Tuesday, December 02, 2008

December: the month where music stops

December tends to be a craphouse month for new music. I look forward to Tuesday morning, sampling fresh delights on iTunes. But the music industry grinds to a halt at the year winds down. Between now and 2009 all we can expect are greatest hits compilations, 'deluxe' editions of popular albums with a new track or two tossed in to lure unwary shoppers and - grud help us - festive-themed releases. No snow on the logo, that's my bah-humbug opinion.

Rant over, on to other things. Emailed my full script to the Red Planet Pictures people yesterday afternoon, following a frantic weekend of tweaking and polishing. Apparently 1000 people entered the first ten pages of their script before the first round deadline back in September. From those about 70 were chosen for the second round, and invited to submit their full script. To spare everyone from mental arithmetic, that's roughly one in 14.

Can't help feeling chuffed that my effort FAMILIES AT WAR was among the chosen, though I have to confess its success was a complete surprise. I had hoped to create a new TV pilot for the competition, but inspiration and other priorities scuppered that. So I went back to the final project from my MA screenwriting course and gave it a thorough rewrite. [I entered an early, primitive version in last year's Red Planet and it sankly without trace. Rightly so.]

I've few illusions FAMILIES AT WAR will win the first prize [£5000, representation and a commission from Red Planet Pictures], but you never know. It might get me invited to a masterclass with RPP supremo Tony Jordan, as happened with the top 20 writers from the second round last year. Figure the odds of that are one in four, which isn't out of the question. There'll be no news on this until next year, so I can safely forget about it in the meantime.

Today it's back to work on the Lighthouse screenwriting for TV team project. I've got to deliver a detailed plot synopsis for my proposed episode by midday Thursday. Meant to spend last weekend working on that, but Red Planet shoved in at the front of the priority queue. Now it's been dealt with, I'm headed back to the Lighthouse. My story is set on Christmas Eve [in the drunk tank], so the carpet of snow outside sets the scene perfectly. Onwards!

1 comment:

Adaddinsane said...

Yes a masterclass would do me just fine as well.

I don't expect to win either, there are just too many good writers that we know about in it, never mind the other 60 we don't know about.

I've already started thinking about my entry for next year...