News. What's going on in Furness
Ludo’s take
Script editor, Ludo Smolski, gives his take on the recent Spotlight event, at which he was one of the star speakers.
Current cinema box-office topper and all-round delight Ratatouille (a Pixar animation about a rat inspired by the phrase “anyone can cook” to become a great chef) posits the notion that “Not everyone can become a great artist, but a great artist can come from anywhere”, and so it is with the art of writing as it is with gastronomy.
Having recently worked in Barrow with a group of new screenwriters, and met writers at the recent SPOTLIGHT event, it is clear that for many the region is both a boon, in terms of its inspirational landscape, and a curse, in terms of its perception as a backwater – “the Cornwall of the North” as someone described it to me. The thing is that you don’t need to be in London or Manchester or Liverpool to be a writer. The internet, email and telephone provide you with all the connectivity you need to start off with. Sometimes it can actually be helpful to be so remote: just as British film producers often get preferential treatment in a Hollywood Studio Exec’s diary, those agents, executives and commissioning editors in the big cities here in the UK will be more inclined to see you and less inclined to cancel if they know you’re having to make an extra-special effort to visit them for a meeting. My advice would be to use that to your advantage!
So what do you need? Talent and the dedication to hone it. Much was discussed at the event about the ways and means of doing so with a receptive and perceptive audience. After my recent time spent with writers in and around the region I know that some will manage to earn a living from words – a nyone who’s seen a Pixar film will know the value of great writing – and I look forward to the emergence of the next great artist.
Posted by Phil Powell on 15th November 2007
