Tag Archives: Arts Council

New Funding For New Writing

Shutterstock / Guryanov Andrey

So last year, 2019, was an OK year work wise. I was checking and not including the Arts Council funding I got for my memoir in January, I did two further applications to the DYCP strand, both rejected. Since then I’ve been reliably informed that there’s a 5% success rate for those. I also did a Project grant application at the end of the year which was rejected, so sent a rewritten version back in January, which…
has been SUCCESFULL!

I think this is the first time that I’ve actually done a rewritten application, given my personal success – 4 out of 7 successful applications since Grantium online system (2016). And the first one of those, Sectioned, was a part 2 of that project, as ACE funded the filming and making of the work, but also the screening at Fabrica gallery in Brighton that year.

I also did part one and part two of a previous project, The Dog & The Palace, where part one was a R&D, and part 2 was filming the rest of it at Lancaster House (before the days of Netflix where they now charge a lot more for room hire!) And that was around the Olympics, when, sigh, there was money. Previous to 2016 all but one of my ACE applications have been successful.

Anyways, I digress. This new project is for my play on feminism, and talking to different people about their experiences and views of feminism, and looking at why it’s such a hot topic, especially in light of trans and gender discussions as well. It’s really an attempt to capture those discussions, and hopefully in 100 years time people will look back on this time we’re in currently and scream ‘why couldn’t we all just get along!’. And I’m not even going to mention the woman representing Harvey Weinstein. WTF??? Do you think she goes home every night after work and just cries? I dunno.

Anyway, again. My new play will be doing two nights at Wandsworth Fringe, which will mark the 5th year in a row I’ve put a play on at this festival. It’s called My Job Sucks, and is set around the world of a strip club. It’ll be on 22nd and 23rd May in the Arches in Putney.
Full details when tickets go on sale later this month.

Thanks to Jamie Wyld who’s supported me on a number of these applications through ACE access fund, and thanks to Arts Council England too.

Funding update

Gary finally completed his latest arts council application.

This his first application for new writing, ‘Performance from writing 1.’

Gary’s last two applications to the arts council to make The Dog & The Palace were successful with thanks to Christine Wilkinson and Producer Karen Gilchrist. Let’s hope 2013 is a good year for writing!

Embracing ‘Interference’.

In 1 episode of Friends, when talking about plans, the girls talk about things being 'unfloopy' and Phoebe says she doesn't 'even have a 'pl'

I’ve recently subscribed to Chris Brogan’s blog posts email, useful information and suggestions for what to write about. The recent email is all about confidence, and suggests writing a post on where I’m headed, so here it is.

Er…. Who knows?

Really, I mean I think about where I’m heading a lot, and as much as I like having plans, things conspire to interfere. Now, sometimes what happens when ‘things’ interfere with plans is WAY more interesting than the original plan. And that’s what interests me the most.

There are some things that have happened that I could never really have planned. I think you just need to be prepared for those moments.

A good example is my recent success with Arts Council. I applied for Research and development funding for The Queen and My Little Doggy, and was successful. (Yay!)

So over the next few weeks, along with everything else I want to do, there will be a period of very intense work on my split screen installation film, which will form the basis of a major piece of work that will be completed by very early next year.

Will anything happen to interfere with that work? Of course it will.
Already two people who I want to work with are unavailable, so that means working with others, but thats just given me time to remember the others. So I have lots of choices to make, and need to find people who I want to collaborate with based on who they are and what they can do.

So with that in mind, the next month or so will be really interesting, I’ll be doing things that I’ve never done before (again) and working with some new people too. All very exciting, really.

 

Last post from LA – better late than never!

So this is my last post from LA, LAX to be exact, and I’ll say it again, I’m seriously worried about lack of free wifi in this town. There is an airport lounge with ‘free wifi’, costs $10 an hour to use, I thought about it, but then spent my last dollars in McDonald’s, which is where I’m typing this from. (It’s ok, someone else has their laptop out, and its an airport, so I’m sure I’m safe)

So the final day at the expo was a much more settled pace, I still got nervous, but then that didn’t bother me. It’s amazing to me when I went to the pitching boot camp that nobody else had got there pitch down to the ’25 words’. This is something that John Truby, Blake Snyder & Elliot Grove talk about. But what it came down to was that was all I had to remember, and when they asked me for more story (which they all did on Sunday) I was able to tell them, without getting worked up, without forgetting anything about the STORY. This is the one thing that’s come out of the weekend, how important the STORY is. Especially in comedy, one of things Truby talks about is how you write the story first, and the gags come out of that. Most writers start with the gags, which doesn’t always create a great story.

It was great to hear John Truby talk again, reminding me of how much he knows and why he’s one of the best in the business. I’m going to get a report from the guy who works with him once I’ve looked over my current draft – cos of the exchange rate it actually works out a similar price to those script doctors over hear, but hopefully I’ll get new insight, and lets face it, although a good story is a good story anywhere in the World, he is Hollywood. And that’s one thing that I’ve learnt while I’ve been here.

I thought I was soooo right about my first couple of choices of companies to pitch too, but then when they gave their responses, I was surprised, and then when the bigger companies were interested that took me by surprise. It was a happy surprise too, one that got me really excited, and got me to think seriously about the choices that I have. I’ve directed short films, sure, but I’m not a ‘name director’, so I could hold out to be a writer / director. That’s one thing I’m not too worried about now, unless of course someone wants to fully support me on this, but I can write another script, with a good story, to do that with. So now, having pitched to the guys here in LA AND had some positive feedback, my options are wide open. And that’s the best thing for me right now.

So, what am I going to do when I get back? Get a script report from LA. Finish current application to the Arts Council, look up the Unlimited arts funding, and look at my life plan again. This is something I’ve done this year, along with doing ‘energy mapping’ out of it has come the sloooow realisation that all I want to do is write.

I want to make films that interest me, sure, that’s why I go down the arts route. Originally it was a means to an end, but once I got stuff for my showreel (Early One Summer, which was signed to Hollywood Independents distributors last year) and worked in collaboration with a digital artist to create artist film & video, now I can decide where I want to go – The big wide World is mine…