Getting a career in television drama

Since leaving the National Film & Television School back in 2004 I've been paid a mere total of £6,500 as a professional writer/director for all the work I have done to date. Less than £1000 was for directing. The feature film business is very hard to break into. It's a game of chance where your skills and talents do not necessarily reflect your success and where you rarely get paid.

Having spend too long solely focused in this industry, I have decided to look for directing work in television drama too. It's producing some incredible shows at the moment that suite my style and taste (The Killing, The Bridge, Borgan, Spiral, Wallander, Sherlock, Accused and Luther being some of my favourites). Lets hope those television drama producers like my work enough to let me come and play. What you think?

JAWS - back on the big screen!

I went to see Jaws this afternoon at my local Cineworld for a mere £5.40 instead of the excessive £11 it cost to see Prometheus (which although was visually stunning, was also frustratingly disappointing. It had far too many story flaws for an experienced filmmaker like Scott not to notice, all which could have easy been solved).

It was a sheer pleasure to finally see Jaws on the big screen and looking so clean and crisp. I was only three when it was originally released and it's odd to think I am experiencing a better picture and sound than audiences would have  done back in 1975.

The first half of the film is perfect in its set up, not a frame is wasted, constantly feeding you information that helps build up the enormous pressure Brody is under from residents, the mayor and his family (and this is even before they know they have a genuine shark problem).

I became aware of just how clear cut 'the point of no return' for Brody is. When his kids come too close to being eaten themselves, the shark problem becomes personal for Brody. This is the moment he has to man up, set aside his fears of the water and go and get that son of a bitch once and for all. The momentum and drive built up here is so satisfying.

Having recently become a father I was also surprised how much more upset I was with certain moments in the film. The second victim, a little boy on yellow raft, is harrowing to watch, not so much his attack, but his poor mother who slowly realises her son never made it to the shore. Then later when Brody has just uncovered a shark prank, a girl shouts 'Shark!' He almost dismisses it but then remembering his kids are in the pond we see his reluctant walk turn into a full and desperate run. It is every parents worst fear.

Another amusing but subtle moment I don't remember noticing before is when the three men are relaxing and drinking inside the Orca. Richard Dreyfus and Robert Shaw are revealing to each other their scars. Brody desperately wants to join in and glances down under his shirt at a past injury only to decide it is not impressive enough. It is brilliant storytelling!

Unlike most of the current summer blockbusters, even after 32 years JAWS is still an incredibly satisfying film to watch and well worth the price of even a 3D film ticket.

Voydarkatron is alive!

For the last few months I have been getting weekly updates from VERL, the VFX team up in Dundee, that consist of fairly crude Voydarkatron CGI model animations. I then have to make detailed comments on them in terms of the relevant action for each shot and the believability of the movement. We are finally coming to the end of this part of the process and so I thought I'd show you a short teaser of the way the animated beast moves.

This update was particularly exciting because in this weeks Dropbox VFX file there was a very short clip of an almost fully rendered Voydarlatron with motion blur.

I had no idea it was coming so when the clip opened up and played, I sat up transfixed. In front of me was a creature that actually looked real and blended seamlessly into the back plate we filmed on location.

On closer inspection you can see there are details still to be done, but for a test shot, I hadn't seen anything as exciting since I saw a fully rendered Jar Jar Binks a year before the release of Episode One (except the Voydarkatron will hopefully be received a little more positively by the general public). Unfortunately for you I'm not going to reveal this just yet, but here's a Voydarkatron eye test to wet the appetite.

The Confusing Land Of Minoitaniga

I was beginning to get concerned that I may be suffering from writer's block as I was struggling to come up with the main story for the imaginary world of Minotaniga (in terms of tying everything up while abiding by the rules of fairytales) and had a lot of unanswered questions to solve. For example who is Maliglut (the Darth Vader of the film), what does he want, why does he need it and why does he want to destroy Henry?

The difficulty was that the answers had to have a duel purpose and resonate in the real world as well. However with a bit of research leaning towards a few steampunk influences and some common sense, I came to the conclusion that Maliglut has stolen the sacred liquid crystal from the Guardians of Minoitaniga, which will allow him to see into the future.

However when Henry arrives in Minoitaniga Maliglut's vision into the future is blocked. The only way to unblock it, is to destroy Henry. Unfortunately Henry needs to get the liquid crystal off Maliglut in order to save the Guardians of Minoitaniga who will then give him the Voydarkatron blood to cure his Great Uncle Geoffrey's writer's block.

Following me okay? No I didn't think so. Rest assured it will all make perfect sense soon enough!

Script Consultant, Philosopher & Psychologist.

I had a really enjoyable, rewarding and life affirming meeting today with Britt Harrison and my producers. We met up to discuss the feature length version of The Infectious Imagination Of Henry Bramble and to iron out any noticeable issues with my developing ideas for the film before they did any serious damage.

I have worked with several script editors over the years, but Britt is the first one to really delve deep into the writer's life in order to find the clues that will solve the story issues and clarify the writer's intentions. In doing so she helps you focus your ideas so that you can write the story you want to write. Too often script editors find solutions to make the story work without finding out first why the writer wants to write this particular story.

I am confident that I now know what I am writing and why. They say 'always write from the heart' and it appears I have done exactly that. I can't believe how personal this story is to me and that subconsciously I have managed to write so much of it with such clarity and truth. The session was so intense and exhilarating that I barely noticed that I was suffering from a heavy cold.

I have thus been set a ridiculous challenge - to complete a first exploratory draft screenplay by the 21 July 2012 (my Wedding Day). Can it be done? Well I never thought I could shoot the short in 3 days, so never say never! ...gulp!

Britt's incredibly useful 'story map' created during our discussions.

Selected for the Creative Business Base

I am pleased to announce that my creative team from Henry Bramble (Myself, Charlotte Wontner and Annabel Bates) have been offered a place on a free six month creative and business development programme devised by Screen South, Maidstone Studios, Peter Jones Academy and Amersham & Wycombe College. The programme will cover subjects including:

• Script and Project Development 
• Legals and contracts 
• Entrepreneurial mind-set and skills 
• Planning and Pitching 
• Creative Business - planning and development 
• Sources of Funding and Finance 
• Single project and Business Investments 
• Ways to market (Traditional vs. new media including social networks) 
• Sales Distribution Exhibition – what are they looking for? 
• Working with the global markets UK and International 
• Understanding exploitation potentials of projects (IP) 
• Use of new medias and IP 
• E-marketing and promotion

Over the next six months there will be fortnightly seminars, master classes, continuing script development, bespoke one to one meetings and training days, with daily access to hot desks, phones, internet and a meeting space at The Maidstone Studios. The programme concludes with all 8 teams pitching both their projects and businesses in London with top industry financiers, producers and business angels.

Sounds a bit like The Big Pitch all over again, except there will be no audience vote to stop us this time!

The Clues to a Great Story

Found a another great TED talk on storytelling by Andrew Stanton (Finding Nemo, Wall-E). 

Prometheus has all the signs of a modern cinema classic

I'm growing more and more excited about Ridley Scott's 2012 prequel to his 1979 sci-fi horror classic Alien. It stars two of my favourite actors, Noomi Rapace who played the original 'Girl with the Dragon Tattoo' and Idris Elba from the BBC's excellent crime drama Luthor.

From the trailers it appears that Ridley has managed to successfully create an original new angle on the franchise while still retaining the feel and atmosphere of the original. If he succeeds then he will have thankfully disassociated it's previous disjointed sequels while at the same time reinforcing his original vision.

This is the perfect kind of film to utilise 3D technology as an additional storytelling tool to create a more immersive cinematic experience and I am sure Prometheus will be a breathtaking journey, sitting beautifully alongside his original classic.

Script meeting for Henry Bramble ...the feature film!

While we wait in limbo for the visual effects team to get moving on the short, I met up with the producer Charlotte Wontner and Script Editor Vicki Jung this afternoon to flesh out my ideas for the feature film version of The Infectious Imagination Of Henry Bramble.

The key questions that I wanted to discuss in expanding the short was what Henry's journey would be and how that would link into the reason why Henry's mother has to abandon her son with an estranged relative.

In the short film it is really the uncle's story, as he discovers, through Henry, how to imagine again. Henry doesn't really change throughout the film he simply represents the wonderful innocence and wild imagination of children. For the 90 minute children's feature film however Henry has to have a strong character arc if he is going to be the central character.

From the original set up of the short it was clear that the problems Henry must face would stem from his absent father and all tie in with why his Mother has to abandon him suddenly. During our meeting we bounced many ideas and possibilities, but agreed on some basic foundations for the film.

I'm not going to give too much away, but the main thematic thread of the story will be about the importance of telling stories and that sometimes they can be powerful enough to save lives. Everything that happens in the film all stems from and connects together by this theme. If you have had the opportunity and the patience to read all 700+ pages of Storytelling - The 7 Basic Plots, then you will know how very important storytelling is to Man's very existence. If you haven't read it then I recommend you find a copy. It is truly mind-blowing stuff.

The feel and style of Henry Bramble is comparable to the wonderful Narnia films, but rather than setting it in World War II (and therefore being in danger of being accused of copying these stories), it was important to come up with an equally dark but contemporary backdrop that directly threatens Henry's future and sets it apart from any other children's story that has gone before. I am pleased to say I think we have achieved this, but rest assured, as in all good children's storytelling, there is an uplifting conclusion, but for now my lips are sealed.

How does a Voydarkatron walk?

The latest update from the Visual Effect Research Lab in Dundee are some crude but very cool test animations on how the Voydarkatron moves. This one is of him strolling through the forests. The video really needs to be set to loop to get a proper feel for the creature.