Did you buy Big Finish's audio CD set Doctor Who: The Demons Of Red Lodge & Other Stories?
If so, then first of all, thank you. Secondly, the company have just released a download-only extended version of the CD extras, which covers all four stories on the release. All four authors - me, William Gallagher, John Dorney (who also acts on this release) and Rick Briggs -are interviewed, along with Peter Davison, Sarah Sutton, Susan Kyd, director Ken Bentley and script editor Alan Barnes.
As you'll possibly discern while listening, I'm not particularly used to being interviewed. Much more used to the shoe being on the other foot. While being interrogated, I have to stop myself from firing questions back at the interrogator. Must shape up those interview skills for 2011.
In Other News: my new Tell Arnopp feature seems to be going rather well, with a fair few people responding to it. I'm enjoying reading what people are achieving, and it rather has the unexpected effect of spurring me on too. Lovely.
Oh, and I now have a Wikipedia page. Liking that.
And frankly, if I may be rather forward, I am LOVING YOU. Without you, this blog would be rubbish. Just letters and words, floating aimlessly around in an electronic lagoon.
Good DAY to you.
Showing posts with label The Demons Of Red Lodge. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Demons Of Red Lodge. Show all posts
2010: Doctor Who, Stormhouse, Sarah Jane & Other Fun Stuff
Hello tinsel-chops!
Sweet baby Jesus in a Pret A Manger: what a year that was. If ever there was a year in which I did a shedload of work and gained confidence in my ideas-flow, it was 2010. I wrote my first produced feature film. I wrote my first scripts for BBC Audiobooks and Big Finish, including one for the current incarnation of the Doctor, as played on TV by Matt Smith.
What follows are the details of pretty much everything I did (professionally, mind - you'll hear nothing of the time I fought a 15-foot clay badger in a quarry) in the last 12 months. To be honest, writing this stuff is more for my benefit than anything else. At this time of year, I like to stop and take stock. So if you'd prefer to return to your New Year Limbo Period booze, I certainly shan't hold it against you.
GHOST WRITER
Somewhere around June, my 24-minute TAPS film Ghost Writer became available for anyone to watch online. It was shot on Emmerdale's Leeds sets in December 2009, benefiting from a marvellous veteran TV director in Miss Marple's Guy Slater and a lovely cast in Barrie Ryan English, Grownups' Fiona Wass, The Bill's Giles Ford, Waterloo Road's Lisa Brookes and Seamus O'Neill from one of my favourite films, Shane Meadows' Dead Man Shoes.
Especially given the limitations which were imposed by the good folk at TAPS (no more than six characters, no more than 20 scenes, no more than three locations and a four-hour shoot!), I'm very happy with the results. Ghost Writer was a training ground in every respect, teaching me a lot about the realities and economics of television production.
Sadly, the TAPS organisation folded in 2010, after 17 years of helping new writers up the career ladder. I'm honoured to have been among their final batch of graduates. Thankfully, Ghost Writer remains online at the TAPS website, so if you haven't seen it yet, then I'd be delighted if you had a look.
BBC AUDIOBOOKS
God, the amount of time I spent this year, explaining the various different formats of audio-things I was writing! Audiobooks, audio plays, mimed vignettes on half-inch tape... Well, maybe not that last one.
In October 2009, I hosted a couple of sessions at the Cheltenham Screenwriters' Festival - and one of my panelists was Michael Stevens, the Commissioning Editor at BBC Audiobooks. Afterwards, I shamelessly hustled the poor man, asking if I could pitch an idea for an Eleventh Doctor audiobook. Being a splendid fellow, he said yes and advised me to submit something to his new range editor John Ainsworth in the New Year.
I was delighted when my two-page storyline, for something called The Language Of Spawn back then, successfully made it through the filtration process guarded by Michael, John, the remarkable Gary Russell (who is the nexus through which everything Doctor Who-related must pass, in order to gain a greenlight from BBC Wales) and supremo Steven Moffat himself. The title became The Gemini Contagion (oh God, the number of alternative titles that got scribbled into a notepad, before I settled on that one) and I set to work. Absolutely loved writing for Doctor Eleven and his companion Amy Pond - and I hope that, come the audiobook's March 3 2011 release, Who fans feel at least a fraction of my own enthusiasm!
While working on Doctor Who: The Gemini Contagion, I was invited to pitch for one of the BBC's two annual Sarah Jane Adventures audiobooks. Elisabeth Sladen's performance as Sarah Jane Smith in Doctor Who is inextricably woven into my childhood memories and it's fantastic that she continues to delight kids and adults alike in Russell T Davies' successful CBBC show. So I pitched a storyline called Deadly Download and was delighted when it once again made it through the filtration process which included Russell himself. I didn't have too long in which to turn this one around, but sheer enthusiasm bustled me along.
One interesting distinction between the writing style required by both audiobooks was the POV. Doctor Who audiobooks are written in the third-person and enjoy different narrators each time, while the Sarah Janes are necessarily first-person because Elisabeth Sladen will be reading them in character. As a result in Sarah Jane audios, nothing must be described which Sarah Jane wouldn't be aware of in some believable way. This makes things a little more challenging, but I like that. The Sarah Jane Adventures: Deadly Download was released in early November and has since had some nice reviews. I'm very happy with it indeed. Elisabeth Sladen does a brilliant job of reading the story and whole-heartedly bringing characters to life, while producer Neil Gardner and Simon Power's soundscaping is exemplary.
Sweet baby Jesus in a Pret A Manger: what a year that was. If ever there was a year in which I did a shedload of work and gained confidence in my ideas-flow, it was 2010. I wrote my first produced feature film. I wrote my first scripts for BBC Audiobooks and Big Finish, including one for the current incarnation of the Doctor, as played on TV by Matt Smith.
What follows are the details of pretty much everything I did (professionally, mind - you'll hear nothing of the time I fought a 15-foot clay badger in a quarry) in the last 12 months. To be honest, writing this stuff is more for my benefit than anything else. At this time of year, I like to stop and take stock. So if you'd prefer to return to your New Year Limbo Period booze, I certainly shan't hold it against you.
STORMHOUSE
Somewhere in the year's second quarter, director Dan Turner and I went for a drink. We'd worked together before on various projects, including freaky, sexy short film Look At Me. At one point during our beer-fest, Dan oh-so-casually mentioned his idea for a film in which "the military capture a ghost". I immediately keeled over, picked myself up and became obsessed with the idea. We spent the rest of the night quacking about it and deciding that this could well make a super-scary horror film.
The idea grew and grew, until suddenly it became Stormhouse, a film shot in August and starring the excellent Katie Flynn, daughter of Jane Seymour. Yes, Stormhouse really happened that fast - and I'm glad it did. There's nothing like the rush of shooting towards deadlines like an Exocet to induce full creativity in the brain. Stormhouse was filmed in a military base nestled away in the English countryside, with me as writer and executive producer. That shoot was unquestionably one of the finest experiences of my life. Cast and crew alike stayed in the base, which gave the production a real sense of camaraderie. I slept each night on an airbed in a creepy office off a creepy corridor - both of which were locations by day. I loved the whole experience - apart from the mad, incessant flies.
Stormhouse is currently in the last stages of post-production: music (Sam Watts!), FX, sound, grading - all with Dan and producer Dean Fisher toiling away at the eye of the storm. We have a fine sales agent in AV Pictures, who handled the likes of Neil Marshall's Dog Soldiers (see their website page for Stormhouse here) and the film will be released in 2011. Can't wait for you to see it, if supernatural horror is your bag.
FORGIVENESS
The first thing I wrote in 2010, Forgiveness is a horror feature spec script. It was created while I was in a hateful mood, which I'm convinced can be the best possible mindset with which to approach writing a horror film. Or at least, it seemed to work with this one. A rather bleak and harrowing beast, it loosely combines Misery with The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, as a story about a couple menaced in the middle of nowhere hopefully transforms into something a little different. Forgiveness is now with a prospective agent. Hooray.
GHOST WRITER
Especially given the limitations which were imposed by the good folk at TAPS (no more than six characters, no more than 20 scenes, no more than three locations and a four-hour shoot!), I'm very happy with the results. Ghost Writer was a training ground in every respect, teaching me a lot about the realities and economics of television production.
Sadly, the TAPS organisation folded in 2010, after 17 years of helping new writers up the career ladder. I'm honoured to have been among their final batch of graduates. Thankfully, Ghost Writer remains online at the TAPS website, so if you haven't seen it yet, then I'd be delighted if you had a look.
BBC AUDIOBOOKS
In October 2009, I hosted a couple of sessions at the Cheltenham Screenwriters' Festival - and one of my panelists was Michael Stevens, the Commissioning Editor at BBC Audiobooks. Afterwards, I shamelessly hustled the poor man, asking if I could pitch an idea for an Eleventh Doctor audiobook. Being a splendid fellow, he said yes and advised me to submit something to his new range editor John Ainsworth in the New Year.
I was delighted when my two-page storyline, for something called The Language Of Spawn back then, successfully made it through the filtration process guarded by Michael, John, the remarkable Gary Russell (who is the nexus through which everything Doctor Who-related must pass, in order to gain a greenlight from BBC Wales) and supremo Steven Moffat himself. The title became The Gemini Contagion (oh God, the number of alternative titles that got scribbled into a notepad, before I settled on that one) and I set to work. Absolutely loved writing for Doctor Eleven and his companion Amy Pond - and I hope that, come the audiobook's March 3 2011 release, Who fans feel at least a fraction of my own enthusiasm!
While working on Doctor Who: The Gemini Contagion, I was invited to pitch for one of the BBC's two annual Sarah Jane Adventures audiobooks. Elisabeth Sladen's performance as Sarah Jane Smith in Doctor Who is inextricably woven into my childhood memories and it's fantastic that she continues to delight kids and adults alike in Russell T Davies' successful CBBC show. So I pitched a storyline called Deadly Download and was delighted when it once again made it through the filtration process which included Russell himself. I didn't have too long in which to turn this one around, but sheer enthusiasm bustled me along.
One interesting distinction between the writing style required by both audiobooks was the POV. Doctor Who audiobooks are written in the third-person and enjoy different narrators each time, while the Sarah Janes are necessarily first-person because Elisabeth Sladen will be reading them in character. As a result in Sarah Jane audios, nothing must be described which Sarah Jane wouldn't be aware of in some believable way. This makes things a little more challenging, but I like that. The Sarah Jane Adventures: Deadly Download was released in early November and has since had some nice reviews. I'm very happy with it indeed. Elisabeth Sladen does a brilliant job of reading the story and whole-heartedly bringing characters to life, while producer Neil Gardner and Simon Power's soundscaping is exemplary.
BIG FINISH AUDIO PLAYS
Also during the Summer, I pitched a storyline for something called Nightfall to longstanding audio production company Big Finish. This was retitled The Mindkillers and then finally The Demons Of Red Lodge, which ended up as the title-story of the anthology Doctor Who: The Demons Of Red Lodge & Other Stories (see recent blog for full details). The first thing I actually wrote for Big Finish, however, was The Lions Of Trafalgar.
That one is a short story featuring the Fifth Doctor, Nyssa and Tegan, which has been read for audio for Peter Davison. It will be published as part of one of 2011's three Doctor Who: Short Trips anthologies for CD/download. The research for this tale happily involved a couple of trips to Trafalgar Square, which is always a pleasure. I was excited to learn about a historic dinner party which took place on top of Nelson's Column, which ended up becoming a big part of the story.
OTHER DELIGHTS
I contributed a fair deal to a fantastic new annual-style Doctor Who book, Doctor Who: The Brilliant Book 2011, which emerged in plenty of time to be snatched up for Christmas. My work on this included a fun piece of short fiction, The Stone Totems, which took the form of a Natural History Museum plaque explaining the Stone Daleks' alleged history.
In February, I was pleased to number among the speakers at Newcastle's Story Engine event - a really friendly and intimate affair, which I'd recommend to any writer. It's back again in March 2011!
With so much of my work in 2010 being bound for audio and film, it was good to write something for an actual book. That something was The War Of Art, a short story in Big Finish's hardback print anthology Bernice Summerfield: Present Danger. Floating lizard-heads, firey death, enormous art installations and timey-wimey tomfoolery were the names of that particular game.
I was among the judges in The National Student Film Association's inaugural scriptwriting competition. A fun process, looking through the scripts and enjoying some really nice work.
On a journalistic front, I was delighted when the readers of Doctor Who Magazine voted my Tom Baker and Christopher H Bidmead interviews as their favourites of 2009. Amazing to get that kind of appreciation from a readership which I've numbered among since 1979.
And that reminds me of perhaps my proudest moment of the year. Andrew Smith wrote the 1980 Doctor Who TV story Full Circle, which I watched and enjoyed when I was eight years old. In November this year, Andrew sent me a message on Twitter to say that he'd bought my Deadly Download audio for his eight-year-old daughter's birthday. Wow. Talk about full circle...
2011: WHAT NEXT?
As happy as I am with my progress over the last 12 months, I'll be aiming to achieve more than I did in 2010. But everyone says that.
As I said in the the last post, I have a couple of irons in the fire with Big Finish - one of which is a rather large iron which should keep me busy for most of January. I also have a couple of TV spec ideas knocking about the brain, two features in development and a non-fiction e-book which I want to write.
I will be writing a short story for an e-book anthology called Voices From The Past. This will be published by H&H Books in April 2011 and features a whole host of fine writers like Paul Cornell, Paul Magrs and Rob Shearman (see the current list here). All proceeds from Voices... will go to Great Ormond Street Hospital.
I fully intend to keep blogging in 2011, although as in 2010, the influence of Twitter will mean that blogposts tend to be reserved for longer pieces which couldn't be adequately conveyed in 140 characters. Incidentally, you may find my various Twitter lists to be of use - I have several, listing directors, scriptwriters, producers and all sorts. If you're wondering who to follow on Twitter, then these lists may be of some use. I currently follow far too many people and seriously need to cut down on new follows, I'm afraid - but if you follow me, I will at least endeavour to put you on one of my lists in return if you're serious about one of the professions covered by them.
Right, that seems to be everything. I can now stop talking about myself. Phew.
Happy New Year!
Actually, no. That's not good enough.
Amazing New Year!
Demons Unleashed!
Festive greetings!
Over the last week, on and off, I've been working on a blog about My Writing Year. This will emerge in that glorious limbo between Boxing Day and New Year's Day. Right now, though, just wanted to stop by and issue the aforementioned greetings, while quacking about Doctor Who: The Demons Of Red Lodge And Other Stories.
While audio production company Big Finish's release date for this - and the one which remains on Amazon - was December 31, it transpired that both CD and download became available this week. This was a nicely surprisingly early Christmas present. So, what is The Demons Of Red Lodge...?
It's an audio anthology featuring four self-contained 25-minute stories. Each stars Peter Davison as the Doctor and Sarah Sutton as companion Nyssa, along with various supporting cast members. Due to the clever co-ordination of our brilliant script editor Alan Barnes, the tales enjoy the odd link while being completely and utterly different from each other. Why, the whole thing's like some kind of Christmas selection box.
 |
| The Demons Of Red Lodge...'s beautiful Big Finish CD sleeve |
The second story, The Entropy Composition, was written by Rick Briggs who won a Big Finish competition this year, and takes the novel approach of involving prog rock in the proceedings.
Doing Time was penned by my friend and fellow blogger William Gallagher (pictured above with some pointy bloke with a shiny ring, in the very depths of Big Finish HQ), who came up with the solid-gold genius idea of putting the Doctor in prison. For a year.
The collection is splendidly rounded out by lovely John Dorney's Special Features which takes the form of a faux DVD commentary in which the Doctor is one of the speakers. Remarkable, funny stuff. Dorney is annoyingly multi-talented: the man also acts in, I believe, three of the stories, including mine.
As I say in journo Dan Berry's preview piece in the current Christmas edition of Doctor Who Magazine, I was rather channelling The Blair Witch Project in my story. Mainly in terms of the atmosphere, of course - but also in terms of the rising panic of people in that situation.
 |
| Joshua Leonard in The Blair Witch Project (1999) |
I also like combining things. So I wanted to see what would happen if I dropped the Fifth Doctor – the most fragile and vulnerable of them all – into Blair Witch territory, with scary woods, no compass, no short-term memory and no TARDIS. What if he woke up scared in darkness, in the middle of nowhere, alongside an even more petrified Nyssa? Without even a Blair Witch-esque legend to pin his imagination to, the Doctor would have no idea of the nature or magnitude of the threat he’s facing or even a recollection of where or when he is.
That’s the initial premise of The Demons Of Red Lodge. The Doctor, afraid in the dark, without even knowing why he’s afraid. He and Nyssa have nothing to fear but fear itself. Or do they? Little did I know, however, the extent to which Peter and Sarah seized that opportunity and made it all look so effortless in the studio, aided and abetted by top-notch director Ken Bentley. (Susan Kyd is also great in two roles here and it was also lovely to have a contribution from Duncan Wisbey - a great voice artist who starred in one of the sketches I wrote for Radio 4's Laurence & Gus: Hearts & Minds last year.)
On the day of recording, Peter had something of a gravelly throat from shoutingalot in the West End's Spamalot. This almost certainly helped him lend the Doctor's voice a nicely raw edge during the Demons sessions. I'm so happy with the results and proud to be a part of such a consistent release, which seems to be going down pretty well with fans. I'm especially prone to punching the air when someone refers to it as "scary" or even "terrifying" - that was very much the intention.
The Demons Of Red Lodge & Other Stories is my first Big Finish release. Will there be more? I don't think I'm breaking any confidences by saying yes. I'm writing two new things right now, for 2011. (Well, not right now. Right now, I'm lounging on a sofa with an iPad and a magically refilling glass of sherry, pootling around on Twitter and stuff. But you get the idea.) This pleases me a great deal - can't wait to tell you about this mad new stuff, hopefully in the first few months of the imminent new year.
I insist that you have the finest feasible Christmas! I'll back to babble about my 2010 and hopefully also list my Top 10 Writers' Apps/Games Of The Year.
Misletoeing you already...
Doctor Who: The Demons Of Red Lodge & Other Stories can be bought as a CD or download from Big Finish Productions here.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad (although I then had to use a netbook to get it just so...)
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