Dennis Kelly on writing plays and TV comedy

In The Guardian, Dennis Kelly asks why people find it hard to accept that he writes different kinds of work for stage and TV.

For some people, writing a sitcom seems an odd thing for a playwright to do. My plays aren't comedies, and Pulling isn't theatrical. Neither is it just a day job to pay the rent - I came up with the characters together with my co-writer Sharon Horgan. We write it together, we exec-produce it together: it's ours. And yet telling people from the world of TV that I also inhabit the world of theatre is something I've begun to avoid. Some theatre people seem to conclude that Pulling must be a serious drama, and resolve to ignore anything I say to the contrary. And when a TV executive asked me recently about the plot of DNA, my play, he asked with a big expectant smile on his face. When I'd finished explaining it to him - it's about a group of teenagers who do something very wrong, and then cover it up - the smile was still there, but his eyes were saying, "I don't get it - why's that funny?"

Helen Smith on blogging

The new issue of the Guild's magazine, UK Writer, will be out next week and to whet your appetite we've put one of the articles - writer Helen Smith on why she blogs - on the Guild website.

I like blogging because it gives me an opportunity to organise my thoughts, set down ideas and record little snippets of information or anecdotes about events that interest me – thereby freeing up a larger part of my brain to work on whatever writing project I’m engaged in at the time. It sounds unscientific but it seems to work quite well.

In praise of Red Planet Pictures

On The Stage TV Blog, Mark Wright celebrates the news that Tony Jordan's Red Planet Pictures is developing a new family drama for Saturday evenings on BBC 1.

The point...is in Red Planet we have an independent drama producer that is meeting the challenges of producing modern television drama while casting an eye to the future of the genre. Like Kudos, who Jordan has a very long association with, there appears to be a vibrancy about what they do, and that’s to be applauded.

Fincham replaces Shaps at ITV

From Chris Tryhorn in Media Guardian:

ITV unveiled a bold shakeup of senior management today, hiring former BBC1 controller Peter Fincham to replace Simon Shaps as director of television.

The company has also extended Michael Grade's reign as executive chairman by an extra year to the end of 2010.

And Dawn Airey, the managing director of global content, and Rupert Howell, the managing director of brand and commercial, have been appointed to the company's board with immediate effect.

Writing short film scripts

Given that short films are supposed to be a good entry point for screenwriters there seems to be relatively little advice about writing short film scripts. On his blog, screenwriter writer John August offers his own suggestions as well as a free download of his own short film script, God.

The hero’s fundamental problem/challenge/obstacle needs to occur by the time you get to the 1/3rd mark. So, if your short is meant to be three minutes long, the big event needs to happen on page one. If it’s a 10-minute short, it happens around page three. It’s not that you’re worried about your reader getting bored before then — if you can’t entertain us for three pages, there’s a problem — but rather that if you delay any longer, your story is going to feel lopsided: too much setup for what was accomplished.

Here's some other short film scriptwriting advice, from the BBC Writersroom and The Times.

The ebb and flow of movie receipts

For film industry geeks only, a curiously compelling interactive graphic in The New York Times showing box office receipts 1986-2007.

US writers vote to ratify contract

Having voted earlier this month to end their strike, American screenwriters have now formally ended their dispute with the studios by voting to accept a new contract.

In an open letter to members informing them of the decision, Patric Verrone and Michael Winship, Presidents of the Writers Guild of America West and East respectively, said:

As we close this chapter in our union's history, what we together have accomplished should not be underestimated. The 2008 MBA establishes a beachhead on the Internet and in new media that will guarantee our share of a potentially vast and bountiful future.Writers already are working on new media projects under this agreement and residuals must now be paid for streaming and downloads of our library of films and TV shows.


...We must take our newfound spirit and unity and use it to move our two unions forward. We look to the future and our newly revitalized member engagement to reaffirm writers as the first among equals in the most collaborative art form in history. As the last few weeks proved once and for all, we are all in this together.

Ashes To Ashes script

Keeley Hawes and Philip Glenister in Ashes To Ashes (Photo: BBC/Kudos)

New this week in the BBC Writersroom Script Archive is Matthew Graham's script for the first episode of Ashes To Ashes. You can download it for free as a pdf.

ALEX
So ... let’s hear it .. Your wife..?

GENE
Mrs Hunt left me.

ALEX
Another man?

GENE
You’re half-right.

ALEX
A woman?! She’s a lesb -

GENE
Don’t say that word! Things like
that ... belong in films not in the
home!

Also recently posted is Tony Jordan's recent episode-long monologue for Dot Cotton (pdf).

Cormac McCarthy profile

In The Independent, Boyd Tonkin profiles Cormac McCarthy who, after the success of the Coen brothers' adaptation of his novel No Country For Old Men, could become as influential in film as he is in the world of literature.

Interpretations of his work will spawn like salmon in the stream. And, for the most part, McCarthy will sit tight, look after his son and read more hard science. It seems plausible to state that, whatever its other qualities, his work poses as tough a challenge to the American ideology of optimism, and "the pursuit of happiness", as any major writer in the national canon. Taking its mood and its words from the Old Testament, that frontiersman's dread has long haunted American culture, a gloomy ghost at the feast. Social trauma, and environmental risk, have given it another lease of life.

Next up for the big screen are, according to IMDB, The Road and Blood Meridian.

Suzie Templeton among Oscar winners

At the Oscars last night, the writing awards went to Diablo Cody (Best Screenplay for Juno) and Joel and Ethan Coen (Best Adapted Screenplay for No Country For Old Men, from the book by Cormac McCarthy).

British animator Suzie Templeton won the best animated short film with her version of Peter And The Wolf (co-written with Marianela Maldonado). She told BBC News about the challenge of writing the script.

"Writing to music meant the script was incredibly difficult to write. For me, it felt like writing backwards. Normally you have a concept and it all grows from that one place, it find its own shape, but a piece of music like that has its own complex shape already.

"Prokofiev's story is actually very simple, which is great in a performance with a narrator, because so much is left to the imagination. But in a visual piece everything needs to be told, and you don't want to fill it with just padding. Everything needs to make sense and have meaning. It was the hardest thing I have ever written in my life."

If you've not seen Templeton's film (shown on Channel 4 in the UK), it's well worth seeking out.



Update (26.02.08): In The Times, Ronald Harwood (nominated for his script for The Diving Bell And The Butterfly) gives his impressions of the ceremony.

The theme on the red carpet this year was bosoms. I've never seen so much décolleté. Bustlines were slashed to the navel. I saw a lot of Heidi Klum, for example. Her stylist complimented my wife Natasha on her Armani outfit. Many actresses might just as well have been nude.

ITV1's new drama travails

In Media Guardian, Maggie Brown and Stephen Armstrong ask what has gone wrong with ITV1's recent run of new drama launches, none of which has enjoyed ratings success.

The conclusions seem to be contradictory. On the one hand:

"ITV viewers expect certain things from their Friday night drama," explains Chris Curtis, news editor at TV trade magazine Broadcast. "They like cars and explosions, and shows they know."

And on the other:

"Creating vanilla drama for the masses is no good because the mass audience doesn't exist any more," warns Steven Hesse, managing partner at Orange and Mercedes agency Weapon7.

He thinks the problem is that ITV has to become more experimental. "Create content that connects, entertains and informs the viewer, then embrace new technologies that allow for more targeted distribution."

Perhaps the most telling point is one that adds some context:

An ITV network executive who has recently left says that veteran former drama controller Nick Elliott tended to ignore the contemporary themes and high-concept dramas pioneered by [Jane] Tranter at the BBC. So the channel had a lot of catching up to do.

Update (25.02.08): It's not all bad news, however. Many existing dramas continue to thrive - for example, Taggart has just been recommissioned for another ten 60-minute episodes.

The Guild goes to Downing Street

On the WGGB website, Guild TV Committee Chair, Gail Renard, reports from a reception for women in trade unions held at Number 11 Downing Street.

Olivia Hetreed reported that the Film Council did research on why there are so few women scriptwriters in film - proportionately less than in TV, which is far from equal. The research showed that more women than men go to the cinema in the UK and therefore talk of not writing for the audience is misguided. Indeed films written by women do better at the box office than films by men. But Olivia pointed out “the film business is a tanker that's slow to turn and because of the money involved, decision makers are understandably if regrettably unwilling to try any new writer, regardless of gender. “

Fiction will win at the Oscars

In The Independent, Boyd Tonkin points out that whoever picks up the statuettes at Sunday night's Oscars, literary fiction is likely to be the biggest winner.

Whoever makes the teary speeches at the Oscars on Sunday, this year – as every year – fiction will win. With the Best Picture category staging a tussle between Ian McEwan (Atonement), Cormac McCarthy (No Country for Old Men) and Upton Sinclair (There Will Be Blood, but in 1927 simply Oil!), Alice Munro joins their company in competition for script and acting awards. Her New Yorker story "The Bear Came Over the Mountain" became Away from Her. Under other headings, the novels whose celluloid offspring will vie for glory range from Marjane Satrapi's graphic tale of growing up in revolutionary Iran, Persepolis (animated feature), to Ron Leshem's soldier's tale from Israel's front lines, Beaufort (foreign-language film).

Cynical insiders have a simple explanation of why movie moguls so love the plot of a good book. The studio lawyers will know who made it, and who owns it. Far better to pay the odd fat cheque to writers or estates for rights to unmade movies than risk stepping in the snakepit of lawsuits that can surround an "original" storyline.

Format war victory for Blu-Ray

As The Hollywood Reporter notes, victory for Blu-Ray in the High Definition DVD format war was completed yesterday when Paramount became the sixth and final major Hollywood studio to adopt the Sony-backed standard.

The news followed Toshiba's announcement on Tuesday morning that it would cease the development, manufacture and marketing of its own HD DVD players by the end of March.

Janet Murray, director of Georgia Tech's masters and Ph.D. program in digital media, said a single format supported by all six major studios has a much better chance of success than two rival ones that each take only a chunk of Hollywood.

"It's a big victory for the consumer," she said.

Now that the studios are no longer battling each other over which format is best, Murray said, they can focus on generating awareness among consumers of the many benefits of high-definition media. Murray predicts "a standardization of extras" now that everyone's releasing films on a single format rather than two, each with its own set of capabilities. "This will lead to a much richer experience for viewers," she added.

Whether Blu-Ray is actually any better than HD DVD remains unclear. Perhaps it just had a cooler name.

Trials on stage

In The Independent, barrister and writer John Mortimer reflects on the differences between trials in fact and fiction.

There is, of course, a difference between achieving success on the stage and in the courtroom. Boredom is fatal to any play, lose the interest of the audience for five minutes and you'll never get them back. It is, however, a weapon available to advocates. You can go on and on at a judge and watch him look nervously at the clock, in dread of missing his last train home to Haywards Heath, and when you have reduced him to a suitable state of anxiety he may do what you want in order to be in time for dinner.

BBC dramas on iTunes

Top BBC dramas are being made available for sale on iTunes for the first time. Episodes of shows including Torchwood, Life On Mars, Spooks and Robin Hood will be sold for £1.89. Recently aired programmes, such as Ashes to Ashes, will be available on iTunes after they have been made available on the BBC iPlayer.

The Guild made an agreement with the BBC to cover such arrangements last year.

Meanwhile, the number of programmes downloaded or streamed on demand via BBC iPlayer (also covered by in Guild agreements) has reached 17 million, up to 500,000 a day.

Ashley Highfield, Director of BBC Future Media and Technology, says: "While it's still early days, early indications are that BBC iPlayer is having a significant effect in attracting new users to bbc.co.uk.

"To build on this initial success, we continue to reach out to audiences wherever they are, and we now have BBC-branded 'channels' on Yahoo! and partnerships with MSN and Blinkx going live soon. These enable you to watch highlights and excerpts of BBC programmes, as well as clicking on a link to watch the full programme on BBC iPlayer.

"In addition, we are introducing new features on the BBC iPlayer homepage, including improved navigation options and programme recommendations."

EA seeks to reconnect with creativity

In The New York Times, Seth Schiesel explains why video games giant Electronic Arts is abandoning centralisation in an attempt to put power back into the hands of games writers, designers and developers.

“Frankly, the core of our business, like in any creative business, are the guys and women who are actually making the product,” Mr. Riccitiello [EA's chief executive] said. “You can’t just buy people and attempt to apply some business-school synergy to them. It just doesn’t work. The companies that succeed are those that provide a stage for their best people and let them do what they do best, and it’s taken us some time to understand that. In our business the accountant, the guy in the green eyeshade, is like the guy in the alien movie that eventually gets eaten. If you let him run your business, it is neither inspiring or effective.”

European Film Awards to give screenwriters credit

Following lobbying by the Federation of Screenwriters in Europe (FSE), the European Film Academy (EFA) board has announced that it will mention screenwriters alongside the directors and the production companies in all outgoing materials.

The pledge, received in a letter from EFA director Marion Döring this week, was hailed as a victory for the FSE's European Screenwriting Manifesto.

Read more on the WGGB website.

Alain Robbe-Grillet 1922-2008

Alain Robbe-Grillet, the master of the 'new novel' and key figure of the French avant garde of the 1960s has died at the age of 85. There are obituaries in The Times and by Douglas Johnson in The Guardian.

From the 1950s onwards, a group of French writers, including Claude Simon, Michel Butor and Nathalie Sarraute, challenged the historical idea of the novel. They were hardly in agreement with each other, and it was Robbe-Grillet who made the most explicit statement of what the new novel was about in an essay, Pour Un Nouveau Roman, published in 1963.

His argument was straightforward - that the time had passed for novels to be about characters and individuals. The idea of telling a story, the novel as a narration, was no longer relevant, and any ambition to write a novel that would support a cause or put forward an argument had become inappropriate. The individual no longer played a part in the world, and the rise and fall of men and women or the destiny of families, belonged to a previous time. It was only possible to write like Stendhal if you were actually writing in 1830, and if a modern composer wanted to produce music exactly like that of Beethoven, he would find that no one wanted to listen to it.

What counted was creation, according to Robbe-Grillet. A novel (or a film) should show imagination at work - it should create a mental world not to be confused with the real world.

Adam Brooks interview

On his blog, Billy Mernit talks to screenwriter and director Adam Brooks about his new film, Definitely, Maybe.

I decided to completely change my writing process for this script. I didn’t outline the story, a first for me, and I had no idea which of the three women Will would end up with. When I started I didn’t even have the idea of the flashback structure. It was a bit scary, like not having a safety net, and it took a lot longer to write a first draft. But it was a very satisfying process and ultimately I think it paid off. Usually I write about 150 pages to get to a 120 page draft. With Definitely, Maybe I wrote well over 200 pages. I wrote sections in prose and then adapted them. I wrote in diary form. And for the first time ever I allowed myself to write badly. By which I mean I didn’t put the pressure on myself to write a good scene, just to write the scene - long, rough, and bad as it might be. It’s what I always tell my students, I decided to follow my own advice.

Definitely, Maybe trailer