Holmes is where the heart is...

So! Long time no post, but I'm back - at last! :)

Okay, the biggest news going on in my strange isolated script-writing world is that mine and my friends' Doctor Who series has officially been put on hold. Hopefully filiming will resume/begin during the summertime. The other bit of very big news, though, is that a new series is going into production very soon. Not Doctor Who this time, but, as the title to this post suggests, Sherlock Holmes!
To be precise, a modernisation of Sherlock Holmes, currently entitled "Consulting Detective", which sees Holmes and Watson as students at Baker Street university, currently sharing a room in one of the university's provided flats for students (flat 221b, of course)! The series also stars a range of other detectives, some brand new, some from the original stories, including a certain Miss Adler...
Obviously, I can't give too much away about the series but, if all goes well script-wise, filming should commence this weekend, on episode one - A Study In Black! Unusually for one of the films my crazy lot produce, the script for this one isn't being written by me, but instead, by my friend Adam Lawson, who has starred in and helped write episodes for our past YouTube series. The role of script-editor is the one that has befallen me for episode one, which basically means I have lots of long email exchanges with Adam, talking about which parts get changed, what would work better from the audience's point of view, etc. And I must say it is enormous fun discussing all theses wonderful scripty things with someone!
Little has been decided about episodes three and four yet (except which books they might be based on - but we don't want to spoil that for you!), but three is another of Adam's and, hopefully, we will work together as much as possible on four. Episode two, however, is being written by yours truly! Without giving too much away, think "Sherlock Holmes vs. the EDL"...
Anyway, now I'm going to have to start editing and writing these scripts, like I should be right now, instead of posting on this blog. See you all soon!

"You have a careers appointment booked"...

Why is it, most of the time, whenever people ask me what I want to do as a career, I say I don't know? I know perfectly well what I want to do as a career, and that is to write scripts and novels. But, nevertheless, I probably have many distant relatives, whom I have met at obscure family dos, that think I am clueless about the future!
So, the title of this post - I suppose I should explain it. Earlier this week I had a "careers appointment" at school. What's that? It's a large building where people under sixteen go to learn and earn qualifications, but that's not important right now.
Oh, what's a careers appointment? Basically, anyone in year ten/eleven in my school can have them (or it might just be year elevens) and you go to this meeting with the school's careers teacher/advisor (I'd better not use names, just in case!) and discuss career options. At some point in our school lives, students in my year had to fill out a form giving four career options we would consider, so that was used as a starting point in the meeting. Of course, on mine were author and script writer.
And so, I finally had a serious conversation with someone I don't know particularly well about what I want to do as a career. And yes, we looked at the negatives. The fact that screenwriting is very competitive and many writers only do it as a part time job, but we did look at how it would suit me and what it was like, covering positives and negatives. And, strangely, despite all the negatives, I feel far more confident about going into screenwriting than I did before. Maybe it's because for one of the first times, I've actually looked at it as a serious career, rather than just something I want to do. The negatives almost make it seem more possible!
So I think the meeting went well. I got some good script-related websites out of it as well, which I'm in the process of looking through. Found out that the standard script format is called "mastershot" format, which won't realy help, as I already knew what the format was, but at least I know another name for it now (I'd previously heard it referred to as just "the standard script format"). And, out of all this, as you can probably guess, I'm now in a writing mood!
I know I should work on my book more, because that is something I can publish and earn money from. And I can do that regardless of age. But all I can think about are the fan film scripts for me and my friends' Doctor Who series! Which is annoying, because I want to start episode 3, because I know how it's going to start, but I don't know what happens after the first scene! I'll have to think on it...
Also, in Who news, I've got the script for episode 2 down to 35 pages, which is a massive decrease! How did I do it? I... brought the font size down... no great editing feat there then!
Keep watching the blog for updates! If I ever get round to working on my novel again, then I will hopefully explain more about it on here.
Take care people!