FEATURE: 20 DECEMBER 2003

2003 British Council / New Zealand Writers Foundation UK Scholarship

Vanessa Alexander, a kiwi on secondment to the development department of Working Title, picks up the phone.

VANESSA: Hello development.

MAN ON PHONE: Yes. Hello. It’s Colin Firth here I’m wanting to give some feedback on the script I ve just received. Is Deb there?

VANESSA: She’s just stepped out actually.

OH MY GOD! Isn’t Colin Firth like Mr. Darcy the absolute definitive Mr. Darcy. Mr. BBC Darcy, Mr. Bridget Jones Darcy.

MR DARCY: Can I give you my home phone number?

VANESSA: (Beat) Of Course.

Mental note. Call my mother. She will finally forgive me for dropping out of medicine and joining the film industry.

First week at Working Title

One week into my time at Working Title I still felt like a fraud. Not that anyone treated me like that of course the people are wonderful. It is something about the fact that they refer to Hugh, Cate and Emma (Grant, Blanchett and Thompson for the uninitiated) on a first name basis and don t look at all excited about the idea of them coming into the office.

Now in my last week

30 scripts, three novels, many meetings, several screenings, a visit to the set of Thunderbirds and one HUGE wrap party later I feel like I’ve got a grip. Getting to read the scripts that are in development has been a huge privilege. Reading the previous drafts and notes on the same project to get it sense of how it developed over time has been an even bigger one. Projects here are developed with an incredible clarity: clarity of theme, clarity of genre and clarity of how and where they ll fit into an international market. There is more here to learn than is possible to absorb, and sometimes I have to swallow my desire to listen in silence so as not to appear unfriendly.

Binders!

In the hall outside the office I m in is an enormous wardrobe FULL of large binders. Each of those binders is full with two page reports on every script that has been sent to them for consideration. There are two folders for every letter of the alphabet AND the binders belonging to projects that came in before 2001 are stored in another part of the building!! Incredible when you think about it. Thousands of scripts and books even though they will only accept a script for reading if it is submitted by a reputable agency. Nothing gets read twice unless Julia Roberts has agreed to star in it and most of them are read by contract readers rather than the actual development team. If the reader passes the project goes no further up the chain. The end.

Intimidating? Yes. Eye opening? Yes.

And I’m bloody thankful to be on a first name basis with the development people thank you very much. Today I sat in a meeting discussing the new script (an adaptation of a novel) they are writing as a vehicle for Cate Blanchett. I had done the story beat breakdowns so I knew the script well and the fact that I got to contribute to the discussion creatively even felt normal.

With two days to go

I’m torn. Sad to be leaving where I feel I could still learn much much more. Happy to be going home to a house that actually has a garden to my dog my kids.

Of course I do have one final confession to make I actively practice not looking especially interested in Cate, Hugh and Emma in the mirror in the lift in the mornings.