UK Film Council to be abolished

Oh goodness me. This just in. Still in a bit of shock

The UK Film Council is to be axed as part of a cost-cutting drive by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), it has been announced.

The organisation, founded in 2000, had an annual budget of £15m to invest in British films and employed 75 people.

Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt said he wants to establish a "direct and less bureaucratic relationship with the British Film Institute".

UK Film Council chairman Tim Bevan has called it "a bad decision".

Is it a bad decision? I imagine it is but don't know all the details. There will still be some lottery money available for British films. But how much, and who is to administer that, all remains to be seen. At the moment I am just a bit shocked and feel for the 75 or so people who will lose their jobs at this time of recession. One thing for sure is that the inquest has to start now, and the people at the heart of the industry need to be consulted about how things are taken forward to maintain as much support as possible for British film.

TV Writers' Festival Part IV

The fourth part of Simon Stratton's excellent overview of what went down at the Writers' Festival.

Panel 4: They Won't Like That (Toby Whithouse, Pete Bowker, Sophie Gardiner, Ben Stephenson)

Pete: Thinking about which broadcaster a piece can be sent to while you're writing it can be quite healthy. It sets you challenges. Be aware of what's out there at the moment and be different.

Channel 4 have the strongest identity of all the channels, but he had no idea of what that is. Just think - this is what I want to write and why.

Ben: Definitely no prescription of what to write from the BBC! We never say ‘We want something set in a park’ although we wouldn’t say no to something set in a park.

Pete: They want something set in a park.

Ben: We just want the best that's out there. If you try and second guess us and write something you don't love, it won't get made.

Sophie: Commissioners don't know what they want until they see it. Producers need to know why you want to write something so they can buy into it too.

Ben doesn't want copies of successful shows. Needs everyone to feel passionate about their projects. He won't go near Archaeology for a while and time travel ‘cos of Dr Who and Ashes to Ashes. And it's hard to do another piece about Iraq. Always need Crime and Police dramas. But urges people to look at what's going to be the next iteration of a genre, like ‘Being Human’ did for vampires.

Sophie: For Misfits the brief came from the Channel, but ultimately the idea from the writers. I.e. the idea was at an early stage and refined towards what C4 wanted - less middle class than Skins etc.

Ben: Commercial broadcasters are more prescriptive as they HAVE to hit their target audience. The only BBC channel that has to be driven by demographics is BBC 3 which has to be more populist and aimed at a younger audience.

Ben does have relationships with agents.

Sophie: Does have agents she prefers as they understand the kind of writing she likes.

Be aware of budget and find a way to ratchet up the tension cheaply without making it look cheap. Watch The Hurt Locker or Occupation for examples.

Ben: Just write it. Let the channel worry about costs - ambition is more important. The original script for Small Island was ridiculously expensive.

Ben is trying to knock down walls so there aren't Chinese whispers of what he says passed down between agent and writer.

Toby: Agents constantly say 'Ben won't like that' which is rubbish. Don't be afraid to ask the commissioner - phone, e-mail etc.

Ben: The strangest thing I heard about myself is that I hates clowns. This is not true.

Pete: Ben's looking for clowns in a park.

TV Writers' Festival Part III

Third installment from Simon Stratton on the recent Writer's Festival

Panel 3: Writer for Hire (Nicola Shindler, Sally Wainwright, Mark Catley)

Question: How prepaQuestion: How prepared should an idea be before it's given to Nicola?

Nicola: The big story should be there, not the fine detail - 2.5 pages max. Ideally:

- A fab logline
- Where's the passion and WHY do you want to write it
- Show your commitment to the idea
- Show knowledge of what it's about

Sally: It needs to be specific

Nicola: Can't help pigeonholing an idea for a particular channel.

Sally: Pitched ‘At Home with the Braithwaites’ as a sitcom and it took 5 years to get commissioned

Nicola: Channel controllers have more power now and they move around a lot more, so things get 'un-green lit' all the time.

Sally: Never give up on a job.

Nicola: Except when no-one else thinks it's a good idea

Everything is very London-centric again. You can't find a talented crew in Manchester they've all moved to London.

It's a lot harder to get your own series if you're not a big name writer. If you are on a regualar series, like Doctors, Eastenders or Holby, you will be noticed by Indie Prodcos, especially if your episodes are better than others.

Red Productions read everything that is sent to them. Things aren't that grim at the moment, ITV and BBC are taking more things that might not traditionally be thought to fit on their channels.

To summarise: The financial landscape is terrible, the creative landscape is good.

She's never had a spec script go through to development. They are always a calling card for future writers.

Writers are never pigeonholed by indies, but indies are pigeonholed by broadcasters.

The most important thing in a script is that it must have a story.

Sally: Is scared of story and prefers to have the characters first.

Nicola: TV writing is an art form and the story has to move on quickly. People who write for soaps are better at doing this than those that write for theatre.

TV Writers' Festival Part II

Simon Stratton continues his report from the recent festival in Leeds. Enjoy.

Panel 2: Poacher Turned Gamekeeper (Tony Jordan, Toby Whithouse, Alice Nutter, Stephen Butchard)

Tony J: It's important for all writers to become showrunners. Anything going wrong on a program can be traced back to late scripts. It's ok to start the job knowing nothing.

Toby: The secret is, knowing when to delegate. (e.g. he doesn't direct, as there are better directors out there, but Jed M does.) It's also knowing when to encourage and when to make a decision. When he saw an actor ruin one of his gags, he realised he needed more control. The creative decisions that go on that are not to do with the writing - the things he finds out in discussion with the HDDS and DOPs are fascinating - it's a joy to do.

Tony J: You have a right to go and see your show being made, you don't need to be a showrunner to have that power. You just need to be on set to contribute your thoughts.

Alice: Pressure of working on someone else's show (e.g. The Street) makes you write the best thing you can, but also with as strong as authorial voice you can. You have to balance trying to learn as much on the apprenticeship, while pretending you're a seasoned professional to give others the confidence you deserve to be there.

She would've like the power to give her episodes a morally ambiguous ending, but this was changed by Jimmy MG. Still, she never accepts changes and argues over every word, even though it's Jimmy.

Toby: Showrunners are happiest when they don't have to change anything in the script. But most of the time it's quicker to change the script than to send it back to the writer.

Tony J: That's a slippery slope. The original writer should ALWAYS do the re-write. If he can't and Tony has to re-write himself, then that writer is fired. You should NEVER rewrite another person's script.

He even disagreed with Jimmy MG adding speeches into scripts to keep the distinctive style of the show - he should sit down with the writers and teach them how to do it.

Toby disagreed with this, there may not be time and ultimately what's good for the show is what's important, not the good of a writer. Whatever needs to be done to make it the best episode possible should be done.

Question: As a showrunner who challenges your power/creative decisions?

Toby: Execs say no, but if you find someone who challenges you creatively, hold onto them, they're gold dust.

Tony surrounds himself with writers to brainstorm and goes off on trips with them. If you hire good people, they will challenge you creatively.

Toby: Yes. If you hire a brilliant director, but don't let them challenge you, that's like hiring a Ferrari to use its cigarette lighter.

Tony J: Producers should be scared as more writers now are doing their own producing.

Toby: Do an eight to six day - quoted Julian Fellows "If you waited for the muse to call, a shopping list wouldn't get written."

TV Writers' Festival Part I

I wasn't in Leeds (I don't often make it outside the M25 thank you very much) but you're still in for a treat this week - as you don't have to listen to me going on about something. Instead Simon Stratton has kindly offered to share his experiences with us at this first time, very unique, hopefully to be repeated event.

Panel 1: Whose voice is it anyway? (Nicola Shindler, Jed Mercurio, Mark Catley, Tony Marchant)

Nicola: Broadcasters are not dictating what they want so much anymore, and it's all about the next piece you write, not the last.

Jed: Ignore what channels want, write what interests you. By the time you get something in front of commissioners, their tastes will have changed.

Sky is a new player in the market and offers an opportunity for new relationships to be made.

If he writes something that is only suitable for BBC2 or Channel 4, it's so hard to get on these channels, he sometimes thinks 'why bother?' and gives up on them. (There was a general feeling throughout the festival that Channel 4 reject everything put before them.)

In America, if you create a show, you run it. That should happen here.

Canal + is another player who want English language shows and are worth approaching.

Mark: Series writing is looked down upon.

Nicola: You can have the sexiest script around, but if it's not what they're looking for 'right now' it'll be rejected. They gave the example of 'Lockerby' a drama written for BBC 1 with a great untold story and relevance, but it hasn't been made.

Audience question: Any taboos in TV writing?

Jed: An exec once asked me to cut a scene of a Doctor zipping up his flies as his mother wouldn't like the insinuation that he hadn't washed his hands.

Nicola: Good producers love writer involvement.

Jed: Showrunning means two things in the UK. Either: You appear, give your wisdom and leave or you do all the menial tasks such as filling out forms and making phone calls. If a producer won't let you get involved in the casting, run a mile.

Tony: Don't write to briefs. But there are overarching briefs to the channels that you need to be aware of.

Nicola: If you write to a brief or a fashion it will be over by the time you've finished.

Jed: If you want speedy development, go abroad.

Tony: There is a temptation at the moment to repeat success until it fails (e.g. a modern re-imagining of the Canterbury tales led to a modern re-imagining of Shakespeare and so on until dreadful scripts are produced just because they fit the zeitgeist.)

Mark: Commissioners want a copy of the last thing that was successful.

You CAN have an individual voice and tell your own story in a series. E.g. for Casualty, the only remit is that it has to be in a hospital. They have guest episodes for this.

Jed: You're only as good as the NEXT thing you write.

Tony: Everything I've ever sent to C4 has been rejected.

We need to have another way to get original drama on TV rather than an apprentice in a series.

Jed: Subscription channels attract better cast and talent behind the camera (e.g. Sky, HBO) as there is more money available.

Could the Beeb do more to show stuff from new writers? Tony Marchant thought so and suggested BBC4 could be cut or used to house more low budget drama and less expensive bio-pics.

Licence to Bore?

No this is not the name of the next Bond film. Neither have I forgotten our look at successful British movies over the past 18 months. I'll get to that. But there have been a couple of other things on my mind and I'd like to share them with anyone kind enough to read this blog!

In my previous entry I blogged about the panel at the BFI. I didn't mention it myself but it's been widely reported elsewhere that Jimmy McGovern said theatre writers should carry a card in their pockets that said 'licence to bore.' It got a good round of laughter, which suggested there weren't many playwrights in the room! Turns out this is not the first time Jimmy has said this. In this interview in 2007 he says something very similar, although the emphasis seems to be to backtrack on this. (Maybe he's seen some really bad plays and read some really bad screenplays by playwrights between now and then that has led to another reversal!?)

I don't go to the theatre very much, and when I do, it's usually to see something by the best of the best, Mr Will Shakespeare. But here's what Jimmy went on to say: "I get lots of approaches from theatre writers who want to write for The Street or whatever and I’m telling you, a lot of theatre writers are crap. It’s boring. You don’t learn story structure writing in the theatre. Stay away from the theatre, it’s the worst thing you can do if you want to write for TV. Fight to get on a soap, get on Corrie, get on Emmerdale. That’s where you’ll learn." (Quote from Michelle Lipton's transcript.)

And I agree with Jimmy. I don't understand the obsession of people in the film and television industry of searching for new writing talent... In. Other. Mediums. It was not without a certain irony that days before Jimmy's comment, Joe Oppenheimer (BBC Films) said he tends to look at people with a track record in TV or theatre and thinks theatre is the best source for finding new writers. Meanwhile Charlotte Knight from The Rod Hall Agency said Theatre is where you can see writing in its purest form, there’s nothing to hide behind. (Sourced from Dave Melkevik's Serious Screenwriting write up - so any mistakes are down to him!)

First of all, no Charlotte, it's not. The novel is. I think King Lear is the greatest play ever written, but if someone was daft enough to cast me in the lead, the play would not get very good overnights. Playwrights are at the mercy of actors just as much as screenwriters. More so, because you can't re-shoot. But this notion of finding screenwriters from already established novelists and playwrights drives me crazy. I'm not saying everything in the screenwriting garden is rosy. And we'll come back to this in an upcoming blog post. But there are writers and scripts out there of high quality. And if people backed them instead, helped them develop their work, even if they had no credits or track record in something else, that is where you would find your screenwriters of the future. SCREENwriters. The clue is in the name.

A few years ago The Script Factory ran a course specifically designed to encourage and introduce successful novelists into screenwriting. I found the whole concept nauseating. This is the problem with writing. Screenwriters, novelists and playwrights all put words on a page for a living. Surely it's interchangeable? If you can do it in one form why not another? But would you use a property lawyer for a matter of criminal law and vice versa? Why not? They both studied Law. What about a tax accountant for corporate finance issues? They are both accountants. Or an ear, nose and throat doctor for heart surgery? They both studied medicine. I think you get my point.

And it works both ways. All we screenwriters seem to hear from Julian Friedmann these days, be it on Twelvepoint or at SWF is that we should be writing novels. (And by the way that is not meant to disrespect Julian, who I respect, like and has done me more than one favour.) But Julian, I don't want to write novels. I want to write screenplays. And I want the gatekeepers in my industry to be looking for me, not going to the theatre. Read scripts, not what's on the New York Times bestseller list.

Now all this of course comes with a caveat. You can of obviously do what you want. It's a free country and if someone wants to write novels, plays, screenplays, radio scripts, whatever, they are free to do so. And if they are talented in everything then good luck to them. But that is not what I'm talking about. You should have to prove yourself in each medium. Not success in one means you get a leg up in the other. Nick Hornby is one of my favourite novelists and he started his screenwriting career by adapting his own book. Fair play to him. But now he's an Oscar nominated screenwriter. And all credit to him for the fantastic script An Education is Debbie Moggach is another novelist who made a successful transition to screen. And I'm sure there are others and playwrights too. But, if Jimmy McGovern is right, these are the exceptions that prove the rule (whatever that means - I've never quite understood the expression! But the other irony of course is that Jimmy himself has used those with a playwriting track record, but not a screenwriting one, in both The Street and Moving On.)

But my overall point is that it's no good senior industry folk complaining about the lack of new writing talent coming through, if you keep looking for it in the wrong places. I've been hearing how great a place theatre is to find new talent for as long as I've been screenwriting. And I've been hearing the complaint about the lack of new talent for just as long. So you do the math.

The Writer in Modern TV

Last night I was at the BFI event - which had a subtitle of Second Coming or Looming Apocalypse? Tony Marchant, Jimmy Mcgovern, Donna Franceschild, Gub Neal, Nicola Shindler and Ben Stephenson were the ones charged with deciding. If you don't know who these people are, and want to work in British TV, then you should. So do your own googling! (Also there was David Butcher, but I'm never overly bothered by what critics have to say. And it was chaired by Mark Lawson)

So where did everyone sit on this rather wide range of a question? Unsurprisingly, all pretty much firmly in the middle. I'm probably one of the worst in the blogging community at doing event write ups, because my note taking is appalling. But these were some of the highlights of the discussion. (Disclaimer - like I've said before my short hand is rather hit and miss so the following is probably a lot of paraphrasing. Apologies to any of the participants if I've misquoted them.)

I ended up feeling a bit sorry for Ben Stephenson because the conversation inevitably turned to him to defend what the BBC does and doesn't do. All. The. Time. The poor bloke looked increasingly uncomfortable trying to strike the balance of not talking too much, and having to weigh in every two minutes. When discussing the lack of risk of TV drama - he insisted that he believed risk can very often define great TV. The BBC (somewhat bizarrely) are doing a drama about the creation of Coronation Street, the reason being because at the time, no one wanted it, no one thought it would work and the result of course is that now everyone is standing on the show's shoulders.

Tony Marchant said that you can do difficult topics on TV, but that they have to be packaged in a genre. He felt it was a shame things couldn't be tackled as straight drama. Ben agreed that a Trojan horse of a genre piece can be useful in terms of attracting an audience. But he wouldn't want to foster a false element on a story because it wouldn't work and therefore would be rubbish.

Interesting, although in the last few years all we've been hearing is high concept, high concept, high concept - Nicola Shindler thought the need for this was beginning to disappear. Gub Neal concurred that the idea of low concept - high character, was finally filtering through. And he was unequivocal in that it's coming through from the US shows over the last five years.

Donna Franceschild thought that The Street would show execs and broadcasters that drama about ordinary people (or seemingly ordinary people, but were of course actually anything but) can be a critical and popular success. And it just didn't. She felt it's still about self-censorship and what can we sell, not necessarily what we want to make. Ben acknowledged that from a BBC point of view, yes there's a corporation and a business and no system is ever perfect. But the only way to get the best TV is to get the best writers and allow them to write what they are passionate about.

And that's probably a good place to leave it. There was more of course, but my hand got tired. It was being filmed so I guess look out for it somewhere in the near future. Final word should probably go to Jimmy McGovern, the absolute master and most entertaining member of the panel. This was actually in the programme notes but he appears to have written it himself.

"I started writing seriously when I joined the Scotland Road Writers' Workshop in the seventies. Pedre James gave me my first break at the Liverpool Everyman round about 1980. And then Brookside took me on and I learned everything I know there. I left Brookside in 1989 after the Hillsborough Football Disaster and nobody in television drama wanted to know me - not the BBC and certainly not Channel 4 - until Simon Passmore commissioned me to write a play about the Gunpowder Plot for the BBC Screenplay strand. George Faber, the executive producer of Screenplay, then commissioned me to write a film called Needle and, shortly after that, Gub Neal asked me to write Cracker. And, after that, I was on my way. About 20 year from beginning to breakthrough."

Twenty years! And that's for Jimmy McGovern! Please, no one tell my wife.

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Okay so after writing all that out the clever and apparently very fast note taker Michelle not only has a brief write up on her blog, but also a link to a six page transcript! So if you wanna read more - go there.