A few questions...

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  • A few questions...

    (If the paragraphs are close up thats because of issues with my work Active X/security system) I have so many questions to ask about screenwriting so I thought I'd post a few here. 1) Does anyone know what writing/screenwriting courses I can go on in London, England, especially South London that are any good? 2) Can you be a Writer/Producer or only a Writer/Director? 3) Is it easier to work your way up through TV episode writing to writing features or is it better to write shorts and features straight away? 4) Can a novellist write screenplays easily or is it the other way round? 5) If I have what I think is a great idea, do you have to continously work on Logline and Synopsis? I'm looking to make films independently.Please answer these if you can.
    I post too much.

  • #2
    Re: A few questions...

    Originally posted by MPrince View Post
    (If the paragraphs are close up thats because of issues with my work Active X/security system) I have so many questions to ask about screenwriting so I thought I'd post a few here. 1) Does anyone know what writing/screenwriting courses I can go on in London, England, especially South London that are any good? 2) Can you be a Writer/Producer or only a Writer/Director? 3) Is it easier to work your way up through TV episode writing to writing features or is it better to write shorts and features straight away? 4) Can a novellist write screenplays easily or is it the other way round? 5) If I have what I think is a great idea, do you have to continously work on Logline and Synopsis? I'm looking to make films independently.Please answer these if you can.
    Some answers:

    1) No, sorry.
    2) It's probably better to start your career as a Writer/Producer, because basically you make more money that way.
    3) It's much easier to work your way up through TV first, because anyone can get hired as a TV writer (come on, have you watched that stuff?). Just picking up a pen and writing is much harder.
    4) It's pretty easy for novelists to just jump into screenplays. Hell, just look at F. Scott Fitzgerald.
    5) Nah, once or twice is all you should need. Neither one is really all that important.
    "That's a good idea, Homer, but they've already made a movie about World War II."

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    • #3
      Re: A few questions...

      1) Depends what you're after. Both the NFTS and London Film School run MA Screenwriting courses. LFS also runs a 'writer's gym' short course (http://www.lfs.org.uk/courses/short/...troduction.php) but I have no idea what it's like. There are courses online that might suit you too. I believe Gotham run a series of courses for different levels - the beginner and master's levels are taught by Max Adams who certainly knows her stuff.
      2) Sure, but the skillsets are very very different. Saying that, if you want to make films in Britain it's likely you won't have any choice but to be a combination.
      3) You live in England. Have you seen our film industry? Something I've discovered the hard way at University: TV is the best - perhaps, with a few exceptions, the only - way to sustain a career as a writer in the UK.
      4) My grandma could write screenplays easily. That wouldn't make them any good. Different mediums require different skills. Being good at one doesn't necessarily mean being good at another.
      5) If you have what you think is a great idea you have to make other people think it's a great idea. But they're just sales tools.
      twitter.com/leespatterson

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      • #4
        Re: A few questions...

        Just to add to XL's comprehensive reply, an original feature script will also serve as a sample for TV work in the UK. Unlike the US, TV producers here want to read original work rather than your version of an existing show - so a feature script does double duty.

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        • #5
          Re: A few questions...

          Originally posted by frankts1 View Post
          Some answers:

          4) It's pretty easy for novelists to just jump into screenplays. Hell, just look at F. Scott Fitzgerald.
          Answer:
          A) wrong. They're two different skill-sets. I know a wannabe novelist who proudly showed me his 475-page screenplay. I know whereof I speak, as I work in both media.

          B) Fitzgerald was a profoundly unsuccessful screenwriter.

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          • #6
            Re: A few questions...

            Originally posted by Jake Schuster View Post
            Answer:
            A) wrong. They're two different skill-sets. I know a wannabe novelist who proudly showed me his 475-page screenplay. I know whereof I speak, as I work in both media.

            B) Fitzgerald was a profoundly unsuccessful screenwriter.
            I believe frankts1 was being sarcastic.

            Last night in San Pedro

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            • #7
              Re: A few questions...

              Both David Freeman (Beyond Structure) and Bill Martell sometimes teach in England. Check their websites.

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              • #8
                Re: A few questions...

                Originally posted by thatcomedian View Post
                I believe frankts1 was being sarcastic.
                Likewise.

                Comment


                • #9
                  Re: A few questions...

                  Originally posted by Jake Schuster View Post
                  Likewise.
                  How so?

                  Last night in San Pedro

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                  • #10
                    Re: A few questions...

                    Though I was stating facts, I was just taking the piss out of him. No big deal.

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                    • #11
                      Re: A few questions...

                      Chaps, let's not get into a weeing contest.

                      Question for Jake though. You've mentioned in a few posts that the novel and the screenplay are two very different beasts. Notwithstanding the obvious differences, do you think that has changed in the past few decades, especially with reference to genre novels?

                      I read a lot of thrillers and the best of them don't seem that removed in terms of narrative structure from movies. In fact they seem to have a lot more in common with movies than say literary fiction - single protagonist, set-ups and pay-offs, chapters ending on a hook, etc.

                      I'd be very interested to hear your take on this (or anyone else's take for that matter).

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                      • #12
                        Re: A few questions...

                        concerning question one, try the script factory - on wells street (i think)


                        http://www.scriptfactory.co.uk/go/Wh...ticle_217.html
                        Last edited by bierhound; 04-24-2007, 09:11 AM.
                        I've played poker long enough to understand odds don't mean sh1t - Seamus Bronzeberg

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                        • #13
                          Re: A few questions...

                          Originally posted by magicman35 View Post
                          Chaps, let's not get into a weeing contest.

                          Question for Jake though. You've mentioned in a few posts that the novel and the screenplay are two very different beasts. Notwithstanding the obvious differences, do you think that has changed in the past few decades, especially with reference to genre novels?

                          I read a lot of thrillers and the best of them don't seem that removed in terms of narrative structure from movies. In fact they seem to have a lot more in common with movies than say literary fiction - single protagonist, set-ups and pay-offs, chapters ending on a hook, etc.

                          I'd be very interested to hear your take on this (or anyone else's take for that matter).
                          You make an excellent point. People began noticing this with Michael Crichton (whom I've not read), whose books are apparently structured very much like films--with little narrative or descriptive substance, lots of active dialogue, and quick cuts. I think what's happened is that a lot of genre novels are written with film sales in mind, and the more cinematic the writing--the thinking goes--the easier it'll be to sell the thing to Hollywood. What you're seeing, then, is essentially a commercial trend.

                          A novel is essentially an inner experience, introspective by its very nature, a kind of "living through" the story by the writer. The English novelist Henry Green aptly called a novel "a long intimacy between strangers".

                          There are many genre writers, though, who remain very firmly literary--I'm thinking of Henning Mankell in Sweden and Ian Rankin in Scotland. Though both have been adapted into TV series, reading them is essentially a literary experience.

                          I've found in my years of writing that moving between fiction and script requires a psychological shift. As I've mentioned, the skill sets are very different. To put it into metaphor, writing a novel is like sailing across the Atlantic. You can stop in Bermuda for a night, become becalmed, do some bird-watching, ride out a storm, find a different route when needed. Writing a screenplay is like paddling a canoe down a swiftly-flowing river. You're limited in what you can do, and you've got to get to your destination as quickly as possible.

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                          • #14
                            Re: A few questions...

                            Originally posted by MPrince View Post
                            (If the paragraphs are close up thats because of issues with my work Active X/security system) I have so many questions to ask about screenwriting so I thought I'd post a few here. 1) Does anyone know what writing/screenwriting courses I can go on in London, England, especially South London that are any good? 2) Can you be a Writer/Producer or only a Writer/Director? 3) Is it easier to work your way up through TV episode writing to writing features or is it better to write shorts and features straight away? 4) Can a novellist write screenplays easily or is it the other way round? 5) If I have what I think is a great idea, do you have to continously work on Logline and Synopsis? I'm looking to make films independently.Please answer these if you can.
                            1. Read a lot of scripts before writing anything.
                            2. Resources on the internet like wordplayer and Martell's amazing
                            scriptsecrets will supplement you on every step.
                            3. Spend a lot of time writing.
                            3a. Keep reading scripts whilst writing.
                            4. You have to be passionate about film and writing. I think you need to be
                            obsessed with it.
                            5. The learning never stops.
                            6. Prepare to spend years honing the craft.
                            7. Enjoy yourself.
                            "What's worse than being talked about? Not being talked about."

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                            • #15
                              Re: A few questions...

                              Though it was some time ago, I came to London to start my career as a novelist, but, because TV was in such a golden age back then--it was truly a writer's medium--that I wrote a 50-minute BBC-standard teleplay for the "Play for Today" series and was promptly signed by an agent. This led to my being commissioned to adapt my first novel as a feature and essentially got me off the ground.

                              TV in the UK is not by any means the writer's medium it used to be, but it's probably the place to start, considering the UK film industry these days.

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