Bigger Picture Research

Spotlight on screenwriting

The good folks at the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain have kindly reprinted a post of mine in the Winter 2008 edition of the UK Writer newsletter. The post (from September 2008) gave a quick Cook’s tour of recent(ish) research examining the UK’s screenwriting and development scene.

It called for an ongoing commitment to monitoring diversity in the profession, and regular surveys to keep tabs on the scale and nature of development activity. I suggested the WGGB should be involved in some capacity, along with other bodies with a vested interest (like Pact and the UK Film Council). We’ll see if anyone steps up to the mark.

While we're on the subject of scriptwriting, you might like to know that Initialize Films has launched a new script reading service focussing on project marketing alongside dedicated development analysis.  The service employs experienced UK and European readers providing in-depth and up-to-date advice on the international marketplace and the potential placement of projects. 

And in this season of giving, Initialize has a generous introductory offer: during December you can get two script reports for £80 plus VAT (the full price for a detailed 6-8 page report on a feature-length script from January 2009 will be £70 plus VAT).

Under developed: screenwriting research

Earlier this week Screen Daily posted news that the second ‘Brit List’ was doing the rounds in industry circles.

If you’re unfamiliar with the List (and most people will be, given its limited circulation) it ranks the most popular unproduced screenplays in the UK, compiled from a survey of 40 anonymous industry bods (producers, acquisitions executives, agents, sales agents and public funders).

It is intended ‘to echo the success of the US Black List in drawing attention and perhaps finance to these projects’, according to Screen Daily. ‘The Hollywood Black List is well-known for having identified and drawn attention to projects such as Juno and Lars And The Real Girl before they were produced.’

It may seem a cloak-and-dagger way of highlighting promising screenplays and their scribes, but it is in keeping with the shadowy world of feature film development. No one can say for certain how many scripts are currently ‘in development’ in the UK. Ditto the amount of money invested in development (in aggregate and on average per project), the average length of time a screenplay is developed, how many people are involved and who they are, and (perhaps most importantly) what proportion of screenplays make it into production. We know this last figure is low, but quite how small, and how it may have changed over time, is uncertain.