Launch!

Xandria’s Script Reading Service is now live! It is all very exciting; after weeks(!) of WordPress, Paypal buttons (still a sore subject) and now finding I could have assembled a Weebly account in minutes*, there is a laugh or cry moment there. However, I, several mates and Wonder Bloke have prevailed and my first day produced 300 visitors and 2 customers!

I know I should be British and stiff-lipped but I’m just so damn proud! It’s been a mixture of emotions; I have felt several times that launching this site and service is like an 8-year old in Mum’s pearls and heels.

Right best go, Gavin and Stacey is on now.  When in Wales…

*average assembly time.

There’s no place like Wales…

So I’m back in Wales, and it’s nice to be at home. Home cooked food. No longer is my entire residence in the same room (except the bathroom, obviously, that was never the case). In a way that only happens when you live on your own, treading on someone else’s routine, or having yours trod on: “That mug goes on the first peg of the mug tree… I always use two towels…”. Good times!

Although it is indeed very nice to be home for Christmas, I’m adamant that crashing with my mum will be short term so I’ve left all my boxes packed. Combine that with a slightly scatterbrain memory and “Where did I put that scarf..?” turns into an adventure all of its own.

I also think that my mum’s house is possessed. Okay, so it’s very cold everywhere at the moment and it’s a nice Victorian house, but that I can’t feel my toes with two pairs of socks? Definitely poltergeist activity. And the simply comedic happenings: I can’t get wi-fi unless I’m downstairs; I can’t get mobile signal unless I am upstairs (hanging out of a window). I’m practically a techno-whiz – literally whizzing around my house to get signal like Kris Marshall in that BT ad.

Because of the sheer amount of “stuff” in the study, my “desk ” (where I sit with my laptop) consists of a chair pulled up to my old side table – it’s only just big  enough for my laptop, a cup of tea and my glasses (folded). Can’t help but think it looks like Tonka’s My First Desk, although I did make the analogy that starting my own business (of sorts) and launching a website feels like being an 8 year-old in Mum’s pearls and heels. I’m sure this is normal…

The thing that is keeping me sane is the promise of a wood-burning stove fire tomorrow. Toasty feet and ER boxset; thank god for Friday!

The end is nigh

I hope all my depressing and/or absent subject heads portent the feeling of DOOM in my having turned 25 and my soon to be homeless and jobless ass returning chez Mother for the holiday season. That introduction was supposed to be a comic, tongue-in-cheek, dramatic attempt to gain e-sympathy… but now I have genuinely scared myself a little. My wonderful bloke took me away for a little country mini-break (a la Bridget Jones or similar) and it gave me the perfect hole to stick my head in over my birthday, but now it’s back to cold, hard facts. As Yoda would say: do or do not; there is no try.

So with all this going on…I’m spending my time blogging, naturally. For some reason no-one can see this site on search engines, which is good because aforementioned lovely bloke has openly laughed at my Star Wars references and hyperbolic blogging tactics. I’ve told him to stick it up his word processor. I’m hoping that when I get my other script reading website up and get everyone to look at it that I can get people to look at this (quality permitting) and then with more than 27 hits, world domination will follow. But if when people type in the oh-so intricately crafted “Fictionado” title into Google and get some blogspot account that no-one has ever posted on and mine is in some crevice of the World Wide Web it makes me want to hunt down this blogger and stick something up her… word processor.

Anyhoo, I’ve just got a day’s work on a historical re-enactment programme next week which will involve pyrotechnics! That may be just enough to pull me from the mire…

AWOL

The Screenwriter’s Festival was my idea of heaven in a red tee- a mixture of learning and socialising with industry people  – with the appropriate level of schmoozing, of course – and for us volunteers, the days were long so a natural place for us to bond over our sarnies! I particularly enjoyed the discussion “Lesbians, Gays and Transexuals… oh my!” on the representation of sexuality in mainstream media, and the main event discussion with Stephen Moffat on the 11th Doctor Who.

On my last day I secured some work experience with Company Pictures for the following Monday – so spent the following week script reading (in my own little office, I nearly died of excitement), helping with an editing mash-up competition and the script development of some web platforms for Skins Series 4. The week went quickly and I was glad when they wanted me to stay on for a couple more days! I went back to some daily work on Saturday, chilled out Sunday, and was back in the Big Smoke before you could say “paint me purple and call me Colin”. After that it was back for more daily work on Skins until Friday – I’ve now pretty much wrapped up on my production opportunities in Bristol so after a further weekend to get my head together and tidy the sty also known as my flat, I am present and ready for duty again.

To keep up the military speak, I’ll be shortly decamping back to Mother’s in Wales whilst I sort my next job out and get myself online. Before that however, I’ll be celebrating the turn of my first quarter-century Wednesday when my lovely man takes me on a mini-break (how Bridget Jones, or similar…)!

SWF Eve…

I am not prepared at all but my bag is packed and I’m off to Cheltenham in the morning! My telly thoughts will have to wait for my return…

For everything else, there's Mastercard…

More freelance work has kept me busy, so much so it’s now only two days until I go to SWF! Unfortunately, the volunteering work has come right around the time that I’ve started to live off of of my credit card and could really use some cash; I’m now weighing up the pros and cons (and indeed, possibility) of staying in my flat for a full month or just the two weeks until my tenancy ends. Moving all my worldly possessions and being skint is now a given. Sigh.

But, keeping positive, the Skins work may yet yield a script work experience placement (hurrah!) and I’ve got many other little freebie projects to do before I go to Cheltenham too. Plus, my lovely illustrator friend Gemma has designed me a banner for my blog! If you’re reading this now it’s just the prototype (I couldn’t wait for the finished one, I’ve no restraint) but she’s a very talented lady and for all your arty needs (and indeed jewellery needs as well) check out http://illustrafair.blogspot.com/. Luckily, despite the fact she takes paid commissions, this job only cost me a bottle of wine; well worth it. Thanks Gem!

Back on track

So I’m back online now after a considerable break. Obviously I wasn’t actually off-line for the last four or so months (that would really be insane), but I put my energies into other things before finding myself back here.

So, I turned down the offer to renew my long-term, well-paid, secure Researcher contract with the company I’ve been with for years to make the break; go into the breach, to boldly go forth and Script Read. It was a touching ending, and my last day was the three year anniversary of my graduation. Madness.

My Plan was to start my new chapter by getting some drama production experience, in order to get some contacts and credits on my CV. I signed on for the first time in my life and sent out emails. Lots of emails. I had about a month’s worth of sanity-stealing unemployment, coining the Tri-polar experience: guilty and happy indulgence of having so much free time, mind-numbing boredom because everyone you know is at work, before finally, despair at the prospect of never working again. This can happen several times a day.

Thankfully, before long a break came from a friend of mine who gave me a fortnight of paid work in the office of a blockbuster feature film in London town! I was working in Production rather than editorial, dealing with purchase orders and other invented gadgets and gizmos whose sole purpose was to befuddle me. However, the experience was brilliant and, after two knackering weeks, a call on my last day got me an extra three days on a Canadian TV series filming in Bristol. That in turn got me a couple of days on Being Human series 2 (a million hurrahs!) and a phonecall from a sparky unit driver in London to the PM of Skins has meant that since then I’ve eked a living from daily work; through sickness cover and titles and platform shoots with them.

The work is bitty and is not keeping me in the lifestyle to which I have become accustomed (flat, car, bills etc). However, between myself and my wonderful bloke chipping in I have held onto, white-knuckled, my studio flat, and done more unpaid reading work for a sitcom competition which has bolstered my reading experience.

Lastly, as noticeboard updates go, I got a place as a SWF volunteer! I’m going to have to study the programme for delegates so as not to get in embarrassing situation of “so, what do you do?” and then realise I’m speaking to Stephen Moffat or similar.Only a week or so to go now! Details to come. Having pimped myself out for free work I’ve gotten some good contacts too, and did another day course on Script Reading with the lovely Lucy V Hay which has turned me onto many a blog and idea.

The best bit however is that I am now officially working in the drama sector. I still need to get a full-time, paid job, so I’ve put myself forward to a highly-esteemed production company with several projects gearing up, but even though it’s not script-related yet, I’m on my way and back on the blog…

Mayday, mayday…

I’ve left it bloody ages! So I’m still editing on the comedy pilot and reading for the screenplay competition. I missed out on a job with a really good indie prodco because I didn’t have the drama experience so that’s my next target.

My reading skills have come on lots I am sure, and on more than one occasion I’ve had the same thoughts as someone established in the industry about a script, which is a good thing, isn’t it???

Other things have fallen by the wayside but the love life isn’t one of them and I’m going to Amsterdam and London in the next few weeks!

Oh, and I’ll be out of a job! Eeek!

Bliss!

My week off was absolutely what I needed; time with my dad, sunning myself in the park, catching up with my reading, haircut, visiting my good friend Cat in Brighton (and even spying Richard E. Grant in a shop there, how exciting!). I’m properly rested and hopefully better equipped in experience and energy reserves to combat being overworked. Back to a 12-hour day tomorrow, but I’m determined to start off with a run through the park and my best foot first.

The Calm after the Storm

This week was very revealing. I somehow got myself into 10-12 hour days at work and then, from my quota, having to read a script every night when I got back. I’d worked solidly over the weekend on the drama script (noted, not a paid position and should have been re-prioritised) and by Wednesday, I had spent two nights wired on Pro-Plus and Red Bull until 3am, getting up up at 6am and then working until 6pm that evening. Wednesday was my mini-meltdown. I’m not very rock’n'roll so this involved refusing to work and watching Eastenders, and some stamping of feet. I figured that keeping myself awake would be enough to get the work done but it was completely the opposite, and the first two scripts I handed back had a couple of sentences that could have been restructured and may have been a little overly-negative. I was disappointed in myself but more scared by how the stress and fatigue affected me.

I had to ask for another day for the final two scripts; they told me they didn’t need them til Sunday so I handed them in on Saturday, but I kicked myself for a while. The latter three scripts were much better quality (and were so much easier and quicker to write!) and now they have a hiatus in reading until April, so I do too. I’m hoping they’re going to keep me on, although I feel like the script notes I’ve completed so far are all good enough, albeit not impressive. Obviously, that’s not what I want to turn in.

I spoke to my boss on Friday and said that I was feeling frayed, and to her credit, she was very understanding and given me next week off. The whole week! I’m giddy; the flat, which had no clean dishes and was a complete pit is now tidied, the fridge is stocked and I’m back up on sleep. My dad is also coming tomorrow for his birthday which will be really nice.

Although I knew it would be hard work, and it was unfortunate that my first week of reading coincided with a busy week, it really surprised me how much it affected me and I didn’t like not being able to complete what I knew I was capable of. I still think I need to get a job in scripts, but then I have to be prepared to take a paycut and less financial security, which will mean giving up my studio flat. Sigh.

I’m focusing on the week ahead now; a whole week of going swimming, going to the pictures, going to get a haircut, and going to get a life..!