BBC Writers Room // 1 May 2013

BBC Writers Room

1 May 2013

Matthew’s Yard, Croydon

These notes are based on a slideshow presented at the above event – most will make sense but others may require your own interpretation.  The event opened with the first seven minutes of BBC Three drama ‘In the Flesh’, hence the occasional reference to the programme in these notes.

Perfect 10

A large majority of the event discussed the ‘perfect ten’.  BBC Writers Room readers will look at the first ten pages of a submitted script.  If they have a desire to keep reading, to find out what happens next and what the characters’ journeys will be then there’s a good chance the script will progress to the next stage.  90% of scripts tend not to make it past this first cut.  So that’s 10% going through based on the first 10 pages.

1.     Form

Understand your medium/format

-       What experience do you want your audience to have?

-       Would the story be better suited to a different format (e.g. radio play, stage play, short story)?

Script = blueprint

-       The script is part of a wider process

-       It’s not a work of literature – the intention is for it to get made

-       The script is a starting point in the production process, not the final product

Say what you mean

-       Be sure of what you’re trying to achieve

Write what an actor can show

-       For example, avoid things like “The character is looking out a window, fifteen years of pain etched on his face” – be realistic

2.     Opening

Hit the ground running

-       If something hasn’t captured you in ten minutes, would you stick with it?

-       Setup shouldn’t be longwinded

-       Start the story straight away

Show characters in action

-       Something is happening

-       Characters aren’t passive

-       With ‘In the Flesh’, by the 7-minute mark we understand what it’s about, the characters and the world being created.

Don’t preface, set up or introduce

-       Very little should be explained but just enough to keep us interested

Beware exposition/backstory

-       How much does audience need to know?

3.     Coherence

Know your world and story

Know your genre and tone

-       Give us enough to make informed decisions

Don’t try to do too much

-       Keeps it tight

Crack the story before writing the script

-       Very difficult to cut characters or dialogue once committed to paper

-       Create the spine of the story, perhaps using post-it notes

4.     Character

Spending time

-       Make the audience want to spend time with the character – which isn’t the same as liking or admiring them

POV

-       See the world from the character’s point of view.  For example, in ‘Friends’ to Monica everything is a competition, even with herself; Joey’s world revolves around food and sex, otherwise he doesn’t understand

Journey, wants/needs, obstacle, dilemma

Cliché (avoid)

-       If you get the character right then it becomes less clichéd

-       The writer can exaggerate clichés for comedic effect

5.     Emotion

Stories matter on a human level

Characters are bigger than concepts

Chinks in the armour

-       Vulnerabilities

-       What’s that slither of a gap to get under a character’s skin?

-       Even with the bad guy, there’ll be some chink

Physical response

-       The audience need to react, be it crying with laughter, hairs on the back of the neck, or bringing them to tears

6.     Surprise

Archetypes and originals

-       Finite number

-       How can if differ in just a few very specific ways

-       Don’t reinvent the wheel, but what makes your wheel different?

Fresh, unique perspective

Inevitability vs. predictability

-       Ensure every step of the way doesn’t feel predictable

-       Have a sense of where they’re heading to

7.     Structure

All story is structure

Always going somewhere

Beginnings and endings

-       Should tell you a lot about the story – propels you to your ending

Dramatic purpose

-       Has to be there for a reason

-       To propel story

-       If dialogue has no dramatic purpose to the story, does it need to be there?

8.     Exposition and Expression

Good dialogue expressed character

-       If a line is there to explain, find another way

Bad dialogue only relates information

People don’t tell each other things they already know in obvious ways

Silence, space, suggestion, subtext

-       Not just about words, look at the gaps between what’s said

9.     Passion

Does it keep you up at night?

Are you compelled to write?

Don’t try to be expedient

Don’t try to second guess

-       What commissioners want is what they don’t have; don’t try to assume to know what they’re looking for or try to respond to a public suggestion of what is being sought

10.   Be yourself

-       Write every day

-       Try different styles

-       The best writers always assume it’s no good

-       Keep trying to make it better

Individual voice

-       What does it say about you as a writer?

Write what no-one else could have written

What do you want to say?

Sardines Magazine: Review of 'Closer'

Closer by Patrick Marber
Directed by Bradley Barlow
The Archway Theatre Club
Performance: 24 Aug 2010, The Archway Theatre, Horley
Reviewed by: The Countess, Sardines Magazine (http://www.sardinesmagazine.co.uk)

Patrick Marber's 'Closer' is a brave play to produce, even more so for someone's main house directorial debut. The 2005 film adaptation runs near identical lines but the unforgettable cast creates the director's first problem. Anyone who has seen the film would have been struck with the beauty and talent of the actors (Julia Roberts, Jude Law, Natalie Portman and Clive Owen). Back here on planet Earth, to find actors suited to the role, of the right age and better looking than the majority of Joe Public is virtually impossible.

A pre-show chat with director Bradley Barlow gave us an insight into the production as he explained his vision for the play. Sitting next to him, I was worried if I would awkwardly struggle for something positive to say if his inspiration failed him. Just minutes later, it was obvious he had achieved his ambition. We were treated to two hours of stylish and well thought out direction. Although the actors didn't seem to be perfectly cast (understandable especially in the case of the young yet provocative Alice that would be too much a stretch for any young performer), they encapsulated the different personalities that drew the characters together and simultaneously split them up again. They achieved the easiness some people have on first meeting and portrayed Marber's excellently written storyline with conviction.

What enthralled me was the style and design though. A simple white set consisting of plain flats that could be manoeuvred around as necessary with the addition of a few integral pieces of furniture provided the perfect backdrop. The use of a screen to show an internet chat room was inspired and allowed the audience that voyeuristic glimpse into the characters' sex lives. Simple black cut-outs purveyed everything from cemetery inscriptions to gallery plaques and wall pictures. It was a simple, yet ever stylish way of representing the set design.

Clever use of positioning meant the audience always felt part of the action. In Act 1, Scene 2 the idea of having the photographer and her subject both facing outwards, meant no reactions were lost and you could watch their expressions concurrently. When they did then turn to face each other, it was like being given a glimpse of another side of their characters. Often action was mirrored onstage by two contrasting characters, useful for when the storyline was split and they could not rely on switching between locations as a film would.

So apart from the acting and the great set design, the final gift for me was the music. At first I thought it must just be the same songs the film featured but Bradley assured me the cast compiled the choices themselves. And what a good job they did. The opening bars of Kings of Leon 'Closer '(ironic?!) immediately hinted at the sexual nature that would ensue. Having that doyenne of misery Tracy Chapman playing throughout Scene 8's restaurant piece fitted perfectly. I enjoyed every moment. I'll be keeping a closer eye on this director in the future...

Surrey Mirror: Review of 'The Family'

The first official review of 'The Family' is available here: http://www.thisissurreytoday.co.uk/entertainment/Review-Family-Archway-Studio-Theatre-Horley/article-1420525-detail/article.html

Or read it below:

Review: The Family at The Archway Studio Theatre, Horley
Wednesday, October 14, 2009, 17:33

'The Family'
The Archway Studio Theatre, Horley

Reviewed by Tony Flook

Redhill-based Bradley Barlow is a man with a fertile imagination. A massive creative leap took him from him seeing Paula Rego's painting entitled 'The Family' which, he says, was one of his inspirations, to him writing his first play, recently premiered at The Archway's Studio Theatre.

Very little in The Family is as it seems. The only certainties are that England is at war with itself (indicated in the programme to be a civil uprising against Parliament) and that Peter, a soldier for the rebels, has come home to his sister Beth after a long absence. It is a dark, near-humourless piece that builds tension slowly, inexorably and grips through to the end, rather like a book in which one can barely wait to learn the next revelation.

As Barlow directed the production himself, he knew exactly how he envisaged its staging. He could not have hand-picked a better cast to interpret his characters.

Mandy Humphrey brought Beth frighteningly to life as she applied her ever tightening vice-like hold on her brother. Peter Westmacott (Peter) showed the trauma of a man who has been involved in the horrors of prolonged guerrilla warfare but who, even now, cannot escape his personal demons. His initially raw leg wound and, later, stained bandage were reminders of the bloody action he survived.

Emma, a local girl, seems to offer Peter some respite from his waking as well as sleeping nightmares. Ella Sowton was convincing as this, the play's only well balanced personality.

Athletic David Robson was the enigmatic, menacing Soldier who arrived at the house unexpectedly and whose presence was definitely unwelcome.

The set, largely housed within the stark curve of the studio's arched wall added a claustrophobic dimension to the kitchen, cluttered yet basic after years of shortage. Peter and Beth's clothes reflected this deprivation, while Emma's summery attire introduced a lightness, reflecting at least some semblance of normality. John Hankin's vertical bed, where several crucial incidents were played out, was an inspired idea.

Some works by new writers are aired once then sink from view. The Family deserves to be considered by other groups willing to take risks with a challenging but worthwhile play.

Just like that...

Just like that...

...it’s all over! Done. Finito. Kaput. Well, sort of.

I am, of course, talking about ‘The Family’. After three nights of fantastic performances, the cast and crew took down the set on Sunday morning following a sell out show the night before.

Naturally, I was a bag of mixed emotions on the opening night (and the rest of the run too). My primary concern was the audience’s reactions. As a newly written text, the audience for ‘The Family’ had no previous reviews to judge by – their reactions would be the first. Ever. And my, what reactions they were!

Thursday’s audience of 37 were mainly made up of Archway Theatre members, with a huge support for Ella from the Young Adults Workshop. During the interval I spoke to some of the group and I could tell they were loving it – asking questions, debating what would happen next, saying how they loved the set and the music, how good the cast were... Not just the Young Adults – so many other people saying how much they were on the edge of their seats. The responses at the end remained hugely positive, with many commenting on how excellently Mandy Humphrey portrayed Beth. My biggest fear was that the audience would walk away describing it as “a play about incest” but, luckily, the riskier content of the play appeared to be understood in the extreme context of the play. One audience member, who shall remain nameless, told me that they weren’t often interested in attending fringe projects that appeared in the studio and very nearly didn’t attend – but was so incredibly pleased that he did. One thing stuck in my mind: “It’s a shame the rest of the run is sold out because it’s the kind of play that would get an audience in through word of mouth”.

Word of mouth seemed to work - Friday’s audience grew in number to 49 – just four seats shy of a sell out night. The audience this time was a mix of theatre members, and friends to support me; mainly work colleagues. Again, there was a buzz in the interval but the bulk of the compliments came at the end – a lot of people seemed to be in awe of how professional and slick the production was. One commented that she had seen a lot of professional theatre that wasn’t half as good as ‘The Family’. Obviously, very good to hear! We also had a couple of workshop attendees in the audience – one had a couple of minor negative points (that the first and last scenes were a bit too lengthy) and the other mentioned how glad he was that I stuck to my guns and didn’t change some things following the workshops; he was of the opinion that I had “pulled it out the bag”. One particular Archway member (a long standing director) said that it was the best performance by Mandy that she had ever seen – high praise for both Ms Humphrey and the director.

A rowdier audience attended the sell out (53) final night on Saturday. Once again, the cast and crew pulled a blinder and coped well with the distractions from the front rows. Tony Flook, Theatre Reviewer for the Surrey Mirror, also attended the evening. It was a tricky position for me as it was clear that Tony had a lot of questions but I also had other guests that I needed to speak to (note for future reference: family will also be there but press will not so make the most of it!). Being sat behind him (unintentionally) I was able to see that he was making lots of notes, laughing in the right places and straining to see what was happening at the most dramatic moments. At the very end I heard the word “Brilliant” uttered from his mouth – can’t ask for more than that really! Tony and I have sent a few emails to one another since – his editor may not print the review due to space but he hopes that he will; his last line apparently says that it is the type of play that should be staged at other venues with an interest in edgier works, and he has offered to put me in contact with other dramatic groups. I don’t have a lot of experience with the press but I can only imagine that this is a positive sign...! Definitely a contact worth keeping in mind in future...

Once the majority of the audience had left the bar the show (and once the pizzas were in) the cast and crew presented me with a miniature replica of the bed, with each person having placed a bloody fingerprint on the latex bed sheets – a really lovely touch. There was also a running joke about the number of times my name appeared in the programme, so Emma Ladd had gone to the painstaking effort of replacing everyone else’s name with my own and covering most faces with my ugly mug. Very, very funny! (I’ll upload the original programme to my website soon – see how many times you can find my name. Maybe play it with the kids too – fun for all the family!).

We’re now finalising how much money was spent and how much profit made, but I’m pleased to say that for the whole run we reached 87% capacity. Photos from the performance will appear online soon. I’m feeling very emotional now – after nearly two years of work, it’s coming to an end. We’re currently looking at the possibility of staging the play elsewhere, exploring the option of selling performance rights to other companies, and generally seeing what can be done next with it. I’m definitely going to forward the play to some reputable companies but it’s now a case of working out the next steps. In one major respect it’s the end, but in another it may just be the start...

Onwards and upwards.

I’ve got two ‘next projects’ that I’m going to being concentrating on over the coming months and I intend to keep the blog going whilst I work on them both. First, I shall be directing Patrick Marber’s ‘Closer’ on the Archway Theatre main stage – curtain goes up on 24 August 2010 – 4 September 2010. I’m going to begin prep work for that in the next week or so. The other is my next writing project: ‘The Woods’ is scheduled for early 2011 in the Archway Studio Theatre. It’s also early days for this one too but I commenced research for this one earlier this week. It’s already thrown up a couple of interesting strands that I’m going to be tugging on very soon. If you want to know more about it, visit my website (www.bradleybarlow.co.uk), click ‘writing’ and then ‘The Woods’. If that doesn’t get you rushing for a peek, perhaps the teaser poster below will?

As you can tell, I’m very much going to keep the blog going as I embark on my next nervous yet excitable steps and I hope you’ll all join me in the walk (although I can’t offer piggy backs I’m afraid).

I'm not sure what to say...

It's fairly rare for me to have nothing to say. And it's not that there's nothing on my mind (the opposite is true), but I'm not quite sure how much more there is for me to say.

On Saturday, we added a few lights to the play and almost instantaneously it switched from being 'A Play That We're Rehearsing' to 'A Proper Production'. The set is also looking wicked, looks like a proper little home. Tonight we had some fuller lights and had the first run in complete costume. The costumes and make up look great but - oh. my. god. - just wait until you see Act 2's costumes; they'll blow you away!! Look out for one particular character (I shan't say who) - their costume looks superb.

I guess what I'm saying is that it's kinda reached a point where everything is slotting into place. We're in the position now where it's just lots of little things rather than anything too major - voices need to be a little louder here, lights need to fade slower there, blood needs to be....... etc. Sure I could list you all the things that need to be looked at, but then they're all relatively trivial. The performances are fantastic, the set looks brilliant and I just know that the cast and crew are going to do the script justice.

This isn't me signing off just yet (I'm hoping to update the blog after each performance this week) but in terms of preparing a production I don't think there's much more for me to say. If you have any specific queries then let me know but I guess the next time you hear from me will be when I tell you how the shows have gone.

And I can't end without telling you the ticket sale news: Thursday has sold about 20, Friday only has 6 tickets left and Saturday is SOLD OUT! A. Maze. Ing.

So I hope to welcome you along later this week; otherwise, keep an eye open for when I tell you all about how each night goes. Can't believe it's all happening now. It's time for the real thing...

A quick treat for you...

Very big apologies for the lack of posts - rehearsals have been great and keeping me busy. I'll give you a more substantial post soon...

In the meantime, by way of a small apology and to whet your appetite, here a few promotional images.

"My balls are stuck"

I'm a very happy bunny today, I must say! I may have a sore, hoarse throat and feel like I haven't slept in a month, but the last couple of rehearsals have been, well, pretty darn fantastic.

On my way to Sunday's rehearsal I was mildly worried that we wouldn't get everything done - we only had Peter for the first four hours and I was hoping to get through the entire play in that time, before focusing on other elements in the afternoon. It kinda worked: we managed to get seven of the first eight scenes done before Peter had to shoot off. That afternoon, we also focused on two more scenes - which meant the only scene we didn't touch on Sunday was the final one.

Much of the afternoon was spent testing the limits of the bed and working out how brave David was willing to be. We had a lot of fun working out how David would get on top of the bed, how he would get done, how he would move, who would support which leg and when... The audience obviously won't see it but Daniel and Mark are working hard backstage to support David and make it possible for him to create some pretty beautiful images. Risking having no future offspring (see this post's title!), David really pushed his limits on Sunday and the result is going to be brilliant.

We also spent a little time with Ella and David choreographing their dance. Neither of them are trained dancers and I sometimes forget that performers won't have had the ten years dance experience I've had. Often, even if something that I think is easy and that my body is capable of, doesn't necessarily translate to someone else. However, they're both willing to give things a go and it's starting to get close to what I'm after. From experience, I've also found that non-dancers find repetition a lot easier to work with - so while the dance is very short, we may just choreograph half of it and then repeat. We'll see.

I've got to be very careful what I say regarding a particular item of set but what I will say is that on Sunday we tested it to destruction (literally) and it's going to amaze the audience. I can't wait for you to see it...

Sunday ended on a high and last night (Tuesday) we had an evening rehearsal. We started with Scene 10 and I warned the actors to not be fazed by the addition of some music. There are only three words I can use to describe what happened: God. My. Oh. (you may need to rearrange them yourself). I got genuine goosebumps watching the scene, verging on tearful. The actors performed it beautifully with a gorgeous sense of emotion to the events in the scene; the music elevating it to another level. From the view of the writer, the scene has quickly gone from my least favourite to possibly the complete opposite.

The rehearsal continued at the same very high level. The actors are starting to know their characters and lines a lot more now so they're able to immerse themselves in the scene more fully - Mandy, in particular, was even better last night than I've seen her before. We got through the first act and finished shortly after 10pm, ending on Scene 6.

I've always had problems with Scene 6, long before we started rehearsals. At times it can feel a little hammy, although with the actors up and performing the scene it works a lot better than reading it from the page. I told the actors last night that they were doing a sterling job with the scene - they're performances are great but for me it feels like we're polishing a turd of a scene. We'll look at it again tonight and maybe rethink some of it. (Sorry to bring it down! The last rehearsals have been fantastic so please don't let this make you think otherwise!!)

Another rehearsal tonight and Stevie Pickering is coming along to take the actors' profile photos for the website, blog and programme. She also came on Sunday to take some rehearsal shots which will hopefully be up on this blog soon-ish. Stevie gave me a massive confidence boost on Sunday when she whispered to me, with a massive grin on her face, the wonderful words "It's looking really good!" Big smiley face for Bradley!

(P.S. Last week the counter for this blog jumped from just over 300 visitors to well over 11,000!! Not sure why this is, definitely don't think it's had that many hits - and I promise I haven't been repeatedly refreshing the page...!)