The First Screenplay I Ever Wrote
Written by Phil Charles
Phil is a British Screenwriters' award-winning scriptwriter and Senior Lecturer for BA (Hons) Screenwriting and Film Studies at Sheffield Hallam University
Although I've always loved film and TV drama, I only discovered my passion for screenwriting later in life. I was working as a copywriter, writing TV and radio ads. Although the scripts for these ads were only thirty seconds to a minute long, the creative director of the agency thought I had a talent for scripting and dialogue. This prompted me to attempt to write an actual TV drama. Scary!
Screenwriter Phil Charles - Senior Lecturer for BA Screenwriting and Film at Sheffield Hallam
I knew the story I wanted to tell, a psychological thriller inspired by my time working as a Samaritan helpline volunteer. But starting to write it I soon discovered scripting ads for pile cream hadn't prepared me for the huge amount of work that goes into developing a screenplay. I'd read a few books on screenwriting, but didn't really know what I was doing. Plus it was back in the days before we all had PCs and laptops in our homes (yes, I'm that bloody old!), so I was going into my ad agency every weekend to write it on a computer there. After many weekends, I eventually completed my very first screenplay. Now what the hell do I do with
it!
Not knowing anyone in the industry I sent it to my screenwriting hero, Jimmy McGovern, via Granada TV. I didn't have a clue if it would actually get to him. Anyway, weeks later I arrived home to a message on my answerphone (remember those!) from someone claiming to be Jimmy McGovern and saying he loved my script. As I'd told my friends I'd sent it to him, the unbelievably strong Scouse accent led me to assume it was one of them joking around as the message was just too good to be true. But a letter from Jimmy arrived the very next day containing script notes as promised in his phone message. It really was him!
As it was the first screenplay I'd ever written it needed work, but it was actually optioned by a production company. Unfortunately, it didn't end up being produced. But thanks to Jimmy's encouragement to pursue a writing career, I secured a place on a master's degree in screenwriting.
It was here I realised screenwriting was a craft, that a person may have a talent but if they don't understand structure, characterisation etc. they could remain an unproduced writer. The main screenplay I developed on the course was optioned and went into paid development, which secured me an agent and my first actual produced script commission for the BBC. Ta, Jimmy.
Screenwriters: Phil Charles. Hattie Naylor. Jon Bridle