Storytellers in London.

I had a bit of a break from writing here about my progress. I’m not sure if what’s been happening I could possibly call the progress, but there were things happening. Well, mostly I have found my motivation and once is back I have been working a bit and the new projects will be attacking.

I promised myself I will write down several things I consider as the most valuable of the London Screenwriting Festival experience. The festival itself was a magnificent place to be for a passionate writer. I don’t know what I was looking for when I was going there, but sure I have found it.

I picked my three favourite speakers of the festival, each of them special for the same, but sort of different reason. They all share the same feature – they have an amazing charisma that excites the audience. They know how to entertain you and it doesn’t matter if they are teaching you or just telling you about their life.

The first one, hands up, is Joe Eszterhas, a legendary Hollywood screenwriter, who I didn’t know much about before except that he wrote “Basic Instinct” and “Flashdance” (<dancing>). He told his story beautifully, but without soppy moments. An honest, hard-working, modest guy.

“Keep writing even if you’re throwing up”. God, it helped me.  For some reason, sometimes you have to hear such things  so they push you. If you thing this quote is silly – you have no idea what you’re talking about, people. Go away.  Joe was also referring to writing as a storytelling, because at the end of the day – that is what we want to do or why we wanted to do that when we were little (then the reality came and we realized that we need to make a living). BUT. We are supposed to tell stories that someone else really wants to listen/watch. That is when the moneys come. He also said an extremely important thing, very personal to me – “Don’t apologise for who you are”. I mean, you hear those things from everyone, but there is this moment when you actually understand what does this sentence mean. I hope that was my moment of fully understatement at least that is how I still feel about it.

The second speaker was Pilar Alessandra, who I have already seen during the screenwriting festival in Warsaw. She is a truly charming  speaker, she puts knowledge  in your head and you don’t even know it! She throws some jokes at you, she hides some tips between them, then she makes you write thinking of them a little “Just write whatever, what is on your mind” and then suddenly, a week later you still catch yourself doing that. You’ve improved your craft and you didn’t even notice! I mean, it’s the simplest and the most silly way of explaining her phenomenon. So if you have a chance I would recommend to go and listen to her.

The third one was Luke Ryan, a Hollywood executive who gave a few lectures and all of them were funny and super entertaining. He is the guy who makes those sort of comedies, which we consider to be silly but we always laugh while watching them. I am mentioning him, because he is a walking example of being passionate and enjoying what he is doing. He likes to laugh he makes comedies (well, not only). So let’s do what we enjoy, other people will follow.

I spent some quality time in London, I have met a few people and I hope to stay in touch with them.

I will finish this post with what BBC producer, Kate Harwood said about writing. As it doesn’t matter if it’s TV or film or whatever “The drama is drama is drama is drama”. We’re story-tellers, we need to learn to tell good stories.

(Oh. BTW THE STORM WAS REAL. THERE WERE TREES FLYING and stuff).

 

Epic Scheduling.

IT  IS SO HARD TO PICK THE ‘RIGHT’ SESSIONS TO ATTEND AT THIS YEAR LONDON SRCEENWRITING FESTIVAL.

I am a festival fresher so it’s even harder to choose out of the rich offer. I tried to put together a first draft of my schedule for the upcoming weekend, but I usually ended up with two things at the same time. <saddness>

It’s a bit of “a heart and a reason” dilemma as there are things that could useful for my career and there are things I am simply interested in. I just can’t choose between “Storylining for Continuing Drama” and “The 5 Laws of successful Commercial Screenwriting”. Both topics strongly refer to what I am trying to focus on professionally. I mean I am trying to break to the industry trough television and I am trying to write good commercial stuff. Another problem I will have with Saturday’s morning sessions: “Breaking The Rules: Alternative Screenplay” or “How To Get An Agent”.

The only sure thing is that I will have a lot of FUN. I hope it will be a great, inspiring KICK of motivation.

I have also moved into the new flat in Warsaw and the job hunting is on. Fingers crossed for some good news soon!

Peace.

 

Rolling up!

I’m back in my home country, already missing a weird English land.

Now, I will scribble something about my work placement on set of Lime Pictures’ production “Hollyoaks”.

I was assigned to the production department and across the week I was shadowing several 3rd ADs and 2nd ADs. Sometimes there wasn’t many things to do as they were rushing everywhere, running to find the actors or God knows who. I felt like a bit of an obstacle, trying to help out but not really knowing what to do. However, I sort of smoothly jumped in the shoes’ of 3rd ADs and I gradually took up doing most of the things (sometimes forcing myself through embarrassment as I can get pretty shy. Bad, bad thing). Thank to that I could take care of the “background” (extras) – I took them to set, signed them out, chased and phoned the late ones. I also did cross off the scene (hehehe, it sounds like it’s something terribly victorious),  but it’s indeed a part of this job! I did run for the coffees and biscuits and it’s actually pretty rewarding, because then you’re the one that everyone loves “Oh my, I dreamt about some nice biscuit”, “Thanks, you’re a life saver!”.

It can obviously get pretty stressful when 1st AD wants one of the cast member “NOW” and that person just disappeared. I took part in a big search twice. Once I even found the missing actress! Oh, I was also a “traffic stopper” as well. If such word even exists.

As between the takes I had not much to do I decided to shadow script supervisor. It turned out a very good idea. The job I didn’t know much before really got me involved. It requires a lot of practice as you’re responsible for the continuity, lines and all the important notes sent from the set to the edit suit. One of the girls I did shadow on the last day said that with a bit of practice it becomes like a second nature. “It’s like driving a car” – you need to do many things at the same time. She also said that the most important thing in her job is the actual knowledge of editing rules. As when you know if you can edit around certain mistake there is no need to bother 1st AD and director to do another take.

Another Script Supervisor also told me a very important thing. The diplomacy is the key on set. Mistakes can’t be just pointed out, they could be suggested. Before you even suggest them it’s best though to double-check as you might be too eager and everyone is actually aware of mentioned “mistake”. Maybe it’s how it’s supposed to be? It sounds like a common sense, but it’s not easy when in a nervous and stressful situation instead of saying “Wrong lines” you have to use something more diplomatic to not get the actor and director and everyone else annoyed. So. Diplomacy. She also said that I shouldn’t be scared of making mistakes. However, admitting of making them is essential.

I was surprised by how many people where stopping by to ask me how am I doing and then actually listening back to all my miserable thoughts about my future. They were giving me a lot of tips and support and the thing that came up quite few times was to just keep knocking to as many doors as possible. The worst thing you can hear is NO. Still – something you know, but when you hear it from people who actually did that and now they’re working full-time doing what they enjoy, it has different impact on you.

I like the team feeling among the crew. The cast is different, but you can also find some lovely and polite people there (poor girls in little dresses when it was freezing cold). There are jokes going around, gossips, nerves. It’s great when you can work with people you like (well, mostly).

So I hope it was a step forward.

“Hollyoaks” it’s one of those in UK that everyone at least heard of but it’s sort of “embarrassing” to watch. In Poland we have plenty of those, e.g. “M jak Miłość”, which I actually do watch. Despite what I have learnt job-wise, I also tried to explore this phenomenon. I got it. After two days of being on set I was asking a various members of crew about the storyline as I wanted to know who is this girl in the scene we’re shooting and why she is with this old guy if she obviously wants to be with his son?! It can get pretty addictive. Watching “Homeland” that is believed to be one of the highest quality TV Shows is sometimes nerve-wrecking, leave you drained! Watching “Hollyoaks” can actually help your brain turns off completely after a long and stressful day.

In the meantime I have to prepare myself for Screenwriting Festival which is happening in just two weeks time! The schedule went on live yesterday. It will be hard to choose between the sessions, I know that for sure.

Running Week.

So it’s been a second day of my work placement at Lime Pictures on set of “Hollyoaks”. Yesterday I felt lost, mostly because I couldn’t get my head around the labyrinth of the corridors and the mosaic of various faces. Today 2nd AD in my unit called in sick so I sort of jumped in a proper 3rd AD shoes. (Not) surprisingly there was a lot of running happening, bringing extras in, signing them out, getting teas, coffees etc. Working on such a big production is stressful, especially when everyone is running late with their shoots and the units are basically kidnapping actors to their sets. What is cool though is that great feeling of being in a team, working for the sake of the same goal.

I also got a surprise email and then phone call inviting me to the application process for a very interesting job position. The luck was soon gone as a few hours later I got another email that the position is already filled. There will be my turn one day.

So the week I thought it’s going to be eventually putting me back in track is not being how I imagined. Life, you say! More motivation and more strength needed.