Hi,

I'm new to the site, but I hope to be posting here a lot more...

My name's Ian and I'm an ex-film student, that's taken a good few years out from writing anything and is looking to get back into it now.

I'm currently doing an introductory screenwriting course and am working on a short script as my final project. (In fact, I'm writitng this intro when I should be writing that.)

I've browsed around and it looks like a great place. I hope to learn a lot from my time here!

So ... a short script was the final project?  Unless you networked with some interesting people, that course sounds like a waste of money.  Hi, nice to meetcha.  

Hey Alan...

Thanks for the welcome. Fortunately the course was free, it's being run by the UK Film Council in an effort to generate more, and better, British feature scriptwriters. Its only an Introductory course, there's an advanced one coming off the back of this later in the year.

It's certainly not been a waste of my time so far either. It's showed me a new, better way of working (preparation wise) and I've gotten what I wanted most from the course - motivation to get off my arse and actually write again..

Oh Wow Mr. Ian! your avatar is ssssooooooooo cool (dunno why) lol anyway, Hi! Pleased to meet thoueth! I'm Sasha Aleksov and I'm 13/M/UK!!!

Hey Sasha, glad to make your acqaintance...

The Avatar is one Mr Bill Hicks... One of the the funniest stand-up comedians to ever walk the face of the Earth...

From your Sadako avatar and remaking Evil Dead Trap you seem to be into your Japanese horror films... Good call, some of the scariest horror films around are coming out of Asia right now!

Quoted from Alan_Holman So ... a short script was the final project?  Unless you networked with some interesting people, that course sounds like a waste of money.  Hi, nice to meetcha.

I disagree with you, here, Alan.  If you have a finished short, you can make a hundred copies of it and send it.  A lot of people in Hollywood would rather watch a fiilm than read a script.

If, and when, Tocsin and Suicide are finished, I'm putting them both on CD-rom and I'm sending them out.


Phil

Hi Ian, I did that Skillset thing a few months ago - met loads of interesting folks plus I found something I enjoy doing (before I started the course I had never written a script in my life). Looking back it was definitely worth the time and effort, and it actually inspired me to go on and sign up for a two year screenwriting course -which I would never have been accepted on if it hadn't been for the short I wrote as my final project. Good luck with it all anyway... oh, and welcome to the board x

Hey Shonagh...

Thanks :)

Just handed the short script in last Thursday... I have written previously though, I did some writing on a TV & Film production course I did years before... I've also started, and subsequently junked, numerous feature scripts... Hoping to find the motivation to finally start sticking with the damn things now - we shall soon see if this happens...

I have that problem, I've started approximately 3 times as many scripts as I've finished, but now when I start getting lazy a tutor rings up and shouts at me.

That's totally what I need - my own personal scriptwriting Drill Instructor...

The type of person who gives me shouty abusive phone calls if my attention drifts and I stick on some crappy movie instead of writing my script...

Hmmm... There's a marketable idea there... ;)

The only thing worse than drill instructor shouting is the 'I am so very disappointed in you' voice.

My tutor has my mobile number, she rang the other day when I was in the pub and I felt so guilty for not being at home furiously typing away at the assignment she had set that I had to leave.

Heh heh... That's cruel... She was probably only two tables away from you and messing with you, my bet is she was high-fiving the other lecturers and laughing as you got up to leave... I bet all your mates got phone calls too and there were bets placed on who would leave and who wouldn't!

It'll be the lecturers version of the first-night fishing game scene in 'The Shawshank Redemption!'

Or maybe I'm just thinking about this too much! ;D

And I fell for it, how gullible am I! Thanks Ian, next time I'll stand my ground.

*two weeks later* I've been thrown off my screenwriting course...