Back from the Lab

How was Screen Lab? Why, I'm glad you asked.

Quick recap on this blog the last few months: I took on an insane deadline in October, co-writing a 60-minute pilot in under three weeks. It got nowhere. I've been a bit quiet since then.

There are a number of reasons including family and the day job, but I have to put my hand on my heart and say that my confidence took a bit of a knock. I was proud of the work (I still am), I was happy for the experience and I knew that you have to take the ups with the downs. But something about this one got to me. I think it was realising the gulf between where I am, which is a guy scribbling in the box room in his spare hours, and where I want to be, which is someone out there getting work published and filmed. Success felt like it was on the other side of the galaxy, and that thought drained me a bit.

Getting selected for Screen Lab 2010 was a big boost. It was just nice to have someone say that they thought I had something. The free screenwriting course was a nice extra, a good chance to sit around and be writerly for a few days. What harm could it do.

I've just come back from it. I don't think I've ever felt as upbeat about writing as I do right now.

Our tutor was a guy called Adrian Mead. His whole approach was tremendously straightforward and not at all what I expected. He's a no-nonsense guy with a lot of experience and his approach was exactly what I needed to hear. No gimmicks. Just the very sensible advice that if you work hard, you're organised, you're prepared and you have a strong story to sell, then you can get people interested.

I shared the course with ten other writers, all very talented, all with something different to offer. I think we all connected to the same degree to what Adrian was saying. He managed to find just the right balance between being an artist and being a businessperson, because none of us want to schill but neither do we want to write screenplays that are just going to sit in a drawer somewhere. It was amazing to talk to the other guys during the breaks and hear them say, "I've just cracked that idea I've been working on for the last few years, I think I know how to pitch it". I felt the same way about my own projects and wanted to run home and get to work.

We had some cracking guest speakers as well. Peter Hynes, who does a lot of kids telly, came by to talk about his work. I spoke to him afterwards and managed to ask him sensible questions like who to contact if I want to work for Cbeebies, and I completely avoided saying all the stupid stuff I was really thinking like, "Can you say hello to Timmy from Timmy Time for me?"

Two actors also dropped by, Paul Cunningham and Hazel Ann Crawford, to talk about their relationship with a screenplay. But first, and with Adrian's gleeful assistance, they ganged up on all us poor writers and punished us for writing terrible stage directions by forcing us to try acting some of them out. For example, I was asked to have a crack at "She looks at him unsympathetically" and I just ended up looking like a pervert having an aneurysm. I now understand why badly-written stage directions hurt actors and I solemnly swear to never do it again.

Hazel, Paul and Adrian then workshopped our scripts which was probably the highlight of the weekend. There were great insights into delivery, organisation and pacing, but the simple process of seeing a flat piece of writing turn into a live performance was inspirational. Seeing actors perform your work... well, a man could get addicted to it.

We got to spend some time with Clare Kerr, the other half of Mead Kerr Productions. It's reassuring to know that there are producers who are intelligent and passionate. There wouldn't be much point in bothering with all this if the guys who actually get the movies made weren't really into movies. The next day we got a great talk from Morag Kerr, who also took the course with us on people skills and how to speak at meetings (both of which are also very useful in my day job - I can't believe I didn't have to pay for all of this).

So, the whole event was rounded off with an appearance by Maggie Still. Maggie is someone who had done this course previously, managed to get a crew together for no budget and shot a short in her house. We got the world première of "Mr. Scott", her short movie, which is just bloody brilliant. I still can't quite believe that it was made for nothing but goodwill, favours and a bit of blagging. Maggie gave us tons of tips for getting out there, meeting people and getting involved.

Basically, Maggie's role in the course was to remind us that there is absolutely no excuse...

It wasn't all shop-talk over the weekend and I admit to having spent far more time in the pub than can be healthy for a man my age. The chat was really great and I happily could have stayed there for another week.

But it winds up, you finish your pint, you say goodbye. You swap cards and promise to Facebook people. And then you go home and you're faced with the same problem as before. A blank page in need of words. So how has this helped?

What I got, what I feel right now, is a sense of empowerment. I don't feel any more like this is something I can't do. I don't feel like it's going to be easy - Adrian did give us a pretty honest oversight of how the film & TV industries work. But I do feel like I'm back in control of my ideas again, that I can start getting the most out of them, I can believe in them and I can share them in a professional way. The course didn't teach me how to be a good writer; it showed me how to sort myself out so that I can give my writing a 100%. The rest is up to me.

So yeah. I enjoyed it. Thanks for asking.