Thursday, April 8th, 2010
What makes a good Calling Card script?
As the opening and closing dates for the BBC’s Writers Academy have now been announced (Deadline May 5th btw), I’ve fallen into a downward spiral of second-guessing as to what script I should submit as the best example of my work.
I took a bit of a blow when my intended project turned out to be very similar to an idea I read about by a former Writers Academy student (down to our titles almost being identical) as well as a recently released feature film touching on the same themes. Obviously all three scripts are entirely different but they are similar enough for me to worry that a reader will pigeon-hole it as ‘another bloody (something) script’. And no, I’m not telling what it was about 
So that leaves me questioning what makes a good Calling Card script? And for the Writers Academy in particular. Is a feature unsuitable for this scheme? Is a TV pilot too risky on if they like the series idea? I’m erring towards a single drama as the happy medium - but is the single drama too much of a rare format to be useful (and will it just give away I was too chicken to write a feature or a pilot?)
Gah.
The one thing I do know is to not just mimic Eastenders or Casualty. In past application years, an offbeat murder mystery has gotten me far further than my attempt last year to write (what I thought) was the kind of thing they’d be looking for - which promptly saw me knocked out in the first round. I’m sure I’m right in saying that the BBC want writers who can bring something fresh to Doctors or Holby – not just imitate it!
And yet I’m still a bit wary of sending them my oddball spy drama 
So what are your thoughts? Do you have a particular format you use to open doors first and then sell your other projects? Has a particular genre always proved successful for you when making first contact? I know we all write differently so might have different answers, but what sort of script has proved your strongest calling card?
Sunday, May 17th, 2009
Where am I?
Or more specifically, ‘where have I been’? Dear blog, it has been four weeks since my last confession. All sorts of depravity has occurred (mostly while in London). Myself and Heather attended the Arthur C Clarke Awards where Heather was Composer in Residence And I admit it, while I’ve been away, ever so briefly for fancy-dress purposes, I had a moustache.
The shame. But what have I been doing other than that? It’s something I’ve been asking myself. I’ve worked hard on my application for the BBC Writer’s Academy. Another writer I know said recently they’d rather
slit their wrists than slum it writing an episode of Eastenders.
Gosh. Personally, I’d rather blow an audience’s socks off with a me-written episode of Eastenders, hope it caught producers’ attention so they had me back AND get paid for the pleasure at the same time. Does that make me an idiot? 
I have also been chasing various competitions and schemes a bit much and definitely trying to second guess what I think people want when writing. So over the next few months I’m going to take some time to write me-specific stuff again and getting it right just for me. Even if it means letting schemes or competitions fly past me.
Maybe I’m just inspired by the lovely fun new Star Trek movie - boldly going where no one has gone before and so on. Then we’ll see where that takes us. Fingers crossed. 
