2025 - The Year That Was

What a year 2025 turned out to be!

Not one but TWO proof of concept short films shot and completed from scripts I'd written to support corresponding feature projects. One, a fictional whistleblower story starring Myles Pollard and Caroline Brazier in the style and tone of the feature screenplay based on Andrew Wilkie's book Axis of Deceit. Both the feature and the short are called Truth To Power. 

The second, a self contained short utilising a story strand from my high concept horror screenplay Doomscroller, starring newcomers Mackenzie Reynolds and Jayk Thomas. This one is called #doomscroller.

The feature Doomscroller would go on to be very well received at the 37⁰South film market in Melbourne. I'll be working on a new draft based on market feedback as a priority in 2026. 

Between those two shoots I was accepted into Screenwest's revived Feature Navigator initiative with a third feature project, The Agenda. What an inspiring and informative four days discussing the project with industry professionals. 

Speaking of The Agenda, it was one of two feature scripts read on separate nights at Scripts and Sips. The other one being the thriller Turbulence. Thank you to Ryan Woosnam for organising such terrific evenings and all the actors who read on those nights and gave such perceptive feedback afterwards. 

I received periodic updates on the werewolf feature Bull with the script still in circulation and a possible co-production in the offing.

The second half of the year saw two separate instances of actors approaching me after having been given my name by actors I respect. One has led to a new short film script called Undercurrent which I'm excited about. The other could possibly lead to developing a synopsis into a psychological thriller that is right in my wheelhouse. 

I even started writing a play which, in my fashion, is based on a scenario not too tangential to the fictional Truth To Power short. 

New collaborators, new projects, a renewed sense of enthusiasm and optimism as 2026 unfolds. I re-joined the Australian Writers’ Guild on Christmas Eve and also found an excellent intellectual property lawyer to bounce things off.

Highlights include:

Being on set when Myles and Caroline were going at it in a pivotal scene from the Truth To Power short. What a joy to see your words brought to life by such excellent actors. 

Again, from TTP… the casting of recently graduated WAAPA student Deep Sroa who went head to head with Myles. 

Meeting the Cairnes Brothers of Late Night With The Devil fame and discussing Doomscroller with them at Feature Navigator. 

Reconnecting with editor Lawrie Silvestrin who edited my first produced short film (Slice)… over twenty years ago! 

Working the ol’ socials to ensure we met the crowdfunding target for the #doomscroller shoot and, indeed, exceeded it. 

Reaching out to a student film-maker to give feedback on her short film script because the subject matter resonated deeply. 

And perhaps most of all, the goodwill from people who donated to the crowdfunding campaign and/or asked about my film projects, especially in theatre circles where I'm better known as a reviewer. The support and interest throughout the year has been truly amazing!

So thank you to all the people who believe in me and my work.

Let's see what 2026 brings…

The Proof of Concept, Take 2

All it took was three months. From when we finished shooting one proof of concept short film - Truth To Power - until we embarked on the same task with a wildly different project, the horror script #doomscroller. 

I say 'all' as if it were nothing. Of course, it's a massive task to go from one self-financed short film to another in such a tight timeframe. It's kind of remarkable if I think about it. 

But we didn't have time to think. From that shoot at the end of January to completing the short and preparing a funding submission for its feature counterpart, the team focussed pretty exclusively on Truth to Power.

After a comprehensive effort, we handily met the funding deadline in early March and instead of resting on our laurels and waiting to see what the outcome would be we immediately launched into planning the next shoot over the Anzac Day long weekend. 

The 'we' in those sentences is the same creative team as Truth To Power - myself as writer, producer Jaimee Peasley, and producer/director Tim Dean though Tim would be concentrating on directing only for the DS short with Jaimee as sole producer under the Patch Productions (Australia) Pty Ltd banner. On this one though we needed a little assistance. Which I'm delighted to say we found through several avenues.

While the Truth To Power short is a 14 page, dialogue heavy script with multiple transitions in and out of imagined scenes, it's basically set in one location - a conference room. 

The Doomscroller script, at a svelte 8 pages, is dialogue light, essentially a two-hander but has an effects shot and ended up being filmed in multiple locations.   

Jaimee established a crowdfunding campaign through the Australian Cultural Fund which we needed to ameliorate out-of-pocket costs having just been through a DIY shoot. With my financial situation increasingly parlous, I gritted my virtual teeth determined to help meet the target by hitting the socials. Not only did Team DS meet that goal we went a little over. A HUGE thank you to the people listed at the end of this post and all the anonymous donors as well!    

Then there's the crew, many of whom were with us on the TTP shoot. Jaimee put together another outstanding collection of talented people who worked tirelessly over the three day shoot, a lot of it at night, donating their time and expertise. To see so many of the same faces reaffirmed in my mind the quality of the script as well as an acknowledgement we were going about things the right way with Tim's directing and Jaimee's producing skills again to the fore. Thank you to one and all for your excellent work and belief in us. 

The same with casting. Heaps of self-tapes came in from talented young actors and we found our leads in newcomers Mackenzie Reynolds and Jayk Thomas after doing callbacks. They acquitted themselves in style over the shoot. 

While I was on set the whole time for TTP, it being our first production as a trio, this time I stayed well out of the way and let Tim, Jaimee, the cast and crew do their thing. I had absolute confidence they had everything in hand. I rocked up for a few hours on the first day - apparently ate all the chips - and for a few hours on the final night. Special mention to script supervisor Matthew Keenan who had my back as a proactive and thoughtful guardian of the script. 

Now I eagerly await a first assembly of the film even though there are some pickup shots still to be done. Early word from our editor Lawrie Silvestrin is very encouraging! 

I'm super proud of what we've achieved in the first four months of the year. To add to the list we were also accepted into Screenwest's Feature Navigator initiative which took place less than a fortnight before our shoot. But that's best left to another post as an amazing experience with yet another feature project. 

For now, THANK YOU to the following people who donated to the #doomscroller crowdfunding campaign and the many other people who wish to remain anonymous:

Michael Facey, Karen Connolly, Alan Gill, Jason Jones, Janelle Pelchen, Narelle Townsend, Alice Reynolds, Naomi Scalora, Virginia Moore-Price, Alzbeta Rekosh, Aaron McCann, Jane Rennick, Charli Peasley, Drew Anthony, Thomas Dimmick, Katy R, Dolores & Donald Hyde, Courtney Magee, Rowan Marshall, Jeffrey Jay Fowler, Sue Chalcraft, Ryan Davey, Carly Portch, e Group Holdings Pty Ltd, Jonathan Beckett, Carol Peasley, Donna McFetridge, Lynette Cuthbert, Bruce Turner, Kieran Ridgway, Phil Bedworth, DMC Conveyor Services, Rosemary McKenna & Peta Reynolds Lugg. 

Also, thank you to the people who see me at shows and ask about my film endeavours or message me. It really means a lot.

Richard

Doomscroller - Crowdfunding Campaign

I’m a writer. And of a certain age. All the whizz-bang multi-media presentations aren’t really my thing. So I’m just going to write.

It’s difficult asking people for money. Especially now. I know that. But here’s why.

I’ve written a horror screenplay a lot of people seem to like very much. Industry people whose opinions I value and trust.

To have a shot at getting that feature script made we first need to demonstrate we know what we’re doing. To that end I’ve written a self-contained short film – a proof of concept. Again, another script people seem to like very much.

We are shooting that short film over the Anzac Day long weekend. This is coming off the back of shooting another proof of concept short at the end of January which was a trial of fire for me and my creative collaborators which we passed with flying colours.

Except it means our resources are somewhat depleted. Not in the talent, goodwill, right way of going about things perspective. But in the dollars kind of way to look after our cast and crew and for any additional equipment we may need.

Why should you care if Richard gets to make a great short film to possibly get to make a feature film?

It’s a good question.

It feels like I’ve served a twenty-year apprenticeship and suddenly everything is happening all at once. Crazy things, wonderful things, exciting things.

I’d like to think that that over the journey I have been supportive of people with their own creative dreams and endeavours. Nobody owes me anything though.

But if you are able to spare a few dollars in a tax-deductible donation I’d love to be able to show you all what my creative talents and dreams are.

If you got this far, thank you for reading. To those people who have already donated, I cannot sufficiently express my enormous gratitude.

The link to make a donation is here.

Thank you for your consideration.

Richard

The Whirlwind

My head is spinning. It's like I've served a twenty year apprenticeship and now the universe has decided I actually know what I'm doing as a writer. This year has been nothing short of sensational so far. Not one but two feature screenplays in play with another feature project waiting in the wings. Not one but two proof of concept shorts with one already shot and close to being finished with the other being shot in less than a month.

I've been writing well for a sustained period. My key collaborators, Tim and Jaimee, have been spectacular. People are reaching out in amazing ways - new faces, old contacts, exciting opportunities.

I'm humbled and heartened by the response to my scripts from other writers, actors, crew, experienced practitioners whose opinion I value enormously, and the market. Tim, Jaimee, and I have been taking very positive meetings on Doomscroller while the Truth To Power feature is in for West Coast Visions, accompanied with a short I'm incredibly proud of.

More than that though, I've been able to assist people with their own projects; brokering introductions, providing feedback, and being an encouraging voice. My mantra is pretty simple - ‘when you get the chance, you do good things for good people’ so it's been a delight to help out where I can. It's also a joy to be surrounded by such positive creative talent.

Then there's the possibility of entering into a writing partnership that could be a dream scenario. Head. Spinning. Linda Blair style. Without the projectile vomit!

Yes, I know I'm an optimist and that a million things have to go right to get a film up but damn if we ain't poised nicely to, as my producer said on a film shoot recently, “turn this dream into a reality.”

And that's pretty damn exciting!

Introducing... Doomscroller!

On 15 June 2023, probably in the wee hours, I jotted down a story idea in the Notes application on my mobile. This was after I'd read a post on Twitter - when I was still on what would become the dumpster fire known as X - that asked why masters such as Scorsese and Spielberg only made ‘period pieces’ these days. The answer posited was that the smartphone had made it increasingly difficult to generate drama/tension with everybody being connected all the time. That's a discussion in and of itself but what it did do was sponsor an idea… 

The first line of my note to myself was: “If mobile phones in movies are a problem lean into it.”

From there the high concept horror film Doomscroller was born with the tagline:

“Being glued to your phone has never been so deadly.”

I'm going to be a little obtuse here as it's a relatively new project in development. However, it's one that seems to be gaining some traction.

That tagline turned into the One Liner:

“When six strangers, all with a dark online secret, wake up in a deserted house with a mobile phone glued to their hand a malevolent voice tells them that if the battery hits zero percent the phone will explode.”

I describe it as Se7en meets The Menu; the latter film giving me the inspiration for the second act turning point. Yes, this is a long way removed from Saw!

I did my usual development process, namely a detailed beat sheet before attempting a draft, and something a little unusual. I pitched it to my director Tim Dean who I normally work with on thrillers and political stories. I wasn't sure if horror was his thing so I was somewhat surprised and delighted when he loved it.

Then another surprise. The first draft came out quickly and relatively easy. Including the third act. I could see it so clearly. I was especially happy about the ending as I've worked on scripts before where I was constantly rewriting the third act and it's agony.

It's now up to fourth draft stage and yes, there is a proof of concept short taking a strand out of the feature and making it a self-contained story.

As producer Jaimee Peasley came on board to work with us, I sent off the short script initially to gauge her reaction. She loved it too and became instrumental in applying for a funding grant. We ultimately weren't successful even though the funding body apparently loved the short script. However, it was a great exercise for the three of us to work together as a creative team and introduce ourselves as such to Screenwest.

Meanwhile, on the feature front incredible things were happening that I can't talk about in detail at the moment. A memorable pitch of the concept that led to another pitch meeting. A meeting before Christmas that I pushed hard for to confirm whether the execution on the page met the promise of the concept. That 90 minute meeting validated my belief we had something very promising.

Now I wait for notes before the next rewrite. And some other things to fall into place.

I'm really excited about this one. It has commercial potential and a killer concept, pun fully intended.

Stay tuned!

The abuse of digital technology will no longer be tolerated. You have been warned #doomscroller

The Proof of Concept

Over the long weekend a short film script I'd written was filmed. A fictional whistleblower story in the style of the feature script it would take its name from - Truth To Power. We'll get to those four days shortly but first, a little background.

Previously on...

The feature film script Truth To Power had been shortlisted for a major production funding round in 2023. Unfortunately, we didn't get the $1.25 million which would have put us on the way to making that film. 

A lot has changed since then including some things I can't discuss yet. The elements I can discuss are these:

A new Perth-based producer, Jaimee Peasley, has come onboard joining producer/director Tim Dean, myself, and our Melbourne-based producer Erinn Stevenson.  

A concise note from a person whose opinion I trust means there will be new passes of the feature script for the first time in quite a while. I'm excited about this as what I'm attempting is risky but will elevate the script from being very good to hopefully something quite special. 

We will be resubmitting the project to the funding body for the 2025 production funding round, now $1.5 million as Screen Australia matches Screenwest's $750k. 

The project has also been submitted for development funding which, amongst other things, would mean I get to work with script editor Shayne Armstrong again if we're successful. 

A key part of the submission strategy for the feature included filming a proof of concept short. This is something Tim and I began to consider in March of last year. With Jaimee joining the creative team in May, development of the screenplay began in earnest. 

Early on Tim and I knew that we could not tell the real life Andrew Wilkie story in short form. The decision was therefore made to write a fictional whistleblower tale. The earliest note on my phone is dated 6 March 2024 and the basic idea has remained the same ever since. What changed over many drafts ended up being the necessity to replicate the tone and dramatic conceit of the feature, namely the inclusion of imagined scenes. This proved to be quite the task as I didn't have the same real estate to establish that device and the transitions in and out of those moments had to be precise. 

I also had another problem. To create a compelling whistleblower story you need a secret of sufficient weight to give the protagonist a moment of pause as they consider the ramifications of their actions. The feature script deals with the misuse of intelligence to falsely justify Australia's involvement in the Iraq War so I went back to the military well and chose AUKUS as a likely source of government shenanigans. Only to find that actual revelations were outstripping my supposedly manufactured ones. I had to keep pushing the core secret while still having it be credible. It would not surprise me if what I've concocted actually comes to pass.  

Fourteen drafts later - with feedback from writers I have enormous respect for - we had a finished script. A script that is one of the most difficult I've ever written and one I'm enormously proud of. I did have an advantage though - we were going to self-finance this short so I could write it how I liked without worrying about the niceties of funding submissions. As always, Tim kept me on the straight and narrow when I became a little too polemical or ranted on the page. I need that anger to write about how these courageous individuals are disgracefully persecuted for telling the truth. Tim helps me focus and modulate that rage with well-considered and dispassionate notes.

Then it came time to make it all happen. Jaimee's involvement became critical, both in letting Tim concentrate on directing and in putting together a sensational cast and crew for not only a self-financed short but any short film. 

Which brings us to the long weekend.  

Yes, I was easily the oldest person on set. However, the crew could not have been more respectful to me and the script with a really good vibe established right from the get go. I loved their expertise, the banter, and willingness to work hard. Jaimee set the tone and everyone followed. What a delight to be there every day. 

Then there is the cast:

Myles Pollard, Caroline Brazier, Jennah Bannear, Maitland Schnaars, Deep Sroa, and Oliver Clare. 

What an absolute joy to have your words and scenes come to life at the hands of such talented actors! During a moment on the morning of the last day when Myles and Caroline were going toe to toe I had to force myself to stay calm. They were crushing it! As did everybody involved. 

I can't wait to see an edit. I can't wait to see the finished film at a cast and crew screening. I can't wait to include that proof of concept short as part of our funding submission to show what we can do as a creative team. 

While I couldn't tell you what any of those four days looked like outside, what I can tell you is that it was a very good long weekend!

A Tale of Two Projects

It seems it's true that there's always a silver lining in every situation. I discovered this in the middle of 2021 when I was made redundant (along with some 90 other colleagues) with no notice by a telco company that declared itself insolvent and therefore couldn't pay our entitlements. We eventually received what was owing to us via a government scheme but it took over three months to get our money. All this in the middle of a global pandemic. To say people were angry would be an understatement. To say I was furious and devastated would be a polite way of putting it. I said I'd mope around for a few days then decide what I was going to do. Three days turned into three weeks and, to be honest, I was a little lost. 

Then came the silver lining...

A call from a director who asked if he could send me a treatment he'd written for a feature film idea and, if I liked it, would I consider working on it with him. I did like it so I said yes. That was at the end of July 2021. 

Fast forward to March 2023 and there is now a fifth draft of that screenplay titled Bull; it has received Stages 1 & 2 of Scripted Development funding from the local government agency Screenwest; and is now being prepped for a major production funding round with that agency by the producer Michael Facey and director Chris Richards-Scully who form the production company Scullface. 

Stage 2 of the development funding allowed us to engage a script editor and I was delighted to work with Shayne Armstrong who is a genre film writer and Chair of the Queensland committee of the Australian Writers' Guild. Shayne's expertise, perceptive feedback, and encouragement were instrumental in the current draft taking a solid leap forward. 

Meanwhile, the other director I work with, Tim Dean, has been studiously working to get the Truth To Power screenplay into production. I understand a well-known Australian actor is attached to play the lead role and a distribution company is also involved. Tim has subsequently moved back to Western Australia which makes him eligible for, you guessed it, the major production funding round.

So it looks like I will have not one but two of my screenplays competing for the $750,000 fund. The pot has been sweetened even further by Screen Australia announcing they will commit another $500,000 to what is known as West Coast Visions. It will be crazy competitive with many other fine teams and projects entering but as the old adage says, you gotta be in it to win it!

Now, I love both of these projects and I'm proud of my work on each. It's heartening that so many other people have responded to these stories and are working to take them from the page to the screen. As both directors put together their heads of department and crew for the funding submissions, the feedback filtering back to me about the scripts has been very strong. 

Here's the thing, they couldn't be more different. 

Bull  is a horror film set in a country town where our two main characters, Bull and his daughter Lilly, are [redacted]. We'll keep that reveal a secret for the moment. 

Truth To Power is a real life political thriller adapted from a memoir by Andrew Wilkie, an intelligence analyst who resigned in protest over the misrepresentation of intelligence before the 2003 Iraq War. 

It's such a boon that I am able to explore these diverse topics with talented collaborators and have it so clearly defined. With Tim, we talk about thrillers and political tales; with Chris it's science fiction, the supernatural, and now horror. 

Since my enforced redundancy I've been in the fortunate position of not having to find another office job as I live off my savings for the time being. That gives me all the time in the world (in screenwriter speak this means the time when I'm not procrastinating, blocked, napping, doing 'research' or generally finding any reason not to write) to do rewrites and hone these two screenplays. 

There are also two new projects in early stages - a political satire set over the course of a few hours at an Annual General Meeting (with Tim, of course); and a therapeutic tale about an employee who is suddenly made redundant and seeks revenge by infecting the offending company with ransomware. (I have no idea where this idea came from!)

The major takeaway from all this? I'm really enjoying it. The late nights writing. The staring into blank space trying to solve script problems. The joy when you do. The heart pumping dread of receiving script coverage or notes. The relief when it's not as bad as you thought or indeed not bad at all. The meetings and Zoom calls with creative people whose only goal is to help make your script better. The weird distortion of time - agony when you're not writing; miraculously sped up when you're "in the zone".

Hopefully it means I'm getting closer to seeing all these characters in my head come to life one day. As my mother keeps reminding me, she ain't getting any younger!  

Construction of a Screenplay, Part 7 - Patience

An underrated aspect of screenwriting is patience. Patience not to rush the development of a good idea. Patience waiting for feedback and notes. Patience in trusting your collaborators. Patience in the next steps that will hopefully turn words on a page into moving images on a screen.

Patience has never been one of my strengths. I used to get angsty waiting - on reader notes, the results of funding submissions and the like. But I'm learning and getting better.

The Truth to Power screenplay has been receiving really good feedback. It's out there being read and all I can do is wait. Positive things are happening behind the scenes and I am immensely buoyed by the number of people who ask me how it's going.

I can't give definitive answers yet other than I'm excited about the possibilities being presented.

And I am calm and happy to wait. Largely because I believe the script is good, it will find a home, and it will get made.

Once a producer (or producers) has been locked in then my waiting will be over.

I've had time away from those words on a page so when the notes come for rewrites I'll be able to attack them with fresh eyes. Plus any other material to assist getting the project up whether that be funding submissions or crowd funding campaigns. Decisions to discuss when a producer joins Tim and I to shepherd this project to the next phase.

I have a feeling 2019 is going to be a big year. It will be challenging, no doubt, but I'm excited about where this will lead us...

#TruthtoPower #screenwriting

Construction of a Screenplay, Part 6 - The Pitch Document

“I think it’s very good and happy for you to continue to develop it.”

After 15 months and ten drafts, with that response from Andrew Wilkie, we were ready to begin the search for a producer. There were several variables at play here. The director Tim Dean had been through a bad experience on a film project and was understandably leery about a repeat. The script had been written with a micro-budget in mind, possibly to be raised through crowdfunding. That would influence the profile of the producers we would initially approach. The tale was a political one therefore not only did we want a person (or persons) we could work with, critically they should also be as passionate about the topic as Tim and I were.

The option of producing it ourselves was never seriously considered. Especially after watching a two part documentary about an Australian filmmaker who made a horror film in, let’s just say, less than ideal circumstances. That thing scared the hell out of me and we wanted no part of that stress.

Tim and I talked it over and the agreed first step was to write a pitch document we could send out to gauge interest. Now, I may be a little cynical but the Australian funding model with its director statements and writer’s notes (don’t get me started) amongst other requirements wasn’t conducive to what I had in mind. Yes, we used a logline, and a short synopsis but I wanted to clearly state why we wanted to make the film and how that fit into a tradition of great movies about people speaking truth to power whether in a political context (All The President’s Men) or corporate malfeasance (The Insider). This was also a uniquely Australian story with an international angle. Our trump card, of course, was that the subject of the film, Andrew Wilkie, was in our corner.

I sat down to write the first draft of the pitch document and it all came tumbling out. How Wilkie was an unlikely whistle-blower given his background; how the act of whistle-blowing has become increasingly high profile as governments seek to control information with greater rigour; how the West always does this – try and impose its will and values on other countries – and keeps making the same mistake; how democracy can only survive when courageous people speak out against the abuse of power and unregulated secrecy. Above all, what fascinates me is how a small number of citizens summon that courage to defy their government – the Wilkies, the Snowdens, the Mannings, and the Ellsbergs of the world.

As is our usual working process, Tim gave feedback and we kicked it around, trimming some elements but it essentially remained the same as that stream of consciousness draft. Tim had mocked up a cover page that I very much liked – the redacted look of the title with a picture of Wilkie at the top.

All that was left to do was to send it out to a select number of producers on the eastern seaboard that Tim knew or had been recommended and wait…

Always with the waiting!

Construction of a Screenplay, Part 5 - Script Development, Phase Two

After almost a year of developing the screenplay for Truth to Power we finally had a draft that Tim Dean (director) and I were happy to send to Andrew Wilkie. This was a major moment in the life of the project.

A quick refresher. Famously, Wilkie was the only western intelligence officer who resigned in protest before the 2003 Iraq War as he believed the governments of Australia, the US, and Britain were prosecuting the war on a lie. That lie being that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction and had ties to Al Qaeda. Subsequent events and several inquiries were to prove Wilkie correct.

He paid a steep price for this as most whistle-blowers do when they speak truth to power. Remarkably, however, he is now an independent member of the Australian Federal Parliament. The Truth to Power screenplay is an adaptation of his book Axis of Deceit.

What the book couldn’t tell me, nor the subsequent research, is what the then intelligence analyst’s emotional journey was during this time. All direct communication with Wilkie was conducted through Tim which commenced several years before my involvement. It was an arrangement I was happy to continue though there was talk of trying to organise either a visit to Canberra or a videoconference. Alas, Wilkie’s parliamentary duties made that highly unlikely. I filled in the gaps as best I could and trusted that we weren’t too far off base. There were elements in the script, however, that I wasn’t sure how he would react to. Overall though, I was happy with where we were at.

It was a 7th draft that was dispatched towards the end of October 2017. We wouldn’t get a response until early January 2018. Usually I am not a patient person when it comes to waiting for feedback but I largely put it out of my mind. Tim and I continued to work on the screenplay until Wilkie came back to us.

The results, communicated via Tim, were positive. Wilkie liked the script and the approach we had taken. But there were two areas he disagreed with. One was totally expected – I had used a claim made against Wilkie from his cadet days as the basis of a three beat arc that culminated in a moment of self-reflection during the climax of the script. Wilkie did not recall the alleged incident and therefore it had to go. He understood what we were trying to do by incorporating it though. And that was important to me.

The other issue was far more problematic. While he apparently did not object to the portrayal of the relationship with his then wife Simone, he was adamant he was not in contact with her during the timeframe of the script. Therefore, it too had to go. The emotional spine of that draft! This caused much consternation with Tim mulling the chances of getting Wilkie to change his mind. I suspect that was never a realistic proposition so we set about rewrites and the daunting prospect of reinventing the emotional through line of the screenplay.

My first stab at this was a serviceable scene set well before the events of the story proper… but it didn’t really fit the structure or tone of the screenplay. It was backstory for the purposes of trying to retain a character. It was never going to work. But it was necessary to get that out of our system and discover another way.

Wilkie had given Tim the clue – his concern about what the impact would be on his father if he chose to make a stand. Interestingly, the father had been in the treatment and early drafts. He dropped out as a character as we focussed on Simone. He was about to make a major comeback as these things go in the development of a script.

After three drafts of rewrites that took a couple of months from Wilkie’s initial feedback we sent him the tenth draft on 12 March 2018. His response exactly one month later – “I think it’s very good and happy for you to continue developing it.”

It was now time to start looking for a producer…

Construction of a Screenplay, Part 4 - Script Development, Phase One

By the middle of January 2017 we had a first draft of the Truth to Power screenplay. A good beginning six months into the process. What happens now? The answer is the first phase of an intensive period of rewrites before what would be the seventh draft was sent to Andrew Wilkie at the end of October.

The director Tim Dean and I would bat notes back and forth and have regular video conferencing sessions to discuss the state of the script. Tim is very good at giving notes (apart from the occasional ‘can we just make this better?’ which is always a fun note to get!) and they would become more specific the deeper we went into rewrites. These covered the whole gamut of elements from character, tone, structure, transitions, theme, dissection of scenes, and, eventually, decisions to kill some of my ‘babies’. Those being scenes that I would hang onto from draft to draft but ultimately didn’t fit for whatever reason. Vale a couple of favourites.

As the structure had been developed over the previous six months it was fairly robust which allowed me to try new things without too much ensuing chaos. We focussed on character work, notably for Wilkie, his wife Simone, and his colleague Kate; as well as getting the main structural beats as strong as possible – inciting incident, first act turning point, midpoint, and the ‘death point’-helping hand-turning point at the end of the second act. The opening sequence and climax were already locked in though they were tweaked as well.

The most difficult elements were getting the character of Kate Burton to a place we thought was accurate and servicing the story; and the beats at the end of the second act. This is the sequence I have easily rewritten more times than any other section of the script.

As Tim and I were on other sides of the country we used Wire which is a fully encrypted video application. Indeed, all our communications were encrypted – Signal for messaging, Proton Mail for sending drafts and notes. There was some sensitivity around the project given the subject matter and a history of interference with the real-life subjects in the past. I am breaking cover with these blog posts! Gulp.

The other strategy we employed was kicking material out to readers for feedback. This started with the Treatment and continues to this very day with drafts. My preferred option in receiving feedback from readers is in a face-to-face meeting. I find the interaction stimulates a wide-ranging discussion that allows me to question the reader; them to do the same with me; and basically explore the state of the script in greater detail. To that end I would offer to shout for food & drinks at a meeting place of the reader’s choice. I’m sure I can claim this as expenses against our ultra-low budget production… can’t I Tim? Damn.

A big thank you, therefore, to the following people I met with to discuss the Treatment and/or a Draft:

Scott McArdle, Phil Jeng Kane, Levon Polinelli, Nick Maclaine, Anna Bennetts, and Tyler Jacob Jones. Plus the people Tim sent the script to on his side of the country.

But there was one reader above all that we were keen to get feedback from. So after seven drafts Tim and I finally felt ready to send Andrew Wilkie the script. This was around the end of October 2017.

Then we waited… and waited… and waited some more…

Next in Part 5 – Script Development, Phase Two

Construction of a Screenplay, Part 3 - The First Draft

I won’t lie. I was a little nervous. The treatment for the film adaptation of Andrew Wilkie’s book Axis of Deceit had been sent to the man himself. How would he react? Would he hate it? Dismiss us as nobodies? Would the project sink before it even reached script stage? Injunctions and lawsuits at twelve paces? Okay, I’m a screenwriter so I’m prone to exaggeration for dramatic effect. But I was keen to glean Wilkie’s reaction. Were we in the ballpark? If not, how far off the mark was our approach?

Storm clouds gathered when a writer the director (Tim Dean) collaborates with offered his feedback. It was reasonably early in the morning Perth time. I was at work. Tim rang from Melbourne. The news was not good. That writer did not like the treatment. At all. Gulp.

Unexpectedly, a crisis of confidence loomed as Tim pitched a different way of tackling the material in response. I could feel my heart sinking through the floor into the basement, a fair feat from my fourth-floor seat. To me, this was a completely different story. One I wasn’t in the headspace to comprehend let alone consider.

All I heard was “disaster!”

A few hours later and the crisis was averted. Tim received a message via the publisher that Wilkie liked the treatment and wanted to make a deal. Only two days after it was sent to him.

Now my brain was ringing with relief and joy!

The validation was a real boost. Not only did Wilkie embrace the treatment but I considered it a huge plus that it took him only two days to read it and respond. I thought it might take weeks. After all he is a busy parliamentarian. It was early December 2016 so he was likely heading home to Tasmania for the Christmas break.

From that moment all thought of differing approaches to the adaptation vanished and has never been discussed since. It was an interesting experience though. If anything, it steeled me to the fact that not everybody was going to respond positively to what we were attempting. That other writer’s reaction wasn’t invalid – he simply had a different viewpoint and, as I discovered, a likely ambivalence to political stories.

With the festive season approaching I booked four weeks holidays from work (the non-creative office variety that pays the bills) with the express purpose of writing the first draft. Consulting my diary, I commenced typing on 28 December after the Christmas-Boxing Day food and cider coma. The draft was finished 17 days later on 14 January 2017. Two and a half weeks for a draft. Very fast for me. I also thought it was a decent first up effort, not a ‘vomit’ draft like some writers call their initial iteration.

I put this down to all the work honing the short form documents – the beat sheet and the treatment. Tim and I spent five months from that fateful MCG meeting breaking the story and the structure. I knew where I was going. I knew my third act climax and how I wanted to start. I knew the shape of key scenes and sequences. I had a fair idea how to do the transitions in and out of the imagined scenes that represented Wilkie’s thought process. I gained confidence and belief from Wilkie’s reaction to the treatment.

I also had images in my head of scenes right from the get-go as I mulled over the research, the book, and the proposed structure. This included the opening sequence which has remained constant throughout albeit with some tweaks; and a wordless scene around the midpoint that was visually striking if not more than a little disturbing (couldn’t shake that one out of the old grey matter). There were scenes that I relished writing such as the “what if” of Wilkie and John Howard alone in a room together before the Iraq war commenced.

Sure, there were some warts as you would expect. Scenes were overwritten. Secondary characters weren’t well-formed to where we needed them to be. The thematic strand was somewhat ham fisted in execution; and there were some overly ambitious flourishes for what was to be an ultra-low budget movie. Some scenes would eventually disappear. Characters would change in emphasis and significance.

But it was a good start.

And as any writer will tell you writing is all about rewriting. Without a foundation to build on you have nothing.

Then there’s this – for the first time there was a tangible blueprint for a movie. For me that was only six months into the process. For Tim it was after a few years of tackling the material. It was a significant step.

Next up in Part 4, digging in and developing the screenplay.

Construction of a Screenplay, Part 2 - Beat Sheet & Treatment

What do you do when you have an idea for a screenplay? Or in this instance, adapting a book? First off, there is no correct answer. Different writers will have different strategies. What I’ve learnt after endless rewrites of a third act of a script is that getting the structure in place before you go to draft stage is invaluable. There’s nothing worse than doing rewrites where you are chasing structure.

With the ‘Wilkie project’, as it was initially known, I also had to figure out how I was going to tackle the material. The original idea (pre my involvement) was a series of telephone conversations over one night in a hotel room. I understand there was even the thought that five different writers could contribute, in effect, a monologue for each of those calls. That left me cold as making a film based on a series of phone calls seemed pretty uncinematic. Ultra-low budget, sure. Dramatically interesting? I’m not so sure.

When I look back at my saved documents for the project, I found what was the pitch to my co-creative, the director Tim Dean, called ‘Wilkie Movie – Initial Thoughts’ dated 28 August 2016. This was a page and a half of how I would approach telling the story. I read that now, some two years on, and it lays out everything that has subsequently transpired. Basically, how to dramatise the decision-making process that was going on in Andrew Wilkie’s head as he locked himself away to make the most difficult decision of his life. This allowed us to foreshadow future events without recreating them and to introduce imaginary characters and/or imagined conversations with real people such as John Howard. The emotional through line is there as well as a thematic C story strand.

The only real person who isn’t mentioned would come later in a storytelling video conference with Tim. I’m being a little obtuse but there are some secrets best revealed on watching the completed film.

So the approach was agreed and I started working out how to structure it all. There’s a document called ‘Wilkie Structure’ dated 19 September 2016 and the first version of a Beat Sheet is dated a week later. Now, the Beat Sheet is an invaluable tool in the screenwriter’s arsenal. In effect it is a point by point description of the major story and character beats. It was even more important in this project as I was going to be moving from real to imagined scenes and back again. Getting the balance right and the correct transitions was going to be critical so as not to confuse the audience (and the writer when it came to draft stage!).

Reading this early draft now, so much has been retained in the screenplay even though things have moved around a little and some elements have been dropped then resurrected. The structure is largely identical in the broad phases of the storytelling. We did seven versions of the beat sheet, batting it back and forth, until we were both happy with it.

Then came the tricky part. The Treatment, written with an audience of one in mind – Andrew Wilkie himself. Not that we were asking permission per se, however, it is his story and I feel a responsibility about being truthful to that story and to him as a person. There were also some elements, no matter how much research you do, that aren’t in the book or public sphere. The Treatment itself is a prose version of the entire story. I was fleshing out the beat sheet to incorporate more detail in terms of both character and story elements.

I set to work once more; each draft going to Tim for his notes, being discussed at length, then revisions made. There’s a second draft dated 19 November 2016 with the final version, after seven drafts, stamped as complete on 5 December 2016. Four and a half months after we met at the MCG we had a Treatment we were happy to send to Wilkie via his publisher.

Tim emailed the treatment to the publisher and I tried to put it out of mind even though I was somewhat nervous about what the reaction might be. I was confident we’d done our research and were being truthful to the story but I had no idea how the man himself would respond.

We didn’t have to wait long…

Next in Part 3 – First Draft and Script Development

Construction of a Screenplay, Part 1 - Beginnings

July 2016. I’m sitting in the top tier of the mighty Melbourne Cricket Ground watching a truly terrible game of Australian Rules Football with director Tim Dean. Also in attendance, US Vice President Joe Biden, though not with us I hasten to add. I was in Melbourne for one of my three to four day junkets but that’s not the reason I was at the G. Tim had pitched me a film project he wanted to work on a week or so before. The timing for us to meet in person was perfect.

That project was an adaptation of the Andrew Wilkie book Axis of Deceit about the misuse of intelligence in the lead up to the Iraq War in 2003. Wilkie, famously, was the only Western intelligence officer to resign in protest before the war.

Tim and I had worked together on developing projects while he was in Perth. Rewrites on a thriller though had stalled as I became distracted by reviewing and adjudicating theatre. A fact I was becoming increasingly annoyed at myself over so Tim’s pitch was a perfect opportunity to get back into the screenwriting saddle.  

The reason the offer to work on the adaptation was so attractive was Tim’s conviction that this film would get made. He had been speaking with Australian producer-director Robert Connelly who told Tim to “just make the film, be bold, be creative, get noticed.” This was to be ultra-low budget; to my ears meaning it wouldn’t be a multi-year slog through funding and finance hell. It was also a great story with an intriguing lead character and was an important slice of Australian history. It was material that was dramatically rich, no doubt controversial, and piqued my fascination with those few people courageous enough to defy the powers that be. The final piece to the puzzle was that Tim, through Wilkie’s publisher, had the rights to the book and had spoken to Wilkie previously about wanting to bring his story to the big screen.

On my return to Perth I immediately curtailed my reviewing duties and indicated I would not seek to be a community theatre adjudicator the following year. I then ordered the book and plunged through all the notes that Tim had stashed away in the cloud where he’d worked with writers over the years. Those efforts had led to a pitch document and story breakdowns but not to script stage.

The gist of those notes was that the story would take place over one night in a hotel in Hanoi where Wilkie would make several phone calls as he decided whether to blow the whistle on the Howard government. The prospect of a filmed series of phone conversations (while definitely ultra-low budget) left me a little cold but the immediacy of telling the story over one night did appeal.

After reading Axis of Deceit one thing was abundantly clear – the animus Wilkie had towards Howard. He would later, unsuccessfully, run against Howard in a federal election as a Green and has publicly called for the former PM to be tried for war crimes.

IF we were going to have Wilkie engage in a series of conversations locked away in a hotel room I was adamant early on that one of those must be with Howard. But how was that possible? They never spoke in real life before the invasion in March of 2003 but the dramatic possibilities were enticing. And this is where we come to one of my favourite screenwriters – Peter Morgan.

Morgan is a master of the ‘finite period of time biopic’ (The Queen, Frost/Nixon, Rush) rather than the sprawling attempts to cover a life (the exception being The Crown where he’s working in a television medium rather than a film). He also excels at the pivotal imagined scene – an event that never happened but is thematically true and potent – think Elizabeth and the stag in The Queen; Nixon’s drunken phone call in Frost/Nixon.

That allowed me to indulge in the screenwriter’s most valuable tool – What if? “What if John Howard and Andrew Wilkie were in a room together a week before the Iraq War?” This would be a cornerstone to how I would approach the screenplay.

The first task after all the reading and further research was to come up with a Beat Sheet that would detail the major beats of the movie. For me it was important to get the structure in place before going anywhere near script stage. Plus, I had a crazy idea of how to do this differently to a set of phone conversations and needed to see if that worked…

Next in Part 2 – The Beat Sheet & Treatment

A New Project, Part 1

Exactly one year ago to the day – 28 December 2016 - I started writing the first draft of a feature film screenplay. Eight drafts later and I am ready to embark on the next draft and hopefully be another step closer to getting the film made in 2018.

But let’s go back a few steps first.

The middle of 2016 I was becoming increasingly restless. I was halfway through what, for me, would be a record breaking year of going to and writing about theatre. Not to say I didn’t love this but that my screenwriting had withered away to an afterthought. And that was bugging me. A lot.

Salvation came in the form of a director who I was slowly, glacially, frustratingly writing another draft of a fictional thriller for. It’s a project I’ll go back to but at the time I was not writing well when indeed I did sit down to work on it.

That director pitched me an idea for a film based on a real-life person and the book he had written about a controversial period of Australian history – our involvement in the Iraq War. I had known the director had the rights to the book ever since he cold emailed me many years ago and our collaboration began. Now, however, he was motivated to pursue it further after a discussion with a well-known and respected figure in the Australian film industry.

The brief – just make the film; be bold, be creative; get noticed. The figure of $20,000 was quoted which I never took literally other than this was to be a micro-budget project. The selling point for me was the director’s absolute conviction that “this film will get made.”

I said I was interested and the deal was sealed, in all places, at the MCG during one of the worst games of AFL football I had seen in a while, in the presence of US Vice-President Joe Biden no less. The director, Tim Dean, had moved back to Melbourne and I was over there on one of my annual musical theatre jaunts. (For the record, my team beat his team unconvincingly in a woeful effort). That decided I immediately reduced my theatregoing activities though I still had to honour my adjudicating commitments for the Independent Theatre Association until the end of the year.

First task was to get a copy of the book which I ordered once I was back in Perth. Then it was a case of not only reading the book but all the notes and previous work that Tim had done with other writers as well as his own research.

Once that was all in the blender it was a case of how the hell do I do this? Ultra-low budget, be bold, be creative.

From discussions with Tim and from all the material he’d shared, the premise was that the film would take place over one night in a hotel room. The original idea was that the protagonist would make a series of phone calls that would assist with the agonising decision whether to challenge the government of the day on the question of the Iraq invasion. At one point I understand it had been proposed a different writer would pen each conversation. This struck me as very dry and, to be frank, uncinematic. How to make this dramatic and cinematic whilst keeping with the smell of an oily rag mandate?

I started thinking about who the phone calls might be to. From the book there was a clear choice based on the animus that was evident in the text. However, a conversation between those two never took place, could never have taken place, at that time. Which led me to the great screenwriting question – WHAT IF? What if these two did have a conversation, in private, before the Iraq War started? How might that play out? It was a tantalising idea and full of dramatic promise.

I am a big fan of screenwriter Peter Morgan of Frost/Nixon, The Queen, and now The Crown fame. His use of imagined scenes – the stag in The Queen; the drunken phone call in Frost/Nixon – that may never have happened but are thematically on point and truthful to the characters in question was a guiding principle. But how to manufacture such a conceit?

From there everything fell into place. This was a tale about a man who locks himself away in a hotel room to make the most difficult decision of his life. He goes through the pros and cons, the worst-case scenarios, in his head. In other words, I could have real life interactions and imagined ones. I knew exactly what happened after his decision in real life but instead of recreating those moments I could have the protagonist visualise and game play the consequences. This gave me a starting point and a way into the story.

The meeting at the MCG happened mid-July. Commencement on the screenplay, end of December. What happened in those five and a half months other than reading the book, notes, and having discussions with the director to come up with the approach?

Well, the short answer is nine drafts of a Beat Sheet to get the major storytelling points down and work on structure. Then, once we were both happy with that, nine drafts on what turned out to be a ten page Treatment, designed basically for one person only – the true life protagonist of our tale. The final version of that was sent to him via his publisher just before Christmas last year. He responded within two days that he really liked it which is what gave me the confidence and enthusiasm to launch into the first draft…

This is the first of what I hope to be a series of posts about this project. If the above is somewhat vague at the moment the reason might become apparent in later updates. For now, it’s back to the script.

Mea Culpa or What The Fuck Happened?

This is my first post to this blog in a long time. Too long.

Why?

I haven’t been writing.

I’ve been finding ways to avoid writing.

Too tired.

Too busy at work.

Too much theatre.

Uninspired.

Unmotivated.

Unhealthy.

Undead.

One of these may be an exaggeration.

Oh, I’ve been ‘writing’. Writing reviews. Writing critiques. Writing status updates. Writing tweets. Writing lists. Writing about not writi—ahem.

It’s a terrible thing to call yourself a writer and not write.

Even worse when you’re half decent at it. I mean, anyone who’s crap at writing can not write with a guilt free conscience.  

But mine has finally gotten the better of me.

(Using ‘gotten’ in a sentence for a start stings).

A quick recap.

The feature script based on a true life story set just after the Great War fell through. Couldn’t agree to terms with the businessman/producer. Great story. Hope it sees the light of day.

The first two episodes of the web series Boondock Alley have been shot. I don’t know how the shoot went or how it will turn out. I haven’t had anything to do with the project after blowing a gasket when I wasn’t invited to the table read with the full cast during pre-production. I also haven’t written any of the supporting material used on the website or on various social media platforms. Nevermind. Hope it goes well. I thought it was a pretty good idea for a series.

The feature script Turbulence. Ah, yes, Turbulence. I sat and re-read the partially rewritten seventh draft at work today during lunch.

Then I wanted to stick an ice-pick in my brain.

Why?

It’s pretty good. Leastways it’s getting there. I am mad at myself for not getting on with it. I don’t know why. It pisses me off.

So things have to change.

I’m getting frustrated and angry at myself. I have been sucked back into corporate servitude. Yes, the money is good. Who am I kidding? It’s fucking glorious! I’ll end up going to Sydney twice this year as well as my annual Melbourne musical theatre jaunt because I can afford such extravagances. And I’m good at it. Work that is. Hell, I might even occasionally admit to liking it from time to time though I have become prone to stress lately which is unlike me.

Yes, I love the theatre. If I didn’t I would be monumentally screwed. I saw 138 shows last year. 71 so far this year and checking my diary I’m currently on pace for 131 by year’s end. Total, absolute, marvellous craziness of a magnitude I couldn’t even begin to fathom a few years ago.

I will honour my commitments as an adjudicator and reviewer but my pre-eminent thought and task has to be writing again. I want to finish Turbulence. It will make a great little thriller. I want to start something new. I have no idea what that might be. I don’t care. I just need to write.

My unit has been renovated and now I have a nice space I can write in. I don’t need the excuse of cafes or distraction free zones somewhere, anywhere else. I just need some goddamn fucking discipline.

I’m getting ranty.

I’m sorry.

For not knuckling down and getting on with it. 

For procrastinating. 

For letting setbacks and disappointments cripple me.

That all changes now.

A Long Overdue Update or What the Hell Have you Been Up To, Richard?

Wow. I know. It's been a while. Work has been crazy busy. Adjudicating community theatre shows as well as reviewing other theatre productions has been full on. Life, as they say, has been getting in the way. Yet writing activity has been happening behind the scenes. Perhaps spasmodically, in fits and starts, and not as frequently as I would like (yes, Sam Seaborn, three things that all mean the same thing) but happening nonetheless.

The sixth draft of the feature script Turbulence, after an inordinate amount of time, was finally completed in mid July and sent to the director who has moved back over east. I suspect the impetus for finishing the damn script was mainly because I was flying to Melbourne to do my annual musical theatre mini-junket and feared being waterboarded if I turned up in his home state without it. We had a good catch up over dinner and the early feedback was generally very positive but with work still to be done. Notably on our third major character who has never quite gelled. More of that in a later post.

The first two episodes of the web series Boondock Alley have been completely rewritten after some interesting developments along the way and are scheduled to be shot at the end of this year. Again, I'll talk about how we arrived at this happy state after a somewhat tortuous process in a later update.

Then there's the feature project based on a true life event in 1919. There is now a third draft of a detailed beat sheet and the businessman/producer and I even had a very good meeting with a development manager at Screenwest. But progress appears to have stalled over the business side of things with the terms of an agreement to write a full treatment leading into a first draft script.

But one door slowly closes and another is possibly ajar... as they generally don't say. I have been approached by a previous collaborator about discussing ideas for a potential low budget science fiction feature. The screenwriting brain is already whirring about what this might be.

And then there was the recent epiphany. I have a spreadsheet detailing every project and its status from short film scripts to features to treatments to television ideas and incomplete episodes to, you name it. They're all my babies, even the stunted, deformed ones that were possibly hit by a brick at conception. But it's time to let the vast majority of them go and start working on new projects and ideas.

Other than Turbulence and Boondock Alley everything else now disappears into that metaphorical drawer maybe one day to be unlocked, most likely not.

Time to make room for new characters and worlds and stories...

Back from the Wilderness or Belated Update

I am here to announce that the Great Theatre Rebellion of 2014 has finally been put down… kind of. Yes, it’s true. I have seen a hell of a lot of theatre this year - over one hundred productions. I have also reviewed, well, ahem, over one hundred productions. While I enjoy this theatrical diversion I’ve hit the ‘rookie wall’ and can’t sustain the cracking pace. 

Plus I have to, you know, write.

So what’s been happening on that front, Richard?

Thank you for asking fictional & anonymous blog reader.

The sixth draft of the feature script Turbulence has been coming along… slowly. Too slowly but now the stage production obsession is in remission it’s something I’ll be returning to with a vengeance. In related news my director is moving back to Melbourne. I half suspect it’s in protest of my glacial writing ways but apparently it has more to do with the Carlton Football Club and the kind of Victorian lifestyle one doesn’t find in WA. Thank goodness for Skype.

The web series Boondock Alley now has a facebook page and even a website. Not bad for something ‘still in development’ which I believe is the euphemistic term for ‘ain’t nuthin’ been shot yet’. The search for a producer has been ongoing with lots of people “loving the concept”, asking for scripts then never being heard from again. This leads me to a few possible conclusions – the scripts are so fucking awful as to induce the sort of demise one might find in The Ring. You know, after reading the script, your mobile rings and a dodgy ADR track whispers, “seven days”. The prospective producer then loses all possible means of communication in some catastrophic meltdown thus rendering them helpless. Except to post pictures of cats and selfies on various social media platforms. It’s a curious phenomenon! Other conclusions have been self-censored for fear of causing offence.

However, there was a meeting Saturday past at some ungodly hour in the morning as insisted by a complete moron (namely me) where we tried something a little different. A face to face pitch then the physical handing of the Bible and Pilot script to two gentlemen who seemed switched on with strong credentials. One of my actor/producer colleagues received a call 7am Monday morning to say they loved it and were “in”. The way to avoid The Ring style curse is clearly not to email the script – there’s always a loophole in those horror stories! This could be a promising development with talk of a January shoot… let’s see how things progress.

On the very same day, a businessman I met at a producing course who subsequently pitched me a feature film idea on the rooftop of a boutique bar in the city as we celebrated the ending of said course… man, this is a loooooong sentence… *deep breath*… sent me a whole lot of material to read with a view to see if it could be turned into a script. This is after a weird conversation about ISIS, ebola and filmmaking. Only two of those things threaten to destroy the fabric of civilisation as we know it… though there are times it could be all three if someone makes me sit through movies like Godzilla again. 

Oh, hey! Did I mention? I did a producing course!!!! So frustrated with the inability to get short film scripts and the web series made I decided to pretty much splash out on an FTI course in sheer desperation. Six times three hour sessions conducted by Tenille Kennedy who I have known for a while and now have an even greater appreciation for her producing skills. I’m not sure it’s what I really want to do and Tenille has a wealth of experience and knowledge that would take me a long time to acquire. I want someone like her to produce my scripts not try and be her. But it certainly gave me some great insights from a different perspective and oh, hey, did I mention the networking/pitching over drinks thing?

That’s pretty much it other than to say it’s been a strangely film orientated few days with the other director I have developed projects with contacting me out of the blue today and we had a coffee and chat. Maybe it’s all a sign for me to pull my proverbial out and get on with the Turbulence draft… 

PS Australia Post - when someone sends you a certificate in the mail and the envelope says "Please don't bend" it actually means Please don't fucking turn it into an origami swan to get it into the letterbox!

Short Film Update or I Think I Wrote That or A Writer’s Lament

It’s been a shitty week at work. Scrap that, it’s been a shitty month. I’m not usually prone to work related stress but I’ve been feeling it of late – overwhelmed by the sheer volume of activity and the kind of long hours I promised myself I’d never return to when I went back to the corporate world. A state of affairs that I will be redressing as of next week I can assure you, good reader.

It’s fair to say then that I wasn’t my usual witty self when I wandered over to the latest PAC Script Lab reading straight from work. Not helped by the fact that, for some reason (perhaps because it was much warmer in the State Library than the morgue-like temperature my office building is set at?), I suddenly couldn’t hear very well as if my ears were stuffed with cotton wool. I was tired and cranky, a state not immediately solved by free wine. A combination of my general absence from the ‘film scene’ and an unruly winter beard also meant that I was largely incognito. I suspect my general demeanour may have been a contributing factor, another issue to address.

I did, however, have a conversation with the director of Filmbites who is easily one of the nicest people in the local film business. Amongst the general chitchat she gave me an update on the short film Darkness that I wrote in the second half of 2011 after attending two sessions with Filmbites’ advanced acting students in the middle of that year.

Yes, THREE YEARS AGO.

Apparently the footage is looking great, the special effects are now being done, and the producer and director are really happy with some local act that will be doing the music.

My reaction was interesting. I nodded politely and smiled but I had no personal or emotional response as such at all.

Three years ago I created the story from basically two disparate improvisations by those young actors. Initially I wrote, I think, three drafts. Then a director needed to be attached. I had a meeting with the person who would become the director one evening in a café to do the pitch. He came on board but requested changes to the script. This was fine as the basic idea was unaltered – it was mainly tweaking the ending which changed the tone somewhat but that wasn’t a deal breaker. As this was part of an inaugural programme for the film school the goal was to have as strong a script as possible. The director subsequently brought on board an up and coming producer and things were all set. I attended auditions, an entire afternoon of rehearsals in about April 2012, and was on location a few times when the film was finally in production. In other words I was an integral part of the process… up to that point.

Since then I haven’t seen one second of footage or had any input into or even been advised of any creative decisions. I briefly met the editor earlier this year who is an expatriate Western Australian now working in LA (with many impressive assistant editor credits on some big Hollywood films) and she was lovely but talk of possibly seeing an edit ended up being just that, talk.

I understand that as everyone is volunteering their time this was going to be a long process but from being one of the early driving forces I’m not even a bit player anymore. I haven’t had any conversations with the director or producer for ages so I really have no idea what the final film is going to be like. I’ve also lost touch with the actors who’ve gone on to varied things, one now attempting to forge a career in LA. This may be a screenwriter’s fate in the greater scheme of things though a little disappointing given the nature of the programme that was the impetus in the first place. I probably also cast an envious eye at tightknit creative teams like Seventh Continent Productions and others doing well with their short films.

So when I was hearing the update Thursday night I felt very remote from it all. Unfortunate but I guess I did my job a long time ago and once that’s complete my involvement to all intents and purposes is over.

I hope it turns out well.

I suppose I’ll find out the same time everyone else does.