Just heard that I’m one of the winners of the latest #Create50 Screenwriting : Courage and Kindness competition with my two page short “Late Request”
All the more exciting as it’s only my second very short script. I’ve never been able to get my head round really short ones. But a couple of years ago I had my first go at one for 50Kisses. I dashed it off in a few hours before the deadline. ..and quite rightly it got nowhere.
So I ended up filming Rob Burke’s excellent script “Love”, which then was included in the 50 Kisses feature film …and then excluded ..and then won ..and then got into other festivals ..and won. So it was a good ride. FILM LINK
So at the launch of Create50, I listened to Chris Jones and Lucy Hay’s advice “Even though it’s only two minutes, work really hard on it. Don’t go for your first idea” They had had so ..so many similar ideas for 50 Kisses.
I tried to set aside some time, but life was hectic. Then I had to drive down to Plymouth to do some filming of contemporary dance. It was going to be three hour drive. A six hour round trip.
So I didn’t switch on the radio, or listen to music, but worked through ideas. Each time I came up with a good idea, I mentally explored it, then put it aside and tried to come up up with another. Even more different, bizarre or radical. But over and over coming back to my own life experiences. Working in a hospital, in Russia, rock climbing, TV broadcasting etc.
“Late Request” was the seventh.
It combines memories of being the first at the scene of a road accident, when I was only 13. We lived in the country. I was woken at 2am. Heard the noise from my bedroom and ran barefoot out onto the road. ..a man lying slumped in his sports car, with his face smashed in ..and the radio blaring out loud. I switched it off. Sudden silence. Alone in the middle of the deserted road.
The second memory was going straight through the middle of a roundabout, on my way back from Bournemouth to Salisbury after a concert.
…and finally my sister Nicky, who told me about the long hours and tiredness of being a paramedic. The interactions with strangers hurt in accidents, late at night on lonely roads.
I thought up the idea of the gift of chocolate. When I sent her the script for checking, she told me that once an injured patient had offered her chocolate. So not so unlikely.
So now I’ve got to make it.
http://www.create50.com/awards/50-moments
