• About
  • Short Films
  • Contact
|Gail Hackston | WRITER DIRECTOR |
Connect with me

Writing Skyfall - The Realities of being a Screenwriter

29/11/2012

0 Comments

 
Picture
Last night the University of Westminster hosted an awesome event with screenwriters Robert Wade and Neal Purvis. This dynamic duo have been responsible for the scripts for the last FIVE bond movies and much more besides. It was a really interesting chat, and although I tweeted my little heart out from the event, I thought I’d note down some of the main take outs.

What struck me was how honest and frank the two men were and also how many of the points they made – including those below – have been echoed many times before by successful screenwriters. Ignore them at your peril!

1.       You’ll need to write about ten scripts to get one made – The first agent Wade and Purvis had said to them that they likely have to write ten scripts before one got made. Being young writers, they immediately thought “Well that doesn’t apply to us” but she was on reflection right. Writers are not born, they are self taught for years before they get to the point of writing scripts worth producing.

2.       Even when you’ve “made it” and are earning money from screenwriting it doesn’t mean the films you write will be made – After the success of “Let him have it” in the early 1990s, Wade and Purvis wrote about five scripts – all paid assignments – including the adaptation of the Iain Banks novel The Wasp Factory but none of them got made. Again, it shows what a miracle the making of feature film actually is. All the stars have to align, if they don’t even successful writers find their scripts unproduced.

3.       Just write your script – Both writers agreed that the best thing to do, once you have spent the time on the structure and scene breakdown is just to get on and write the damn script. But with caveats…

4.       Accept that your first draft is your first draft won't be right, that allows you to get on with the business of rewriting – which is where the real work and the real slog is.

5.       Sometimes the producers are going to need to bring in another writer to finish the script – No matter how big you are, you just get too close to the material. As such, you need to deal with the fact that other writers are brought in to tidy up dialogue, description and plot. This is a collaborative industry and you are a small cog in a big wheel. If you want to keep working be professional about the fact you will be fired.

So there you have it. Even the writers for the biggest franchise in movie history have to keep writing, and rewriting, and rewriting. 

0 Comments

Do what you love - it makes no sense to work for the sake of money

28/11/2012

0 Comments

 
0 Comments

Vintage Rejection

27/11/2012

0 Comments

 
Picture
Can't say that the reasons have changed much!
0 Comments

Stop Pissing Around on the Internet and Write Your Script 

27/11/2012

0 Comments

 
Picture
“Writing is 10% Hard Work and 90% ignoring the internet”. Boy, ain’t that the truth.

I have been experimenting with Rescue Time this week. Rescue Time is a software system that tracks when you are being productive and when you are fucking around online and not doing what you should. I have some pretty tight deadlines in the run up to Christmas, and although my job does involve a high proportion of using Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to promote various bits and bobs for the LSF and freelance clients, it is not where ALL my time should be.

I was particularly drawn to Rescue Time for two reasons.

1)      It tracks what you do during the day and you can work out when you were the most productive. For me it is the morning, and oddly post 8pm at night.

2)      You can set up “focus time” where the software essentially blocks all distracting sites for a period of time you have set.

This week I’ve been trying to finish a short script. My pattern up to now has been this. Write a bit, get stuck on a dialogue line, go on Facebook, piss around, go back to the script, push a little bit forward, go onto twitter, see if anyone has “@”ed any of my accounts, make a cup of tea, wait for the clock get to a quarter before restart, restart, visit Facebook.


It’s a familiar story and I think one many writers are probably familiar with.

Step in, Rescue Time. Now the pattern is write an bit, get stuck on a dialogue line, go on Facebook, Rescue Time pops up saying “Hey, you told me you wanted to be focused for 30 minutes, what you doing on Facebook?”, I blush, go back to the script and actually work through the dialogue line.


It has been amazing to see just how often I stop what I am doing and go looking for a distraction instead of knuckling down and working through the problem.

This week it has meant that I have actually managed to smack my To Do list square in the kisser. It has also meant that I have had the opportunity to see what sites are the main offenders for my skiddling around – aside from Facebook and Twitter, the big offender is the Daily Mail site. I know. I'm a little disgusted by this myself. *shameface* this is what happens when you have a secret passion for celeb gossip.

Anyway, if you are struggling and want to put a bit of zap under your productivity, then have a look at Rescue Time. There is a 14 day free trial and then it is a couple of quid a month. I am going to see how I get on with it for a month or so. If I am still using it in January and haven’t managed to wean myself out the bad habits then it’s a keeper.


0 Comments

How NOT to get more Twitter Followers

25/11/2012

0 Comments

 
Picture
…rule number one, don’t “@” people and ask them to retweet you so they can get to a specific number of followers.  

So, you are in a bar with some friends, and some guy comes up and asks if you want to join him at his empty table for a drink. You say no. Same guy comes up ten minutes later asking the same thing. You say no again. Same guy comes up 20 minutes later and asks the same thing - again. You tell him to fuck off.

Twitter is a bar.

I’ve actually had to block someone who repeatedly comes into my Twitter stream asking me to retweet his name so he can get more followers. Dude, this is not how the internet works. I don’t know you from Adam. Why would I retweet your needy post and blot my own timeline with useless  information?

Firstly, this obsession over getting more followers is a dead end. More followers does not mean a) you are popular b) people will read what you say.

There is a lot of noise of there and having someone follow you who follows 35,000 other people is going to mean you are a small voice in that persons stream. Secondly, people follow people generally because they have something interesting to say. They don’t want repetitive crap posts about your quest to get to 1000, 2000 followers whatever. When I stop following people, it’s because I have become uninterested in their messages. I don’t mean the occasional  - “I’m going to have coffee”  post, I’m as guilty of that as anyone, what I mean is they keep saying the same thing like promoting their e-book, or pushing an Elongated crowdfunding campaign, or asking me to retweet their name so they can get 1000 followers – Hmmm? The same message turns me off. And I’d hazard a guess it would turn most others off too.

If you want to get more followers on Twitters there are two very easy things you can do.

1)      Post Valuable Content, Hashtagged appropriately, about your Niche – Twitter is about information. If you post valuable information that people can use, they will see you as an interesting person and likely follow you. Sales messages are OK occasionally – like one in ten posts – but if you really want to position yourself as someone to follow then be an information pimp. Your followers will grow organically and are more likely to be interested in what you are saying.

2)      Buy and Use Follower adding software like Tweet Adder – If you insist on being all about the numbers then stop harassing people to retweet you for more followers. Pay £30ish quid and buy Tweet Adder. Tweet Adder automatically follows people for you – once you set the list of people you want to add up. Twitter Etiquette is that most people refollow you if you follow them, hence by you adding people you follow you, yourself will see a rise in followers. Of course, the quality and actual usefulness of these followers is debatable.

As in real life, so in Twitter, Facebook or any of the other networks out there. Take the hint!


0 Comments

The Year I became a Producer - or, if the cap fits, wear it. 

20/11/2012

0 Comments

 
Picture
This year, I inadvertently became a film producer.

It’s not quite what I set out to do but it seems to suit me.

Here’s the thing. I’ve always seen myself as a creative person and have channeled that creativity into writing but there is an obvious white elephant I’ve been ignoring. It is namely that I spent 12 years in very corporate sales and marketing environments learning to hustle a deal and promote three legged Rocking Horses as thoroughbreds.

Now while corporate doesn’t automatically mean producer and creative doesn’t automatically mean writer or director, I find myself with both skillsets and wondering which way to turn. I’m 35 and don’t want to fuck around anymore waiting for people to say yes to my scripts and ideas, hence, I’m saying yes to myself.

How did this start? Well, earlier this year I attended the Producers Masterclass with Chris Jones and Stephen Follows. The information here, plus the great seminar from Jon Reiss about distribution and marketing a few month later, blew my mind as to the possibilities producing had to offer. Yes, you are starting from scratch on the project and are there until the rights dry up years down the line but it is your baby. You can mold it anyway you want. Be it your original idea or an original script by someone else. If you want to have the creative and commercial control in a project, you have to be the producer. End of.

I produced my first short film this year – Spare Change, written by me, directed by Andy Carslaw. You’ll need to ask Andy how well I did divorcing myself from the writer in me on that! But it all seemed to go well. We are getting ready for some final sound work and then the film will probably be ready for early next year.

Further to this I am midst producering of 50 Kisses. 50 Kisses is the Screenwriters Festivals feature film initiative and is the world’s first crowdsourced feature film. I’ve been developing the scripts with writers, sending out contracts to the filmmakers, watching all the films coming in and am now talking distribution and premieres.

Amazing things happen when you turn your head in one direction or another. As well as my own Directing debut for next year, Time for Oneself, I already have a fairly full “slate” for next year with the 50 Kisses sequel and a potential low-budget feature film. While I’m not at the Weinstein stage yet, I’m certainly heading in the right direction and the best bit, it is making me a more educated critic of my own work.


0 Comments

    Author

    Gail Hackston is a filmmaker, screenwriter and producer. Her blog is about getting things made in the UK Film Industry.

    Archives

    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    October 2011
    September 2011

    Categories

    All
    50 Kisses
    Art
    Cancer Hair
    Crowdfunding
    Eiff
    Entrepreneur
    Filmmaking
    Invisible Girl
    Networking
    Picture
    Producing
    Recommendations
    Screenwriting
    Short Film
    Social Media

    RSS Feed

Connect with me

© IN NUCE CONTENT LTD 2014-2016