london film festival gems
London Film Festival – Studies in Narrative Structure Last week I went to 4 very different films at this year’s LFF, and they proved very inspiring and creatively energising. They all made me think about different aspects of film drama and screenwriting. For instance:- Lo Spazio Bianco ‘The White Space’. An Italian film about a […]
Damian Wayling interview
DAMIAN WAYLING INTERVIEW Damian is a writer whom I first met when he was on the Carlton new writers course some years ago. It was clear then that he had real talent – a highly original, distinctive voice, and strong story-telling instinct. He has gone on to have the success his talents and dedication deserve […]
The Street
Just a quick one to recommend ( a bit late in the day) the current BBC series ‘The Street’. For me, these shows are object lessons in top-quality dramatic story-telling. The first story in particular, featuring a stand-off between the excellent Bob Hoskins & Liam Cunningham, was dramatic screenwriting at its best. Using a highly […]
screenwriting articles
Two really interesting articles, one recent, one not so recent. Firstly, an excellent article by US screenwriter SHANE BLACK from last week’s Guardian, with tips on how to write an action movie – although you could adapt the principles to any genre of screenwriting. And Nicolas Shindler’s 2002 Huw Wheldon lecture about story-telling in TV […]
Happy Anniversary!
www.script-consultant.co.uk has just passed its first anniversary and I thought I’d briefly reflect on the first year. Above all, it’s been a lot of fun. Generally speaking I’ve read a huge variety of scripts in both subject matter and style and I’ve been really inspired by the energy and ambition of so many screenwriters in […]
more screenwriting books…
Some more recommended books about screen-writing that may be of interest:- The Pitch by Eileen Quinn & Judy Counihan As far as I’m aware the only UK book specifically about pitching, treatments etc, and by people who work in the industry and know from personal experience what works and what doesn’t. Conversations With My Agent […]
screenwriting books
There are a whole host of screenwriting books on the market and their usefulness (or not) to writers is an interesting question. There’s undoubtedly a place for the best of these books but I think it’s dangerous to view any of them as gospel – better to cherry-pick the best from each, use them to […]
Screen writing \ football. My pitch for screenwriting guru status.
A little while ago I went to a screenwriting talk in London. It was run by a US screenwriter, and it was about STRUCTURE. The screenwriter turned out to be more of a ‘guru’ than a writer. As it turned out (mentioning no names here) he was a bit of a poor man’s McKee. He […]
Factual Drama : Fact vs Fiction
Thinking about the best screen drama I saw in 2008, The Shooting of Thomas Hurndall was somewhere at the top of the list. Soon after I’d seen this I watched the much-hyped Clint Eastwood film, Changeling, also based on a true story. For me there was a yawning chasm in quality between the two. TSOTH […]
Interview With Terry Cafolla
TERRY CAFOLLA is one of the most talented screenwriters working in British TV drama today. As you’ll see from this interview, his talent is driven by a passion for his craft, and the awareness that as a writer you never stop learning.