I found the day incredibly useful and was given plenty of information about the world of Screenwriting.
The day started with the compere for the event, a comedian called Dan March, welcoming all 160 of us and explaining that if anyone had a project they wanted to network then to speak to him and he would do a shout out during the intervals.
Then Elliot Grove, Founder of Raindance, explained his background and went on to talk about Characters and inciting incidents. He said that first and foremost you need good characters. Story and plot can come after. He then told us about a group of people in America that meet every weekend and make a short film. They start by having each person write down 2 characters and their job and a couple of traits. Then they all write down an inciting incident. Elliot explained this can be something as big as a car crash (macroscopic) or something as small as dropping a coin on the floor (microscopic). Then the group put each category in hats and have someone pull out 2 character and 1 incident and then they come up with a story and make it into a short film. When it's all finished and edited they watch it back - if it's good they put it up on YouTube or send it to festivals, if not they delete it.
Here is one of their films featuring Naomi Watts called 'Never date an Actress'
I thought it was really funny and a really good low budget short and it just shows what you can do when you put your mind to it. This year almost half of the entries for short films to Raindance film festival were shot on mobile devices and some were good enough to be shown during the festival itself. It goes to show it doesn't matter what you shoot with, as long as you have good characters and story it can be successful.
Here are 2 other short films that we watched on the day that i enjoyed. The first is called 'Blonde in a Library' which takes 2 stereotypes and puts them together.
The second is a film which was commissioned by Robbie Williams when he wanted to promote his new album. It is called 'Goodbye to the Normals'.
We were then given the opportunity to come up with our own characters and inciting incident and put them on 3 small pieces of paper. Then we had to pass one character to the person on our left and our inciting incident to the person on our right. We then had to think of a news story that might be on TV or in a newspaper that came from the 3 pieces of paper we now held. Some people were selected to read their idea out loud to the group and asked if they found it a useful experience. I found it a great idea and will be using it when I am struggling for ideas. Elliot said it is good to keep your writing skills on top form so this is an idea that we can all do every day if we want.
After a break, we then went onto learn about different structures. variations of them and the social stages. Obviously I already knew about the 2 and 3 act structures from Uni but it was interesting to hear about other structure ideas because there is no set style for writers to follow and how your story unfolds is down to you and how you want to tell it.
I had never heard about the social stages before and how each stage has a different hero.
I had never heard about the social stages before and how each stage has a different hero.
The Wilderness - Super hero: always male, receives divine inspiration and new set of rules for people to follow. E.g Moses and the 10 commandments
The Village - Classic hero: usually male, expert in martial arts, not from village, usually summoned as village needs helps or arrives and is mistaken for a barbarian, the villagers change not the hero, hero rides into sunset.
The City - Average hero: Male or female, does ordinary things, sees injustice so seeks justice.
Oppressive city - Anti-hero or Bumbling hero: the city is controlled by the powerful and the rules have been changed to serve them, male or female, just wants to live life and stay out of everyone's way, Witnesses an injustice by the powerful, they know anti-hero has seen, powerful try and exterminate the anti-hero.
Elliot talked about 'Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid' and how in that film they move from one stage to another. When this happens they have to change to fit in with the stage or perish. As they refuse to change when confronted with a different type of enemy they indeed perish.
Below are some relevant pictures from the handout I received.
After lunch, we learnt about low budget film making and directing. The handout we had for low budgets was really good as it gave us links and contacts for people who are always looking to collaborate and how to make things yourself such as fake blood and other make up effects.
The directing bit was really helpful and has given me a lot more confidence for when I start shooting for 'The Meeting'. I've loads of tips and tricks too so will be interesting to see if I can put them into practice.
The last speech was about copyriting your scripts, how to get influential people to read your scripts and pitching. He told us a very cunning tip on getting producers, directors and actors to see your script and hopefully want to be part of the project. The pitching tips were invaluable and when I get the opportunity to pitch to professionals about my projects in the future ill be way more prepared than I have been before.
Unfortunately there were only 18 spaces to pitch to the panel and I wasn't able to pitch but I did enjoy hearing the feedback other people got for their ideas.
After the course most people went for drinks at a nearby bar to network. It was a really good idea and I made lots of new contacts that I can hopefully utilize in the future. I even met a lady who's background was in dealing with young gang members and when I told her about my 'Bigger than Banksy' project she agreed to help me with my research and has given me a lot of other contacts and even an area of East London to visit (in daylight with a big group, not particularly a safe area) where gangs and graffiti art is a big part of the culture. The most exciting contact I made was with a producer called Darren who has just beaten Josh Whedon (Creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer) to an award in America. He was working his way around the room when he approached my group and asked us about ourselves and our projects. I told him about my work for uni on 'The Meeting' and my basic idea for 'Bigger than Banksy'. He was really interested in both ideas and has asked me to copyright my scripts when I get a chance and send him a copy for him to read through. He said if the script was right he may be interested in working with me in the future on both projects. I was so shocked but I'm really excited and hopefully he will be a great contact to have.
Overall it was a really great day and I would definitely do another course like this again.
Stay safe,
Helen
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