Hi There,
Two events that I’m part of in the next couple of months –
LONDON WRITERS WEEK 2017
This takes place over the week of July 3 – 9 at the lovely Granary Building in Kings Cross (campus for Central St Martins, University of the Arts London & Drama Centre London).
Here is some information about it –
‘The 2017 line up for London Writers’ Week, the week-long celebration of new writing across all platforms in the UK, has been announced.
The initiative, which takes place at Central Saint Martins, brings together a host of partners to explore new writing for aspiring and established writers in the UK.
Events, debates and talks will be available to writers for theatre, film, television, radio and digital media as well as teachers.
This year London Writers’ Week takes place between 3 and 9 July and will involve contributions from Oscar and BAFTA-nominated writer and president of The Writers’ Guild of Great Britain Olivia Hetreed, chief executive of the Creative Industries Federation John Kampfner and Australian Academy Award nominee David Evan Giles.
WhatsOnStage, who is partnering with London Writers’ Week, will be hosting an exclusive event with Royal Court literary manager Chris Campbell. WhatsOnStage critic Matt Trueman will hold an hour-long discussion with Campbell on new writing submissions, the Court’s new writers’ groups and top tips for scripts.
Writers will also have access to advice from the BBC, Tamasha Theatre Company, Boundless Theatre, writer Al Smith, Philip Shelley – head of Channel 4’s screenwriting course – Playwrights Studio, Scotland, The Writers’ Guild of Great Britain, BBC Writersroom, and the MA Dramatic Writing at Drama Centre.
Director of London Writers’ Week Jennifer Tuckett said: “We hope this year’s theme of Digital Media and Cross Platform work will provide access to and showcase some of the best new ideas going on in digital media in the UK.
“With BBC Three moving online, The Space, and projects like the Royal Court Theatre’s collaboration with The Guardian and podcast series and cross-platform work, it is increasingly important writers consider digital media as a possible area to write for and with.’
With the focus of the week being on story-telling in digital media, I’m involved in a session on Saturday July 8th, looking at my www.tributepodcasts.co.uk series of dramatic monologues, focusing on how the project was initiated and developed, how it showcases new writers; and looking at the lessons we learnt from making the podcasts, and how you as writers can empower yourselves through digital media projects.
Here’s a link to my session,
http://londonwritersweek.com/event/philip-shelley-writing-for-podcasts/
but there are a load of really interesting sessions over the week by some excellent people, in a great location at a very reasonable price! As well as the above-mentioned, there are also sessions involving the BBC Writers Room, John Yorke, the Bush Theatre and Fin Kennedy from Tamasha Theatre.
I hope to see you there.
INDIE TRAINING FUND : SCRIPT EDITING ESSENTIALS
And on Thursday June 22nd I’m running this one day introduction to script-editing course at the Indie Training Fund in Hoxton.
http://indietrainingfund.com/courses/script-editing-essentials/?event=9933
LOST IN LONDON
I went to see this at picturehouse central last week. It’s a very good movie in its own right – a largely autobiographical film, written by, directed by and starring Woody Harrelson about a very bizarre and eventful night he spent in London some years ago. It’s very funny – with some great cameos, particularly by Owen Wilson as himself. But what is remarkable about it is that it was the first ever feature film that was screened live, ie as it was being shot it was shown across several screens in London and around the world. It’s also shot in a single take. I was in awe of the logistical achievement – the film involves several car / taxi trips across London, a packed night club sequence, fight scenes and several more huge set-ups, with a huge cast. To have shot this in a single take – knowing this was a once-only chance (I believe they shot 3 versions of VICTORIA, the other single-take movie!) – and for it to have been screened live is mind-boggling. And Woody Harrelson, playing a version of himself, is in the entire movie and has a huge number of lines. His performance is remarkable considering the pressure he must have felt – with only one minor line fluff that I noticed. A pretty extraordinary achievement, that seems to have rather gone under the radar.
PUNTS
A new play by writer SARAH PAGE, that has just opened at Theatre 503 in Battersea, London. This is the script that got Sarah onto this year’s Channel 4 screenwriting course, and it’s an excellent piece of writing. Funny, clever and thematically rich, I highly recommend it. Now booking!
https://theatre503.com/whats-on/?spektrix_bounce=true
FOOTBALL : SARAH KANE
If you’re a regular reader of this newsletter you will know that every now and again I mention football, and occasionally attempt to draw analogies between football matches and story-telling. Many thanks to TOM MAXTED for pointing me in the direction of this excellent article by writer SARAH KANE. (Sarah sadly died in 1999 – she was a remarkable writer, who made a huge impact in the theatre in the ‘90’s with some of the darkest, bleakest, but most powerful plays – plays that are still widely produced).
Sarah was a big Manchester United supporter and this piece from The Guardian is entitled ‘Why can’t theatre be as gripping as footie?’!
https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2015/jan/12/sarah-kane-theatre-football-blasted
And here’s a link to another more recent, and very interesting, Guardian article about the links between sport and dramatic story-telling
https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2016/mar/05/floodlights-footlights-sports-theatre
QUESTIONS
Do you have any questions about SCREENWRITING or SCRIPT-EDITING that you’d like me to answer? I’ll be dedicating a future edition of the newsletter to answering your questions – so please FIRE AWAY! (You can email them to me – Philip.shelley@script-consultant.co.uk)
The next newsletter will be on Friday June 16th
All the best
Phil
PHILIP SHELLEY
@PhilipShelley1
June 2nd 2017
