Hi There,
Please bear with this – there is a story telling reason for it!…
In August last year (2023) I went to watch my son running in a very low-key 5000m race on the track in Eltham South London. Leading up to his race was a series of 800m & 1500m races. These events, organised by the British Milers Club, are a chance for runners to run quick times in a low-key, unpressured setting. Eltham running track is not glamorous and there were about 25 people watching, all parents, friends or coaches from the running clubs of those running and there was no charge for entry. Some of the slower races are mixed gender races and the 1500m B race had a mix of runners – teenage boys, guys in their 20’s and a lone female runner, who came 10th of 14 runners. My son Jake and I were watching and recognised the female runner. She belonged to the same club as my son and we had seen her at many races through Jake’s youth. We commented on how we hadn’t seen her at any races for a few years, how she’d disappeared from the scene and Jake said the time she just ran was pretty good, considering (4mins 10secs). That runner was Georgia Bell and a month or so ago I was privileged to be at the Stade de France to see her win a bronze medal in the Olympic Games and run the fastest time ever by a British runner, 3 minutes 52 seconds.
My mind was blown by the change a year can bring and by the drama and beauty of sport. That someone can go from the Eltham BMC in front of 25 people and a dog to breaking their national record in front of 75,000 people in one of the most spectacular stadiums in the world and before a television audience of hundreds of millions.
What does this tell us about story and drama?
Rags to riches stories are real. Amazing things can happen. Ambition and focus are (sometimes) rewarded.
The margins between success and failure (well not failure – but a lack of substantial, spectacular success) can be tiny. Life is full of critical choices and decisions – the road not taken.
The human body, combined with a mind and personality that can make the most of it, can do amazing things. Georgia Bell had lost her love for the sport after a series of injuries but re-found her love for the sport after years away from it.
Success comes in different shapes and sizes and in different ways. The route Georgia Bell has taken to success is very far from conventional.
Watching my children run, I have seen them lose to so many athletes of enormous natural talent. But so few of these runners went on to success as adult runners. Success at running is about so much more than natural physical talent. That is an essential element but I have seen many less talented athletes have much greater success than their more naturally-gifted counterparts. I think the same is true of screenwriting careers. Innate talent is rare and important – but it is meaningless without the will and focus to use it in the right way.
Some of the best stories are about extreme contrasts. If I was writing this story from scratch, the contrast between the races in Eltham and Paris might seem so unlikely to feel silly and melodramatic. Often though, it’s the specificity of the detail that brings stories alive. The specificity of the downbeat Eltham setting roots it in a recognisable reality and – for me – makes this an amazing and meaningful story.
Racing on the track is competition in its purest form. That’s the beauty of it. There are no politics or debate involved in the difference between 4 minutes 10 seconds and 3 minutes 52 seconds.
It also reminds me that some of the best stories are big and spectacularly dramatic.
And each race has a shape and structure all of its own. I was absolutely emotionally gripped by that 1500m race (and by so many other races at the Olympics). Not only by Georgia Bell’s run but also by Laura Muir who very nearly worked her way from the very back to the very front – but just ran out of track (even so running her quickest time ever when after a lap or so, she looked like she was out of her depth).
All the ‘characters’ have their own tactical approach, their own individual race experience. And so much is about the relationships between the runners on the track (in the men’s 5000m, it was fascinating to see how the three Ethiopian men worked as a team – unsuccessfully as it turned out – to neutralise the threat of Norwegian Jakob Ingebrigtsen (and his route to success, his relationships with his father and brothers is an extraordinary story in itself).
Distance and middle-distance races mirror narrative structure. The example of this I most love is American Dave Wottle working his way through the entire field of the 800m final in the 1972 Munich Olympics https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DiacXTCj4Tk
Races have lessons for how story structure works.
Extraordinary stories are all around us.
CHANNEL 4 SCREENWRITING COURSE 2025
https://script-consultant.co.uk/channel-4-screenwriting-course/
A reminder that entries for the course open this coming Monday September 23rd – and close on Friday Oct 4th. I look forward to reading your scripts. All the information you need is on the web page. A couple of reminders – I’m afraid, with the number of entries we receive, I can’t enter into any email correspondence about the course or entries.
Two issues that seem to come up every year – we CANNOT accept scripts that you have previously submitted – even if you have done a major rewrite.
I don’t have time or resources to let you know which scripts you have submitted in previous years. Apologies for this – but it seems fairer that I don’t trade emails with applicants during the entry period. And I think my time is better spent reading your scripts than answering your emails. Thank you!
Script Reading & Development Q& A October 23rd
https://script-consultant.co.uk/script-reading-development-qa/
I am now taking bookings for this next of my monthly sessions. These are designed for anyone with an interest in working as a script reader, script editor or development executive in TV and film. Please see the web page for all the details.
Best wishes
Phil
PHILIP SHELLEY
Twitter: @PhilipShelley1
Friday September 20th 2024
