Diving Diaries part 5 (!!) The Professional Days

THURSDAY

I was due to do the afternoon shift, but it didn’t quiet work out like that. I was meant to cover for Izzy TC(the other volenteer driver -keep up!) for an hour while she caught Michael ‘Harry Potter’ Goldenberg, but it all went a bit tits up. A Speaker (mentioning no names) got lost in town, so while Richard the Chaffeur searched for her, both me and Izzy ended up out driving for most of the hour!

Most of my jobs tended to be groups, and tended to be people being taken back, so I didn’t get to research who they were, or to have much of a chat. At various points I had Ed Rubin, Rachel Holdyrod, Sam Lavender, The UK Film Council, and TV’s Dr Raj Persuad in the back of my van.

Jake West was one of the few solo jobs, and he was really passionate and enthusiastic. There was a bit of a kerfuffle about getting him a ticket (which wasn’t his fault - and which Kenny kept trying to give me money for, even though I‘d been given the cash in advance!) Jake said loads of people come up to him and say they want to be filmmakers, but they can’t get the funding - as long as you can find someone with a decent DV camera then anyone can be a filmmaker - his advice was do it yourself and learn by doing it, the Robert Rodriguez route.

The evening was dead - I had two jobs in 3 hours, so I just sat and nattered to Richard and the Jedi. Drove Brian Ward, and he was interesting - he’s a former Pop video director, so had a lot of stories about divas (Art Garfunkel was the worst he worked with apparently!)

Went to the Travelodge again in the evening and left 5 minutes before they kicked us out - an early night at last!

FRIDAY
I did the afternoon again, after a well needed lay in (though I did show up before midday unlike a few lightweights I could mention!)

Again it was mostly groups so I didn’t get to have much of a chat with many of them - I was a bit networked out by this point anyway! I had Allison Owen, Katherine Butler, Sarah Gavron, Abi Morgan, Jurgen Wolff, Peter Carlton amongst others.

Also Menhaj Huda - who’s got a series in development with Kudos. The Slovos liked my choice of in car music (The Clash) - they said the music in Catch a Fire cost a fortune. They also thought there‘d been some sort of accident cos the traffic wasn’t moving - had to explain this is normal for this country! I also took Euroscript’s Charles Harris back, which was good as I’d been on one of his excellent courses, so it was great to catch up with him.

I took Anthony Horowitz Rachel Holydroyd and Nick Cunningham back to the station then took Elizabeth Morgan Hemlock (who’s hobbies include avoiding Stuart Perry, and who can blame her?) and a Plasma TV into town, then I was done.

I handed the keys over with a great sigh of relief - I’d got through the whole week without crashing or killing anyone! I did ask if I could keep the van, but Lizzie said no -she did buy us drinks all night, so I’ll forgive her! After a week of (virtually) no drinking, I was on the beer. Then the wine. Then the beer again. And then the wine again. Then the whiskey.

It was fantastic to really get to spend some time with t’other runners and a great time was had by all, lots of laughing and hugging and crying and tears goodbye. We were kicked out the Travelodge at midnight. And then everyone went to beddie-byes and were tucked up safe and sound and drifted off to the land of nod…

Well, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it...

FINAL THOUGHTS

I couldn’t afford to attend, so I though volunteering would be the next best thing. Turns out it was far, far better. What amazed me that the 22 of us that volunteered where the only ones who seriously volunteered (apparently there were a few who wanted to, say, do one day and get in free for the rest of it - worth asking I suppose!) I would have thought that more of the people who couldn’t afford it would have volunteered.

But their loss! As I said in the first post (many, many words ago!) it was a fantastic experience with a really great bunch of people.

Now I’ve just gotta find something else to blog about…

:)

Driving diaries pt 4 - I had that Bill Nicholson in the back of my cab...

I had to pick up Ed Blum (producer/director of the very wonderful Scenes of a Sexual Nature) from the station at 806, take him to the hotel and then the festival, so I had a good old chat with him. Again, a really nice guy - He admitted the title of Scenes was a mistake (he said it should have been called Love in the Park or something that more accurately reflected the content), and he regretted self distributing, but even though it didn’t set the box office on fire the film opened a lot of doors for him.

He’d made a BAFTA nominated short, so I was interested in that as I want to get a short made. He said it’d cost £2000 - catering was the main expense (as it was on Scenes), and was made with friends and contacts (the writer of Scenes was also a friend of his - so it‘s who you know), and was a really good calling card.

Kate Leys - top script Editor and hero of the very understated and confident Potdoll - was next. She was impressed that someone was a) there to meet her, even though she had decided to get a earlier train (the benefit of our occasionally random list of pick up times!), and b) recognised her (the benefit of research!) She told Kirsten later that I’d given her “the best service she’d ever had” Which was nice.

It was interesting to find out that she isn’t a writer - I thought all script editors were also/aspiring/failed* (*delete as applicable) writers, but Kate said she has a rule - she never suggests story ideas. Those of you who have actually worked with script editors in the real will probably be sighing with envy here!

I wish I’d taken notes about everyone - not while I was actually driving, obviously - that would have been silly, but just jotted something down when I got the chance, but there always seemed to be something to do, and it‘s all a bit of a blur now!

William (Gladiator) Nicholson was supposed to be next, but he was on a later train, so Ashley Pharoah was the next job - had a bit of a chat about Ashes to Ashes - which he’d just delivered a draft on. Apparently Kelley Hawes (grrr!) is the new Sam, and it starts filming at the end of the month - which was news to me. The traffic was good, so didn’t get much time with him - however tempting it was, I didn’t string anyone out by taking the scenic route!

I eventually got to pick up William Nicholson, and he was worth the wait - he was probably the highlight of the festival for me - I got to spend quiet a bit of time because some random blagger had phoned asking to be picked up from the same train - and then never showed! (I won’t mention their name - but I’m grateful to her cos I got to spend more time with Bill, as I call him now.)

Some random recollections (note to self - use notebook more!) - He said it had taken him 15 years to start to earn a living at writing, though he started young - he was 35 when he first started earning (a good age!) He said it was good to get some experience of the wider world, cos what do they know of writing, who only writing know? (I‘m paraphrasing here - he works in Hollywood, so he‘s used to being rewritten!) Also he thought there’s a lot of writers who keep getting hired on the back of a great credit even when they’re no longer doing good stuff, and a lot of people who’ve written good stuff don’t get hired cos they haven’t got the credits.

He also said he’s working on adaptations of his Wind on Fire Trilogy of fantasy novels - obviously with Potter, Narnia and Pullman, that’s what Hollywood is looking for, but he’s not optimistic about them getting made - he said only about 50% of the scripts he’d written have got made. (Mind you, I wouldn’t complain about that sort of ratio!)

Great guy though, and I was really impressed that he remembered my name when I handed him over to the green room - I had trouble remembering the names of all the people I met. By the end of it I was having trouble remembering my own name!

South West Screen also launched a competition, with less fanfare than Tony Jordan, but the prize includes being mentored by Mr Nicholson himself, so all you fellow yokels check it out.

I got to see Mia Bays, and Bill - who’s well worth downloading when the podcasts come out - and I‘m not just saying that cos he‘s a mate ;) - then went for a rest before Pitch Factor - which was fascinating, even though none of whom were half as good as last years winner! Gotta admire their guts though!

I was going to have a early night, but after trying to get Sabrina and Izzy to do some networking with Ed Blum, I quickly popped into travelodge to see if Stuart Perry had turned up, and ended up there till midnight again with the usual suspects (and Helen and Danny) Then I sat up at the bnb for an hour or so with Valeria, Alistair and Anna - so much for an early night!

On Monday a 2for1 (‘cos I‘m planning to get back into the actual writing next week!) Thursday and Friday- the professional days.

Driving diaries pt 3 - showtime

When I got in Tuesday morning I was told the chauffeur was getting Tony Jordan, cos we had 3 people to be picked up from the station, although only one of them (agent Rob Kraitt) actually showed up! Not the first time this happened! I ended up with about 4 other blaggers in the van anyway, including Andy Conway of shooters - sorry did I say blagger? I meant highly important representative of the sponsors, of course!

I had Menha Huda (kidulthood) and Rahila Ghupta (provoked) next. When I had 2 or more people then they tended to speak amongst themselves, which is fair enough.

I‘m sure there was someone else - I‘ve lost my notes for Monday, but I was running late and only had 10 mins to get to Kadinskies for David M Thompson - this is where the knowledge pays off, cos i made it in time! David was the first passenger I got to properly chat to, and he was a really nice guy. Mainly we talked about me! I know the first rule of networking is listen don’t talk, but David must have read this too, cos the first thing he did was ask what I do when I’m not driving! When I was done telling him, he had to take a phone call before I could interrogate him, but that was interesting (“Have we got Scarlett for the re-shoots?”) and he wished me luck with the writing. Which was nice.

Had no pick ups for a while, so I did a short stint on the entrance tent - this was before I worked out to have a coffee before I asked if there was anything else I can do! From my brief experiences doing thier job, the other runners had a far more difficult job than me!

I was supposed to be picking up Kate Rowland and Paul Ashton of BBC writersroom next. Paul was a no show, but Kate was interesting. I didn’t know till I spoke to her that only the top 5% of scripts submitted to writersroom that get the full read (mine did, since you ask.) They get 10,000 scripts a year, so I‘ll forgive them for taking 6 months to read mine!

After Introducing Kate to the green room runner as Kate Ashton (!), I was finished for the day. Izzy took over at 2 - I was tempted to stay on and pick up Christopher Smith, who would have been interesting, but food and Tony Jordan took priority.

I got to see Tony Jordan, who launched a competition - wasn’t very exciting, I wouldn’t bother checking it out ;)

I also saw Euroscript and Chris Smith, met Sabrina, the legendary Danny Stack and Helen Smith.

Tomorrow - Bill Nicholson, Ed Blum and just for the blogosphere's star of tomorrow, Potdoll - Kate Leys

Driving diaries pt 2 - No sleep till Cheltenham

MONDAY


I had to get up 430 Monday morning to drive up from Dorset and get there for 930- I‘d forgotten there were two 430’s in the day! We had about 22 volunteers - at least half were returning from last year, mostly film students from Cheltenham, though we had people from Bristol, Brum, London - even Italy!

It was good meeting everyone, even if it did make me feel old! - I got the driving gig cos I was the only one old enough to drive! ;) (or old enough to drive a hire car anyway) My one real regret about the week is I didn’t spend as much time with the other runners while I was out driving around.

In the PM we started setting up, then me and Izzy TC got the hire cars, and she very kindly took me round Cheltenham, so at least I had some idea where I was going. After I dropped Izzy home I went for another drive with the AtoZ, doing the knowledge (Preparation for you there!), and I got back to the Bnb about 10, knackered and ready for bed.

...Then I got a txt from Mr Arnopp saying he‘d arrived, so I headed out for the Travelodge for a serious debate with Sir Jason, Will, Chrissie and Piers about the paradigmatic relevance of the classical story in the current socio-economic… oh alright, we talked crap about Dr Who! But no booze for me, as I was driving in the morning.

I didn’t sleep much Monday night, partly nerves, partly excitement (partly lack of alcohol!) I think I got about 2 hours sleep in the end. I woke up about 5, so I got up, and did another trial run to Kadinskies where I was due to collect Tony Jordan at 9OO for my first pick up…

In the next post, on Friday, the first Rising Talent Day, and David M. Thompson and Kate Rowland amongst others. But no Tony Jordan!

Drivng Diaries pt 1

I was a bit nervous about driving a tank round a far away spa town with a one way system designed by evil driver-hating trolls (otherwise known as town planners)

When the volunteer coordinator - the legendary Ricky Kane phoned and asked if I’d mind being a driver, I though “No! not really.” But, of course, it came out as “Yeah, no problem! Fine.” Then when he then said I’d be driving a 9 Seater mini van I thought “Oh fuck, no!” but again, it came out as: “Yeah, fine, no problem.”

I had visions of seeing the headline “TOP SCREENWRITER KILLED BY BUFFOON IN MINIVAN” But I managed to avoid killing anyone, or even crashing the van. Which was nice.

I got used to the beast fairly quickly in the end, and I got used to Cheltenham… eventually. Mainly thank to the wonderful Isobel TC, who took me round Cheltenham on the Monday - but more of all that in the next post.

It turns out driving was the best job in the world for an aspiring writer. Getting to spend some time alone with top industry pros, like say Bill Nicholson or David M Thompson, in a situation where they thought I was doing then a favour, that’s something that money can’t buy.

I also had that Ashley Pharoah, Ed Blum, Jake West, Peter Carlton, The Slovos, Anthony Horowitz, Kate Leys, Kate Rowland, Brian Ward, Rachel Holroyd, Rob Kraitt, Alison Owen, Kate Butler, and many, many more in the back of my van.

So I’ll post (what I can remember) about them over the next week or so, as it begins to come back to me!! (Ok I know I said in shooters I'll try to post everyday, but that was just a lie!)

I won’t blog about any of the actual sessions, I’m sure they will be well covered in the blogosphere -I know Danny Stack has already posted about it - but if you went and blogged about it email me a link and I‘ll put it up.

I've had the time of my life...

Back from Cheltenham now, absolutely shattered, but what a fantastic few days, one of the best weeks of my life.

So big up to everyone I met, especially my fellow drivers, Izzy TC and Richard the Chauffer; the runners - Sabrina , Rosie, Chris, Isabel K, Adam, Kreena, Jack, Charlie, Joe, Tom, The Sams, James, Claire, Stephen, Sara, Jenny, Francesca, Verbon, Carolyn, Sue, Alan - you were all legends. Many Apologies to anyone I missed out - at this point I’m having trouble remembering my own name!

Then there’s the guv’nors - David and Lizzie; Kenny, Kirsten, Rachel and Oli and of course, the legendary Ricky Kane. Thanks for the opp guys.

Great to see Jason and Stuart Perry and Charles Harris again, and to meet Danny, Piers, Will, Helen, Chrissy, Andy Conway from shooters, and loads, loads more including my roomies Valeria, Alistair and Anna, and last but not least, Dorothy and Tim my landlord and landlady.

Sorry this is starting to sound like a bad Oscar speech! I’ll blog about it all over the next week. Now I’m going to try doing that sleep thing. Hear it’s good for tiredness.

Any Questions?

I'm working as a runner at the Cheltenham Screenwriters Festival this year, and I was thinking of questions I could ask the delegates if I get the chance, so I thought I'd throw it open to the blogosphere.

If you're not going, and you have any questions you want to ask any of the delagates, (the likes of Ashley Pharoah, Stephen Frears, Tony Jordan, Chris Smith - see the festival website for a full list.) or any questions you'd like to ask of Industry pros in general, then post below (preferably by Sunday evening) and I'll see what I can do.

Can't promise anything, but I'll try to get you some answers!

Please allow me to introduce myself...

Hello everybody peeps! Welcome to my blog.

I'm an aspiring screenwriter, as if the blogosphere needed another one of us! I used to work in retail management (which isn't as exciting as it sounds) until I was made redundant, so I'm a full time layabout... I mean full time writer now, at least until the redundancy runs out!

I'm just starting out, so no credits as yet, tho I did get to the semis of the BSSC last year. I'm working at the Cheltenham Screenwriters Festival next week, so come and say hi if you're going. I'll try to put a piccie up, not promising anything - I've deleted this post twice!! (The machines are not my friends)

I'll post again before then (if I can manage to get back here!) but feel free to say hi in the comments section.


Later.