UK Based Screenwriting

Much as I love lurking around here - throwing in the odd opinion every now and then - I can't help notice a certaing amount of eye-rolling when the subject of screenplays comes up.
Fair play - the bulk of the writers here are sit-com/sketch focussed - so you can hardly blame them.
The trouble is, the other forum I visit is SO Hollywood based that it hurts - there's only so long you can listen to Chuck and Brad banging on about the structure of the Die Hard movies.
SO, anybody know of a UK (or Europe,I guess, if it's in English!) based screenwriters forum with the kind of discussion board we have here?

No, in answer to your question. But I'd be interested too. I wrote 5 comedy/rom-com screenplays before a producer I was optioned by suggested I try writing for television as well.

I went the other way round.
Started off wanting to write TV comedy/drama but ended up turning one into a screenplay which has since been optioned.
The Beeb seems to be in such a fragile state, and ITV have pretty well given up on drama, so it almost seems like there's more going on in film.
Which is quite a turnaround.
Perhaps TV drama will make a return - I think it's a great format for small, intimate stories.

I don't know of one Lazzard - maybe there's a gap in the market there.

I've also found there's a lot going on in feature film at the moment, with opportunities for a decent writer.

Going off topic a bit:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/8500494.stm

No writers on that list - the directors and talking props saying our lines scooping up all the cash, grumble.

Perhaps not exactly what you might be looking for, but screendaily invariably has something of interest to read at a profesional level - and the opinions make informative reading also. Try this for starters:

http://www.screendaily.com/news/opinion/where-have-all-the-screenwriters-gone/5006085.article

http://www.fatpigeons.com/feedthebirds/

It's very new, but it's been set up especially for UK based scriptwriters of all genres.

Interesting link Lazzard and Phill.I spent some time looking at the fatpigeons website and I think that, even with some very interesting and informative pages on the links to the Writers Guild which are worth reading, it does, nonetheless pose a very difficult predicament for writers - and it is this; at one time in the UK we had a culture in the UK which was entirely different to what there is now. We had a writers culture. This gave us interesting writers whose aspiration and challenge was towards an imaginative poetic and political vision. This for many writers is the complete antithesis to an establishment 'profession' as represented by 'Eastenders' 'Holby City' etc. where the individual authors voice is both irrelevant and subordinate to the 'soap' concept. The screenwriting definition as something we have in common is perhaps too vague. What do these writers have in common with writers like David Hare,Trevor Griffiths,Tom Stoppard - etc - infact most serious writing which has been exiled from television and film?

You may find that screenwriters are still using oldfashioned NewsGroups instead of forums.

Here's one:

http://movies.groups.yahoo.com/group/screenwriting/

Something like this for instance - from a great director, actor and a writer of 40 screenplays. He could just as well be talking about our situation in Britain now;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePptcNqXRJA

Quote: vigo @ February 6 2010, 9:08 PM GMT

Interesting link Lazzard and Phill.I spent some time looking at the fatpigeons website and I think that, even with some very interesting and informative pages on the links to the Writers Guild which are worth reading, it does, nonetheless pose a very difficult predicament for writers - and it is this; at one time in the UK we had a culture in the UK which was entirely different to what there is now. We had a writers culture. This gave us interesting writers whose aspiration and challenge was towards an imaginative poetic and political vision. This for many writers is the complete antithesis to an establishment 'profession' as represented by 'Eastenders' 'Holby City' etc. where the individual authors voice is both irrelevant and subordinate to the 'soap' concept. The screenwriting definition as something we have in common is perhaps too vague. What do these writers have in common with writers like David Hare,Trevor Griffiths,Tom Stoppard - etc - infact most serious writing which has been exiled from television and film?

View original

You may have something to say here... but have a read through what you have written, break it down a little and make your points a little clearer and let's have a debate,

Quote: billwill @ February 6 2010, 9:13 PM GMT

You may find that screenwriters are still using oldfashioned NewsGroups instead of forums.

Here's one:

http://movies.groups.yahoo.com/group/screenwriting/

View original

Do you know if this is a UK based group or Hollywood?
I'm not really up on Newsgroups - perhaps I'd better have a look around.

Quote: vigo @ February 6 2010, 9:08 PM GMT

Interesting link Lazzard and Phill.I spent some time looking at the fatpigeons website and I think that, even with some very interesting and informative pages on the links to the Writers Guild which are worth reading, it does, nonetheless pose a very difficult predicament for writers - and it is this; at one time in the UK we had a culture in the UK which was entirely different to what there is now. We had a writers culture. This gave us interesting writers whose aspiration and challenge was towards an imaginative poetic and political vision. This for many writers is the complete antithesis to an establishment 'profession' as represented by 'Eastenders' 'Holby City' etc. where the individual authors voice is both irrelevant and subordinate to the 'soap' concept. The screenwriting definition as something we have in common is perhaps too vague. What do these writers have in common with writers like David Hare,Trevor Griffiths,Tom Stoppard - etc - infact most serious writing which has been exiled from television and film?

View original

Quite a firm stance your taking there, Vigo - altogether too black & white for my taste.
I'm not a poet or a politician - but that doesn't make me a bad writer.
I like to tell good stories and I'd like to see them up on the screen - and that's it.
Yes it would be marvellous if we still had a thriving film industry in the UK.
But we don't.
All I want is to be able to talk to fellow screenwriters who are going through the same UK-based process - not Hollywood wannabe's
I'd also love to write for Holby City - I just don't think it's where my strength lies.
I certainly don't hold these - my fellow writers - in the contempt you seem to.

Quote: Lazzard @ February 7 2010, 12:02 AM GMT

Do you know if this is a UK based group or Hollywood?
I'm not really up on Newsgroups - perhaps I'd better have a look around.

View original

Thats a USA one.

You can generally read Newsgroups in forum style on Yahoo.

Go to that link above & poke about a bit.

I haven't seen one either, but would love to join one. I've thought there is a need for a British/European screenwriter's web forum for years but never really seen one. I too am sick of the Americanness of screenwriters' discussions and tips. I've joined in filmscript discussions on many sites, inc. BBC Writers Room Forum, BBC's short film forum, IMDB and even Amazon, all of which get some very keen views and comments about the craft and current trends, etc, but why is there not one dedicated British film and filmscript discussion board, in 2010? Doesn't seem right or logical. I'm sure the French will have one or two, now there's a nation that really values its film industry.

Here's another screenwriting Newsgroup.

http://movies.groups.yahoo.com/group/greatscripts/