Insider View - Getting paid to write movies

How does the development department operate?
Film4 is the film production wing of Channel 4 and as such, we like to develop and finance at the more 'alternative' end of the spectrum. This isn't to say we don't want large audiences for our films, but we also are very much concerned with supporting clear, distinctive voices and ideas in British cinema. This means we will happily develop more challenging material as long as we feel there is an audience out there for it and that it's distinctive and exciting. This goes for our more commercial projects too: for example, if we develop a romantic comedy it will be because we see new and interesting things in the story, characters or world rather than because we're targeting the romantic comedy market. It's hard to say we will never ever do a costume drama because one day one will inevitably come along that will blow our minds, but generally we leave that to the BBC. I think we also see ourselves as seeking to build and nurture a talent pool in British cinema.

How do your meetings go with new film makers?
I tell them what the company's doing, what kind of thing we're looking for, about some of the films we have on the slate, what I personally have been working on. Film making is a personable business and you cannot escape the fact. It's vital to meet people and let them talk about what's important to them, where their career is at and understanding what they are trying to do.

Do you look at more than just screenplays?
We all read a lot of books and go to the theatre. There is a vast amount of writing talent out there. The question for us is how we can translate that into great stories for the cinema.

Is 'conflict' so necessary in dramatic writing?
Of course there are other forces at work in a story that can keep the audience interested, like suspense. I think conflict is a very useful tool at a micro level. If you take the view that films are driven by either plot or character and you come down on the side of character, you have to understand that characters are collections of conflicts, with themselves, with others and with the world; conflict is what drives them forward.

How do you develop 'execution dependent' material?
It's true that a film is much more than a script and the things that make it exciting might not necessarily be there on the page. Tessa Ross, Peter Carlton and Katherine Butler all have a lot of experience of projects like this. The only way to negotiate this is to look at the director's past work and take good meetings with that director. This doesn't mean you can totally break the rules. If there isn't a dramatic structure in the classical sense, we are still looking for a script to build a sense of anticipation for something and to see that anticipation satisfied in interesting, exciting ways.

If it cannot be done dramatically, should writers spell out what they want to appear in the script? We are working on a film at the moment with a writer/director whose work is very visual. In the first minute all you see is a black screen and hear the sound of wind blowing in the trees. Then when the picture cuts in of the swaying trees, the sound cuts to silence. With this opening the film maker is tuning in the audience to the mood and pace and ambition of the film. I think it's very important to get the reader, and audience, 'tuned in' to a film in this kind of way even if it's not a dramatic scene.