They say opportunities are like buses… After posting the one for IPTV yesterday, here’s a couple more to feast your eyes on.
Scottish soap River City is looking for a Script Editor. If it wasn’t set in Glasgow, I’d be biting their hands off, but everyone knows you gotta eat haggis every day up there as it’s a matter of national pride and anyway, kilts were so last year dah-link (as David Bishop and Miss Read know). But if you’re not into fashion and love eating sheep’s intestines, go for it with my blessing. Check it out here. Many thanks to the lovely Marc Pye for the heads-up, who’s a veteran writer on the show.
Secondly, Thom Poole of Electric Sky Productions, Brighton, has got in touch about his documentary project:
The project I am working on is a documentary for a Major broadcaster (sorry to be cloak and dagger it’s just that it hasn’t been fully commissioned yet so can’t really go into too much detail) about people who have Imaginary friends.
It isn’t going to be a ‘shocking’ documentary, more an exploration of what it is like to have an Imaginary Friend as an Adult. How does it effect day to day life? Do they let other people know about them? Do they come from a feeling of isolation or loneliness? Are they just someone who is around in the background who can be called upon to mull things over with?
So if you feel you could contribute or know anyone who could please feel free to get in touch.
If you’re interested in contributing to a documentary about this intriguing subject, you can contact Thom on thom.poole@electricsky.com or via the website.
Lastly, hello to Ellin Stein, my colleague at Metlab and fellow script reader. Ellin has a rather fabulous article in last week’s Telegraph about screenwriters being the “Cinderellas” of the filmmaking industry. Click here to read it.
Thanks again, Lucy. Excellent article by Ellin and I must say I’m glad if screenwriters are changing things though it’s going to be a slow process.
Here’s a question: we read a lot about ‘auteurism’ on the part of directors but is this a misnomer as by the time a story has made it to the screen, the process is one of collaboration. Surely the screenwriter is the true auteur?
And a good question, Elinor. But here is one for you: if film IS a process born out of not only collaboration but delegation (and some say it isn’t), then surely there can be no true author of it? Auteur theory in my view is for jumped-up film critics to caw about in self-indulgent film glossies, but that’s just my 2p’s worth… ; )
Now the actual script and idea… That’s a different matter.
Aha! Good point, Lucy. I agree about the self-indulgence of such labels and the way critics get all hushed and reverent about it. Delegation implies hierarchy and it seems that Diana Ossana is right and ‘screenwriters are the bottom-feeders’. Serves us right for thinking we were the true auteurs!
William Goldman has a great aside about the fallacy of auteurism in Which Lie Did I Tell – he prints the screenplay extract for the famous crop-duster scene in North by Northwest – which describes exactly what it seen on the screen – then follows it up with ‘All Hitchcock did was direct it. Badly.’
I love William Goldman.
Cheers for the River City heads-up. They’re looking for a Script Secretary too!
Oli – Fantastic and crucial tho Lehman’s work on NbyNW was, on the DVD commentry (they’ve got a writers commentry on it ‘cos the director was unavalible) he explains how he developed that sequence in collaberation with Hitch, based on the idea by Hitch.
He also admits that the film IS an “Alfred Hitchcock Film”
Sorry to let the side down! Perhaps a better example would be ‘Alexander MacKendrick’s’ The Sweet Smell of Sucess, co written by Lehman based on his own novel.
I think the fallacy of the auteur theory is that the director is ALWAYS the SOLE author of the film. Hitch clearly was an Auteur -even tho he relied on collaberators, as all filmmakers do, but there are many other cases where the writer (and some where the producer) is the main author – and many more where the credit deserves to be shared more equally.
PS Goldman on collaberation – FILMMAKING IS A COLLABERATIVE BUISNESS – NOW BEND OVER
Lucy! Don’t go blabbing to everybody about RC!
Martin – Yes, to be fair the idea did come from Hitchcock. This, however, was his previous pitch…
“I want to get the hero out in the middle of a big field, all alone, no one for miles around… then the villains try to kill him… with a TORNADO!”
That may be an urban legend, maybe not, but it’s funny and I wouldn’t put it past him.