UK Scriptwriters

Do you need an agent? What do they do anyway? What are YOU supposed to do anyway?

There are a lot of rumours and pieces of 'good advice' around this topic. So here we bypass all that and talk direct to Danny's agent, Jean Kitson from kitsonpress.co.uk. What she is looking for from a writer who approaches her? Catch Jean at the LSWF too!

A lot of scriptwriters move into being a writer-director. This has it's own challenges when it comes to developing a script.

Here we talk to two old friends of ours, Dan Pringle and Suki Singh about the journey with there respective movies.

Dan's is an elevated horror / gory drama called K-Shop - out now on DVD http://amzn.to/2aSpAov and also via Amazon Prime http://amzn.to/2b5h2b1

Suki's is a psychological noir called Emulsion. He has a special edition available direct. http://www.emulsion.tv

We often get asked to feature up and coming writers and film makers in our podcast. While it is great to hear from some of the top people in the biz, if you are a beginner to scriptwriting it can seem a million miles away from where you are now.

Mustapha Kseibati is on the way up. He's done some top notch shorts (starring Benedit Wong and Kayvan Novak) after starting out in the music video world. It took him years of being runner and edit assistant first. So his route is one of hard graft and taking opportunities when he could - and a few gambles. But he can tell it in his own words.

Watch his films on his website - http://www.mustaphakseibati.com

You may see Will Smith's photo and know you've seen him somewhere. He's acted in the Thick Of It, Paddington and with 'Harry and Paul'. But in this podcast episode we delve, of course, into his career as a writer. Writing on Time Trumpet, Veep, Omid Djalili as well as for The Thick Of It too. How did he get started? And how did that all lead to his latest project, a non-comedy novel called "Mainlander"?

This episode has a guest interviewer, Jan Caston, as she managed to bump into Will in Jersey and nabbed him!

We did a special LIVE version of the podcast on TwitCast and Periscope. This is an archive of that. So when you hear us answering questions, these are comments and notes sent in via that those apps.

Tony talks about being a writer / producer and taking control of your own career. He also discusses the Red Planet prize and why he continues to support it. And of course we chat about writing; Life on Mars, Dickensian and Moving Wallpaper.

*SPOILERS*
Do not listen to this podcast if you have not seen the new Mad Max and you intent to soon.

In this episode we talk to one of the co-writers of Mad Max: Fury Road - Brendan McCarthy. Brendan is not your typical writer, he is an artist and designer too. He tells stories through pictures - which is what films, especially action films, should be. We cover...

* How Brendan moved from being a fan of the early Mad Max films into working on the new one
* Why Fury Road took 17 years to make
* What happened when Mel Gibson was no longer attached and how that impacts upon the story
* The 'weight' that actors bring to the story
* How working on comics and design fed into films
* How he doesn't fit into a convenient box meaning some people struggle on how to 'sell him'

See more from Brendan at - http://artbrendan.com

James Cary was the creator of the radio sitcoms "Think the Unthinkable" and "Hut 33" and was lead writer on the sketch show, Concrete Cow. For TV, he has written for My Hero, My Family and Miranda. More recently he co-wrote the BBC Three series Bluestone 42 with Richard Hurst. Online you can find James podcasting, blogging and tweeting as SitcomGeek.

We talk to him about comedy, about writing material for others and about getting your own show off the ground. And also about the differences between radio and television.

A shorter episode this time. We reflect on the best lessons we learnt from the London Screenwriters Festival and urge you to come along. We ask what you want us to cover. And we plug three things.

1 - Who Killed Nelson Nutmeg, our feature which premieres at the London Film Festival on the 10th October.

2 - A spin off book for younger readers called Who Needs Friends Nelson Nutmeg? which is on Amazon now.

3 - A brand new book from us, full of our best tips ever called "The UK Scriptwriters Survival Handbook" - get it now on Amazon too.

The podcast is 5 years old! Danny celebrates by interviewing Mark Stay, screenwriter of UK family film Robot Overlords, and more! Recorded via Skype, so apologies for less than ideal sound.

Follow Mark on Twitter: @markstay

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