Take note

I was very flattered to read that I’m both ace and adept at taking notes. I blushed a bit and felt the warm fuzzies of a job well done.

The giving and receiving of notes is the process by which a script grows into a film. I’ve enjoyed that experience with a fair few folk now and it’s completely different every time.

I don’t think there’s necessarily a right way to do it. With my friends I’ve know for over a decade, I know I can be brutally honest. And they have the same freedom with me. With a director I’m working with for the first time, we have to learn how to talk with each other – particularly when a lot of our correspondence is by e-mail.

However, I think there are some general “good practice” rules:

1) Thank the note giver before you read the notes. Your thanks should be genuine.

2) Read the notes through once and allow yourself to react. Be angry that they hated your favourite character. Grin at the fact they loved your best scene. Get your emotional, gut reactions out of the way.

3) Set the notes aside. Take a breath. Then go through them again coolly and logically.

4) Always consider the note in context. There is always a reason the note-giver is giving the note. It may be a naff reason from your perspective – e.g. “this character should be a man because girls can’t shoot” – but they believe in what they’re telling you.

5) You must address every note, even if your response is “I acknowledge this but I’m not changing anything”.

6) Sometimes, the perceived problem with your script is not where the note-giver thinks it is. This was the case as described by Phill in his post about our notes exchange. Phill thought the characters were absent from the plot. I had failed to make it obvious what they were up to. So, instead of taking Phill’s suggestion of what they could be doing, I made what I thought was happening more explicit.

Tony Jordan says the difference between a good writer and a great writer is how to take notes (so says Rob Thorogood). How do you handle your notes? What’s the method in the madness?

My First Short Film: Change The World

My year got off to a cracking start! I’ve already talked about my great opportunity with Persona and now I want to shout about my first short film.

I met my enthusiastic director Jack Ayers via Shooting People. He put a call out for short scripts and I answered by telling him what I was working on and linking to my script samples page.

He replied quickly, telling me that he wanted to tell exciting stories about our modern world, short-shorts that had viral potential. We had a quickfire back-and-forth via e-mail about stories we were excited about, particularly based around London.

We agreed to meet later that week at the BFI (where else?) and, after making sure we were the right two people lurking in the lobby, we chatted over tea about London-based stories, incorporating urban legends and city lives. We threw a few ideas around, agreeing on four we liked most to go on to develop over the next few weeks.

Fuelled by excitement, I put together a couple in the first week, and finally eked out the fourth this week. A month ago, Jack told me that he wanted to use one of the scripts – “Change the World” – for a submission to Sundance London. It’s about the City Controller of London and how he woos the girl of his dreams by changing her world.

Unfortunately, the shoot last weekend was cancelled due to the snow. But we’re still aiming to get there before the deadline, meaning my first ever short film will be seen by the world in March.

I’ll keep you posted!