Week 1 - Good to be back

There are two options when it comes to holidays. One is to maintain a continual awareness of the responsibilities and requirements of work in order to remain on top of everything and in control, which really means not having a holiday at all, and the other is simply to forget everything ‘work-related’ for the duration of the vacation and on returning to it risk being swamped by it. On this occasion I did the latter and remained faithful to these ‘holy days’ but paid the price for it on my return. I was hit by a tidal wave of emails containing unresolved issues, newly formed issues and issues soon to come! Ah, thought I, it’s good to be back! So term started, and I began swimming for shore.

There wasn’t much to be done in our final Screenwriting class on Monday morning. We handed in our seven minute premises, continued learning about dialogue then finished the story exercise we had started before the holidays which turned out to be a rather amusing disaster. So from now on we will be having individual tutorials with Richard instead of classes and our writing is our own responsibility.

I confess I was more than apprehensive when I heard that our Content class on Monday afternoon would be with Kim Millar on soaps. However, I was very pleasantly surprised as we started to learn about Storylining and the process involved in writing a serial drama such as Coronation Street. Understanding is a wonderful thing and I may say that during that session I gained a fair portion of it… and some interesting homework. For next week we were required to assemble a story idea for certain characters on Corrie. Although I would never voluntarily choose to watch a soap, writing one is an entirely different (and more exciting) kettle of fish!

On Monday evening we got free tickets to see State of Play, a new film by Kevin Macdonald based on a BBC TV Series. It was quite enjoyable, and I did get caught up in that Thriller/Detective story to a certain extent, though probably I was appreciating Russell Crowe’s performance and the journalistic setting more than the actual story. I was outraged to discover, during the live transmission of an interview with Kevin Macdonald straight after the film, that he is now working on a film adaptation of the book The Eagle of the Ninth by Rosemary Sutcliff. I expressed my disfavour rather volubly in the cinema and wouldn’t anyone whose dreams had been shattered so suddenly? This book, it must be understood, was one which I wanted to make should I become influential enough. Ah well, he’d better do it justice!

Tuesday was supposed to be a day of editing but Gavin was absent. I conscientiously used some of the time to catch up on some Corrie in the IT Suite. In the afternoon we had a class with Andy continuing our journey through the history of cinema and looking at the work of the crazy pioneer William Castle.

All of Wednesday morning was spent auditioning actors for Murdo’s film Dust and then the afternoon was a screening of The Best Years of Our Lives. I really enjoyed this look at the experiences of soldiers returning home after the war and I was newly impressed by William Wyler purely due to the sheer contrast of this piece compared to Ben-Hur. The film was not technically flawless or structurally compelling but it made up for this with loveable characters and an emotionally satisfying story; unlike most modern glossy Hollywood features which look good on the outside but have no heart.

We had no classes on Thursday so I used the time to deal with some of the holiday tidal wave and get my feet back on solid ground.

On Friday morning Gavin, Paul, Galina and myself met up to come up with our story idea for Corrie. I was really quite pleased with our idea and I had imagined it so clearly I knew I would be disappointed when the characters did something different in the actual show!

That afternoon we had a great Production class. Abigail introduced us to an initial Script Breakdown and handing us a ten page script she simply sent us off to do one for it. I found this exercise extremely useful (if somewhat monotonous!) and I am quite excited that we are getting into the actual practicalities of producing a film. I only wish I could have done things properly on previous projects that I’ve worked on… if only we could have done this sooner!

I must admit that the pressure was on this week. It’s hard work being busy, and it’s also great fun! In fact it’s what being a filmmaker is all about, and I still can’t quite grasp just how lucky I am to be here at the Academy, in my dream course. Still, it was a relief to get to the end of this week and feel a bit more on top of things. The tidal wave has passed, the sea is calming and my foot has at last settled on the sand. It’s good to be back.