It's been a whirlwind few weeks on the screenwriting front. As I posted previously, I found out last month that my short film script 'The Package' was shortlisted for this year's It's my Shout. Since then I had some even better news, when I was notified that I had made it through to the even shorter list of projects that were being considered for production.
As a result of reaching this stage I was invited to the BBC Writers Room residential, two intensive days at Roath Lock, here in Cardiff, the BBC's state of the art centre of excellence for drama and home to Casualty, Pobol y Cwm and Doctor Who. The workshop was overseen by BBC Writers Room Development Producer Rachel Williams and run by experienced producer Henry R Swindell. The first day was an overall look at story and writing for the screen. We discussed and watched lots of film and TV, all of which really helped cement the points that were being made, including relating the theory to our own favourite mainstream movie, in my case Predator.
The second day centred around specific feedback on our scripts and pointers on what to focus on for the next round of rewrites. I was one of the first to get notes, so I spent much of the second day tucked away in a corner with my headphones on, listening to instrumental tracks while working away on the next version of the script.
The notes I received gave me a lot to think about and really pushed me to take the bull by the horns and start to try some new things out. I spent all of last weekend and a good few hours last Monday working on revisions, until I had a version of the script I was happy to submit. The next stage includes not only the team from It's my Shout and the BBC Writers Room evaluating the revised drafts, but also the Directors who have also been selected, who get to decide which of those shortlisted they are most interested in bringing to the screen. Decisions should be made very soon, so I'll have more to say when I hear if I've been successful. Either way, this has all been really valuable and has given me lots of diagnostic tools for not only my screenwriting work, but also my comics projects as well.