2.Main Content
Training
Serious Screenwriting 2009
Photo: Walt Disney
Complete a scene started by Wall-E creator Andrew Stanton
Co-presented by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts
Friday 5 & Saturday 6 June 2009
BAFTA, 195 Piccadilly, London W1
Please Note: the concept is the same, but all sessions are new this year, so if you enjoyed this event in 2008, we’d love to see you again this year.
Serious Screenwriting is back and even better! We’ve teamed up with BAFTA for this year's programme to give you unparalleled access to the most influential decision-makers and most inspiring filmmakers working in the UK today. If you'd like to hear how the world's current Number 1 screenwriter, Simon Beaufoy, worked his magic on Slumdog Millionaire; watch Justine Wright, the UK's hottest editor unravelling her approach to storytelling on the blockbuster State Of Play; hear international stars like Jenny Agutter and David Morrissey explain what makes a script stand out for them; find out what ideas Working Titles's Debra Hayward and some of her fellow top UK execs are looking for; or bag a meeting with super producers David Parfitt or Duncan Kenworthy, then Serious Screenwriting is the place to start.
Last year 120 dedicated and ambitious screenwriters were inspired by the genius of Peter Morgan (Frost / Nixon), co-wrote a scene with Gurinder Chadha (Bend it like Beckham/Angus Thongs and Perfect Snogging), got wise to the tricks of production from Bharat Nalluri (Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day) and grilled The UK Film Council, BBC Films and Warp X for an insiders’ guide to what film ideas are hot right now. 
Photo: Clare Muller
Have a private lunch with Peter Morgan - Development Scheme 2010
If you are serious about a writing career in the British film industry, this two-day network and training event aims to help you ensure that your talent, passion, energy and time are invested in projects that are genuinely screen-worthy and that, after two days with BAFTA and The Script Factory, you are clued up about the opportunities which exist for getting your films made.
Photo: Clare Muller
Bharat Nalluri at Serious Screenwriting 2008It works like this: the mornings are dedicated to Script Factory training sessions (we assume that all attendees have a working knowledge of screenwriting theory so the training we provide is focussed on areas that we’ve noticed are causing difficulties for many of the writers we work with); then, in the afternoons we team up with BAFTA to bring you a fantastic array of guests who will offer lessons learnt from the frontline of film-making.
And there’s more…
*New for 2009* Lunchtime Pitch Clinic & Industry Market
We don’t want to waste any of the time you spend with us so during the lunch breaks a limited number of five-minute pitch slots will be available to book so you can run ideas past a member of The Script Factory’s script development team. And we're staging a Market which gives the chance to meet representatives from the various film-making bodies, funders and some of the other organisations we think you ought to know.
Moviescope Screenwriting Challenge
Photo: Clare Muller
Rupert Graves & Kerry Fox perform the 2008 Challenge
Fancy sharing a screenwriting credit with Andrew Stanton, he of Wall-E and Toy Story fame? Well, this is your chance! Andrew has very generously created some characters and set a scene that you will be invited to complete overnight.
Three finalists will have their scenes performed by professional actors at a Drinks Reception on the Saturday evening and win an annual subscription to Moviescope magazine.
*New for 2009* Serious Screenwriting Development Meetings
Hopefully all the Serious Screenwriting sessions will help you in some way to develop your current film project. However, if you are keen to receive specific input on an idea then there are a limited number of one-hour development meetings available to book on Thursday 4 June and Monday 8 June. There is an additional fee of £65 + VAT for these sessions and you must be able to submit a 2 or 3 page treatment/outline of your idea prior to the meeting (sorry, but it is not possible for the developer to read a complete draft on this occasion). These meetings are only available to Serious Screenwriting participants.
Photo: Fiona Fouhy
Serious Screenwriting Development Scheme
As ever, The Script Factory remains seriously committed to your screenwriting too. At the end of the programme all participants will be invited to apply for the Serious Screenwriting Development Scheme which will result in a private meeting with one of the UK's top producers. We are looking for two writers who have a great idea, the talent to write and are committed to spending the next twelve months developing their feature film project. Those two writers will be invited to work through two further drafts of their current screenplay or film idea with The Script Factory’s development team. This will mean at least three one-to-one development sessions and free attendance on selected training programmes during the development period. Then at the end of your development period, our two writers will have a guaranteed meeting with either David Parfitt or Duncan Kenworthy, two of the UK's most senior producers, who are both standing by to discuss your project.
NB. This scheme will only be open to Serious Screenwriting participants. Click here to download full Terms & Conditions.
THE PROGRAMME
Both mornings of Serious Screenwriting are devoted to four practical lecture sessions, each taught by regular Script Factory tutor Rob Ritchie, who has extensive experience as both a writer and script developer. Afternoons are reserved for masterclasses and industry panel discussions with BAFTA Members and other industry pros.
Friday 5 June: 10-5pm
Workshop Session: “You had me at hello!” – Openings
Stories are about anticipation. A good opening has to engage the audience and allow them to anticipate what lies ahead. This means introducing character, situation, conflict and theme with energy and precision. This session looks at the importance of introducing characters at their most typical and the art of creating an opening sequence that declares the ambition of the film.
Workshop Session: “What is this place?” - Locations
Choosing locations for a story isn’t just a question of plausible and convincing settings. Whether it’s the domestic interiors of melodrama or the epic landscapes of action-adventure the mise-en-scene is the source of the images and metaphors that give the story its meaning. This session examines how choosing the right locations can both clarify the meaning and liberate the cinematic potential of a story.
Lunchtime Industry Market
The chance to meet representatives from the various film-making bodies, funders and some of the other organisations we think you ought to know. Confirmed guests who will be setting up stall at the Market so far include:
Shooting People; Raindance; Moviescope / Screenwriters Store; Women in Film and Television; BBC Writers Room; National Film and Television School
Guest Session: Selling Ideas
Unfortunately the UK film industry doesn’t have deep pockets to buy ideas in quite the same way as Hollywood allegedly does, but it’s still possible to get interest in your project without slaving for months to polish a fully-drafted screenplay. We ask a panel of industry decision makers: Working Title's Debra Hayward, Film4's Head of Development, Katherine Butler, Chris Collins, Development Producer from the UK Film Council's Development Fund, and Christine Langan, creative director of BBC Films, to discuss the role of treatments in the film commissioning process, plus ask what makes one idea stand out from the others. We also tackle the tricky question of who owns the idea and what a writer can expect in the journey from idea to draft, through rewrites and hopefully to the screen.
Guest Session: Two brains are better than one
Writing can be desperately lonely, but it doesn’t have to be. We talk to two pairs of screenwriters who regularly work in co-writing teams to discover how they divvy up the workload, how they manage creative differences and the advantages and disadvantages of working together. Piers Ashworth & Nick Moorcroft (co-writers of the smash hit St Trinian's, and its imminent follow-up St Trinian's: The Legend of Fritton's Gold, and currently hard at work on Burke and Hare to be directed by John Landis); and Tom Hunsinger & Neil Hunter whose improvisational partnership has resulted in comedies (Boyfriends, the multi-award-winning Lawless Heart, and Sparkle), will also explore how new screenwriters might go about trying to finding a writing partner to punch out a draft with.
Friday Evening: Don’t forget to keep this evening free to complete your entry to the Moviescope Screenwriting Challenge!
Saturday 6 June: 10-5pm
Workshop Session: “Once more with feeling” - Scripting Emotion
Writing is re-writing. In capturing the emotions of a story on the page, however, it’s often a question of what you leave out rather than what you add. Less is usually more. This session explores how to use the language and conventions of screenplay form to allow the reader to ‘see’ the action and feel the emotional impact of the drama.
Workshop Session: “Good night, and good luck” - Endings
‘Begin at the end’ is the standard advice for designing a story. Once you actually write the script, however, the planned ending can easily seem forced, banal or simply confusing. This session examines common mistakes with endings – from contrived twists to unanswered questions - that prevent a screenplay from reaching an emotionally satisfying conclusion.
David Morrissey in Dr WhoGuest Session: Acting Out
You’ve imagined their every gesture, choreographed each emotion and penned their every utterance, so what happens when the actors come in and start to bring your characters to life? Our panel of actors, Jenny Agutter (The Railway Children, Walkabout, Spooks, and currently completing work on Stephen Poliakoff’s 1939), David Morrissey (The Deal, Basic Instinct 2, Red Riding, currently in UK cinemas co-starring with Michael Caine in John Crowley’s Is Anybody There?), Kerry Fox (Welcome to Sarajevo, Shallow Grave and fresh back from Cannes after starring in Jane Campion's Bright Star) and Natalie Press (Wasp, My Summer Of Love) will explore the processes they go through to create a living, breathing character from the words on the page. And, as we all want to make films which boast a stellar cast, we also ask them what can make even a small character an attractive proposition. 
Jenny Agutter in Spooks
Guest Session: A Masterclass with Simon Beaufoy
For our Serious Screenwriting Masterclass subject we were really never going to accept less than the best – so the best is what we have here! Currently riding high as the world's most celebrated screenwriter with an extraordinary full house of awards for his screenplay for Slumdog Millionaire, Simon Beaufoy is surely Britain's finest export. Rewarded with the BAFTA, OSCAR, Golden Globe and a myriad of other awards and declared Screenwriter of the Year by the London Critic’s Circle, Simon’s screenplay nearly didn’t see the light of day at all. 
Would you have spotted the genius of Simon Beaufoy's Slumdog Millionaire at script stage?He’ll be explaining the transfer from novel to script; talking about the stories that grab his attention; and exploring the peculiar position of the screenwriter in an industry that can take you from an Oscar nomination for your debut feature (The Full Monty), to a gig as the on-set caterer having written This Is Not A Love Song 5 years later – and then see you back up on the Oscar stage behind one of the greatest British film achievements this year.
(To read our review of Simon's work on Slumdog Millionaire click here)
Guest Session: The Final Storyteller
The Justine Wright-edited State of PlayNo film story is ever fully written until it’s edited. Decisions made in the edit suite can transform the screenplay: extraneous subplots can be shed, characters’ emotions can be conveyed in an instant rather than a convoluted scene, and moods can turn. Film editors are the masters of economic storytelling – but rather than leave it all to be done by them in the cutting room, we’ve asked Justine Wright, one of the UK’s keenest editors whose creative relationship with Kevin Macdonald has seen her move from extraordinary docs One Day on September and Touching The Void to the brand new Hollywood thriller State Of Play, to explain her techniques so that we, in turn, can learn how to craft sharper screenplays.
Saturday Evening 5.30-7pm
A well deserved drink where the shortlisted scenes of the Moviescope Screenwriting Challenge will be performed and the winner announced.
BOOKING INFORMATION
Serious Screenwriting costs £185 + VAT (total £212.75).
There is a special discounted rate for Script Factory Members of £155 + VAT (total £178.25). Click here for details on .
Serious Screenwriting plus Development Meeting (Full Price):
£185 + £65 + VAT = £287.50
Serious Screenwriting plus Development Meeting (SF Members):
£155 + £65 + VAT = £253
There are a limited number of places available to BAFTA members at 50% discount - £92.50 + Vat (Total £106.37). These are available on a first come basis. Please quote your membership number when booking.
There are also a number of BAFTA bursary places available for full-time students doing a media or film degree. Email events@bafta.org for details of how to apply (you will be asked to provide a letter or email of proof of your enrollment from a tutor).
To make your booking please call The Script Factory on weekdays between 10am-6pm on 020 7851 4890 with your credit or debit card details, or email jeni@scriptfactory.co.uk with any queries.
'Serious' guest Natalie Press in My Summer of Love
Given the nature of changing schedules and high profile guests, we reserve the right to change the advertised programme - we've never had to do this yet but we just need to say this in case!