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Moira Buffini: Screenwriters' Lecture

20 December 2011

Part of BAFTA's 2011 Screenwriters' Lecture Series.

On the 16 September, Moira Buffini spoke at 195 Piccadilly in London as part of the 2011 BAFTA and BFI Screenwriters' Lecture Series.

Best known until recently as a writer for theatre, Buffini has established herself a playwright whose ambitious and confident vision refuses to be restricted by the confines of current theatre conventions. Her work for screen includes an adaptation of the graphic novel Tamara Drewe, a version of Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre, and an adaptation of her own play Byzantium.

Sometimes Stephen Frears would read a scene I'd written and say, 'I don't know how to shoot that.' Which was a really good lesson.

Buffini talks about the three scripts she wrote before Tamara Drewe was produced, why she feels writers have a lot in common with editors, and how the task of writing a screenplay's ending is much more difficult than conceiving its beginning.