Tuesday 15 November 2011

Beyond the Sofa...

It's not very often I venture out, unless I've run out of teabags or such other vital business. This weekend, however, saw me up at the hideous hour of 4:15am (Who would have thought such a time existed?) to wend my way to Glasgow for the Screenwriting, Networking and Pitching Workshop. I would like to say I jumped out of bed in a rush of refreshed energy, but that would be utter rubbish. I crawled, sobbing, like a poor broken zombie. Can't remember much of the train journey; I think I mostly dozed until Dundee o'clock.
The course itself, run by Phil Gladwin and Phil Shelley, was an intense, two day workshop which covered subjects such as story structure, generating ideas and a very novel exercise in character creation, through to marketing yourself and your work. It was full of interactive tasks which were both interesting and thought provoking, and covered so much practical information that can only come from years of experience working in the business. Of course, what course would be complete without a good chinwag in the bar afterward?
Guest speakers, Eric Coulter and Kate Croft, were fascinating and entertaining to listen to.
Unfortunately, I completely bombed at the pitching exercise and turned into a shaking, babbling physical wreck... Nevertheless, it was a truly excellent weekend and I had the pleasure of meeting a bunch of lovely and talented folk. Well worth dragging myself off the sofa for!