by Paul Ashton
the calling card script
A WRITER’S TOOLBOX
FOR STAGE, SCREEN AND RADIO
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the calling card script
A WRITER’S TOOLBOX
FOR STAGE, SCREEN AND RADIO
PAUL ASHTON
A & C Black • London
A & C Black Publishers Ltd
1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2
First published in 2011
A & C Black Publishers Limited
36 Soho Square
London W1D 3QY
www.acblack.com
Copyright © Paul Ashton 2011
Paul Ashton has asserted his rights under the Copyright, Designs
and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978 1 408 11017 1
Available in the USA from Bloomsbury Academic & Professional,
175 Fifth Avenue/3rd Floor, New York, NY 10010
www.BloomsburyAcademicUSA.com
Typeset by Country Setting, Kingsdown, Kent CT14 8ES
Printed and bound in Great Britain by Martins The Printers,
Berwick-upon-Tweed
This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade
or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated in any
form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and
without a similar condition, including this condition, being imposed
on the subsequent purchaser.
FOR SUSIE, NIAMH, EMRYS
AND THE LITTLEST ONE TO COME . . .
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CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
1
An act of faith • The ‘toolbox’ • The form of this book • What this
book does not do • An industry perspective • Points of reference •
The ‘calling card’ script • A basic definition • The writer’s ego
versus the writer’s journey
1 THE MEDIUM
9
THE WRITER AS MEDIUM
11
‘Medium’ • One man and every man • What writers do • Instinct
and craft • Is the writer a medium? • Using medium
THE THEATRICAL SPACE
13
What is theatre? • Magic, ritual and spectacle • Spectator and
audience • Auditoria • Complexity of space • Complexity of form •
The empty space • The technological space • Clarity of space •
Money, monsterism and miniaturism • The director • The actor •
Directing the action • Theatre and metaphor
RADIO AND THE ACOUSTIC ENVIRONMENT
21
‘Theatre of the airwaves’ • Cinema of the airwaves • The contra diction
• Auditorium • The purest form • The audience • Only for radio •
Acoustic environment • Scope • Voice • Music • Sound
FILM AND THE CINEMATIC CANVAS
26
The big picture • Theatrical release • Cinema scope • Knowing your
place • ‘Show don’t tell’ • Sign language • Up close • Montage •
The whole story • The complex singularity • The kind of story •
Universal
TELEVISION AND THE RELENTLESS FORMAT
32
Distractions • The morning after • The cold light of day •
The schedule • Audience is god • The phenomenon • Jumping
the shark • The single exception • Format not formula • Basic
distinctions • Serial • Continuing series • Precinct • Returning
series • Relentless meets format
viii THE CALLING CARD SCRIPT
2 THE BEGINNING
45
WHAT ARE PRODUCERS LOOKING FOR?
47
The meat market • The market • So what are people looking for?
WHERE TO BEGIN?
49
The blank page • Knowledge is power • News of the world • Devil
in the detail • A head for ideas • You • Your feelings • Your voice •
The X Factor • What is a voice? • Can you hear your own voice?
KINDS OF STORIES
55
Archetypes • Linear • Epic • Full circle • Fractured • Repetitive •
Reversed • The impact of shape • Genre • Theatre and genre •
Radio and genre • Television and genre • Tone • The right form
WHAT’S THE BIG IDEA?
64
‘Droit moral’ • Theme • Universal • Concept and world • Premise •
Premise and character • Premise and emotion • The big idea •
Idea and medium • Theatre • Radio • Film • Television
WHAT’S THE STORY?
71
Beginnings and endings • Knowing where you are going • Direction
and purpose • Focus • Point of view • Movie ensembles • Hook •
POV turned upside-down
GETTING INTO CHARACTER
77
Test of character • Dramatic versus comic • Spending time •
Empathy • Definition • Archetypes • Features • Eccentricity •
Qualities • Capabilities and flaws • Estimation • Attitude • POV •
History and backstory • Moral compass • Morality and conflict •
The ‘agon’ • Hero and villain • Desire and need • Desire versus
need • Action • Vulnerability • Character and medium • Theatrical
character • Radio character • Film character • TV character
HITTING THE GROUND RUNNING
94
Page one • Know your story • Hook the attention • The midst of
a moment • A focused way in • ‘Getting to know’ the characters •
Exposition • The captive audience
STRUCTURE AND THE BEGINNING
100
‘Act one’ • Structural diagrams • The universal formula • Three
is the magic number • But three is not a simple number • The
beginning • Disorientation versus confusion • Establish the world •
Delayed establishment • Desire, need, problem • Call to change /
action • The complex call • The uncertainty • Point of no return •
Tension • Episode and series beginnings
CONTENTS
ix
THE PLAN OF ACTION
112
When to start writing? • Treatments • Clarity • Coherence •
Building a blueprint
3 THE MIDDLE
117
THE MUDDLE IN THE MIDDLE
119
Managing the muddle • Muddled metaphors • Fail better • Dig
deeper • Stretch the line • Dominoes
DEEPER INTO CHARACTER
122
The ‘arc’ • Change • State of becoming • Muddied wants and
needs • Muddled consequences • Beyond the comfort zone •
Developing the ‘agon’ • Developing the complexity • New world,
new charac teristics • Qualities • Capabilities and flaws • POV,
morality, attitude • Vulnerabilities • Developing relationships •
Journey towards awareness • Contradiction • Surprising
themselves • Character and action • Character and structure •
The ‘middle’ in series and
serials • Returning series • Serials •
Abstract alternatives
SURPRISE
139
Revelation • Deus ex machina • Shock tactics • Secrets •
Dramatic irony • Unexpected outcomes • Predictability • Tedium •
Cliché
STRUCTURE AND THE MIDDLE
146
The dividing lines • Momentum • Dominoes • Peaks and troughs •
The road ahead • Sharp bends and chicanes • Cul-de-sacs • A clear
view of the distance • Quicksands and high tides • The cave •
Chasms and rockfaces • A second point of no return • The (not so)
natural order
CAUSING A SCENE
156
What is a scene? • The basics • Picture and montage • Dramatic
action • Conflict • Goals • Conflicts that matter • What’s at
stake? • Three dramatic levels • Subtext • Surprise • Beats •
What to show • Juxtaposition • Less is more • Kinds of scenes •
The theatrical scene • The radio scene • The screen scene
FROM PLAN TO ACTION
170
Ready to write • Refer to the blueprint • Develop the blueprint •
Step outline • Wild drafts • Write the beginning
x THE CALLING CARD SCRIPT
4 THE END
175
AN ENDING IN SIGHT
177
Fundamentals • Some endings • ‘The End’ • Simple versus
complex • Is that it? • Ending is emotion • A fitting end
SATISFACTION
181
Entertainment • Follow through • The story beyond • Open
endings • Ambiguity • Twists • Deus ex machina • Anagnorisis •
Impact
STRUCTURE AND THE ENDING
190
Climax and crisis • Change • Resolution • Conclusion • Coda •
Absurd endings • Series and serial hooks • Cliffhangers • The
natural order • No pause for breath • A means to an end
THE CHARACTER’S VOICE
198
Mouthpieces • Dialectic • Dialogue is not conversation •
Monologue • Theatrical soliloquy • ‘Inner’ and ‘close’ in radio •
The cinematic voice-over • TV catchphrases • Can you hear it? •
Can you say it? • Dialogue is not logical • The non-sequitur • Voice
is expression • Authenticity • Uniqueness • Tics • Accents •
Dialect and slang • Naturalism • Stylisation • Rhetoric • Lyrical
• On the nose • Exposition and information • ‘Bad language’ •
(Prefacing) • Shouting! • Terse versus glib • Wit and wordplay •
Silence and space • Subtext
WRITING AND REWRITING
218
Focus and control • Expectations • Questions • Realities •
Rewriting • Rewriting your signature • Time and space •
Objective and subjective • Feedback • The red pen • Reclaim your
subjectivity • Is it really finished? • How finished does it need to be?
CODA
226
Starting over • It never gets any easier
APPENDIX
229
Script reading and viewing • Books about writing • Resources
INDEX
235
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
To my family for always supporting my work – taking me to the theatre,
showing me great films, and having books around the house.
To Jenny Ridout for commissioning this book. To Julian Friedmann for
selling it to Jenny. To Celia Brayfield for suggesting I talk to Julian. It was
a serendipitous chain of events. To all at A&C Black and Blake Friedmann
who helped this along the way behind the scenes. To the writers who so
generously contributed their thoughts in quotable form – Jack Thorne, Joe
Penhall, Toby Whithouse, Peter Moffat, Ashley Pharaoh, Matthew Graham,
Sarah Daniels and Katie Hims.
To Kate Rowland and all the brilliant people I have worked with through
BBC Writersroom – within the corporation and outside it – with a special
mention for the dedicated script readers who are a mostly unsung and some -
times unfairly maligned team of talent-spotters. There are too many BBC
people to mention individually – but thanks to anyone who ever agreed to read
a script and consider a writer I recommended to them and then had the desire
and confidence to commission and produce them. Also to the agents, literary
managers and development people across the industry who ever gave me a
good steer on new writers (Abigail Gonda is a particularly guilty party in this
regard).
To the various (non-BBC) people and places that helped me hone my
instincts with writers and new writing – the Arts Council, Spice Factory,
Liverpool Everyman, Paines Plough, New Writing South, Theatre and
Beyond, University of Sussex, NAW and the many theatre companies,
universities, writers’ networks and festivals that have provided me with
willing audiences and sometimes difficult cues.
To those who have written about scriptwriting before me, in particular
people cited in the Appendix. Anyone who claims to offer a complete swathe
of utterly original, never-before-seen hints, tips, ideas and information for
scriptwriters must surely be lying – or fooling themselves. Most of this stuff
has probably been said before by someone else in some way, shape or form;
xii THE CALLING CARD SCRIPT
the job of any new book is to find a new perspective on it, a new way of
organising it, and a new way of focusing and expressing it. And if you are
lucky (or brilliant – or both) you will find yourself saying a few things that
nobody else has thought to say. When I set out to write this book, I very
deliberately avoided rereading scriptwriting books I had already read or
seeking out ones I had not previously read because I wanted to feel sure
that if I was going to come up with similar ideas (which I inevitably would
at some point) then at least it would be a meeting of minds or a latent
influence rather than a shameless regurgitation from a recent brush-up.
That said, if I do accidentally borrow unacknowledged from anybody else, I
feel reassured in the knowledge that they too will have borrowed.
To the thousands of writers whose work I have ultimately been res -
ponsible for rejecting along the way. It might seem strange and this may be
little consolation to you, but the vast amounts of time spent trying to decide
and express quite why your script didn’t work has undoubtedly sharpened
all my instincts and I am genuinely grateful for that.
To the many established writers (and other industry professionals)
who have had the generosity of time and spirit to help inspire the emerging
writers who I have spent so much time trying to bring through at the BBC.
Finally, to all the fantastic writers whose work I have had the fortune
(and I hope insight) to spot and the desire to help. Again, there are too many
to detail. But some of you I have referred to along the way in this book, so
please do take that as the ultimate acknowledgment.
INTRODUCTION
Today, many professional writers are chameleons at some point in their
career and work across mediums, formats and genres in orde
r to survive,
thrive and stay fresh. The climate at the time of writing this book (world -
wide recession and a tightening of opportunities for scriptwriters) means
that it’s even more pertinent for writers to stay flexible and not be solely
defined by only one medium or format. This book takes a uniquely broad
perspective across all dramatic media, exploring the crucial differ ences and
drawing together the universal similarities in writing drama for stage,
radio and screen.
The ‘how to’ of writing scripts always has and always will divide
opinion. Probably the only certainty is there are no hard and fast rules, only
an ever-varying combination of talent, craft, technique, practice, effort and
luck. Script development is an imperfect science, but many elements of the
writing process are not a mystery. And while talent can’t be taught in a
class room or acquired through reading a book, the application of under -
standing, craft, technique and approach can. It would take a pretty big ego
to claim I have answers that nobody else has. But what you get here is a
particular way of asking the questions that need to be asked by script -
writers who are serious about their craft.
AN ACT OF FAITH
In drama commissioning, development and production across mediums and
forms there are no secrets, no hidden agendas, no absolute rights, no abso -
lute wrongs, and there is a huge range of disagreement about what is and
is not good quality, worthwhile, entertaining, original or satisfying. Every
decision, commission, green light and production is an act of faith in a
writer’s idea in some way, shape or form. Many resulting productions turn
out to be something other or less than what was intended. But this doesn’t
render the decision-maker a fool or the producer a failure; it simply
2 THE CALLING CARD SCRIPT
underlines not only the inescapable sense of risk in the industry, but also
that essential act of faith.
It takes a brave person to put their head above the parapet to make
top-line editorial, commissioning and production decisions. It’s easy for un-
produced aspiring writers to criticise things; it’s much harder to improve on
them. The only way to do so is by writing the kind of script that demands
attention. Such scripts don’t turn up very often and they don’t appear out
of thin air; they are a rare spark of idea and insight given form through
craft and technique, fuelled by energy, sweat, distraction, despair, hope.