Boost

The big news of the week over here concerns the revised incentives for the film and television industries which aim to increase foreign investment, local content production and BEE.
Read more by clicking here.

And for those who'd rather dance here's Freddie Gwala.

Quandary

Had the meeting yesterday - they like the script and want to make it (a UK/SA thing) Now I have to make up my mind and sign by 16th. The offer is fine. Only trouble is they want a 'mr big' director on board - aggghhhhh. Now I'm having a Potdoll moment. Should I say yes because - who knows after this one maybe I'll be better placed to direct? Should I say no and stick my neck out for what I really, really want (and risk not getting it at all)? Or should I try a bit of gentle persuasion and say I'll be happy to step aside WHEN 'mr big' director is on board (if that is at all possible?) Is this a girl thing? I can direct it, in fact I'm best placed to do it, I know I am! Maybe I need to show them my shorts. (What if they determined my directing ability from that cell-phone puppet video underneath - that was a family co-production and I only did the camera -work (shaky I know) and the cutting out - aggggh.) Oh I should be dancing round in my flip-flops instead of tearing out my hair. Answers in comments please. Asap. Ta

..progress

Ok so this is a 'scriptwriting in progress' post - so non-writers or those wanting a more exciting read, turn away now.

This script that I'm writing is based on a true life story - in a way it's an offbeat 'zero to hero', pivoted around some big historical moments.

The other day I realised I had to layer the timing of events and kind of zap back and forth between different places. Why? - mainly because I want the story to link 'moments of revelation' that occur at different points in the protagonist's life. Also I realised that bringing in the antagonist (and the real conflict) at the act one turning point (around 30 pages in) just won't work - it's far too late. People will be thinking - so where's this story going?

I've avoided using the words 'flash back' and 'flash forward' here and I'll avoid pointing them up as such in the script (even though they are there). You see the story is threaded together with a fairly sparse present tense VO. Generally I don't think viewers and audience have a problem with stories that skim back and forth time-wise - so it's getting it down on the page simply - which is the difficult part.

Thinking it out and chopping it up often takes longer than actual writing. So now back to the computer - but at least I know what I'm doing. I think.
Laters

plans...

Now that things are moving forward at a rapid pace once again (isn't it funny how life can just stodge up for weeks on end with not much happening apart from the rain) the big trip can be planned. Too soon to try and make it during the next school holidays here - so it looks like I'll be back in Blighty & Brum for 3 weeks just before Christmas coinciding with the big 'summer holiday' here and maybe even go to NY on the end - (all part of research of course.) Cor - not been back for 6 years. Had lots of visits here from family and a few friends and even imported my mum in the meantime (ha!) and now my sister and new hub are due over here in the next couple of weeks or so. Even so I'm wondering if I'll have a bit of culture shock - what with everything having gone up so much in the meantime, or maybe I might not even want to come back again. That's the worst thing about moving so far way for so long: estrangement from close friends. In an ideal world I'd spend the SA summer here (Nov - April) and then the rest of the time in the UK. Although that's not an entirely impossible scenario, it would require a considerably higher income (!).

Another plan involves storage - getting a built-in floor to ceiling shelving system thing up one wall of the office. Hub probably has around 3 million photo stills (negatives mainly) but for the last 5 years everything has been stored on CDS and DVDs which now amount to hundreds of discs and tons of ring binders - stuffed into every available wardrobe and cupboard and shelving in the house - in no particular order. I once worked at the Ronald Grant archive (and Cinema Museum) in SE London (I wonder if he's still around? - update: blinking heck he is - just found this on the web - have a look:)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnLsvLPGZzA
nice little job where the assorted bunch of blokes spent day after day rummaging through filing cabinets stuffed with classic Hollywood film stills and memorabilia whilst keeping up an never-ending thread of lurid celebrity gossip. That archive seemed to have absolutely no system of organisation whatsoever and just relied purely on memories & instincts of the dedicated staff to locate requested stills. I sat in front of an Amstrad one day a week and typed up invoices and then posted them. (BTW on the vid everything now looks a lot more ordered than it used to)
So anyway organisation is pretty high up on the 'to do' list at the moment...

In other news - I saw a big hairy eyebrow of a caterpillar crawling across the floor to hide under the fridge.

thatandthis

Quick early blog this one. Yesterday watched all-singing, all-dancing pigs in a shopping centre foyer and ate in Woolworth's cafe. Here Woolworths is in fact Marks and Spencers - the local version. Unbelievable but true - same chain but with local versions of products and SA stuff like water brussels etc. Clothes, layout all almost identical. Maybe inverted snobbery makes Brits reluctant to believe this until they step inside the store and feel instantly at home. Come Christmas you can even find butter basted turkeys with the M & S labels on them.

In other news the old lady next door is in hospital unable to walk - but did she fall or was she pushed? Hub inquired about her health (from her adopted daughter) over the garden wall and was told it was a broken hip. Straight after their conversation, the adopted daughter wrote a letter to the neighbour opposite accusing her of gossiping saying that her husband was very sorry for what he had done. Neighbour opposite brought the letter over to us. Hmm.

Am waiting for notes on a treatment before embarking on the first draft of a new script. The SA producer (who went to Cannes) sent an encouraging email outlining various ways forward - even mentioning money - but all very much on the back burner there yet. Still waiting to hear back on various projects including a SHORT outstanding since January. I put that in bold capitals so that blog karma will bring about an immediate response now. Usually works and better to hear something than not hear anything at all huh? This break from writing has enabled me to rethink strategies and paths and all that stuff. After the scripting 'hiccough' earlier in the year, I'd been turning my attentions to overseas - since writing for local production tends to be rather creatively 'encumbered'. But maybe it is time to put aside such thoughts and leaf through the RFP booklet once again - there's still some August deadlines approaching...

A big question mark this year is Sithengi whose future will be decided at the end of the month by the board of directors. It's unlikely that the international film and TV market will continue in its present form, or even run this year since it is now a bit late in the day to set it up. Sithengi has been an important feature of SA's film and TV industry for the last 11 years. My first time there I landed a meaty writing job - unfortunately the company liquidated 4 months into development. But Sithengi provides a chance for everyone to catch up. I've met some great people there. One key advantage is that it is small and intimate - more like Dinard than Cannes. Plus there's always a writer's forum, chance to meet international commissioners and often a couple of new writing schemes or competitions launched. It'll be a pity if it doesn't continue. Let's see.

Fat 100

Yes the 100th blog post today! Wooee!

Give yourself a pat on the back,
pat on the back,
pat on the back,
give yourself a pat on the back
100 posts today
far away!

Seems to be that quiet time of year when script somebodies are not at their desk or they're at Cannes or not at Cannes or on their way or pretending to be.

Now is probably a good time to take stock of what's happened so far this year. I've submitted scripts and synopses left, right and centre that I've yet to hear about. I did a crash course in Xhosa (although far from fluent, I did gain an 'overview'.) I stepped off a lucrative scriptwriting job (for jolly good reason) and won 2nd prize in a script competition that no one has ever heard of. I had 2 rejections from Beeb drama that were so fabulously positive they could be mistaken for acceptances - almost (ha!). I wrote and submitted a short I haven't heard about yet, reworked a feature drama into a radio play for a comp and found a UK producer for another feature drama submission. Also did plenty of honing, tweaking, refining and re-writing and am now working on these jazz stories. Plus an SA producer is in Cannes with my 'hot' project - let's see.

Distant shores beckon perhaps.

(any other Shiny Show fans out there?)

TV

Radio was quite big in my home as a child since we didn't have a TV until I was well into my teens - a fact which often bemuses producers and others that I work with nowadays. I remember my grandmother in Wigan had a huge radio on her sideboard that was always tuned ready for 'Waggoner's Walk'. When her programme came on, she sat in front of the radio and listened.

I don't remember missing out by not having TV - although in one lesson at school we were asked what our favourite programme was and I sat anxiously wondering what I could say. It didn't matter anyway because the first child said 'Starsky and Hutch' and so did the next and the next and the next. So when it came to me I just said 'Starsky and Hutch' and hoped I was pronouncing the title correctly because I hadn't a clue what it was.

Later on when we did have a TV - viewing was carefully regulated by my mother (who now doesn't have a TV at all.) After 7.30pm TV watching was over. I don't know whether they had the watershed but my mum's cut off time was well before it! I remember standing in my pyjamas peeking through a central heating grill half way up the stairs trying to watch the end of 'Z Cars'.

Now here with satellite DSTV there are over a hundred channels - more to choose but less choice (of anything that I really want to see.) When I first moved to these shores, I watched Eastenders probably more avidly than I had in the UK. The characters and storylines were familiar compared to those in the local soaps. Also Eastenders had a regular early evening timeslot and was pretty much synchronous with the UK transmissions. Last year they suddenly revised the schedules and lumped Eastenders into an omnibus edition on Sundays. In a family - even with a split decoder - TV watching is often about bagging your programme ahead of others - ahead of the children's TV and ahead of the sports or news. So for me, Sunday afternoon was out. BBC Prime is still my channel of choice - despite being crammed with lifestyle/makeover programmes fronted by curious hermaphoditic presenters with plastic spectacles and names that are either monosyllabic or double barrelled.

In this household, local stations are 'must see' mainly for news or local sports. The main broadcaster SABC attracts the greatest share of the South African audience - mainly because it is free-to-air. The vast portion of the population does not have access to anything other than terrestrial TV, if that. Radio has a wider reach particularly in the rural areas. In the townships there are often up to 30 people in a room - all watching a popular local TV drama such as 'Home Affairs'.

snip: this rather rambling post has been cut. I'll write more about the local broadcaster in a separate post

Visits

Ok a confession - I've been spying on visitors (via a 30 day free subscription to hitslink.) It ends any day now so soon I'll be back to blogging oblivion.

As a procrastination tool, it tops the list - with pie charts, logs and graphs. It's been fascinating finding out about visiting patterns. Besides my regulars from the UK (you know who you are) - in the last week I have a rapidly growing number of visitors from China (all alerted by RSS feeds to new posts) Hello readers in China! Straight after posting there's a flurry of hits worldwide. Regulars pop around at more or less the same times each day. Right now the UK and US provide most readers and (surprise, surprise) South Africa one of the least. When I started I automatically assumed that local interest would be higher than international (despite a host of social inequity issues)

Maybe over the next month I'll rethink my sidebar or maybe I won't...

..fast forward. Stop.

Well I've been putting it off and putting it off (broadband being down was a good excuse) but here's the next instalment. Maybe I feel that this one is less about writing and more about 'getting on' with life - in fact I could sum it up in a single sentence:

I went and did all the things I wanted to do, before it was too late.

I packed up living in South East London, ran 5000 miles away across the sea to be in my (new) long-distance South African relationship, had a baby, got married, bought a nice house with a nice garden, renovated, made biscuits and here I am blogging about it.

Oh and I started writing rapidly for money - anything and everything and everywhere and as quickly as possible. My whole new approach was 'this is the only way I can stay at home with a baby and earn money and so I have to do it'.

The rapid writing thing actually started when my daughter was about 6 months old. Sitting in front of a PC is in fact a perfect occupation for a new mother. The baby, tucked into an armpit, quickly adapts to somniferous tapping (if kept regular).

If they paid, I wrote it. Deadlines became challenges. I wrote faster and faster. I tried to beat my own best times. I wrote internet travel video guides for places I'd never been to. In 3 months I wrote 22 half hour long scripts for the Ethiopian National Curriculum - schools TV. I churned them out. I wrote pitch documents for production companies for all kind of programmes and formats. I wrote articles for newspapers - (hub did the photographs) 2 hours to finish a script - or half an hour to get a rewrite in, I'd do it. I lost the ability to be precious.

I got work developing a brilliant drama series set in Namibia and mentoring new writers and flew to Namibia for workshops. Three months later the company dissolved. Then a children's series on African Sky stories was commissioned. I wrote and directed it.....
I wrote new feature scripts and blah and so on and other stuff...

And what happened to that script - the one I completed on 3 months sick leave? My long-standing 'friend-in-scripts' thought it was the best ever. Before I packed up my life to move to South Africa I sent it to Beeb Writersroom. Five months later in sunny Cape Town I opened a lovely letter saying they were recommending me to CBBC - who promptly lost the script and then when I re-sent it were a bit curious as to why I had. Being one of the chosen 10/10,000 per annum doesn't necessarily amount to much. Maybe a name added to a list in someone's office somewhere. Who knows?

Anyway here I am - still writing scripts and living hopefully ever after...

The End
(ha ha)



Happy Valentines day everyone!

Rewind, pause...

The office was closed down. The script that had attracted a record amount of development money was dead. I was signing on.

Some back story before I continue. Around the time the first euros came through, my soon-to-be-ex was dreaming about returning to his native* South Africa. I accompanied him to SA, taking Viki King's inspiring tome and knocked out a first draft script in 21 days. The ex stayed in South Africa and over the next year I flew back and forth several times. Johannesburg was alive - change was tangible - the mood - upbeat. I directed a dance documentary and taught a short screenwriting course.

I had an idea for a script set in SA. It was the antithesis to the 'commercial' story that I'd been slogging away at. I wrote it in London. By now the long distance relationship was over.

No one much liked the new script - it was edgy and unfamiliar. It was accepted for a directing lab in Ireland - 10 days of Guinness fuelled fun and bonding and filming scenes with actors - (including the brilliant Chewy).

I received a 6 month 'Restart' interview letter from the Job Centre. Dutifully I skipped off to London Bridge, sat in a room full of people, filled in multiple choice questions and did a brief interview. I was measured for a uniform, told to obtain police clearance, sent for a drug and alcohol test and a full medical. Somehow I'd slipped seamlessly into a full time job on the London Underground.

The 4 week training was full of transactional analysis and personality tests. Every test indicated that I was the most unsuitable employee for LU. I was an anarchist. I was not a team player. I was not consumer-oriented. 4 weeks flew by. Some participants were mysteriously shown the door amid rumours of 'spying' or 'bad references' or worse. The ones that remained started to feel smug. We drew diagrams of magnetic fields and learned about conductivity and the positive and negative rails. We did a track walk. We visited the Transport Museum and made site visits to Charing Cross Underground Station and analysed used tickets. On the last day of the course we got drunk and danced the night away in Camden. My brand new life had begun.

For months I crept across London at 3am, ghosted through empty stations, sipped tea in subterranean mess rooms, hid myself in platform boxes to make announcements (in exactly the same mournful tones as I'd heard others do for years); 'The next Southbound Bakerloo line service will be calling at.. I showed thousands of people how to get to where they were going. In uniform I was invisible. Then I was moved to the shiny new Jubilee Line extension. Beneath the transcendent architecture and countless cameras, there was no place to hide. I walked back and forth and back and forth along miles and miles of polished platform impatient for the next break, the next train, the next radio message, the next change of shift, the next rush hour, the next minute, the next time to go home...

After 18 months I couldn't stand it any longer. I went off sick on full pay. I wasn't going back. I had a whole new script in my head and it took me exactly 3 months to get it out. Then I handed in my notice.

tbc

* It later turned out he had a multiple personality disorder and was not South African at all - but that's another story.

Global local

The annual highlight of the local film and TV industry's social calendar Sithengi starts here next week.

Friday has various discussions on TV drama for most of the day - I'm hoping to get to this:

Local and international broadcasters discuss international trends in international drama
Chair: Indra De Lanerolle (Ochre Moving Pictures)
Panelists: Kethiwe Ngcobo (SABC) • Andy Harries (Granada
TV) • Tara Ellis (Alliance Atlantis) • Gub Neal (Box TV)
Here the panel will present case studies including five minute clips on popular international television dramas, with the objective of showcasing why these dramas work for an international audience, what challenges they face with regard to international co-production, and what South African producers need to be aware of when developing international drama co-productions. The SABC will also highlight what their strategy is in relation to international drama co-productions.

Here and there

Caught up on past Writers Guild e-bulletins (different info than on their blog) today plus discovered the Scriptwriter's Union here is undergoing massive changes for the better even though - unlike Writer's Guild - it is pretty capital-centric i.e. all the wonderful talks, happenings shenanigans, jobs are based in the 'big city' - faraway from us sea-siders. Of course, there's more to it than that - a huge historical, cultural and social divide between 'us' and 'them'.

My (major) revelation today is: 'thinking time is just as important as doing time'. I'm not one for recklessly attacking the keyboard every morning, empty headed. I find when I've thought a script through (in its entirety) then it's much easier to bang it out on the page. Whereas if I'm struggling obliquely with some facet of the story - then usually it ends up not working well. In fact my 3 best scripts I managed to knock out within 21 days mainly because the 'story had fallen' into place - like an egg.
What about you?

I now have this series I'm mulling over - spanning there and here. I am now going to pad it into 13 eps for submission to a local broadcaster before the end of Sept. Earlier this year another project outline received positive feedback and is something else I must thrash out by the end of the year. Again it spans two worlds. After five years here, its the 'there' bit I'm now having difficulty with. Aside from the one page outline, I beat sheeted the first third and scripted 5 pages - what a crap way of working huh? I now I need to thoroughly think through the whole story before I go any further. It needs to 'drop'.

Now it is 8pm. I've put my daughter to bed. Earlier I delivered 2 lemons from my garden to my mother. I emailed my soon-to-be wed sister asking her to tape ultra controversial drama to be broadcast next week. I did a couple of follow ups on my latest script BM but no actual writing. Hmm..

I was also daydreaming about a derelict Victorian mansion fairly close to where I live now - beautiful huge building - and imagined setting up my various film related businesses there + photographic gallery (husband) plus writers' tearoom (Granny)..

Laters.

Boo hoo

Already had to edit first entry (prior to going live) due to a rejection received this morning. Very generic letter - no hint of anything positive to be teased from it. Yeah I know a form letter means its didn't push any buttons anywhere. But I have been wondering if all the major institutions now send their employees on courses on how to deliver/write rejection letters.

'Don't promise anything you can't give. Don't offer any hope because the writer will follow it up immediately. Never write any subjective or critical comments that the writer may question. Never offer any reasons for rejection beyond 'the high calibre of proposals received'. Always open the door to other new projects at some indefinite time in the future... etc'

So now I'm re-thinking the purpose of this blog and wonder whether I'll actually launch at all - boo hoo - so much better to have positive feedback and news to unveil at the outset. Well this same proposal was pitched to the main broadcaster here last month - so I'm not losing hope completely. In fact the whole idea was developed with audiences over here in mind. When you have a foot in both worlds you tend to get caught in between.

Laters.