Sifting through the crap, so you don’t have to…

Posted on March 17, 2009 by Julian

Morning!

My trawl of the web over coffee this morning has revealed the following…

The Oscar and Bafta nominated short “The Mysterious Explorations of Jasper Morello” is now available for free on You Tube. I found it on Boing Boing. Check it out…

[From YouTube - The Mysterious Explorations of Jasper Morello]

In related news, Twouble with Twitters is another short, this one about the perils of Twitter. Credit again goes to Boing Boing.

Speaking of Twitter, it seems that the social network is finally replacing all other forms of reporting, as evidenced by Early Twitter Buzz: Observe and Report | /Film

Social Networking has led to the rise of the netbook (do you see how I’m linking all this up? Smooth, huh?). Just as Supermaw presents her argument for buying one, Boing Boing reminds us how far we have come:

200903170809.jpg
Miraculous portable computers, ca 1982 – Boing Boing

A few more clicks led me to a Popular Science piece about the undersea cables that carry all our data across the world. This stuff doesn’t just maintain itself, you know: Who Protects The Internet? | Popular Science

And finally, while we’re on the subject of cyberspace, say Happy Birthday to William Gibson, Father of Cyberspace

Phew. Now get back to work.

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A day in the life…

Posted on March 16, 2009 by Julian

I thought it might be interesting to journal a day in the life of a writer-director (me!) during the last days of a TV edit. It turns out it wasn’t interesting at all but I’ve written it now, so you can damn well read it…

07.00 – What? What time is it? Who am I?

07.15 – Coffee. Toast. E-mail. Twitter. RSS feeds. Plenty of time…

08.01 – Crap, now I’m running late!

08.03 – Jana and Edie wake up. I change Edie’s nappy.

08.15 – Bath. Try not to fall asleep again.

09.00 – Into car, hoping there won’t be any traffic as I have to be at Pinewood for ten for a music-spotting session on two episodes of “New Tricks”.

09.15 – A406 is a car park. Crap. Listening to Amanda Palmer album and smoking.

09.55 – Don’t know how this happened, but I’m actually at Pinewood on time!

10.00 – Composer not here yet. Bloody musicians.

10.15ish – Music spotting session starts. This is where we show our composer, Warren Bennett, the two edited episodes and discuss where music should go and what kind of music it should be.

13.15 – Spotting finished. Warren had already seen one of the episodes so, mercifully, we didn’t have to watch both in their entirety. I think they’re both good eps, but I have an appallingly short attention span and there’s only so many times I can watch the same episode before my eyes start bleeding.

13.30 – In the car, heading home. Nothing more to be done in the edit until we know what the executive producers thought of the latest cut and what changes we need to make or argue against.

14.00 – Arrive home. Jana and Edie are out, so I fire up the desktop and start making notes for an outline of another New Tricks episode for the next season.

15.00 – E-mail flurry from exec producers. They love the episode. No changes. We’re “locked”. I call Ben, the editor and tell him the good news. I’m not out of contract until the end of the week so I’m now being paid to sit at home for a few days. That would be great but I suspect the production will try to squeeze in a few post-production meetings to save having to pay me extra to go to them when I’m out of contract.

17.00 – Still making notes for new New Tricks episode.

17.45 – Read “Each Peach Pear Plum” to Edie TWICE! (She insisted on an encore)

Now – Taking a break from writing (I won’t officially down tools until about 8pm). Sitting on the sofa in front of the news, with laptop. Will post this now so I can get back to work.

Go away.

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TweetDeck

Posted on March 15, 2009 by Julian

A very short message to say if you’re using Twitter, but not using TweetDeck, you should be. Once in a while, a killer app comes along that re-defines how we interact with each other online. TweetDeck, designed by Iain Dodsworth, is just that. Go get.

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The writer’s toolkit…

Posted on March 15, 2009 by Julian

I’m sometimes asked my advice on what screenwriting software to use, so I thought I’d jot down a list of my faves…

  • Pad and pen – never underestimate the usefulness of the simple pad and pen for ideas/dialogue etc. No one has so far invented any software that allows for as much creative freedom. Also, it beats sitting in a cafe with a laptop in front of you; no one wants to be that guy/girl!
  • Evernote – This is really handy for jotting down an idea, or clipping something off the web, and having it sync across desktop, laptop and iPhone instantly.
  • Scrivener – A truly brilliant (and cheap) bit of kit. I use Scrivener to outline all my ideas in as much detail as is required. It’s really easy to then turn that outline into a treatment or pitch if you need to get your idea approved before starting the first draft. Everything goes in here; characters, plot points, ideas for sequences/scenes/beats etc. The software also allows you to write in screenplay format but for that I prefer…
  • Movie Magic Screenwriter – For years and years I put up with the poor presentation and usability of Final Draft because it was the industry standard. Now, with Screenwriter 6, that is starting to change. The software is infinitely better and more adaptable than FD and the industry is starting to use it more and more. I still have to deliver most TV scripts in FD format, but I tend to at least write the first draft in Screenwriter and then port it across for revisions.

Lastly, I want to mention a new site I found recently that is BRILLIANT for dealing with those moments where inspiration seems elusive and we’re just staring at a blank page. Write Or Die provides the ultimate stimulus to get writing; you set a target time or number of words, hit “Go” and start writing. If you pause for more than a few seconds, the site plays horrific noises at you or, on a higher setting, actually starts to delete what you’ve already written. I didn’t think it would work, then cranked out 1000 words in just a few minutes on my first try. Highly recommended!

I’m always keen to try new writing software out, so if you have any recommendations, let me know.

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Neil Gaiman and Tori Amos – some of the best character writing around…

Posted on March 12, 2009 by Julian

Been meaning to link to these for a while. Neil Gaiman wrote them to accompany two Tori Amos albums; “Strange Little Girls” and “Scarlet’s Walk”. The first is some of the best character sketches I’ve ever read. The second is a really neat short story entitled “Pages from a Journal found in a shoebox left in a Grayhound Bus somewhere between Tulsa, Oklahoma and Louisville, Kentucky.“

Both are also available in the collection “Fragile Things” (Neil Gaiman)

I can’t recommend the albums themselves highly enough, either:

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Welcome to my brain!

Posted on March 12, 2009 by Julian

This is the first entry on a new site that I hope will tie together all of the things I’ve wanted a website to do; from showcasing my own work in film, TV and radio to sharing links to other sites that I think are interesting. The intention is to create something more than just a cyber-resume, something that is a little more like meeting me in person, but without the discomfort and horror that would inevitably entail.

By it’s very nature, this site will always be a work-in-progress. Some days I’ll write a journal entry or throw up some photos or video clips, other days I’ll add to the links or blog something that is on my mind. Sometimes I may just let the Lifestream feeds do the work for me, as I update Twitter/Facebook etc from whereever I am. (The latter only being likely if I can actually get the Lifestream feeds to work properly!)

I’m new to web-design, and clearly a total klutz at it, so please forgive any teething problems. I welcome any and all comments you may have.

And so to work…

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A new radio job

Posted on December 22, 2008 by Julian

Following a really good meeting with some independent radio producers this morning, I can tentatively announce that I’ve been asked to write a brand-new, updated episode of “Journey Into Space” for BBC Radio 4. Originally broadcast in the 1950s, JIS was the last radio show to attact a bigger evening audience than television. There was a new episode of the show broadcast earlier this year, which kept very much to the original formula, but now I’ve been tasked with re-imagining the concept pretty much from scratch.

This version of JIS (2.0, if you will) is going to be a lot darker and more political than radio drama was allowed to be in the fifties. The intention is that this new episode will kick-start a new series to be broadcast on radio, interwoven with shorter “webisodes”. Watch this space..

(THIS POST HAS BEEN IMPORTED FROM AN OLDER BLOG)

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New Tricks – the story so far…

Posted on December 20, 2008 by Julian

I realise that I have jumped into journalling my day-to-day experiences making “New Tricks” with no “backstory” whatsoever. For those who require some context, or mistakenly believe that it might somehow render this journal more interesting, here’s the story so far:

I directed two episodes of New Tricks earlier this year (Season 5). I really enjoyed working with the regular cast and crew so, when the powers that be asked me to write an episode for Season 6, I jumped at the chance. Having handed in a first draft (a story about UFO hunters and government/military conspiracies), the same powers that be asked if I’d like to direct my episode and one other (all directors on New Tricks work on a “block” of two episodes each). Almost no one gets to write and direct an episode of series television in the UK so I couldn’t pass up the chance. I’ve done it once before, on Spooks (Season 5, Episode 8 if anyone cares) and it offers a lot more creative freedom than doing either job in isolation.

So, we are now just a few weeks from beginning the shoot. I have handed in six drafts of the script, which seem to have gone down pretty well, and have found the majority of the locations and cast most of the parts.

That should bring us up to the present day.

I’m writing this journal simply because I personally enjoy reading other filmmakers accounts of their working practices. I have no idea how useful or interesting this journal will turn out to be because I obviously have no idea of what the coming weeks will bring. I’d appreciate any and all comments/criticism from readers, so please don’t be shy.

Some more info on New Tricks can be found at Wikipedia and the BBC.

(THIS POST HAS BEEN IMPORTED FROM AN OLDER BLOG)

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