Verbal Diarrhoea
The night was....
The night was....moist
The night was....humid
Yes, some blatant plagiarism from the classic 80s film Throw Momma from the Train, which itself plagiarised (sorry, was influenced by) Strangers on a Train. But this is mainly how I start writing anything – not word for word exactly, but with the same indecision of where I actually see the script going. Or in this case, a blog.
So, where to begin?
My name is Shai Hussain and I am a Screenwriter. It’s a statement I have to tell myself every day, for my own sanity. Just so I know that every minute I’m typing away at my computer that I am actually working towards something that is either:
a) Flexing my writing muscle and making me a better writer.
b) The winning script that is going to make me very, very rich.
Of course, when you actually introduce yourself as a writer to new people, the first thing they ask is what you’ve written that they might have seen – a problem when you’ve had nothing commissioned or screened even. Yet. But I’m working on it.
Currently, I’m taking a kind of sabbatical after finishing a two year MA in Screenwriting at Leeds Met under the great tutelage of wise writers that could give Yoda a run for his money. I’ve moved back home to live with the folks (company good, nagging bad) and have stopped living the hedonistic student lifestyle I had only a few months ago in order to save up cash and get onto as many film-related schemes and training programmes as I can. Amongst them is the Spark Screenwriting Scheme with Screen Yorkshire which began in October.
First impressions? To be honest, it felt like I’d never left the MA – just a different year in a different location with a different set of cohorts. The tutors / dragons / X Factor panellists include Simon van de Borgh, Ann Tobin and Philip Palmer, who had all taught me on the MA at one time or another. I wish I could say that I knew how to handle them, but, well, I can’t.
It was really interesting meeting the other writers - a great variety of people of different ages, backgrounds and ideas, as well as familiar faces of older students on the Leeds Met course. When it came to sharing our project ideas with each other, I got a little nervous (and confessedly jealous) at how much stronger some of their ideas were. This pushed me to go back to the drawing board and flush out other film ideas I had, eventually pitching three different ideas to the set over the weekend. Looking back now, it may have been wiser to stick to the one idea and worked on it, but indecisiveness has always been one of my main weaknesses. Call it “writers unblock” if you will. Or SVDB’s more digestible term “verbal diarrhoea”.
However, after a Dragon’s Den-type showdown with the four tutors (also Hugo Heppell), my final choice of project was Raj – a period drama set during the period when the East India Company were first feeling nationalist tendencies towards Britain. The story follows the son of an Indian courtesan and a British soldier who returns to India after a British education to find his allegiance divided between the two countries. Interesting, na?
My main concern for this project is the argument of whether it will ever get made. The other two projects I pitched were low-budget comedies that could easily be made within a £500k budget, but this is a costume drama set two hundred years ago on the other side of the world. The amount of research I’ve set myself to do to get the world and chronology right is immense. On the other hand, with the current IIFAs that were held in Yorkshire earlier this year, there’s quite a bit of funding going on for UK-Bollywood co-productions, so maybe there’s hope. Hello, Mr Shekhar Kapur.
There was another roundtable two weeks ago to discuss the projects. Further developments in my script have taken place, thanks to useful suggestions from the other four writers in my group and not forgetting personal tutor (for a second time) Ann Tobin. Research has been a killer. Since no films have been made during the pre-British Raj era, there is very little to be influenced by. If anyone out there can find me some further information on the Sanyasi genocide and the Chuar revolt in 1799, please feel free to comment. Wikipedia can only teach so much.
So this is just the beginning. Just had a deadline this morning which annoyingly went awful, but let's save the lesson about multitasking for another day. Time to stop blogging and get back to the project methinks. Time to continue writing oodles of thoughts, brainstorming, collecting facts, focussing down the key points, developing characters, structuring plots, creajhnfdsijhldhuh&%&^$&&@@@
......
My name is Shai Hussain and I am a Screenwriter.
I look forward to seeing your name on the big screen. Actually, who sits through the credits of a film long enough to see who wrote the damn thing?
Anyway, good luck.
P.S. Why cant I subscribe to this blog?