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Bites Success with the help of Script
by
Tina Freeth
I'm
a student on the National Academy of Writing course
at Birmingham City University, and when the new
year began I knew that I would have some free
time to devote to trying new forms of writing
before the next module began (October 2008).
I had never attempted screenwriting before, thinking
it was a realm where only those who had a special
initiation into the golden rules of act structure,
formatting and this person or that person's paradigm
dwelled. I didn't know where to begin -
I had only been writing prose for just over a
year. However, I was enthusiastic about
trying a new medium.
SCRIPT
were running their "Introduction to Screenwriting"
course in March 2008 at The Drum, and two writer
friends had recommended I give it a go.
It was affordable and the location was convenient
- I decided I would sign up and see what would
happen. At the same time, the BBC Writersroom
were actively looking for British Chinese writers
or stories for their BBC Bites scheme. I
thought "what the hell" and decided
to enter (with the intent of using the SCRIPT
course to write a short for the BBC). The
last day of the course gave me two days before
the BBC deadline to hand in my script.
I
knew I wanted to adapt my short story "Lychees
and Bingo Balls" which had been published
in an anthology a few months before, and I thought
it would be relatively easy transferring the dialogue
over to form a script. It was that easy,
right? Wrong! I realised how different writing
a script was to prose when I sat down and realised
I had to cut my first person narrator. She
had to go as she was a dead weight in my script.
I emailed my script off to the BBC Writersroom
the day after the course finished. I knew the
script wasn't perfect, but I felt that I'd done
a good job for a complete amateur. A few
weeks later, I heard that I'd been chosen to attend
a special workshop in London with screenwriting
guru Phil Parker. A strange twist of fate
being as the SCRIPT course was based on his methods
and teachings. It was great being in a room
of ten British Chinese writers; I think for a
lot of us that hadn't happened before! We
had a week to re-write our scripts and we were
told that only five of the ten would be chosen
by the judges. The five would then hopefully
be optioned and made. It was a nerve-wracking
time doing the re-write and then waiting for an
answer...
The
wait was worth it as I got through! I was
chosen along with four other British Chinese entrants
from eighty scripts sent in from all over the
country. So of course I'm very chuffed!
The SCRIPT course definitely helped me understand
how to format my script, what worked and what
didn't work and gave me the confidence to send
my script to the BBC in the first place.
So I'd like to thank Script for running the course
and hopefully some of my screenplays will be made
into films in the near future!
Tina's
videonation diary will be shown on the big screen
in Birmingham, as well as other locations in London,
Manchester and Glasgow, as part of the BBC's Silk
Screens Festival on Saturday 19th July.
Special
Features Archive
January
2006 - 'Happy Birthday Script'
April
2006 - The Script/Raw Edge Monologue Competition
winners
June
2006 - Ian Kennedy on writing for the BBC Radio
Drama 'Silver Street.
September
2006 - playwright, Alan Pollock, on the tough
choices writers have to face.
December
2006 - Brian Langtry on his journey via pop and
folk bands to writing and producing musical theatre.
January
2007 - Kate Wyvill talks about 'Going Potty'
March
2007 - Writernet ask us to Join the
Arts Council Debate
May
2008 - Award-winning screenwriter Ben Welch talks
about Intro to Screen
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