Blog posts by year and monthJuly 2007
Posts (5)
radio silence and the Edinburgh Fringe
So much for my promised updates on the progress of my entry for the Verity Bargate. Still, I got it done and delivered, so all that remains now is to wait for the inevitable rejection letter. I can add it to the knock-back I had for a recent radio project and the lingering sense of loss from all my failed relationships. The main reason that I haven't blogged recently, though, is the hefty workload that precedes the Edinburgh Fringe. I'm involved in five shows this year, which now seems cavalier. However, some are already on tour, and two are reworked versions of previous shows. Nonetheless, I've been dashing from rehearsal to rewrite meeting to preview to the extent that at times I've felt like I didn't know which cast to expect when I walked into the rehearsal room. It all starts in earnest at 9am on Monday morning (which is like 3am in theatre time) with the first of my five technical rehearsals. One of the companies I'm working for revealed the day before yesterday that they hadn't managed to confirm their technician's appearance for the tech: I asked them to ring him, and it turned out that he wasn't even going to arrive in Edinburgh until after the first performance. So an hour was taken out of our valuable final rehearsal while we hastily got on Facebook and messaged everyone we know who's going to be in Edinburgh. When we finally managed to find a keen, experienced student and offered her the pitiful amount of cash that that's left in the budget she blithely said "oh, I just love to help! I'd have done it for nothing!" By then, of course, it was too late to retract the offer. Underlying all the bonhomie and 'spirit of the Fringe' hooley, the month in August is a very efficient way for a lot of performers to lose a lot of money very quickly. However, whenever I see articles like this one, or a similar one from 2005, I can't help thinking that a lot of this money's being wasted, or at least spent in less than efficient way. There's a lot of received wisdom in Edinburgh about having to have a press officer, or spending money on distribution, or paying a promoter, that year after year turns out to be bobbins. When Tim Fountain got onto the front cover of the List with his show Sex Addict, he claimed not to have had a press agent at all, simply to have done a show that people wanted to see. This is the Fringe's elephant in the room: with sixteen hundred shows a day, there isn't enough on that people want to see enough, to make it economically worthwhile. That's not to say that these shows shouldn't happen, or that they aren't artistically valid, but it seems clear that throwing money at promoting them is never going to make a duff idea into a theatrical, or comedic, or musical, gem.
Ah, the children's comedy-drama of the night...
Not one but two new entries in the Script Archive - the first and last episodes of Young Dracula. Episode 1 - When You're A Stranger Episode 14 - Countdown Ah. Ah. Ah. Ah. As usual, you may need to download Acrobat Reader to read the scripts if you don't have it already.
Tools of the trade
One of the things that will make you look more professional as a scriptwriter is sending out your work in proper script format. Script format is different in radio, television, film, and on the stage, to allow for the different requirements of each medium. Fortunately we've got a page on the...
Criminally Good
Tony Burgess was our first writer in residence at Comedy North - and from that he's been commissioned for a series on ±«Óãtv3. Find out more about The Visit - and watch the episodes before they're transmitted - at the ±«Óãtv Comedy website.
Red Planet Pictures
Tony Jordan's been a busy man recently. Having left his post as Story Consultant on EastEnders, he's just created cop show Holby Blue for the ±«Óãtv (now renewed for a second series) and Moving Wallpaper and Echo Beach over at ITV. There's a new interview with him in the Guardian, and he's se...