» Posts Tagged ‘bafta’
How do you teach comedy? Comedy writers Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong, creators of the award-winning British sitcoms Peep Show and Fresh Meat, attempt to do so, or at the very least offer some tips on how to make your comedy better in this BAFTA masterclass. The two sat down to talk about breaking into the industry, how to write funny characters and scenes, and even attempt to answer the age-old question of why we laugh. More »
J.J. Abrams made a name for himself in television, but he’s become been one of the biggest film directors in Hollywood thanks to giant movies like Mission: Impossible III and the Star Trek reboot. Recently he sat down with BAFTA Guru to talk about his career, what his father told him before going to college, and his advice for aspiring filmmakers. Click through to check it out. More »
As aspiring screenwriters, we tend to look for tips, tricks, or shortcuts to improve our screenwriting, but inevitably we have to do the hard work of writing the story. Moreover, we want our unique voices to pop off the page, engaging and surprising our readers, and someone else’s rules for screenwriting (beyond the basics of story structure and screenplay format) may mute our unique voices. So, with this in mind, screenwriter Scott Frank (Out of Sight, Minority Report, The Lookout) shared his rules for screenwriting during his recent BAFTA Screenwriting Lecture. Note: these rules only pertain to Scott Frank, not to you. More »
Many screenwriters don’t take the most direct path to their eventual position of writing for the screen. Some may strive to become directors, but realize they can’t find the right material to shoot, so they have to write it themselves. Others may write for different media and get sucked into this strange economical style of storytelling in the screenplay format. And others still may have pursued a career in acting, run up against too many obstacles to launch their careers, and found themselves writing content for the screen instead of acting it out on the screen. Hailing from this latter category, British screenwriter Julian Fellowes (Academy Award winner for Gosford Park, Downton Abbey writer/creator) practically stumbled into the role of screenwriter when his acting career didn’t take off. In his recent British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Screenwriting Lecture, he tells the tale of how he started his screenwriting career and how he found “overnight success” on his road to winning the Oscar for writing Gosford Park, directed by Robert Altman. More »
Best (and Some Worst) Practices to Manage the Writer-Producer-Director Relationship
As filmmakers, we recognize that this medium requires a collaborative process, and the writer-producer-director relationship drives this process forward. The relationship that connects the creative triumvirate, however, can easily degenerate from a collaboration to an all-out tug-of-war. Perhaps the best way to support the writer-producer-director relationship is for each party to take the time to understand the needs and desires of the other parties involved. Thanks to the BAFTA New Filmmakers’ Market, producer Kate Ogborn (The Deep Blue Sea, Red Riding trilogy), screenwriter Rupert Walters (Restoration, MI-5 television series), and director Brian Gilbert (Wilde) share what they believe to be some of the best (and some of the worst) practices to manage the writer-producer-director relationship in podcast below: More »
For reasons much debated yet still unknown, women are severely underrepresented among screenwriters. The Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting recently reported that out of 7,197 entrants this year, only 2,033 were women (that’s only 28% for you percentage people). Perhaps we need to see more working female screenwriters who in turn can illustrate a path for women who write to pursue a career in screenwriting. On that note, screenwriter Aline Brosh McKenna (The Devil Wears Prada, We Bought a Zoo) not only provides a great example of a working female screenwriter, but also how to write believable workplaces in her BAFTA screenwriting lecture. More »
Every writer has his or her own way of working, but for most, writing will inevitably involve sitting in front of a computer, a typewriter or a pad of paper in solitude. For some of us, this solitude becomes too much of a habit, and the voices inside our heads bounce around like an echo chamber, only slight variations of ourselves. To tackle a story about characters outside of our daily lives and comfort zones, we need to hear their voices, see their cultures, feel their stories. Screenwriter and Ken Loach collaborator Paul Laverty (My Name is Joe, The Wind That Shakes the Barley) has made a career of living among his characters from various countries and socioeconomic backgrounds, and he shares his experiences in a video interview as part of the BAFTA Screenwriter Lecture series. More »
Aspiring screenwriters are always looking for that pathway to success, the one that will open the doors to getting their scripts turned into films. The reality is there is no single pathway to success. Every writer has to forge a new trail. Nevertheless, we seem compelled to look to successful screenwriters to see if we can mimic at least part of their journey. To help us on this quest, screenwriter John Logan (Hugo, The Aviator, Gladiator, Any Given Sunday) has provided some helpful tips in his BAFTA lecture podcast. More »
In terms of exploring subjectivity and how the mind works, Charlie Kaufman is perhaps today’s preeminent screenwriter. Either that, or he’s an expert in solipsism and desperate attempts to avoid it, which inevitably leads to becoming solipsistic and even more desperate attempts to avoid it. Either way, Charlie Kaufman is truly — truly — an original screenwriter, and one of my personal favorites. Kaufman’s perspective on screenwriting is obviously unique, and the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (better known as BAFTA) has posted a podcast of Kaufman giving a speech on what he thinks screenwriting really is. You can listen to the entire podcast here: More »
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