#44 - Isn't It Meant To Be The Future By Now?
Hi folks,
Happy 2020. I began the year in classic style - already late with a deadline. Start as you mean to go on and all that but for the sake of my sanity, I hope there is still some reprieve to be had. At least my absence from Twitter continues to be pleasant.
Today I realised we're down to single digits of Patelograms now! I'm going to run to 53 to round out a year (If you've just joined recently I errr miscounted early on) and from there I'll only write when I think I've got something useful to say. Basically, still the occasional insight but without your inbox getting crowded and I use that extra time for a passion project. Everybody wins. I've decided I'll be using the hour and a half I set aside for this newsletter every week to finally push myself towards directing like I always talk about and it's probably time to make it happen.
Anyway, I think I promised to give you some craft stuff about pitching a few weeks ago and never did it so I'll get onto that now...
PITCH PERFECT
Some caveats: I've not presented all that many projects nor gone up for all that many either. This is purely due to my being not particularly prolific, but the times I've been successful (or at least made what I felt was a good fist of it) are ones where I've been thoroughly prepared and looking back I've always made sure I have some sense of the following...
1. Your angle. What will your approach to the material be? A good place to begin will be you responding to the materials you've already been given (might be a paragraph, might be a research pack). Consider what you like about it, what you don't like about it, what you'd change, and basically what your broad stroke take on the project is. You don't have to have either a wild concept or know absolutely everything yet. In fact, I find it helps to be clear what you don't know. But make sure there is a coherency between your ideas so even if it's not all there yet you can give a hint of what might filter through.
2. Your interest. Why you? This might sound a bit pat. Cause you need a job! Well, yes, but if you're writing you're presumably doing it as a way to interrogate your passions. This will probably be somewhat tied to the angle you take above, although not always. The reason it's important for you to know this is because it's what you'll be clinging you when you're a year in and it's not quite working. What is it in you that feels a vital connection to or desire for this project.
3. Your references. What will this piece be kinda like? This might not always be useful and too much shorthand can be lazy, but in your bombastic presentation it can be easy to lose the people you're talking to because you're flying at them with a tonne of ideas that they're trying to grasp in real-time. I find it helpful to take a moment to land a couple of cultural references that you think your attempt will be similar to so they can have some sense of what you're getting at. I'll usually do this when I'm trying to explain the tone of something which can be sometimes hard to get across without a script. Obviously it helps to know your audience here. If you're going to wang on about existential 1950s Swedish cinema, it should be to people who have some understanding of that or there's no point drawing the comparison.
4. Your timeline. I have bollockesed this up a couple of times before and I've always regretted it. Be clear on when you can start the work and what other commitments you might have. I know it's tempting to try and downplay those other commitments because you fear it might affect your chances of getting this one but more often than not if they like you they can make it work. By trying to be "a good boy", you actually set bad expectations up front for both you and them. Of course life gets in the way and I'm always way slower than I'd like to be but at least attempt to be realistic here and you will do everyone a favour.
There we are! Hope that helps. Will try and be more crafty in these final letters.
CHECKING IN WITH CHEKHOV
Along with my George Lucas piece (which I'm currently diving back into newly found sources for), I'm writing an adaptation of a Chekhov play this year, quite a punchy adaptation and so in preparation for that I've been making my way through Chekhov's letters to at least try and glean something of his intentions before I get into bending his work to my own purposes.
At the moment I'm only half-way through, but already I think - much like with Orwell - I like his non-fiction more than the works of his imagination and I'm currently spamming Instagram with his insights on writing. He's a witty, warm, funny and occasionally brutally honest writer. He's definitely someone I'd never send a play to for feedback, let's put it like that. Also clearly a moment in time where you have a lot more encounters with other people's bodily fluids than you do now. He's very slightly less sexist than I expected, very slightly more racist? Not quite sure how to position that in 'context' of his time, although at the moment he's on his first trip out of the country so maybe something to take into account.
Currently he's travelling on from a penal colony where he just spent three months making notes and taking a census which admittedly doesn't *sound* like a laugh a minute, but his travelogues are full of beautifully rendered moments. I particularly liked the tame fox cub on a steamer that watches you use the loo ("If it hasn't seen anybody for a time, it starts to whimper") and a day where both his and another ship ran aground and so they all had a big party while they waited for the holes to get repaired. In my current state, I take the most comfort from his consistent, enthusiastic overpromising of deadline hitting and spectacular subsequent failures.
KITTY KORNER
Since having his teeth pulled, Chill Cat has reached new found levels of affection. Probably a joy de vivre that comes from not having to brace your body to fight pain every day combined with his getting older. Might be the weather too? I wonder if cats suffer from any form of SAD? Mine can't seem to be bothered to spend much time anymore whereas I swear my memory of them is being rangy and total flirts with whoever passes. I totally get it though. I mean have you been outside? I'm typing this at 4.20pm and it's already bloody dark. At least we're past midwinter now (although judging from the news, perhaps a nuclear winter is coming to wrap us in its fiery embrace).
That's it from me this week. At this point next week I'll be in NEW ZEALAND! My first trip to the southern hemisphere for a friend's wedding. I am somewhat excited but I will be working basically the whole time so less excited than perhaps I would otherwise be. I'm going via LA and crossing the international date line which means, for me, January 10th 2020 will never happen. All my app streaks lost like...tears...in rain...
I was going to say "I'll let you know what I think" but I will actually only be landing after a twenty four hours of flying so errr...some hot takes from the flight perhaps? Including the fourteen hours spent flyings over the Pacific Ocean. Breezy.
If the plane goes down, know that I have mild affection for every subscriber and each of you is welcome to take exactly one item from my flat should I perish (not the cats - they're spoken for). I'm sure this counts as legally binding.
V x
(P.S. I didn't have time to proof read properly this week so apologies for any honking errors).
If you're new to Patelograms and like what you've read, you can subscribe by clicking here.
If you're an old hand, thanks as ever for taking the time.
Happy 2020. I began the year in classic style - already late with a deadline. Start as you mean to go on and all that but for the sake of my sanity, I hope there is still some reprieve to be had. At least my absence from Twitter continues to be pleasant.
Today I realised we're down to single digits of Patelograms now! I'm going to run to 53 to round out a year (If you've just joined recently I errr miscounted early on) and from there I'll only write when I think I've got something useful to say. Basically, still the occasional insight but without your inbox getting crowded and I use that extra time for a passion project. Everybody wins. I've decided I'll be using the hour and a half I set aside for this newsletter every week to finally push myself towards directing like I always talk about and it's probably time to make it happen.
Anyway, I think I promised to give you some craft stuff about pitching a few weeks ago and never did it so I'll get onto that now...
PITCH PERFECT
Some caveats: I've not presented all that many projects nor gone up for all that many either. This is purely due to my being not particularly prolific, but the times I've been successful (or at least made what I felt was a good fist of it) are ones where I've been thoroughly prepared and looking back I've always made sure I have some sense of the following...
1. Your angle. What will your approach to the material be? A good place to begin will be you responding to the materials you've already been given (might be a paragraph, might be a research pack). Consider what you like about it, what you don't like about it, what you'd change, and basically what your broad stroke take on the project is. You don't have to have either a wild concept or know absolutely everything yet. In fact, I find it helps to be clear what you don't know. But make sure there is a coherency between your ideas so even if it's not all there yet you can give a hint of what might filter through.
2. Your interest. Why you? This might sound a bit pat. Cause you need a job! Well, yes, but if you're writing you're presumably doing it as a way to interrogate your passions. This will probably be somewhat tied to the angle you take above, although not always. The reason it's important for you to know this is because it's what you'll be clinging you when you're a year in and it's not quite working. What is it in you that feels a vital connection to or desire for this project.
3. Your references. What will this piece be kinda like? This might not always be useful and too much shorthand can be lazy, but in your bombastic presentation it can be easy to lose the people you're talking to because you're flying at them with a tonne of ideas that they're trying to grasp in real-time. I find it helpful to take a moment to land a couple of cultural references that you think your attempt will be similar to so they can have some sense of what you're getting at. I'll usually do this when I'm trying to explain the tone of something which can be sometimes hard to get across without a script. Obviously it helps to know your audience here. If you're going to wang on about existential 1950s Swedish cinema, it should be to people who have some understanding of that or there's no point drawing the comparison.
4. Your timeline. I have bollockesed this up a couple of times before and I've always regretted it. Be clear on when you can start the work and what other commitments you might have. I know it's tempting to try and downplay those other commitments because you fear it might affect your chances of getting this one but more often than not if they like you they can make it work. By trying to be "a good boy", you actually set bad expectations up front for both you and them. Of course life gets in the way and I'm always way slower than I'd like to be but at least attempt to be realistic here and you will do everyone a favour.
There we are! Hope that helps. Will try and be more crafty in these final letters.
CHECKING IN WITH CHEKHOV
Along with my George Lucas piece (which I'm currently diving back into newly found sources for), I'm writing an adaptation of a Chekhov play this year, quite a punchy adaptation and so in preparation for that I've been making my way through Chekhov's letters to at least try and glean something of his intentions before I get into bending his work to my own purposes.
At the moment I'm only half-way through, but already I think - much like with Orwell - I like his non-fiction more than the works of his imagination and I'm currently spamming Instagram with his insights on writing. He's a witty, warm, funny and occasionally brutally honest writer. He's definitely someone I'd never send a play to for feedback, let's put it like that. Also clearly a moment in time where you have a lot more encounters with other people's bodily fluids than you do now. He's very slightly less sexist than I expected, very slightly more racist? Not quite sure how to position that in 'context' of his time, although at the moment he's on his first trip out of the country so maybe something to take into account.
Currently he's travelling on from a penal colony where he just spent three months making notes and taking a census which admittedly doesn't *sound* like a laugh a minute, but his travelogues are full of beautifully rendered moments. I particularly liked the tame fox cub on a steamer that watches you use the loo ("If it hasn't seen anybody for a time, it starts to whimper") and a day where both his and another ship ran aground and so they all had a big party while they waited for the holes to get repaired. In my current state, I take the most comfort from his consistent, enthusiastic overpromising of deadline hitting and spectacular subsequent failures.
KITTY KORNER
Since having his teeth pulled, Chill Cat has reached new found levels of affection. Probably a joy de vivre that comes from not having to brace your body to fight pain every day combined with his getting older. Might be the weather too? I wonder if cats suffer from any form of SAD? Mine can't seem to be bothered to spend much time anymore whereas I swear my memory of them is being rangy and total flirts with whoever passes. I totally get it though. I mean have you been outside? I'm typing this at 4.20pm and it's already bloody dark. At least we're past midwinter now (although judging from the news, perhaps a nuclear winter is coming to wrap us in its fiery embrace).
That's it from me this week. At this point next week I'll be in NEW ZEALAND! My first trip to the southern hemisphere for a friend's wedding. I am somewhat excited but I will be working basically the whole time so less excited than perhaps I would otherwise be. I'm going via LA and crossing the international date line which means, for me, January 10th 2020 will never happen. All my app streaks lost like...tears...in rain...
I was going to say "I'll let you know what I think" but I will actually only be landing after a twenty four hours of flying so errr...some hot takes from the flight perhaps? Including the fourteen hours spent flyings over the Pacific Ocean. Breezy.
If the plane goes down, know that I have mild affection for every subscriber and each of you is welcome to take exactly one item from my flat should I perish (not the cats - they're spoken for). I'm sure this counts as legally binding.
V x
(P.S. I didn't have time to proof read properly this week so apologies for any honking errors).
If you're new to Patelograms and like what you've read, you can subscribe by clicking here.
If you're an old hand, thanks as ever for taking the time.
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