Dan (aged 30) is working his fucking ass off like a twat missing lunch again as he tarts up his online presence, job hunting 30 positions a day, chasing leads & the next likely project when.
BING.
A new email - a job offer to write creative content for a corporate paying client (not exactly an impressive pay packet but hali-pissing-luliah! At least 5 months worth of rent taken care of for now + a few drinks & restaurants dinners with my girlfriend & the chance to attend some nights out and stuff with some mates - having a bit of fun & the chance to take things a little easier!
The project 'is' based at the forsaken Bournemouth University but I work "proper", "paid" full-time hours again, doing what I do best & love - writing!
Long story short, its writing content for a new bespoke program that is designed to test a response teams problem solving & management skills dealing with natural disasters according to the profession they work within, against the clock.
The pay off is that I know far more about creating content than they do so I've got all the skills and contacts they want but whether I get the director's role is another matter.
Also received one call from a London based theatre production company who want to talk to discuss me filming their next performance in a couple of months + an email from the Women's Tennis Association in Florida on the same request...On top of this, also got a PSS (post-graduate support scheme) application approved in case I wanted to pursue an MA in cinematography... "Not if I can help it BU. You're a last resort - greedy bastards but wouldn't mind using it to steal one twats job from under his nose."
The uni won't even load the video editing & scriptwriting software I need to my personal laptop, despite I'm even now kind've working for them - seriously, cheers for all your letters of recommendation but for fuck sake... Where do you get off... How far can you take the piss?
Was at a sheer low recently. I was about a week away from having to sign up to the job centre despite all my hard work down here had that job not come in. ANYONE can tell you how hard I work and if I struggled this bad... God help that younger lot!
Now let me just get this off my chest - there's people who wanted to know what finally flipped my lid a couple of weeks ago regarding that useless lecturer, I mentioned in my last blog.
He'd done sod all for the year he's supposed to be in control of and was now micro-managing the students paying towards his salary to orchestrate our year's grad show + couldn't even be fucked (yet again) to drive the minibus himself... I volunteered, to help out but didn't know this obnoxious piece of work was going to have the nerve, sitting next to me, getting a free ride at the time.
THE LAST STRAW came when I'd just noticed a call after unplugging my headphones, receiving a call from my mate Tom, asking for where I was (with regards to picking up the minibus with him). Gotta admit, wasn't best pleased when I'd earlier pretended to pull out of the deal to maybe help them gain a bit of perspective - FAIL! I got nothing but childish, cowardly backlash from him and 2 others because they're too afraid to say anything similar to the ungrateful lecturer they're paying for who was too busy sitting on his ass.
Whatever... Tom's a mate... & a helluva good organiser and wasn't going to let him down... I was 5 mins away for the agreed time to meet him at 10am; "Hey, Tom" followed by "Where are you, dude, Resh keeps calling me, shouting & telling me to hurry up!"Response: "Tom... Tell Resh, Dan said to go fuck himself! I'm not going to let you guys down tonight but I find it a bit rich that a bloke has to sacrifice his right to a final drink with you guys tonight so he can get a free ride, ignore his calls... I'll be there in 5 minutes"
I'M SUPER PISSED - How... GOD how... Can you not see this lecturer's behaviour as rude, ungrateful & completely unprofessional? Not to mention the thing wasn't going to start until 7pm in the evening for crying out loud - MORON!
I gave him a royal bollocking when he sat himself beside me. The shock of his life - even then he had to defend himself behind my course mate Ben... Chicken shit!
Was awesome having Ben there anyway, good God - would've gone out of my mind or worse!
Wasn't surprising Resh still didn't give a shit and made a good effort to put that on display for everyone to see at long last.
Was nice to spend some time with my mate Vas once we all got there. Hadn't seen the guy since my stay for the London Screenwriter's Festival. Still lives in that flash apartment in Vauxhall & we managed to start laughing on what a joke we'd come to discover from both our experiences in higher education.
The grad show was well organised - BECAUSE IT WAS THE SCRIPTWRITERS - All the while we're wondering about the ONLY thing Resh had been harping on ALL year about putting us in a room with literary agents for a chance to leave with representation - GUESS WHAT?
"Yep... THAT turned out to be a load of bollocks too!"
At least I got to catch up with Ollie & Tim from the alumni... That was cool but soon enough 'Resh Wanted' everyone out, to head back to the minibus otherwise they were going to 'lock us in.'
I couldn't believe it... the same guy I'd defended earlier who Resh was harassing was helping him achieve it & the lovely Ben (one who gave ME grief over thinking I was going to initially pull out of the driving favour) took off, bolting back... I'd TOLD everyone, I'd done this before & they wouldn't do any such thing, they just send you out a different way... Nope, lets obey Resh. Understandably, Ben was super-pissed having done it for nothing... NOT understandably, rather than bollock the guy who ordered he do this, again he kept silent... as did everyone else. I worry for these guys, I really do!Everyone knows I'd given him a loud, strong piece of my mind but there you go, guess no-one cares to stand up for themselves anymore... Not the kind of people you're going to remember in films... Nor in real life ironically.
Couldn't believe the fucking words this twat said to his students when he got back in the minibus:
"So what did we learn this evening boys & girls?"
Had I not stayed silent, the response would have been: "That you're a c**t!"
AFTER 3 YEARS OF UNIVERSITY STUDENT LIFE - I'm unhappy to say I've never known such a lazy culture in my life. And for someone who has the audacity to stand in front of a room of people who hate him for knowing the amount of debt they've incurred whilst he exclaims: "I love my job!"
I think my respect for lecturers is completely out of the window (esp. if I got the chance to chuck him out of one lol)
RANT OVER - I PROMISE... What a joke! Phew!
Onto the AWESOME stuff!
I'm not the only one who thought the course is pretty bad after a consultation I had with one of my most respected script guru's - Lucy V Hay, she was hardly impressed either when she did it apparently.But YES - I got an exclusive skype conversation with her over a feature film I wrote earlier this year. You know, it was one of those stories where you keep trying to work out what the best way to continue is until there was too much of an imbalance I decided I needed the Gordon Ramsay of the script edit world to give her opinion.
First off, she asked me to explain what it was about (presumably as a logline). Give me 5 minutes, a pen & paper, I could tell you... Ask me outright in person (half- star struck) & watch me screw up totally :(
I kept apologising but things got slightly easier to talk about as we talked more. YES - there was too much dialogue, YES - she too wanted to see more of the world I'd created, suggested I go back to the idea of having the mum as the bad guy (... but I really liked my dragon thingy & a 'thematic' antagonist - being racism) but guess since its a tough sell as it is, it needs to come back to being more commercially viable. One thing that pisses me off is my continued ability to fuck up 'past, present & future tenses' in my scripts... Don't ask me how, its not something I notice and I'm not one of these annoying fully grown adults who doesn't know the difference between things like; 'They're, there & their' either. In fact I was in a seminar, led by her agent at LSF '14 who had a memorable saying:
"A Writer's Spelling & Grammar Is The Difference Between Knowing Their Shit & Knowing They're Shit!"
- Julian Friedman
... So... Yeah... I need to cure whatever this is and Lucy gave me a few links & so she sent me a few things to remedy not just this problem but a few that should add to the rewrite's strength:
Lucy V Hay (@Bang2Write / www.bang2write.com)
7 Tips On Sci Fi Arenas / World Building In Your Screenplay Or Novel http://bit.ly/W9IYlP
What Does “Hitting The Ground Running” Mean In Screenwriting? | London Screenwriters' Festival 2014 http://bit.ly/1ABEkKb
10 Questions For Your First Ten Pages http://bit.ly/ZVaWwl
10 Ways To Revitalise Your Scene Description http://bit.ly/ZEMvFX16 Steps to Better Scene Description by William Martell http://bit.ly/P8iCvv
10 Common Errors In Your Writing You Need To Fix Right Now http://bit.ly/1dVPiGv
... naturally there was a couple more things but tell me... Where are we fitting in our reading nowadays guys? & why the fuck wasn't my uni giving me this kind of feedback? £50 with Lucy VS £24,000+ with Bournemouth Uni - explain.
In fact - Bafta seems to be wondering the same thing >
It was nice seeing mates like Murad, Anna, Vicky & a new mate, Nowaz before they all buggered off from Bournemouth. Gave Slavi a copy of my latest feature and Tanya's character's dogtags from our 'Survivor' film as it was also her birthday. Who knows maybe that boss of hers in Hungary will read the new version too and offer me something... Ya never know :)I'm starting to spend some more time with my mate Nicola... Guess you could call her a film-maker now too. We went to a local networking event last Thursday night called 'IDEAS Bournemouth' but turns out there was more artists than there were people like us but still took away 3 contacts who may come in handy.
Discussing what stuff we can undertake next, whilst trying to help her with her job hunting and stuff. I've added her to the list of people I wish I'd met at the beginning of this whole business. Would've been more fun and productive but just like with the job offers and stuff recently... Better late than never, right?
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