Archive for the 'Life' Category
Friday, January 1st, 2010
New Year’s, New Ideas (plus a spaceship quiz!)
I just finished reading Joe Hill’s equally heart-stopping and heart-warming ‘Heart-Shaped Box‘ while fending off the final New Year’s Eve event cobwebs. Finishing more books is definitely something I want to do in 2010.
But what else?
This year, I feel really lucky to have been allowed to work with amazing theatre company Slung Low on theatrical extravaganzas Beyond the Front Line, They Only Come at Night and, with perhaps too much free reign/too much fun, the TOCAN Live online narrative (running this project live and interacting online with the audiences as various characters was probably my working highlight of the year so thanks as well to any of you who played along!)
But what else?
Apart from the work I did with Slung Low, I feel that most of my other writing has been chasing various schemes and deadline applications. Mostly, without the time to start anything anew, this has meant freshening up old scripts and ideas. It seems obvious now that perhaps there’s a reason why these ideas were still sitting in my draw rather than already appearing on TV or stage.
It’s time to let go.
So I’ve decided to not apply for anything for a while and sit and write some new projects which new thoughts have been repeatedly popping up for. When they’re ready, then and only then will I see what schemes are knocking around to send them off for. So rather than New Year’s Resolutions, this is what I intend to have written by - not the end of 2010 - but by the time I turn 29 (which is at the end of March).
1. A new one hour TV drama pilot - it wont feature spaceships, aliens, monsters or magic of any sort (I gather this is possible 
) I’m also going to break my rules about schemes too as this is intended to be ready as my submission for the BBC Writers’ Academy.
2. A radio play - now that I actually have sound on my computer again, I’ve been catching up on some amazing drama on Radio 4 and some spectacular sci-fi on BBC 7. I want a go! 
3. An original low-budget feature film treatment - I’ve got the idea in mind, it’s mostly influenced by the clear ideas of Richard Matheson stories and adaptations such as Stephen Spielberg’s Duel (although mine does not feature a big truck)
4. A two minute short film - Wow, you’re gonna write two pages huh, John? Yeah, I know. But, as I found with The Emaciated Man, fitting a story in two minutes can be harder than telling one in an hour. Also this is going to be a self-contained snippet from the above feature film. Hopefully I might be able to con some talented people into making it with me and maybe entering it into this year’s Virgin Media Shorts competition. Either that or it could just be fun!
So these are my plans. Out with the old, in with the new. Wish me luck!
But that’s not why you’re here, is it. Okay okay, at my friends Russ and Ed’s New Year’s bash last night we had a bit of a quiz and the round I came up with was ‘match the Spaceship to the Film/TV franchise’. Click on the picture below to have a go yourself.
And Happy New Year to you all. Onwards! 
Friday, October 9th, 2009
Ten years! TEN YEARS!!
Yup. Ten years. Ten years since I went to Bournemouth University. Not ten years since I graduated from university, mind you - but ten years since I started. However, it’s fair to say that if I was going to be either a hitman and/or John Cusack, it probably would have happened by now 
Oh well. At lot has happened since I first started studying Scriptwriting at Bournemouth Uni a decade ago. If I have any regrets, then it would be not taking a year or two out first so that I maybe had a little more life to write about. But maybe that kind of regret has found its way into and fuelled my writing anyway. I certainly don’t regret the friends I made and, of course, it was where I met the lovely Heather - so you know there are no regrets there!
Here’s a pic that my old uni chum Cookie ‘took’ of all of us back in the day. I’m in touch with too few of the fine fellows and fellowesses picture but I am joining them for somewhat of recap back down on the south coast this weekend. It’ll be good to see them all again as well as to see the sea itself.
I hope some things have changed. And that some never will*. Onwards
*Error. Sentimental Censorship fail
