous), with a first prize of £15,000. Submissions must be full-length unproduced plays.

This is a unique opportunity for anyone, aged 18 or over, to enter their original, full-length stageplay in a competition which aims to reward the best plays by writers across the country.

You can be anyone, of any experience, living anywhere in the UK and Ireland. You might never have written a play before. Or, you might have written lots. The key thing is, that entry is totally anonymous, so the competition is absolutely fair and inclusive to everyone.

The closing date for entries is 30 April 2006.

National Novel Writing Month

It's November...it's NaNoWriMo - your chance to start (and finish) the book that you keep putting off.

Shakespeare on TV

The difficulties of updating Shakespeare's plays for TV, in a thoughtful article by Mark Lawson in The Guardian.

A writer putting a contemporary copyright line on a Shakespeare play has four main problems, which, like Olympic dives, increase in degree of difficulty: setting; names; plot; language.

A new series of updated Shakespeare starts on BBC ONE next week.

Leo Lehman 1926-2005

Playwright Leo Lehman, a member of the Writers' Guild since 1962, has died at the age of 79.

Leo Lehmann was born in Breslau, Germany on 18 November 1926. He was brought up in Kalisz, Poland until his family fled, along with other Jewish relatives, from the Nazi invasion. At the end of the War, Leo arrived in Scotland with his parents as refugees. In 1949 he became a British citizen.

He studied English at Southampton University and took a postgraduate education degree at London University during which time he met Elizabeth. They married in 1952.

He became a language teacher and began his writing career in his spare time. The 1950s and 1960s saw success on the stage and at the BBC with plays such as Epitaph and Who Cares. In the 1960s and 1970s Leo was prolific in his writing for the German stage and television including plays The East Wind (1967), Chopin Express (1971) and Left-handed Corkscrew (1975).

Leo was a keen historian and wrote stage plays such as Servitus Laval and Trotsky. In 1982 he adapted Janina David's autobiography A Square of Sky which won the Adolf Grimm Gold Award.

In his last years Leo suffered from Parkinson's Disease, but managed to retain both his sense of humour and his passion for his work.

BBC One competition for new writers

Announcement on BBC Writersroom of a major new competition:

From Summer 2006, the BBC hopes to transmit 6 x 60-minute plays on BBC ONE.

This opportunity will give six new writers the chance to have their original and authored work broadcast to a primetime audience. We want a good mix of writers, and this can include writers who are completely new to television.

About the plays

• They can be about anything. We want a good mix of subject and tone, but they should have a strong story and be character-driven.
  
• They must be mainstream, contemporary and UK based, but they should be bold and ambitious and want to challenge, question and provoke.
• We are looking for ideas that are from the heart - on a subject, or exploring an issue, that you are passionate about.

About the writers

• The writer must have no credits for original authored drama in primetime. Off-peak original drama credits or other series credits will not preclude the writer from being considered - neither will the fact that they are so far entirely un-produced on television.
  
• The writer does not need to have an agent.

How to submit

• We will accept submissions of a one-page pitch until the end of November 2005. Pitches longer than one page will NOT be considered.
  
• All pitches should be supported by an original screenplay of at least 60 minutes. It is preferred that this be a separate piece of work from the idea submitted, and will be used as a gauge for your writing talent only. A professionally produced radio or stage play will be accepted if it is all you have, but a screenplay is much more useful to us and any other type of work may result in you being unsuccessful.

Submissions (one-page pitch and screenplay) can be e-mailed to: kimo.morrison@bbc.co.uk.

Deadline

You can only submit until the 31st of November. Ideas received after that date will NOT be considered.

Unsuccessful entrants will be notified.

Victor Miller interview

Yale graduate Victor Miller was a playwright with a Kojak novelization under his belt when mutual friends introduced him to writer-director-producer Sean Cunningham (The Last House on the Left). The two immediately hit it off and started making movies together. With the indie phenomenon of Halloween, Cunningham and Miller tried to decipher its formula of success and, in following the Halloween treasure map, they found gold in a horror franchise that is still lurking in the shadows (and putting a little ch-ch-ch in fans' hearts) 25 years later. Although most people's 80s nostalgia runs to parachute pants and Dexy's Midnight Runners (themselves a pretty scary concept), Miller's script for Friday the 13th brings back wistful memories for horror aficionados young and old. As it turns out, Miller recalled it all fondly as well.

Screenwriter Victor Miller interviewed by David Konow for Creative Screenwriting.

National Theatre of Scotland

The National Theatre of Scotland(NTS) has announced it's first programme, for Spring 2006.

A year after the appointment of its first director, Vicky Featherstone, NTS is working with venues across Scotland (it has no permanent venue of its own).

Writing in The Guardian, Featherstone says:

Scotland, for better or worse, has no great weighty theatre tradition behind it. There is no Shakespeare or Marlowe, no George Bernard Shaw or Wilde. Today we have Liz Lochhead, Anthony Neilson, David Greig, Chris Hannan, David Harrower and Zinnie Harris - all of whom are working with us in different capacities. Scottish theatre has always been demotic and vital, led by great performances, great stories or great playwrights. This is a chance to start building a new generation of theatre-goers as well as reinvigorating the existing ones; to create theatre on a national and international scale that is contemporary, confident and forward-looking; to bring together brilliant artists, composers, choreographers and playwrights; and to exceed our expectation of what and where theatre can be.

Westway RIP

Westway, the eponymous medical centre of BBC World Service's soap opera, closed its doors for the last time on Friday as the programme ended after eight years.

The announcement that the twice-weekly programme was to end was made in April, when World Service commissioners decided that, in a revamped schedule focusing more on news and factual programmes, there was simply "not enough room" for it. More from BBC News.

Comment: The Guild protested when plans to axe Westway were announced. It was a popular show with a worldwide audience.

BBC commissioning

Thanks to Guild member Danny Stack for discovering new online advice from the BBC about their commissioning process across all formats.

Learning to write

Janet Sutcliffe in The Guardian reveals the challenges and frustrations of life on the Creative Writing MA at UEA.

When I started at UEA I thought I would wholeheartedly recommend such an MA to anyone. Despite claims that all writing graduates are taught to churn out work in the same (ie the tutor's) style, nobody teaches much of anything at UEA. That's not a bad thing. But the MA is not an easy option. The sceptical journalist had it wrong: these courses are more likely to stop people writing than to foster wild fantasies about living off royalties.

In the end, it didn't quite put me off. Now I know where my novel is heading, I don't panic when a first draft is drivel (and it is always drivel), and most of all I understand that writing is mostly a question of hard work.