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The Story Engine Conference

Breaking Into Theatre By Carla Grauls

Many thanks to Bang2writer Carla for sharing her insights on breaking into theatre – some really good advice here. Enjoy! The first play I wrote was a dark comedy except that it wasn’t a comedy. It was just dark. After that first play written at university, I have been involved in developing a new play with a theatre, a dark comedy. This time I have taken steps to ensure it is funny…not just disturbing. My play Occupied will be previewed at Theatre 503 in July this year as part of Labfest: a season of new writing. I was invited to… Read More »Breaking Into Theatre By Carla Grauls

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Guest Post: The Story Engine 2010, Pt 1 by Helen Bang

The mighty Helen Bang has been off to The Story Engine again — here’s part 1 of her notes from this year. State of the Nation Panel: Malcolm Wright, ITV, Michael Chaplin, writer, Barbara McKissock, producer The recession has affected television drama – advertising revenue is down and the BBC have had to cut because of the contribution required to the digital switchover. Much less is being commissioned and there have been cutbacks in development. Treatments are being commissioned, but whereas previously they moved rapidly to script, this is no longer the case. Michael related how he had a 6… Read More »Guest Post: The Story Engine 2010, Pt 1 by Helen Bang

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The Story Engine, Notes, Pt 3: Features, Training, Scriptreading, Simon Beaufoy

Here’s the final instalment of the marvellous Helen’s notes – some interesting realities about the industry here in particular. Read on…————————————————————————————–My First Feature (sponsored by Northern Lights Film Festival) David Lemon discusses his experience of writing Faintheart with Brian Gordon, the director of NLFF. David Lemon – writer of Faintheart He won the myspace movie mashup competition. He wrote it in 2005 and developed it through taps.org. Slingshot Studios had a £250-£500K microbudget but the Director got in touch with Vertigo Films and eventually Film 4, the Film Council were also involved. There were 12 producers, some had more input… Read More »The Story Engine, Notes, Pt 3: Features, Training, Scriptreading, Simon Beaufoy

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The Story Engine, Notes, Pt 2: Agents & Pitches

Here’s Helen’s excellent insights again – this time featuring the Blogosphere’s very own James Moran and some VERY interesting stuff about agents and pitching. Enjoy!————————————————————————————————- Screening: TORCHWOOD – SLEEPER Writer James Moran gives a live commentary to his episode of the popular sci-fi series. Followed by Q+A. Has carved out a niche in horror/sci fi He wrote Severance but got pigeonholed after this. However then Dr Who was relaunched. He wrote the Fires of Pompeii episode. Sleeper for Torchwood as well as writing for Primeval, Spooks Code 9 and Spooks. It’s cheaper to blow up a car than have several… Read More »The Story Engine, Notes, Pt 2: Agents & Pitches

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The Story Engine, Notes, Pt 1: Internet

I’ve had a huge pile of scripts dumped on me from a great height plus my usual Bang2writers’ fare, so I won’t be coming up for air for at least a week… Luckily, Bang2writer and blog reader Helen (whose surname, aptly, is “Bang” – for real!) went to The Story Engine the other week and has composed some comprehensive notes on the events there for us. I was GUTTED to not have time to go to this, so was very grateful to Helen for taking the time to write it up for us. First, we have how the internet can… Read More »The Story Engine, Notes, Pt 1: Internet

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