Harriet Beaney: Writing with Peter Moffat

14 July 10

BAFTA and BBC Blast Screenskills blogger Harriet reveals the sub-plot of her most recent screenplay and how two time BAFTA winning Peter Moffat gave her some top writing tips.

Harriet's 4th Blog Image I met a brilliant screenwriter today at the BAFTA headquarters: winner of not just one, but TWO BAFTAs – Peter Moffat. It was a very helpful session, and we started going through the screenplay scene by scene, working out how to set up the characters and develop them.

Basically, my screenplay is about an Elvis impersonator, who meets a teenager, and as their friendship develops, they each try to work out ‘who they really are’, if I could make that sound any more ‘cringe worthy’.

I gained a lot of tips for screenplay writing, such as: show, don’t tell; avoid creating dialogue simply to tell the audience what has been happening, but instead try to drip feed information throughout the screenplay; think ‘cheap budget’ – for example, try to have a lot of scenes in the same place, instead of having a different setting per scene.

I gained a lot of tips for screenplay writing such as…try to drip feed information throughout the screenplay.

We were then interviewed, and as usual, my brain turned to mush as soon as the camera started rolling. The morning was finished with my feigned arrival at the BAFTA office. It was for the documentary coming out next year – so watch out for me narrowly avoiding getting trapped in the double doors!