Peter Devonald has been announced as one of the winners of this prestigious award for 2003.

TIMES ARTICLE
June 12, 2003

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,581-710481,00.html

We mighta be in pictures
By Phoebe Greenwood
Our correspondent talks to winners of The Times /National Academy of Writing screenwriting contest

THE TIMES recently teamed up with the National Academy of Writing in Birmingham to launch a scriptwriting competition.

We asked you to send in examples of your work, from film treatments to excerpts from works-in-progress.

The response was remarkable. From nearly 200 eligible entries, five talented people have won places on the academy's two prestigious summer courses for budding writers.

Congratulations to the winners. They are:

Course 1 (Adaptation)
Peter Devonald, 29, from Sheffield, and Elspeth Graty, 38, from Paris.

Course 2 (Screenwriting)
Emma D'Souza, 30, from London; Zane Stout, 35, from Manchester; and Lesley Zachary, 33, from London.

The prize includes intensive tuition and masterclasses from film experts such as the writer Celia Brayfield and the director Anthony Minghella.

Martin Eggleston, the academy's development manager, says: "It's an immersion into the culture of the writer; it's about exciting new writers and dispelling this notion that writers arrive fully formed - you need to be trained in a dedicated writers' environment and have a mentoring relationship with them."

The chance for a one-on-one with such writing stars as Patrick Marber is what appealed to one winner, Zane Stout, a paramedic: "I've been writing for ages, and one of the hardest things is that you are in your world and you never get much feedback."

He was chosen for his quirky black comedy, Alrighty, about three friends who start out in Manchester and end up in Rio.

Emma D'Souza, a lawyer, was picked for Five Rupees, her first attempt at writing a feature. Inspired by an article she read about child slavery, and a subsequent visit to India, her film, she says, "is mainly about relationships and people who are very different yet find a way to communicate with each other".

For her, winning is just the beginning: "I feel like I'm at step one and now I want to reach step two, so someone can watch it somewhere in the world," she says.

Getting scripts off the page and on to the screen is obviously every writer's dream, one shared by the academy. The course tutor, Tessa Sheridan, explains: "It's a very difficult industry. We're about finding a confident British voice and ensuring it carries right through."

The five writers are in for a tough but rewarding experience. "I'll expect people to be writing around the clock: there will be no running away," says Sheridan.

Lesley Zachary, an aspiring writer since she was nine, was picked for her third feature script, a ghost story titled The Man in the Woods. She is impressed by the promise of industry links, what the tutor, Celia Brayfield, describes as the "polishing period".

"What they're doing at the National Writing Academy is amazing," Zachary says. "I'm not very good at selling myself - a lot of writers aren't."

For one finalist winning has already helped. Peter Devonald's fairy tale, Handsome and Petal, has been snapped up by the gaming designer Richard Richter, of World Power Studios.

The judges were impressed by the standard of entry. The entrants "were exactly the kind of people we hoped to find, experienced writers who were looking to raise their game," says Brayfield.

"I'm looking forward to seeing how the group we've chosen will work together. Writing is very solitary and it can be wonderful when people share the struggle."

Or as Stout expressed it: "No one wants to end up being the 'writer in the bedroom'."

For these five hopefuls it's out of the bedroom and into the hothouse.

MORE AWARD DETAILS

Masterclasses will include Ken Follett (a public event), Neil Hunter and Tom Hunsinger (writer/directors), Timothy West (Writer and actor) and Anthony Minghella.

Previous masterclasses run by the NAW have included Willy Russell and Gurinder Chadha as well as prose writers like Nick Hornby, .

Course One
Adaptation: Transformation from Story to Film is aimed at prose writers with some knowledge of film, who can respond quickly and vividly in creating an original short story and in transforming a given story into a screenplay. By the end of the course you will have knowledge of the written and visual methods of storytelling, the experience of dealing with change as your theme and the skill to move, as a writer, from one medium to another.

Course Two
From Early Draft to Shooting Script offers writers with existing screenplays the chance to put their work through a structured, intensive workshopping and brainstorming process. The course will also focus on addressing the needs of the industry, including lessons in how to pitch a script.

The National Academy of Writing is founded on these principles:
- that writing in Britain should have a dedicated centre of teaching excellence
- that students should be admitted on the basis of talent alone
- that writers will benefit from contact with the creative industries through which they will reach their audience
- That a writer should have the opportunity to develop his or her skills across different media

'HANDSOME AND PETAL'

This script will be produced through www.worldpowerstudio.com
Dir. Richard Richter
Written by Peter Devonald
Script Edited by Kevin Scrantz

More details and images as they become available.

QUOTES FROM THE REVIEWS ON ZOETROPE

What I like about this piece is the power of the striking imagery, the allusions underlying the illusions. The twisted, fairy tales are especially compelling. The way they're tainted mirrors how our view of the world changes as we journey through life. I especially like the ending... A thought provoking little work, which manages to make a lot of profound and salient points, in a very short space. It's an emotive work, and very visual - an entertaining and stimulating script. (S.T)

A VERY enjoyable read. TOP marks for originality, cinematic quality and quality of writing. I particularly enjoyed the transitions. My highest praise: I wish I'd written it. (D.K)

Once again you have crafted an elegant, visual script. It is so intelligent and thoughtful... I loved your imagery. The visuals are so rich. I was carried along with the story. (J.D)

All the storybook/fairy tale stuff was excellent and I liked a lot of the descriptions. Very cool script. (T.H.)

You got into the character nicely, and the back and forth between external and internal reality is nicely played out. Technically you have a nice light touch. A very nice job and I think worthy of production. (R.M.O)

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