24 Degrees- Post Manchester workshop

Spent Monday and Tuesday at BBC Manchester as part of the 24 degrees project. It was good to see the other 23 writers. I missed the launch event, London July 2008, as I was in Memphis attending an elearning conference (Fusion 2008) so nice to get a feel for the writers from around the UK.

Two days talking about plays, attending workshops, listening to ideas and thinking and talking about our own work.

The writer Michael Wynne (click here for films and tv and here for plays) did a number of really useful exercises that i’m going to incorporate into my teaching. I also got a new scene from the exercise so that was particularly good for me.

After hearing my idea it was suggested that I concentrate on carcass and drop Runners and that I consider carcass for radio and stage and not TV.

I am certainly going to concentrate on Carcass and not Runners but not sure whether it would work on stage. I can really hear it for radio but not sure about Stage. It has been conceived all along for screen. It’s also written in such a visual way that the transfer to another medium is diificult for me to imagine at the moment. It seems less of a transition to radio than it does to stage. Need to get my thinking cap on. I have a couple of ideas but as ever the ‘voice’/POV’ is the crucial question for me. Radio has lots of important attributes that would add to the piece, primarily the fact that if forces the user to create their own pictures in a way that other mediums dont do so readily.

Final draft deadline day is Jan 5th 2009 with draft to mentor Debbie Tucker Green by November’s end. Also I was unaware that the intention is that six of the 24 pieces will receive a reading at the Royal Court Theatre in February

24 Degrees- Carcass

Gotten a bit stuck with Runners my idea for 24 Degrees scheme. (Type 24 degrees into search bar for details of the scheme) so moved onto the other idea I think would work well. Carcass the feature. Carcass was developed with the DV shorts scheme in mind. The draft carcass 5.1 is available on here to download. If you stick carcass latest draft into the search bar you should find carcass5.1.pdf.

The 24 Degrees scheme is looking for full length plays or hour long TV pieces so i’m developing carcass along those lines.

Enjoyed writing last night. The challenge for me now is how to maintain atmosphere. Piece is very character, interior and not plot. These are hard films to maintain that interest. Also think that short was a coherent whole so taking it forward from end scene to take Lucy into her future, the future the first 30 minutes set up. I am so afriad of cliche when writing that I have to resist throwing plot aside at the expense of audience interest. I consciously have to think about the emotional drive of a scene/piece and not just write poetry.

What I hope is that writing carcass for a while will give Runners some space and then I can do a flip back and forth think. It worked last night as while I was writing Carcass I had some interesting ideas for runners.

Meeting with Mentor Debbie Tucker Green tomorrow so hoping that will also provoke something for me.

Reminder if you missed Debbie’s play Broadcast Saturday it is available still. go here to listen.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/listen/

So what I was doing last night was going back over the previous draft and tweaking to reflect the new extended length and the ideas that can be perhaps more fully explored with that length in mind.  Download draft 5.1 and have a read. I’d love to hear your thoughts.

BBC Radio Drama day

It was a good day over at Demontfort Uni last Wednesday. Good facilities over in the Creative Technology Suites. Well resourced with AV equipment. Audio stuff especially, was very impressive.

Structure of the day was to record two creative drama of 3 mins max to be edited at a later date, emphasis on writing and recording. Only an hour for each drama so intensive day. We were in a group of three with an actor and BBC person also.

piece number one was called the last straw and involved a couple celebrating their divorce by taking a spectacular hot air balloon ride, the second was called fences and was about a guy who hates the world so much he fences himself and his house away!

Reminded me of when I worked at BBC East Midlands Today as regards the turnaround time. Good day. Intend to get involved in the editing and think the audiotheque site is a good resource for getting work out there. A drama that one of the other groups (there were 4) produced is on the site.

BBC Radio Drama Training Day

Off to Demontfort tomorrow for radio day. Based on their suggested titles i’ve written another short piece.

the-last-request

Looking forward to the day.

BBC Radio Drama Training Day

Attending a BBC Radio Drama day at DeMonfort University on Wed 18th in the Queens Building. Aim of the day is to produce a “short (1-3 min) pieces recorded and ready to be edited”. Structure is to have “small groups, each group with one BBC producer to advise.”

I’ve written something already which you can see below.

They’ve suggested possible  titles:
You never know what’s around the corner
Voyage and return
It’s better to have loved and lost…
Killing time
Smoke signals
The wick and the match
Two flights to go
Fenced in
Divide and conquer
The last straw
Tale of the unexpected
No turning back
One minute to go
The last request
Missed message

with the idea being that each script “might have the climax/turning point of the piece centred on a sound.”

I’m going to try and write a few pieces using these titles. Here’s the piece I’ve written already.

water-resistance