Script Factory News2.Main Content
We just got serious…
Photo: Clare Muller
Peter Morgan closes Serious Screenwriting 2008 in style
Mon, 9 Jun 2008
The Script Factory’s first ever Serious Screenwriting conference took place at London’s Soho Theatre last week, kicking off with an illustrious line-up of guest industry speakers, a packed workshop programme, and a full house of 120 screenwriters thrown together for two days of intensive and invaluable chatter. Designed to help writers who are serious about their career in the film industry, we were able to lay on a feast of experience.
Photo: Clare Muller
Bharat Nalluri talks from script to screenOver two days there were workshops from Rob Ritchie; excellent speakers with influence from Warp X (Caroline Cooper Charles), the UK Film Council (Lizzie Francke), BBC Films (Joe Oppenheimer), and Verve Distribution (Julia Short); blockbusting screenwriter Tim Firth (Calendar Girls); one-to-watch new writer/director Olly Blackburn (Donkey Punch); top film and TV director Bharat Nalluri (Spooks, Life on Mars, Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day) who took the writers through a selection of sample screenplay scenes to reveal what a writer’s flourish means when the script hits the set; and Britain’s best loved screenwriter, the Oscar-nominated, BAFTA-winning Peter Morgan (The Queen), joined us for an enthralling final masterclass where he sneak-previewed his up and coming Frost/Nixon. 
Photo: Clare Muller
Tim Firth gives an excellent Serious Screenwriting Masterclass
Sandwiched in amongst that lot was The Moviescope Screenwriting Challenge – set by writer/directors Gurinder Chadha and Paul Mayeda Berges who wrote a scene for our writers to complete overnight. 93 submissions were speed-read and a winning shortlist of three (by Andy Peck, Carla Lomax, and Julie Abrams-Humphries) were performed by actors Kerry Fox and Rupert Graves.
Photo: Clare Muller
Rupert Graves and Kerry Fox perform the winning entries to the Moviescope Screenwriting Challenge And now it’s not over till it’s over – all participants on Serious Screenwriting 2008 now have a month to put what they heard into practice before submitting to the Serious Screenwriting Development Scheme, on which two winners will be selected to spend a year developing their projects, attending future Script Factory training and events, with a final draft being guaranteed a read by Film4’s Development Team. Have a look at the full lineup from Serious Screenwriting 2008 here.
Serious Screenwriting is a unique programme designed to ensure that the talent, passion, energy and time of new UK writers is being invested in projects that are genuinely screenworthy. It will return in 2009!
To make sure you hear about it first, and to keep up with other exciting upcoming Script Factory activities, join our free mailing list by clicking here.