Scripts (and rats)

If in doubt talk it over with mum - ha! My mum is a children's author (and poet) so very cool to discuss work 'issues' with.

Let's go back to the beginning. A while back there was a brief - for an intriguing children's TV (storytelling series). I wrote up a proposal for a prodco - it got commissioned. I scripted and then directed it. Some bits were great, a few bits weren't. It gets re-commissioned - is that not affirmation? I receive an email from the prodco making an offer (for directing and scripting.) I say yes to both. In between I complete my own doc series, have a falling out with the 'powers that be', get over it - do everything they say. Get it finished. It goes on air. People like it.

Ok fast forward to a workshop (about the second series) I think I'm there because I'm directing and scripting again. 15 people attend - some fly in. Copious scones and tea. Colourful lunch - a big, bright, shiny occasion. We discuss the first series. Exchange opinions and ideas. Write loads of notes. The next day I receive an offer from the prodco - but only for scripting - and for a lot less than the previous series. I ask about directing and re-state my terms of trade. They agree to my terms but say the 'powers that be' want an alternative director.*

I smell a rat. (Funnily enough mum smells a rat too!) Hub says just 'take the money and run'. But I don't think I can. It's not quite like a jobbing job where I just hit the keyboard hour after hour and churn it out. I'd prefer to put my heart in it - after all I was there at the start.

So I ask to know their reason*.

It's not always about being an 'awkward so and so' (writers and directors generally are). Sometimes it's about refusing to be fodder in some unfathomable agenda...

Let's see.