Hi There,

This week, more notes from the excellent SOHO CREATE festival way back in June –

SOHO HOLLYWOOD

CATHERINE SHOARD (The Guardian) interviewing –

TIM BEVAN. Working Title Films. Has made over 100 films since 1984. Has won 11 Oscars, 37 BAFTA’s.

DUNCAN CLARK – Universal

FIONA WALKINSHAW – Framestore, VX, Exec producer of GRAVITY.

‘Tim Bevan, one of the country’s most successful and prolific producers, will be in conversation with Duncan Clark, President of Distribution for Universal Pictures International and Framestore chief exec FIONA WALKINSHAW . These three movie greats have been involved in well over 100 films. What can they tell us about the changing nature of the industry, technical, creative and commercial? Why does this tiny square mile of London play such an important role in Hollywood, and how will these powerful links evolve over the next ten years?’

The first film you ever saw?

FW: THE SNOW QUEEN

TB: The movies of the ‘70’s got me involved in film – a golden age of Hollywood – Ashby, Coppola, Scorsese. These films made me fall in love with the industry. Got a runners job in Soho. It didn’t really feel like work. But working in the film industry was better than work. I really love what I do. Most of all because you’re part of a team.

DC: THE WIZARD OF OZ. I remember being so scared by it. Example of the effect film can have on you. I never knew what I wanted to do – wanted to be a famous sportsman. From a family of journalists. Ended up in advertising, then did ads for a film company. Then being involved with film piqued my interest. A job to keep, a career to pursue.

FW: Not initially interested in film. But I loved reading stories, wanted to work in publishing, but didn’t enjoy it. Used to go off to the loo for a snooze! Got job as LWT news runner. Then receptionist job at Framestore.

TB: started as runner, then making music videos. Worked with directors like Nic Roeg, Stephen Frears. Learnt a lot from working with them. Worked with Frears just after he’d made THE HIT. I introduced him to a young crew. Stephen gave me and Sarah Radcliffe a Hanif Kureishi script. We had a meeting with Channel 4. They immediately gave us the money to make the film. Working Title’s first film (MY BEAUTIFUL LAUNDRETTE)– it’s got a lot more difficult since then!

DC: Not a producer. But 15 years ago produced a film in Hollywood – low budget – great experience. Worked for Sony in LA.

TB: Good to have a group of people around you. When we started, we formed a community of creative people. You have to be tenacious as well as creative. In a filing cabinet you will have a tray of rejection letters to get any movie funded.

FW: Innovation is important at Framestore. Very creatively driven in advertising and film.

TB: You have to know when it’s not working. Sometimes you have a mutual respect between writer, director, producer – there’s a buzz – and the result is greater than the sum of its parts. This doesn’t happen on most movies – you have to value it when it does happen.

The film industry jades people. You have to get people at the right time.

DC: In distribution – movies from lots of different sources. When films come through – from treatment or script – it’s an acknowledged process – a journey that can take time. But when we get involved, films are generally on track – so less cynicism for me in the process.

TB: one of the things Richard Curtis taught me, quality control is everything. You have to be tenacious at every step of the process.

The industry has never been better. Britain – as a place to make films – has so much going for it. Working on movies now, there’s a proper career to be had – particularly if you specialise in one of the movie-making crafts.

FW: The new technology, ability to shoot your own films has democratized the industry.

TB: London is a really good place to be, a good time. More hours of film and TV than ever before are being made. I credit Gordon Brown. Sorted out tax credit scheme. Successive governments have stuck with it since. Now for every producer starting on funding a film, you have 25% of the budget before you start.

DC: We’re slightly on the outside here in London – but in LA it’s all a bit homogenised. Being outside of that environment can only be an advantage. The film world in Soho has been such an important part of my life. A tiny, packed area, whereas LA is vast and sprawling. Very energising.

FW: In London we don’t ever take the business for granted. Creatives at Framestore are never complacent about their place in the market.

TB: Working Title have offices in both London and LA. In the UK you have to be very pro-active. The UK punches above its weight in creatives. The big difference here is that there are various art forms. Cross-pollination is much better here – theatre and TV cross-pollinate in London. There’s very little theatre in LA compared to London.

Theatre here is a fantastic source for film – great to be able to tap into London theatre.

There’s a great social scene in Soho. Back in the day – the Groucho Club, the George. Now Soho House. Soho is socially vibrant – with lots of people from the creative industries in Soho.

DC: The big studios have a responsibility to make films that ‘common-denominate’ in 40 different territories.

TB: As a producer, we have a slate of movies. We don’t want a massive gap between films. We try to have a broad slate. Balance things out, develop as much as you can, with projects in different stages of development – from conception to production. The quickest development period we’ve had is 1 year, the longest 15-20 years. We’re thinking a few years ahead all the time.

DC: As distributor we’re thinking 3-5 years ahead. The timings never fall into place perfectly.

FW: At Framestore, we’re always looking two years ahead – things change all the time. We employ about 1000 people. We’re always trying to keep our slate full. The worst part of the job is when you suddenly see a gap, where schedules change – suddenly 200 people in the company who need work.

TB: Have the same attitude to extreme success and failure. Nothing surprises me very much – when films don’t happen.

DC: It’s a huge team effort in making and marketing a movie. If people don’t embrace a film, there’s a big debate about production and marketing. It’s always a bit of a roller-coaster.

Getting into the industry –

TB: We all had to get into it and for all of us it was difficult. Be clear about where you want to end up – be specific. Everyone at the start wants to be a runner – if you specifically want to work in the art department, for instance, it gives you an advantage.

FW: Make sure you do your research. One of my pet hates, is the standard blurb on CV’s, ‘I’m a highly motivated, organised individual…’ Don’t write that, write something interesting.

TB: Work experience – seize the opportunity when you have it. Diversity – shocking lack of diversity, especially behind the camera.

FW: When starting out, be aware of internship opportunities.

DC: Distribution – producers / distributors / exhibitors – it’s very competitive. Every week 4 or 5 movies are opening – there’s so much demand for the few available screens. Films sometimes do have very short, limited theatrical releases. But nowadays you’ve never missed a film forever – films come round in another vehicle.

TB: The studios have become very market-oriented. (BIRDMAN, GRAVITY were turned down by all the studios – both won Oscars)

One of the great things for Working Title has been the relationship with Universal. We think of the UK as our principal market, but if a film works it will have ripples all round the world. We soon realized the importance of the market worldwide. FOUR WEDDINGS AND A FUNERAL changed everything – it was a massive door-opener. UK films don’t have to be huge – but there’s a big audience for them if you get them right.

Studios have different divisions – to look after and develop different types and scale of films.

There’s never a single moment when a film gets green-lit – it’s a process that happens over a course of months. Then the official green-light almost comes as a formality.

Releasing the trailer is like releasing the movie now.

FW: Huge impact (in the marketing) of sites like ‘Rotten Tomatoes’.

DC: Some movies take on a viral energy that we don’t anticipate.

TB: The response on the Mail online is a good indicator of a movie’s future success. So many hits for LEGEND (Tom Hardy as Kray twins) and new Bridget Jones movie – this reflects box office potential.

The next newsletter will be on Friday Dec 9^th,

All the best

Phil

PHILIP SHELLEY

www.script-consultant.co.uk

@PhilipShelley1

Nov 25^th 2016

Hi There,

This week some notes from a session at the excellent SOHO CREATE festival that takes place every June in Soho. If you’re London-based, look out for it in 2017

SOHO CREATE : JUMPING OVER THE EDGE: What It Feels Like When It Works

‘How successful do these three brilliant creative people feel? Critics Circle Award-winning actor and writer Phoebe Waller-Bridge, recently seen as Lulu in her screen-writing debut, Crashing, will be in conversation with Dennis Kelly and Colin McIntyre. Kelly wrote his first play at 30 and has since written over 20 more including Matilda The Musical with Tim Minchin. McIntyre who as well as having a successful recording career under his own name and the Mull Historical Society, has leapt of the edge recently by writing his Edinburgh Book Festival award-winning debut novel. Together they will discuss what drives them to continue to create new work, take different directions and leap into the void.’

PHOEBE WALLER-BRIDGE

DENNIS KELLY

COLIN MCINTYRE

PWB: I left drama school and no-one wanted me to act in anything. In the 2 years after I left drama school, when it was really hard, I met Vicky Jones, we started Dry-Write – we pushed each other – someone who champions you and encourages you.

CM: Story-telling the key word. Song-writing has helped me. I come from Mull. My story started there. I went to Glasgow to study – but have been writing songs since I was 6 or 7. Always did it myself. At uni in Glasgow, Jeff Travis from Rough Trade saw me perform. While on tour, I started writing short stories – they came from the same place as my songs. My grandfather was a bank manager on Mull, but also a poet.

DK: I left school at 16, worked in a supermarket in Barnet. Went to youth theatre, used to live for that Thursday. Spent a dissolute 20’s. I was shit at acting so I wrote a play. A friend put it on, they still wouldn’t let me be in it.

I’d love to say it was all research but I was just making bad life choices. But it’s definitely useful to have lived a bit. But it’s more about honesty – with yourself about the material you’re writing.

Ideas are weird – you can’t sit around waiting for them. Sometimes I slog away for ages, there’s nothing there; you have to keep grasping for it.

CM: You have to find something that feels real. I spent a lot of my teens sounding like Blur or someone else – until you find something that feels a bit different.

PWB: Daring to feel like your own voice can be unique. Just the way you’ve been chatting to your friends for 10 years.

DK: There are lots of pitfalls. ‘Find your own voice and that’s it’ – terrible advice. There’s a danger that if you go out and find a voice, that it’s not you. But the thing to do is try to be you and hope you’re not a prick.

CM: You don’t think about the audience, just a little secret of your own. I didn’t even tell my wife I was writing my novel. Then it’s just for you.

PWB: CRASHING came from a series of short plays. ‘Big Talk’ Productions liked the plays – asked how can we put the characters together? A Big Talk exec came up with the idea from the Property Guardian. C4 liked the character – but asked, ‘why now?’

I come up with the character arcs first, then try to inter-link them as much as possible, throw hideous things at them. Then coming up with a beginning, middle and end – each episode story.

DK: On UTOPIA, I was working with really good people. Good producers do nothing – just work with really good people. Marc Munden was brilliant, as were the actors. It was difficult to write – it was sprawling, wheedling in real events, ‘bending the truth’ into the story. It’s hard to keep a story arc over the whole series, and then to write episode stories within that. As a writer, it’s hard to see the difference between film and TV series. The audience is sophisticated and intelligent. In the UK, we get scared that the audience won’t understand everything.

CM: My novel is set on an island like Mull. Charles Darwin visits the island.

PWB: FLEABAG – a friend was running a story-telling night, and asked me to do a 10 minute story. So I wrote a ten minute thing, I wrote it to make Vicky laugh – it went down well. We sorted out a slot in Edinburgh – but it was for one hour. I expanded my ten minute piece in ten minute sections, until I had one hour of material. The company helped me to dramatise it – helped me find a story in it, pulling out the truth in it. Daring it to be brave. Wrote the ending on the way up to Edinburgh. It crept up on me, the rawness. Had a great response. BBC interested. Adapting a one woman show into a multi-character cast was challenging.

DK: MATILDA for the RSC. At first it was just me. They asked, ‘Do you fancy doing a musical?’ My response, ‘I hate musicals.’  They said great. I often write out of the house. Being in a coffee shop is just the right balance of private and public. With MATILDA, I had to make the story my own, tear bits out. Dahl’s structure for film and musical is terrible – it’s structured to work as a children’s story. But he gives you this great colour and characters. Really hard work, loads of workshops – making something that we believed in.

I feel like ignorance is under-rated. I didn’t want to see other musicals – which is very stupid because I got lots of stuff wrong. But it’s good in some ways because you follow your instincts.

PWB: I didn’t want to learn the lesson of structure.

DK: Structure isn’t that difficult really – it’s like telling a joke in the right way. Referenced Robert McKee’s ideas on structure.

PWB: But McKee is just breaking down other people’s structure…

DK: But they’re not inventing it, it’s all there – by p.7 this needs to happen, by p.15 something else needs to happen – it can be useful and right, but sometimes not.

CM: I’ve always been slightly fearful of ‘learning how to do things.’ When writing the 3^rd or 4^th draft of my novel, I sent it to my agent. The 1^st time I’d ever had editorial feedback. He loved the things I was most insecure about. Having someone believe in you, when someone give you that belief, it allows you to fly.

DK: Writing a big zombie film, Matilda musical. Currently writing 3 films.

PWB: Editing FLEABAG for BBC, goes out in July. Adapting a novella about a female psychopath. And auditioning for things I haven’t written – which I’m really excited about.

PWB: FLEABAG: The power you have as a narrator is that you’re seeing everything through one person’s skewed version of the world and characters.  I had to let go of the idea that she was in control of the whole story. There is some direct address to camera, but her control slips. Vicky Jones was script editor – she and the producer helped me with it. Having a sounding board is really important for me – talking things out, acting them out.

DK: I have a tip about writer’s block – it doesn’t exist – it’s fear. We’re all scared – but we’ve ‘medicalised’ it. Do you hear the voice of your character? When I get scared, I get a new notebook – makes me feel it doesn’t matter. You have to ‘de-importantise’ it. I’ve been doing it for 15 years. If you can write something bad, write it so that you can get to something good and better.

CM: Don’t hold onto it – move onto something else.

DK: But don’t throw anything away.

CM: Just wake up tomorrow and start writing.

PWB: It’s about daring yourself. If I’m writing something that’s quite personal to me, then I get a thrill that it might also mean something to someone else.

DK: Just write to the best of your ability at that time. Don’t worry if it’s good or bad.

CM: Whatever you write, it has to come from a spark. What’s the thing you’re trying to communicate? At some point you have to jump off that cliff.

DK: With my first attempts at plays, I was trying to write things I thought people wanted – mistake. I changed to thinking – what do I really care about? Things that really mattered to me. Not easy to find, not easy to be honest with yourself about.

Taking notes from people is really hard, it took me a few years. We all know what we think about films etc – we develop those skills to judge films, plays, etc. But the mistake is to think we can apply those skills to our own work.

What other people can help you with is to see it through their eyes, to get outside yourself. It takes time to learn to cope with notes – but it can be brilliant if you have smart people helping you. But you have to trust your gut – because sometimes a terrible note can look the same as a good one.

CM: Amazing skill of editors to help you stand back – and then help you move forward.

PWB: It forces you to articulate your work, what you were trying to do. It’s helped me understand moments better. Sometimes not agreeing with a note helps you understand – you’re not quite conveying something that you need to.

Learning how to listen to note-taking a whole new skill. If they don’t get it, don’t dismiss this.

DK: You can get shit notes – try not to get upset – people are trying to help.

The next newsletter will be on Nov 25^th

All the best

Phil

PHILIP SHELLEY

www.script-consultant.co.uk

@PhilipShelley1

Nov 11^th 2016

FORTHCOMING COURSES

SCRIPT DEVELOPMENT FOR TV DRAMA & FILM

Cardiff Nov 1^st & 2^nd  with guest screenwriter, RUSSELL GASCOIGNE https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/script-editing-and-development-for-tv-drama-and-film-cardiff-tickets-27410047189?aff=es2

Belfast Nov 15 & 16. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/script-editing-and-development-for-tv-drama-and-film-belfast-tickets-26840049310?aff=es2

INDIE TRAINING FUND COURSES, LONDON

One day Story, Ideas & Character Masterclass Nov 24^th http://www.indietrainingfund.com/courses/narrative/?event=6159

Hi There,

At the moment I’ve got my head down reading the literally hundreds of outstanding script submissions for the 2017 CHANNEL 4 SCREENWRITING COURSE. It’s like having my own personal high-class indie film festival – I’ve read so many really enjoyable scripts in the last few weeks – and have several more weeks of reading to look forward to.

I was reminded of one of the best scripts of all that I’ve read in my 7 years of running the C4 course this week with the UK theatrical release of BURN BURN BURN. Written by Charlie Covell, who has since gone onto deserved and continuing success, I saw this film at the 2015 London Film Festival. The script of the film is even better than the script I read that Charlie had entered for the 2014 4Screenwriting.

It’s in cinemas from today. If you have any spare time this weekend, seek it out, you won’t regret it – it’s a lovely film – touching, funny and hugely enjoyable, and the work of a writer of whom you will hear much more in the future.

And Channel 4 have just announced another new writers scheme – a reboot of COMING UP, run by Touchpaper TV, which looks like a great opportunity –

http://www.touchpapertv.com/content/touchpaper/4stories/index.html

This week, I went to the BAFTA screenwriters lecture given by PHIL LORD & CHRISTOPHER MILLER, the incredibly prolific writer / director / producer team whose credits include CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS, THE LEGO MOVIE, 21 JUMP STREET, and who are now working on the next STAR WARS movie.

Here are some notes from their inspiring, insightful and very funny talk –

LORD & MILLER

Trying to demystify the idea of creative genius.

Make the directions short – how your script reads, the screenplay as reading experience is very important.

Talked about cave paintings that are thousands of years old – same creative urge as film. The audience / reader is the one doing much of the creative work, making the magic.

We all have narrative. Story-telling is an innate ability. Sometime between the ages of 7 & 17, when we discover embarrassment, we forget that.

Story produces the conditions for the audience to project their own emotions onto the images. For example, feature films create a safe space to examine death – so that we don’t have to experience death (or near-death) first-hand (yet).

Set it up so that the audience can do this job for themselves.

Their big point was – anyone can do this. We all tell stories.

Then went onto emphasise this by a comprehensive listing of their own failures. They worked on lots of shows that failed – they were absolutely not an overnight success.

A quote (I can’t remember who) ‘All of you have 10,000 bad drawings in you and you need to get them out as soon as possible.’ ie if you write, failure is inevitable!

‘CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS’ was a favourite book of both of them. They got fired from the project, other writers brought on, were fired, Lord & Miller re-hired – and then also got to direct it.

ON their return, big meeting – hostile environment, the script had been thrown out – a very important day for them. We threw the question out – what do you all think? We started listening. Eye-opening. Really healthy – learnt a lot about how it could be better, how it could be more engaging.

A movie has to be about a relationship – that’s what stories are. CWACOM became about a father / son relationship. We had resisted this – because it’s so familiar – but it’s familiar because it’s elemental, something we can all understand. And however familiar, you can express it in a way that’s unique to you.

One particular scene based on a conversation I had with my dad. So we put it in the movie – a phone conversation when he was trying unsuccessfully to explain to his dad how to copy and paste a web link.

In the same way that stories are about relationships, movies are about relationships – we listened to people – good ideas come from all over the place eg on CWACOM , a key idea for the story came from the editor very late in the creative process. On CWACOM, the opening credit is ‘A film by a lot of people.’ Lord & Miller believe this is the way they work best – in collaboration with a lot of other people, and in collaboration with each other. They say it really helps their work that they’re constantly having to defend their work to each other. Having a writing partner keeps your ego in check.

‘STD’ – splitting the difference always works!

Their writing process –

Ste p1 Coffee –

Step 2  Procrastinate – an essential part of the process!

Step 3 – create in open mode – throwing ideas out there in a very free and messy way. It’s hard to get both of them in an ‘open’ mode at the same time – but essential. Chasing weird ideas.

Step 4 – edit in ‘closed mode’. Pulling out the good from the mess – very low yield.

Step 5 – trust your audience. It’s important to take notes on faith – the reaction is true, because the listener / reader is ‘telling’ / living the story. Sometimes someone will pitch you a solution you may not like – but there’s something true / worthwhile underlying that.

Not all notes are good. (eg notes from a fear-based place, or people coming up with their own ideas, that don’t fit with what you’re trying to do). But if you’re listening to a lot of people, there will be common threads.

The Lego Movie got a lot better in the last 6 weeks of the process. In animation you make the movie backwards. Our process derives from our start writing TV comedy in the writers room.

SUPER SIMPLE WRITING PROCESS –

1. Outline story beats until you can’t stand to do it any longer.
2. We split up and write chosen scenes separately.
3. We switch scenes, rewrite the scenes we’ve been given
4. Then switch back again and rewrite
5. Find the agreed middle ground.
6. Let your friends read and tear it apart.

Repeat steps 3-5!

7. Read aloud with actors
8. Discuss solutions, Rewrite the bits that don’t work.
9. Shoot – constantly rewriting on the day.
10. Edit, keep re-writing.

In the insurance business they joke about writers and the psychiatric help they need as a profession – as a writer you need to have that obsessive, neurotic desire to make it better. CM said he is suspicious of a writer saying they’re very happy with their script – we’re never happy.

We’re trying to show you how anyone can do this job – but at the same time we’re saying don’t do this job!

Question every scene. Question every character.

We ask – does this feel like a generic version of this scene? How can we make it less generic, more specific? Do I know the character well enough to know what they would do in this situation?

CM gave the example of an episode of CHEERS in which Cliff goes on the game show JEOPARDY.  He said the enjoyment of the episode was knowing and watching how that character would behave in that situation.

You’ve got to hate your own work – be your harshest critic – when you’re in ‘closed mode’.

A producer said, ‘The only positive emotion you feel in this industry is relief.’

Their producer, when he discovered that they’d invited loads of actor + director friends to come and hear a table read of one of their scripts, warned them, ‘Don’t you realise, they’re all going to have IDEAS!?’

But that’s exactly what we wanted. ‘I only have one boss, and that’s the movie.’

‘If you are open to revision, and iterate enough times, you will look like you know what you’re doing.’

‘Revision is good for you.’

It’s important to remember that we all have this innate ability to tell stories. Trust yourself and work your butt off.

Lord & Miller’s Pledge – ‘I will make new things even if I don’t make any money doing it because I am a human being which is the best animal. Amen.’

Finally this week, another writing event in which you may be interested –

UNIVERSITY WOMEN IN THE ARTS –  EVENT THREE ANNOUNCED WITH ANNE EDYVEAN, HEAD OF BBC WRITERSROOM

The third University Women in the Arts public event has been announced.

Taking place on November 9^th at 6pm, this will be an In Conversation event with Anne Edyvean, Head of BBC Writersroom, the BBC’s new writing department.

Anne is one of 15 women leading the way in the arts in the UK taking part in the one off scheme University Women in the Arts in order to provide access to their advice for women wanting to work in the arts across the UK.

The free event can be booked at: http://universitywomeninthearts-anneedyvean.eventbrite.co.uk

The event is particularly targeted at female students studying arts subjects at Universities across the UK but is open to anyone who would like access to these women’s advice.

The next newsletter will be on Friday November 11^th,

All the best

Phil

PHILIP SHELLEY

www.script-consultant.co.uk

@PhilipShelley1

Oct 28^th 2016

FORTHCOMING COURSES

SCRIPT DEVELOPMENT FOR TV DRAMA & FILM

Nottingham, Oct 18 & 19 https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/script-editing-and-development-for-tv-drama-and-film-nottingham-tickets-27409930841?aff=es2

Cardiff Nov 1^st & 2^nd  https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/script-editing-and-development-for-tv-drama-and-film-cardiff-tickets-27410047189?aff=es2

Belfast Nov 15 & 16. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/script-editing-and-development-for-tv-drama-and-film-belfast-tickets-26840049310?aff=es2

INDIE TRAINING FUND COURSES, LONDON

One day Story, Ideas & Character Masterclass Nov 24^th http://www.indietrainingfund.com/courses/narrative/?event=6159

Hi There,

You may remember a few weeks ago, I wrote about my experiences working for a week in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

I’m very grateful to writer / producer IAN MASTERS for his fascinating, thoughtful response, based on extensive personal experience of life and film-making in Cambodia –

‘For anyone who has visited the Kingdom of Cambodia it’s very clear that the Khmer Rouge still casts a shadow over this country. Whether that’s through the presence of the memorials and museums, the long-running Khmer Rouge Tribunal, the Khmer Rouge past of many of the politicians, or more intangibly in the inter-generational transmission of mental health issues, you can’t go a day in Cambodia without some exposure to the devastating period between 1975 and 1979. It is truly overwhelming for any outsider to comprehend. But working in Cambodia with young filmmakers was a fascinating (and often humbling) way for me to see how this traumatic past was creatively inspiring the next generation.

It’s worth remembering that Cambodia had a thriving film industry in the 1960s and early 1970s (which became the subject of my first feature project there, The Last Reel) But filmmakers were singled out for “re-education” by the Khmer Rouge, and of the 300 or so films produced before the regime only around 30 survive. As Cambodia’s fledgling film industry begins to recover, how to (and whether to) tell stories from that period is a constant source of discussion.

There are many who think that Cambodia should be presenting itself to the world as having moved on. Others that the Khmer Rouge obsession prevents stories from being told that reflect or question a contemporary reality. Davy Chou’s Diamond Island revolves around youngsters in the thriving construction sector and screened in Cannes in 2016. Certainly it seems that audiences (mainly young urban middle-class) want films which reflect their contemporary lives and desires not the horrors endured by their parents and grandparents. The mainstay of Khmer filmmaking is horror and ghost comedies like much of South East Asia. Meanwhile others like Rithy Panh go back to the period regularly with The Missing Picture being nominated for the Best Foreign Language film.

In some ways, documentaries have been able to navigate this period better. Camp 32, Enemies of the People, Brother Number One have documented survivors’ relationships to this dark past and how it still impacts their present.  But it’s in drama that films about the Khmer Rouge struggle, particularly with new directors, many of whom were born after the Paris Peace Accords. Most are survivor stories – starting from the evacuation of Phnom Penh in 1975 by the Khmer Rouge, survival in the labour camps, escape to the camps in Thailand, and some kind of coda – either refugee resettlement to the US, or return to their forever changed homeland.

Angelina Jolie-Pitt has recently directed First They Killed My Father based on a survivor testimony. Chhay Bora’s film, Lost Loves, is the story of the director’s mother-in-law and her survival under the Pol Pot regime. Meticulously researched and presented, historical truth is paramount. Testimonies from his family inform the film. Historical details and incidents are recorded and presented in a chronology. Memorialising, recording, chronicling are all invaluable in their own right. And the therapeutic process of re-visiting and working through trauma has tangible benefits.

But is it enough in a drama to depict a horrific past? Is there a danger that stories become “trauma porn” – a kind of sickening, heart-melting dive into the abyss with graphic details providing the emotional response in the absence of character-based drama? Easy enough to say from the outside, but what makes drama different? Part of the difficulty is that often the stories are personal. Through personal experience or a family connection, a director starts to investigate the monolithic darkness of the era, but then becomes overwhelmed by the scale and horror. Somehow it doesn’t feel enough to find a singular personal interpretation.

For me it’s about point of view – the “why” of the story. All too often the “why” becomes overwhelmed by the “how, when and where.” Handling such a personal, but also collectively experienced subject, in my view, requires the director to try to make sense of it through a character’s journey for the audience. How does the character change? What do they learn? That doesn’t have to be true to everyone (how can it be?). Neither does it have to be deep, metaphysical or controversial. But it has to be there. In that one journey, dramatised through an individual rather than collective truth, directors may begin to interpret events and rise above historical chronicle or bewildered incomprehension. Otherwise the very real worry is that the film contributes to the mythologising of an era, concretising the times into a monolothic truth which is above challenge or interpretation, which is fixed in the past.

There is of course an additional element here. The detail comes from the victim’s story, not the perpetrators. Depicting the perpetrators from the perspective of the victims doesn’t often provide the same degree of characterisation for the Khmer Rouge cadres (with notable exceptions in some of the recent documentaries). They are all part of the killing machine without voice or personality. The story that really attempts to address the question of “why” perhaps needs to find a voice for the perpetrators as well as the victims.

To a certain extent this is still political. Bearing in mind that many in the current administration were early members of the Khmer Rouge, presenting the past as a single hermetic evil plays into the ruling political narrative – whatever the current political failings, it is better than the horrors of before. When you start scratching this surface, some interesting details emerge. Like for example, how the government leased “The Killing Fields” to a Japanese company to manage as a tourist site for profit. Or why there has been so much political interference in the Khmer Rouge tribunals.

But are Cambodians ready to take an alternative view to the survivor narrative? Are they ready to write stories from the side of the Khmer Rouge in drama, in the same way that a few documentarians have tried? I talked to the director of The Last Reel, Kulikar Sotho, herself a child surivor of the Killing Fields, about whether she could imagine a story from the Khmer Rouge point of view or whether there could ever be stories which highlighted isolated acts of goodness from the Khmer Rouge. She said it was too early.

But that is changing with the new generation of writers and directors. Encouraging them to delve into “why” they want to tell their stories has allowed them to explore their relationship to the past and that of their parents. In Down This Road, a BBC Media Action youth focused, mini-series, three young women pay tribute to their beloved grandfather and musical mentor by taking his ashes to the coast. But along the journey discover this kind old man had a secret – he had joined the Khmer Rouge as a young man, out of nationalist duty and a sense of social injustice. In a half finished journal, in which he tries to explain his actions, he reveals that he’d hidden valuable items in a cave. The revelation of his Khmer Rouge past makes them question his character, but it also threatens the friendship as each of them feels they have a greater right to his “treasure” than the other. Finally they discover deep in the caves that the treasure is a cache of vinyl records saved from destruction by the Khmer Rouge, and a friendship – he’d helped a family hiding in the caves at great personal risk. For the young writers of the series, the Khmer Rouge period was an opportunity for story, not purely as a testament or record to the survivors.

When I hear people say, “audiences have had enough of Khmer Rouge stories,” I’m conflicted about it. I think what they mean is that audiences have had enough of reconstructed survivor testimonies. But writers and directors are beginning to mine the period for alternatives to the survivor narrative to find a different kind of emotional or psychological truth. In that you can see a new generation really interrogating their past, asking difficult questions and finding a creative way to make some kind of sense of it for audiences today. In one story, two siblings hide in Phnom Penh when it is evacuated and survive in the ghost town. It’s fiction, inspired by collective testimony of the evacuation, and then drawn out to explore the relationship between the privileged siblings and their mental change from desperate survivalists to bitter fighters. Have they become too similar to their oppressors? There’s a psychological horror in the pipeline which has its origin in the Khmer Rouge Period. A noir thriller set during the last days before Phnom Penh was overrun by the Khmer Rouge.

One thing is for sure; Cambodia is constantly in the process of reinvention and its relationship to its past provides a rich backdrop for characters with secrets, a fertile ground for writers. It’s great to see a new generation find their feet with short films whether they are inflected by the legacy of the Khmer Rouge or not. There’s A Fistful of Pebbles (experimenting with Spaghetti Westerns – re-imagined as noodle easterns), Rice (a story told from the perspective of children in a Khmer Rouge labour camp), The Scavenger (a social realist story set on the vast dump site) and Three Wheels (about the break-up of a forced marriage under the Khmer Rouge some thirty years earlier). And many many more.

The renaissance of Cambodian visual storytelling is gathering momentum and it was a great privilege for me to have played a small part in it.’

Ian Masters

Ian completed his Masters degree from Bournemouth University in Screenwriting in 2009 after which he continued to develop his own feature projects as well as working as lead writer for BBC Media Action in Cambodia, Bangladesh and South Sudan on TV and radio dramas. In 2014 he wrote and produced The Last Reel with Kulikar Sotho, and ran a scriptlab through Rithy Panh’s Bophana Centre. After a stint in Uganda where he taught at the fledgling Kampala Film School, he now lives and works in Nairobi.

Film References:

The Last Reel (2014) Dir. Kulikar Sotho

www.thelastreel.info

The Missing Picture (2013) Dir. Rithy Panh

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Missing_Picture_(film)

Diamond Island (2016) Dir. Davy Chou

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diamond_Island_(film)

Lost Loves (2010) Dir. Chhay Bora

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_Loves_(film)

Enemies of the People (2009) Dir. Rob Lemkin and Thet Sambath

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enemies_of_the_People_(film)

Brother Number One (2011) Dir. Annie Goldson

http://brothernumberone.co.nz

Camp 32 (2014) Dir. Tim Purdie, Andrew Blogg

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4215970/

First They Killed My Father (2017?) Dir. Angelina Jolie-Pitt

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_They_Killed_My_Father_(film)

Thank you very much, Ian.

Until next week

All the best

Phil

PHILIP SHELLEY

www.script-consulotant.co.uk

@PhilipShelley1

Oct 14^th 2016