WRITER PROFILE
It’s always great to get together with a large group of writers and investors and keep up to date on what’s new, the screenplay contest, any recent deals, new dealmaker contacts, agents or managers that are looking and simply encouraging everyone to keep going after every dream in this difficult industry. For the hard working writer we want to do as much as we can to continue the exposure and word of mouth in the investment circles of the industry. Another way we do this is with writer interviews that we send far and wide and showcase at all possible meetings and markets.
We want to encourage your writing spirit, motivate you and again give you the accolades you so deserve.
“THE WELSHMAN”
Written by Andrew Irvine
Q: What motivated you to become a writer?
A: When I was a teenager, I worked as a painter and a roofer. I liked the work. It was outside in the fresh air. But it was physically demanding work, climbing up and down ladders and moving across a pitched roof. I remember thinking it was something I enjoyed, but that I wouldn’t want to still be doing it when I was 50.
Since then I’ve published in newspapers, magazines, academic journals and for the stage.
Q: Starting on a blank page is not easy – where does your creativity come from?
A: I never start with a blank page. Instead, I start with something that interests me: a conversation, a news report, a memory. Then I ask myself: Why is this scrap of language interesting? Why is it entertaining? Why did it stick in my memory?
Only later do I ask: Is there a story here?
And if the answer is Yes, the writing usually comes along pretty quickly.
Q: Do you write projects knowing that so many other factors need to happen to get it to screen and does that come into your project creation?
A: Yes and no.
Yes, I try to write in a way that makes other people’s jobs easier. So I ask myself: Is this a line an actor will want to deliver? Is this a scene that will be easy to stage? Is this a story someone would pay to see in a theatre?
But all this comes later. At the beginning, the questions are different: Is the topic interesting? Is this bit of dialogue funny? Did the scene move me?
Q: What is your dream for this project and what other ancillary revenue do you think it could generate? Please include script title in reply.
A: THE WELSHMAN tells the story of a young immigrant who escapes the poverty of 19th-century Wales to build a new life in North America, only to discover that his fiancé’s father has sent the wrong daughter to join him in the new world.
The best coverage I’ve received about this script began with just two words: “I wept.”
My dream for the project is to have it premiered in Royal Albert Hall in London as well as in Los Angeles. My hope is that there will be revenue streams on both sides of the Atlantic.
Q: How has your experience been with screenwriting contests for this project so far?
A: I’ve found contests to be uneven. A script that places well in one contest might not even land in the top 100 in another. But the contests in which I’ve placed helped me find my Manager, so that has been a positive outcome.
Q: If you could stand in a room full of investor partners looking at many projects what would you like them to know about you and this project?
A: I’d tell them that before I deliver a script, I ask myself the following three questions:
Is this a project that will be well received? Is it a project that will win awards? Is it a project that will make money?
And I’d tell them that I wouldn’t deliver it to them until I was confident the answer to all three questions is Yes.
Q: Do you have any website links for your writing, credits, background, etc that you would like to share?
A: My play SOCRATES ON TRIAL (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socrates_on_Trial) has been produced in both North America and Europe. It has had over a dozen productions in Athens, in both English and Greek. And I have half a dozen feature scripts at or near completion.
Thanks for your interest!