Over the last month, I’ve been; in bed with Dracula, cuddled up with Sherlock and had a Welsh Priest in my bedroom pontificating about ‘his buns’.
Yes, it can only be #LSF365 otherwise I’d be in a straight jacket! (What kind of girl do you think I am!)
When the proverbial mountain can’t go to Mohammed, you let Mohammed come to you. So, instead of me hopping on a flight towards the smoke, Regent’s University and all things #screenwriting, this year I was grateful that @livingspirit had the foresight to bring #LondonScreenwritersFestival365 on line and bring it to me, at home, instead. Yeay!
It’s not often that one man’s attic brings so much pleasure to so many people but Chris Jones and his team outdid themselves… and yes, even the purple velvet jacket was topped and tailed to attend.
While I expected to get a few on-line videos and script to screens from previous years, boy, did I get a surprise when @londonswf pulled it out of the bag!
From the minute we started with a script to screen of ‘Bridge to Spies’ and an experiment in on-line reach, we knew Chris was onto something good.
This year, not only did we have a festival, we were invited into everyone’s homes as if we were old friends. We had award winning scriptwriters, bored at home, agree to give us an hour of their time, with everyone from; #Adele Lim of ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ through to #David Reynolds of ‘Finding Nemo and The Emperor’s New Groove’, to the writers for Face Off and Braveheart dropping by to pass the time and share their knowledge from the comfort of their own homes.
This wasn’t only for talks but for open ‘Zoom’ rooms where we could talk to gurus and ask questions we’d forgotten as if we were in one of those boxes on ‘The Muppet Show’.
Well, with everything going on, your brain’s bound to be Fozzie!
I must admit, for me, lockdown in some respects has been easy. I’ve not had to worry about rent, hospital visits, or putting food on the table, which compared to others makes me exceptionally lucky.
Generally, I’m pretty chipper but some days, lockdown hit me like a bus and for that, I was extremely grateful for the mindfulness and meditation sessions with #PattiGood and #LouisaCaine that were offered.
Normally, I would run a mile from anything ‘touchy, feely’ but learning how to calm my breathing and find focus really helped me to get my head in the game and write. Thus, when #RobertJones of Gosford Park said ‘‘The place you are in personally, or emotionally is so important to take note of so you can step back’ and ‘have perspective’, it hit me, to find where we are creatively we need to allow ourselves time to take time, something not many of us allow ourselves to do.
So, some days I watched a couple of talks, others none at all and I let myself be kind to me, write, have an objective but not be too hard on myself if I found I was overwhelmed one day either.
Much as I wanted to do #PatHiggins ‘Write a Script in 30 Days’ as I did LSF I was attempting a thirty-page script for a Bursary Competition and so couldn’t manage both. In saying that, all the tips from the talks, lectures and Actors Table read made such a huge difference for me.
My overall takeaway from the screenwriters and filmmakers was to ‘find the humanity’. It’s all very well to create a character but if the audience can’t empathise with that character and their situation, no one will want to watch them. I took that as gospel and thought about it as I wrote.
Other writers pushed home how important structure was from #RobertMcKee through to @LucyVHay and #JeffNorton they all gave their time to help us minions listen and improve, while #SteveKaplan told us about the thin lines and wavy lines of comedy …and yes, that even included a ‘Banana, Banana, Banana!’
To sum up, if you’ve not taken part, you should and like me it will probably make you
‘Bananas for writing’!
Eileen Wilson is the IMDB listed writer of ‘The Cliché’. You can follow her on twitter @WilsonChorlton1, on her website https://chorlton1.wixsite.com/eileenbananasfw or via https://filmfreeway.com/EileenWilson
Posted by a member of the London Screenwriters’ Festival team.
