French scriptwriters march to support the WGA

Although the legal, artistic and business environments are very different in the US and Europe, most international writers' guilds have given their support to the WGA strike. The French writers' union UGS is going one step further and organising a demo opposite the Tour Eiffel (the Espalanade du Trocadéro) in Paris on Wednesday November 28 at 4pm. They will notably organise a family photo of "creators" that includes writers, actors, producers and directors (looks to me like a pretty good networking opportunity!).

The specifics of the debate between producers and writers in the US are not the same as those in Europe, but one area is very similar: the proportion of revenue generated by online sales. There is already a massive migration towards online viewing. This will only increase over the coming few years. So it is important that the writers of the films and shows be entitled to a fair share of this important new revenue stream.

As a reminder, Screenplay Europe is not promoting any online movie or TV show downloading until this issue is clarified.

Visit the UGS.

Ronald Harwood to talk about adaptations in London

Oscar-winning scriptwriter Ronald Harwood ("The Pianist", "Oliver Twist" and "The Dresser") will be talking at a special event organised by The Script Factory and BFI on December 6 in London. A very large proportion of major films are adaptations, and Harwood's speciality is specifically the adaptation of novels and plays to the screen. His upcoming releases include "Love in the Time of Cholera" and "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly".

Harwood has written a fascinating book on the subject already. If you're interested in the discussion, I strongly recommend you see at least "The Pianist" and "Oliver Twist" as he will most likely talk about elements from both tales.

Ronald Harwood on Adaptation
Thursday 6 Dec at 6.20pm
NFT3, BFI Southbank

Tickets are on sale now costing £8.60 (full) £6.25 (concs) from bfi.

European writers create manifesto

While the American writers' kettle has come to the boil in the form of the WGA strike, European writers are continuing their own struggle for broader acceptance and understanding of their work. The Federation of Scriptwriters in Europe (FSE) has created an online manifesto that contains the most important of their demands. They range from the very basic - that writers be more fully recognised as the author of the work and that festivals and institutions actually name the writers in their programs - to the touchy issue of "possessory credit" (producers or directors taking undue shares of the writing credits) and "fair payment for every form of exploitation". The latter refers notably to the growing online download services.

The FSE represents the writing guilds of the UK, France, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland and other countries. Find out more about it on the FSE website.

Random thoughts about scripts

The Belgian writers' group ASA held a round table recently to try and define what a movie script is, with a view to being better able to present the writers' case in discussions with other bodies. To cut to the chase, the definition was never agreed on but the discussion itself turned out to be fascinating.

Script doctor and writer Luc Janssens set the ball rolling by suggesting that the script is a "technical document used to make a film". But others found that belittled the craft and artistry of storytelling. Inevitably, the question of structure came up. And just as inevitably, the claim that structure is somehow an American idea was made (something I have always thought was strange - like David Lean or Hitchcock didn't use structure). Director Harry Kümel ("Malpertuis", "Eline Vere" and opera) rightly jumped in to point out that a lot of the early analysis of drama was done by a Frenchman. Janssens added a long list of writers stretching back to Shakespeare that used the 3-act structure.

Kümel was critical of the current reliance of the European movie sector on public support. "It's not with subsidies and commissions that that we'll create new European cinema. I dream of a European cinema that complements America's."

But how do you judge a film and its performance? Kümel: "A film must be seen by the number of people it is intended for." That's actually a neat definition if you think about it. An art-house drama could never compete with the tent-pole summer movies. But that does not mean that it is operating in a vacuum. There are still yardsticks for analysing its performance.

"...like becoming a doctor..."

On to writing itself: "It takes years, that's the problem," according to Janssens. "Scriptwriting is like becoming a doctor - it takes about the same amount of time to become a good one. It's not because you learn the rules that you are a writer... We looked at the number of schools and courses that are available in Europe for the moment and found over 300. But in my opinion, only a very few of them - including London and Rome - are worth anything." The problem is one of commitment, with many film-making courses not devoting enough time to the script.

Another question that cropped up was: "Who exactly is the author of the script?" Some writers complained about being considered as luxury typists by directors. The habit of directors and even producers demanding shares of the authors' rights was also discussed. "I don't accept that," said Janssens. "When I finish a script, I've done 80% of the directors job."

More about Luc Janssens

Song lyrics for Belgian hit movie "Vermist"

This summer, I got a call from composer Steve Willaert who was writing music for the Belgian thriller “Vermist/Missing” directed by Jan Verheyen. He was preparing a track for the end of the film and could I help with the lyrics? After a little coming and going, the result was “Waiting” breathlessly sung by Chantal Kashala. What I didn’t know at the time is that the film stars two of Flanders’ biggest new actors, Koen De Bouw and Kevin Janssens. So when I went to see it on the second night, I was surprised to find a capacity audience in one of the largest theatres (it opened in 29 cinemas in Flanders). “Waiting” plays over the final credits. I’ve had music used in movies before, but this is the first time I’ve written something from scratch for one. There are plans to turn “Vermist” into a TV series. Check Vermist here. Scriptwriters are Bas Adriaensen, Philippe De Schepper and Matt Witten.

Download the track from A-Lyric.

Rome festival: learning from documentaries

Big, glamorous and busy: I just got back from the Rome festival, where I didn't manage to see half the films I wanted. But two documentaries gave me some food for thought. The first was "The Gates", by Antonio Ferrera. This fly-on-the-wall documentary follows artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude's two attempts to line Central Park with saffron-coloured patches. The film-makers followed them to the various production and administration meetings. So the film was not written or even planned in terms of a final structure. "600 hours of rushes, 2 years of editing into 98 minutes," as Ferrera explained in the bar. So the challenge was to make a coherent story out of a vast amount of material afterwards. "You never stop writing your film," he said. "When you pitch it, you're writing. Editing is re-writing. When you dub it or do subtitles, you're still writing. Basically, you only really stop writing when you start the next one."

The other revelation was "Natural Born Star", a brilliant documentary about the former Norwegian heartthrob Fred Robsahm (photo), who basically fell into superstardom in Italian B movies in the seventies by accident. I won't go into the details of his amazing yet tragic life, but it's one of the most moving stories I've seen in ages. What was interesting was the way the director Even G. Benestad and scriptwriter August B. Hanssen used the mountain of vintage material to tell the story, which itself has the feel of a B movie throughout the parts that deal with the seventies (including a great period soundtrack by Kaada - pronounced "coda"). Inevitably, when the reality kicks in, the effect is all the more moving. For a work of non-fiction, it is also remarkably true to the three-act structure. I strongly recommend this one. The film has its own site called Natural Born Star.net, but you'll find more info on the Rome Film fest page here.

Check the soundtrack on


Incidentally, the Rome festival doesn't have a script award. So the only reference to a screenplay came from director Jason Reitman, who insisted on bringing the scriptwriter Diablo Cody on stage with him to pick up an award for "Juno" as "it is her story". Spoken like a gentleman!

Rome festival kicks off

The 2nd edition of the Rome Festival kicked off yesterday, with 167 films on show, including 14 in competition. "Rome will be the biggest cinema in the world," claims Mayor Walter Veltroni. The festival aims at being one of the top international events, and has lined up a dozen avant-premieres to tempt the press along. The festival also has a market, called Business Street (centred around the once-electric Via Veneto). To find out about the festival, click the logo (right).

I'll be down there towards the end of the fest, with two projects with directors attached. If anyone is interested in hooking up, leave a message. It will be interesting, as I'm a big fan of Italian cinema old and new but only get to see a tiny part of what is happening. The other reason I'm looking forward to going is that I lived for a few months in Rome back in the eighties. It'll be good to be back there.

RaiSat are doing live broadcasts and reports from the event. Check out the programme here.

Die Fälscher (The Counterfeiters) picks up main award at Ghent festival

The Ghent Film festival has just wrapped up, with the main award going to the German movie "Die Fälscher (The Counterfeiters)". Directed and adapted from a book by Stefan Ruzowitzky, the film details one of the biggest counterfeit schemes in history. Germany used Jewish counterfeits during the war to churn out Allied currency in an attempt to sabotage their economies. Inevitably, the suckers doing the counterfeiting had some choices to make: living relatively well while working for the Germans or dying. If you think about it, that's not much of a choice really. In fact, it's not a choice at all. It's only later that it might be perceived as an issue.

The film is based on the memoirs of Adolf Burger, "Des Teufels Werkstatt/The Devil’s Workshop". In a comment on European-Films.net, another author, Lawrence Malkin, makes some interesting comments about the choices being made by these people at the time.

"Die Fälscher" was released in the UK on October 12. It received four stars from Empire.

French TV writers come together

Anyone near the south of France that is interested in TV series (and the writing thereof!) should check out "Scénaristes en série", an annual get-together that was started by 10 French series writers and is becoming more international. The idea is for writers, producers, actors and distributors to get together in a series of debates and masterclasses. They promise to show the best-in-class series from Spain, the UK, Germany and Canada.

It will be held at the Palais des Congrès in Aix-les-Bains (Rhône-Alpes, if my memory serves me well), October 18-21. Contact: Tel : 01 48 03 18 25 (in France) or visit Scenaristes en Série. There are several regional airports in the area, plus a special TGV train leaving from Paris! How's that for style?

No movie downloads from here yet

I had thought of offering movie downloads from the site, which is an exciting development on the web. The theory is that we can break the distribution bottleneck and allow anyone anywhere to download material. But the dispute in the US between representatives of the producers and writers turned up a little detail that bothers me: the writers are getting paid peanut shells for DVDs and downloads!

Unlike the rest of the world, where writers retain authors' rights and therefore benefit to a modest degree in the use of a work (notably through the sale of DVDs and now downloads), this is not quite the case for the US. And the writers are rightly questioning this. So until they come to some sort of agreement, I don't feel comfortable promoting downloads of movies. Shame, as it is the way to go.

"Le fils de l'épicier" picks up script award at Namur

Eric Guirardo and Florence Vignon picked up the Best Script award at the 22nd Festival of Francophone Cinema in the Belgian town of Namur for "Le fils de l’épicier/The Grocer's Son". When his father becomes ill, a disillusioned young man has to step into his shoes and manage the village shop.

Director Guirardo had planned the film since 2000, and finished the writing with Florence Vignon after he spent time filming travelling tradesmen in France.

Check the film's site in French.

Macedonian-Polish action spec wins the first Central European Pitch Forum

I mentioned this event a few months back. Here is an extract from the (enthusiastic) press release concerning the winners. Nice to see a genre film picking up the main prize.

+++

Veteran Macedonian-born Swiss writer-director Mitko Panov took first prize and 5 thousand euro along with it at the closing event of the 2007 Fade In Central European Pitch Forum, the continent’s first story market, for his Balkan-set drama-actioner Witness.

The 2 thousand euro-worth special jury prize went to Paolo Poti from Italy for his drama screenplay "The God of the Hills", while the award for the best Eastern European screenplay was given to Hungarian writer team Péter Gál and Csaba Tóth for their chiller "Weekend". Young Hungarian director István Madarász got the Best Pitch award for the presentation of his unique action thriller "Loop". The lavish awards ceremony and networking dinner, attended by a hundred-plus film professionals from all across Europe, closed a very intense three days in Pécs in the south of Hungary. Beautiful weather was kind to the organizers, as the picture-perfect city—a European Cultural Capital-to-be in 2010—showed its most stunning faces to attendees of its international film festival Moveast and its flagship event pitch forum. 13 screenwriters from all over Europe showed up with 11 projects. Their screenplays were all written on spec—meaning the authors developed them on their own volition—so the writers arrived in the hope of selling their screen stories to the attending producers.

To find out more (and maybe present something next year), visit Fade In.

On the photo: president of the Federation of Screenwriters in Europe Christina Kallas listening to award-winning Polish director Kryzstof Zanusi. Photo by Laszlo Simara.

Belgium to send "Ben X" as Oscar contender

"Ben X", the award-winning debut film from film journalist Nic Balthazar, has been unanimously chosen to represent Belgium as a Foreign-Language contender for the Oscars. The Dutch-speaking film, which has been hailed at home and received the Grand Prix at the Montreal World Film Festival, is a gripping tale of a slightly autistic boy that is bullied at school. It combines a remarkable internal monologue with extracts from video games. The performances are universally excellent.

The film is based on a book written by Balthazar that was subsequently adapted as a play. It is built on a true story (but obviously considerably changed). Expect to hear more about it. Visit the official site (in English and Dutch).

The Coppola syndrome: could it happen to you?

You've probably heard by now the Francis Ford Coppola has had his portable computer and back-up stolen. He has made a heartfelt plea for at least the back-up to be returned, as it contains not only his latest script which is about to go into pre-production, but 15 years of archives.

Yikes! It made me think about my current set-up. How much could I afford to lose? The vast majority of semi-cooked ideas exist in print form. That's OK. I still have copybooks full of notes and press clippings. So what about my back-ups? Well, like many people I don't do enough of them. And the problem that Francis Ford has suffered is that he didn't count on someone actually stealing the backed-up hard disks!

Any way around this? A quick survey of writer friends drew everything from shrugs of shoulders to stern warnings about making copies and storing them in friends' houses in case your place burns down or Mossad breaks in and steals everything. Online storage doesn't really seem to have entered the writers' habits yet.

Either way, it's something worth thinking about. Do you have any back-up tips?

"Le spectateur fantasmé": writers consider the spectator

Anyone who writes must at some stage has wondered about the possible spectator. But who is this spectator? What do we know about her? Should we accommodate her already at the writing stage and, if so, how? To what degree?

For the 6th time, the SACD France and SACD Belgium are hosting a talk at this year's Festival de Film Francophone in Namur, Belgium on October 1. The talk is split into two sections: a morning debate between the various guests and a later public encounter in the festival marquee.

Details can be found on the FIFF site. The Namur festival is a cool event, as the whole town is taken over during the week, and they host numerous workshops and production forums. There are also a host of premières, which this year include 14 films from as far apart as Senegal and Lebanon.

PS: I'll be in Namur on October 4 if anyone wants to hook up, just leave a message.

"Kings" chosen as Ireland's "Best Foreign Language" at Academy Awards

IFTA, The Irish Film and Television Academy has announced that Tom Collins’ ‘Kings’ starring Colm Meaney, Donal O’Kelly and Brendan Conroy has been officially selected by an independent IFTA jury for submission to the 80th Academy Award(S)®, for the ‘Best Foreign Language Film’ category. This is the first time that an Irish language film is being submitted from Ireland for this category.

"Kings" tells the story of a group of Gaelic-speaking young men who in the mid 1970s left the west of Ireland, bound for London, filled with ambition for a better life in a place where they could be kings. Thirty years on they meet to mark the passing of the youngest of the group. For some of them, those thirty years have been hard. Their muscle has been spent, their hopes dashed on the roads and building sites of Britain, to be replaced with a sense of hopeless disaffection. ‘Kings’ is a story of a lost generation, rich in humanity and emotion, and with a heart-breaking resonance not just for the Irish in today’s changing world.

According to director Tom Collins, "‘Kings’ has been a remarkable journey for me over the past four years. To receive this latest accolade is quite overwhelming and I am indebted to the Irish Academy for their support. I know it’s always dangerous to have messages in films, but I hope people will watch ‘Kings’ and empathise with the whole experience of emigrants in a foreign land and how hard it is for them to find their way home. This is a universal story – it’s not just about paddies…” Specifically concerning the relationship with the original play "Kings of the Kilburn High Road" and the playwright Jimmy Murphy (see below), Collins had this to say to Screenplay Europe: "I regard Jimmy as a friend and one of Ireland's best writers. Kings is doing exceptionally well which wouldn't have happened without [him]".

"Kings" was produced by Newgrange Pictures and goes on release in Ireland on September 21.

People's Choice Award 2007

The European Film Academy has made its nominations for this year's European Film Awards. As ever, it's a rather high-brow list that includes "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days", "The Edge of Heaven" and "La vie en rose".

As in previous years, you can do your bit too, as they are running a more mainstream selection for the People's Choice Award that includes "The Last King of Scotland", "La vie en Rose", "Black Book" and "2 Days in Paris". Check the selection here.

"4 months, 3 weeks and 2 days" to open in... Romania

After four months of travelling successfully around the world, the multi award-winning "4 months, 3 weeks and 2 days" is only now set to open in its home territory, Romania. The hard-hitting movie will open at the Bucharest National Theatre (that's one premiere I'd like to attend) before moving to other venues. There are also reports that the film will be shown outside major towns in mobile cinemas, a move which is interesting.

The reason I mention this is to underline the difficulty of coordinating movie releases in Europe. Although the 25 countries are technically a single market, only the major studios actually enable Europe-wide releases. All the countries act like separate markets. There are large distributors and movie chains such as UGC and Kinepolis, of course, but every movie has to find a local distributor and start individual campaigns that fit around the majors' releases.

Another way to look at this as writers is that although you always hope that you are writing something with global appeal, you are largely dealing with a series of local audiences. It's also interesting to note that many of the most successful European films have been intensely local. This has been true of "Billy Elliot", "Goodbye Lenin", "L'auberge espagnol", "Adam & Paul", "12:08 East of Bucharest" and now "4 Months".

For more about "4 Months...", visit the blog.

UPDATE: Nov 25. "4 Months..." was awarded the Bronze Horse for Best Film 2007 at this year's 10-day Stockholm film festival ending Sunday November 25.

Intro to scriptwriting in Manchester

Scriptwriting courses tend to be concentrated in capital cities. Here's one that's open to anyone in Manchester, UK. "Due to the success of our previous courses we are pleased to announce our next 6 week project at the Dance House, Oxford Road (opposite the BBC) starting on Monday 8th October 7.30pm - 9.30 pm.

The programme is an introduction to the basics of scriptwriting for screen and is open to anyone 18+ regardless of experience. The course is ongoing and the first 6 weeks will focus on formatting scripts, dialogue, character and developing plots. Writing can be a lonely task, these sessions give participants the chance to meet like minded people from all different walks of life and also fresh eyes and minds to bounce your ideas off. Previous participants have said the course has given them 'confidence about their ideas', 'created a portfolio of work' and has 'given me goals'."

On the face of it, this looks like an intro for people that have always wanted to but never got around to trying scriptwriting. The course is priced at just £35 for the 6 weeks. If you require any further information, e-mail primarycreations@yahoo.co.uk or call 07857 906 014 and tell them Screenplay Europe sent you.

"Atonement" to open Venice fest

Amongst the many films that will play at Venice this year, "Atonement" is being billed as the most expected. Directed by Joe Wright, it has a script by Christopher Hampton ("Dangerous Liaisons", "Total Eclipse" and the upcoming "Coco avant Chanel") based on the award-winning novel by Ian McEwan.

The World War II drama is Wright's second feature, although he has directed numerous dramas for British TV. Keira Knightley's role is being tipped as a career-defining performance. Wright had famously berated the Bafta voters for not giving her the best actress for "Pride and Prejudice".

See The Telegraph for an interview with Wright in which he talks about Knightley, budgets and filming Dunkirk.