Meetings take place in the Macready Room at the Bristol Old Vic — ask at the bar on the first floor for directions. Everyone attending pays £1.
Tuesday, 11 March at 7.30pm: Sleepyhead by Daniel Cull
Andrew hates his job, his friends… his very existence, but finds hope hidden in sleepless nights and days of waking dreaming. The disease of insomnia spreads, creating a fantasy world, lost in raining cars, passionate love and Puccini in multi-storey car parks. But where do your nightmares go when you don’t sleep? Perhaps the world should wake up before it’s too late!
Tuesday, 25 March at 7.30pm: Improvised video night
We need you to come and help improvise a short film — from which a scripted version will be made in two weeks’ time. More details below.
Tuesday, 1 April at 7.30pm: Open Workshop
Tuesday, 8 April at 7.30pm: Shooting the scripted video
Follow-up to 25 March. More details below.
Tuesday, 15 April at 7.30pm: Island in the Sun by Jo Melling
A reading of Jo’s radio play about a Caribbean festival in Bristol at which a white Jamaican is pressed by police to help with an undercover operation. But there are unforeseen — and disastrous — consequences for those around him…
TAPS picks Bacon Sandwich
Huge congratulations to Tim Massey whose script Bacon Sandwich was one of only six finalists out of 700 entries in this year’s TAPS Awards (Television Arts Presentation Showcase). Tim is now working with the producer of Bergerac to make a film of his script which will be shown to television industry executives.
Good News and Bad News
The bad news is that our application for a grant to fund our New Writing competition this year has been turned down. The good news is that our canny treasurer has managed to build up our reserves over the years, and that we now have enough money to put the show on anyway. We’ve booked the Tobacco Factory for the week of 14 July, so please make sure you keep that week free. Judging of the competition is going well, and only a handful of scripts are still to come back from their second readings.
Video Shoot
Because we haven’t got a grant this year, we’re thinking of changing the format of the competition next year and try, instead, to select the best short film script. The two evenings of 25 March and 8 April have consequently been put aside to give members some hands-on experience of making a short film. We have two basic plotlines, and if we have time on the 25th, we’ll shoot both of them, with members improvising all the roles. One or two volunteers will then go away and convert the improvised material into a workable script which will be shot on 8 April. After editing, we’ll show the finished version in a group meeting.
Women directors’ showcase at Watershed
Bird’s Eye View is an initiative to help promote the work of women film directors because in the last two years only eight of the 350 films made in Britain had female directors. You can see a touring presentation of five of the best short films by emerging women filmmakers at the Watershed, Bristol on Sunday, 9 March at 2pm. This will be followed by a panel discussion.
Real-life stories for Testimony
Testimony Films is a Bristol-based company that is looking for real-life stories for a six-part HTV series with The British Empire and Commonwealth Museum to be broadcast early next year. Provisionally titled A Journey Across the Sea, the programmes will explore the influence the British Empire and Commonwealth has had on residents of the South West throughout the 20th Century. The programmes will rely on the personal memories of local people as well as on any story that may relate to the themes of emigration or immigration.
Mike Bullen’s final series of Cold Feet
South West Screen launches ScriptEd
South West Screen — the screen agency leading the development of film, television and interactive media in the region — is seeking the best new writing talent from the South West for its new script development initiative, ScriptEd.
The programme is open to any writer interested in working on their own feature length film script. Applicants must be over the age of 18, and must not have previously been commissioned by a UK-based company or organisation to write a feature.
South West Screen wishes to actively encourage writers from a diverse range of communities and backgrounds, along with writers working in other forms (eg. novelists, playwrights or poets).
ScriptEd is designed to provide writers with both financial support and comprehensive guidance in developing their ideas.