Sunday 28 April 2013

The Secrets of China | A Writer's Insight

The Secrets of China was a script I wrote quite some time ago, and it was released on this day (28th April) last year (2012), meaning it's now a year old! Hooray! And so while you sit down and eat cake, why don't you have a watch or a rewatch?

And now, presuming you have watched or rewatched, I'll waffle on for a bit about how I wrote the episode (if I can remember). And technically, I've been meaning to make a Behind the Scenes for my writing for The Secrets of China for just over a year now - so here it is at last!

My life as a script writer for FanFilmsUK (I make it sound like a career choice, but it wasn't) began with "The Doctor and the Disappearances" for Series One. I'd been an admirer of the previous series FanFilmsUK had done under a different name, and when they rebooted, I got involved, asking if I could write a book. I was then told to hold off with the book writing, because the companions were changing - and then I asked with the arrival of the new series, and was 'commissioned' to write a script.

My two criteria were waterfall which quite possibly had the word epic before it, and witches. Oh, and broomstick scene. So, I set off, developing a plot about Cascade Veil, an epic waterfall, and there were witches. And a hut. And a broomstick scene. And then they saved the day, and woop. I've no idea how well the episode went down on YouTube, but Nathan [creator of FanFilmsUK and The Doctor]'s things tend to be well accepted so I'm hoping for that.

And then I wrote another for Series Two, enter The Secrets of China. It's not my title - because it's not my script. Nathan had written hundreds of drafts (well ish) for it wasn't getting anywhere. So as all struggling script writers probably don't do, he took to Facebook, and complained. He'd tried drafts with the Master's relatives and stuff, from what I can remember, and I'll keep the specifics secret in case he still wants to use it. But I volunteered to write it for him. And there I was, 'commissioned' once more. My criteria this time were box with DOCTOR engraved on it in Chinese and scene on boat with the Doctor and Banes. Banes was the Doctor's on/off companion at the time.

So I wrote it. And I invented Doris (seriously, if you haven't seen the episode yet, watch at least the first two minutes, purely for Doris), and she was a hit, so Nathan brought her back, hooray! But after Doris, I wrote a scene in the Chinese village (not in China, believe it or not) and it carried on, with scenes on the boat (I think that scene was copy and pasted from Nathan's latest draft) and then wrote loads of other stuff that happened. They went to the museum, which looks spectacular on the episode, and go into the TARDIS, and then stuff happens and they end up in a field.

And on watching the episode back, I've remembered the plot! I'm quite pleased with it. The whole mystery of 'what happened to the village' I considered to be quite dark at the time, but I'm pleased that I've made it a mystery that's always haunted the Doctor. I also pushed some of the 'last incarnation' stuff, which is good. And! There's the mysterious character of Saben. Originally, the companion was Banes, and it was changed to Lee last minute, so that's why Saben is called Saben, to an extra element of confusion. I'm not too fond of how he's written, but he was there more for me so I could push the story forward in my head. And it did push the story forward, adding in lots of complicated stuff like a fold in time...

But then I stopped writing. I can't remember why, school or just not bothering to finish it I suppose. But not long after stopping, I think, I got back to it and then I struggled. Who was the villain going to be? I had an idea about what they were doing, what happened to the village - but then I didn't know who. I hate it in episodes of anything where the endings aren't built in (such as Terror of the Autons or a large number of Doctor Who Series 7 episodes, most notably The Power of Three), but that was the problem here. There was no ending built in, no real purpose. And so, I found The Bumper Book of Monsters and Villains on the internet, which has been useful quite a few times, and chose VILLAIN (if you want to know who, watch the episode!).

VILLAIN had a little scene, which looking back was far too talky and explained far too much in one place. I think that's probably cos I had to explain their presence, and that in relation to the plot about the fold in time and stuff. It could have been written a lot better, and so when Nathan went out to film on a windy day on a large field (that are outtakes of the tripod/camera falling over it was so windy), having to say big speeches and lots of dialogues didn't help. So the last scene is perhaps a bit long (my fault) and a bit hard to hear (also probably my fault for not making it shorter, but I'll blame Mother Nature). But then they save the day... or do they?

The end of my script contains one last little twist, and a good bit of acting from Nathan, as he realises something's gone wrong... There are threads in that which are yet to be picked up, and I'm going back and forth to my tenth draft (yes, all different) of my latest and last script for his series (I may cry when I finish), which may or may not pick those threads up. There is a storyline to be completed, and it's wonderfully timey wimey, and hopefully pleasing to some Fourth Doctor fans out there.

I really did enjoy writing The Secrets of China, and I'm now going to go and rewatch it. I've now started rewatching it, and apologies 'cos this blog is slightly longer as I seemed to have remembered loads of other stuff to put in. But yeah, I hope that people enjoyed/enjoy/are enjoying (?) this episode, and I'm certainly proud of the timey wimey-ness, and the dialogue. Even if the dialogue does drag on sometimes (sorry, viewer!)

But anyway - who cares, I invented Doris, so all is good with the world.

Happy Birthday Secrets of China.

(PS Thank you to all who read my Broadchurch posts, it means a lot!)

Tuesday 23 April 2013

Broadchurch | Closing the Notebook - Spoilers

This will reveal the killer and discuss the ending, and the announcement at the end of the credits. If you have not seen Broadchurch Episode Eight - go away now! And watch it! Then come back, please.

I have to say, I have mixed feelings about Broadchurch. From episodes one to seven I haven't been able to fault it, it's been perfect. Beautifully written, directed, edited, structured and performed. One of the best dramas on TV for ages. But note - I don't call it a crime drama - because Episode Eight proved one thing. This is not a crime drama, or a murder mystery. If it was just a murder mystery, I'd be disappointed.

The good news is, I was right! Joe Miller was the killer, as was obvious from about weeks two and three for the viewer - because he was the least likely. So it was a clever move, in a way, to make him the killer. Unfortunately, the least likely became the most likely on the Internet and for the Bookies, and so the element of surprise or shock was non-existent when Joe was revealed. In fact, he was revealed in quite an undramatic way. I was hoping for a chase, or something, with Hardy following Joe onto the beach, and then Joe admitting he did it, standing on the spot he left Danny, with a crowd including Ellie gathering around him. My Northern friend Nathan Carter (he's on YouTube and Twitter, and not the singer) suggested that the hut might catch fire. Perfect! Another dramatic scene. But none of this happened. And in a way that's a good thing - how realistic would those have been? But in another way, it's a bad thing. Because if you've got the choice between a dramatic and realistic resolution, and a boring and realistic resolution - which would you pick?

Broadchurch went for the latter, and to be fair, in fitting with the tone of the series, the most real and least dramatic. Drama comes through the emotion, not the 'cheap' techniques that every series uses. And so, in a way, the revelation that Joe did was boring, but again, in another way, it was fitting. It's a battle between the two, and if I ever become a writer near to the standard of Chibnall, then I would go for an option in the middle. Personally, I wouldn't go for Joe standing in a shed. But the phone tracking scene, with Mark and Nige both possibly suspects, and a glimpse of Tom Miller, was brilliant. That is how you direct, people, that is how you edit, that is how you combine music and film perfectly. Excellent. But then you get to Joe in a shed and it's a bit... meh.

Albeit a realistic meh. So moving on slightly from that niggle, there's the question of: should he have actually been the murderer? Quite simply, yes. It couldn't have been anyone else, that wouldn't have been realistic enough. I was hoping for Dean, Chloe Latimer's boyfriend, or even Hardy - but again, how realistic would that have been? The killer is the only one that it really could have been - I just question one other thing. The reason.

Ok, so it was clever that killing Danny was more of an accident in a fit of anger that Joe had, but the "hugging" storyline was so predictable! Never mind realistic for that, surely, even if it was Joe, there could have been some other reason, some cleverer, less predictable reason, for him to have done it. To avenge Tom or to do something? Anything other than "oh we met up for hugs cos I was a better dad then whoops I killed him". The whole 'is he a paedophile' storyline was expected - and in a series that keeps twisting what you expect, it's a surprise that the only twist to that storyline was that it was just a hug. There could have been something more.

So a comment on all the red herrings and unanswered questions. First of all the clocks stopping - damn I wanted them to be important! Again, it might have added an extra edge to the storyline, if Danny was killed out of reason not out of accident, and the clocks stopped as part of that storyline. Second of all - Steve the psychic! He was there purely to add an extra dimension to the storyline, and it's a bit of a shame he didn't have any more to give than that. There were probably others I'll think of in time and tweet. (What do you mean you aren't following @trilbyauton?)

Another thing about the episode, and the series in general really, is the linear and realistic way it's been told. I'm very very glad that Joe didn't go from confessing in a shed to an interview room - but the 59 days earlier sequence felt a bit out of place for me. Perhaps it was too overly flashback-y, perhaps it didn't fit in with the mainly linear story that the series has told so far. It felt an odd (and surprisingly dramatic!) way to reveal what happened.

Anyway, enough of my small little problems with it. Overall, it's important to consider what I said at the start of this review. This was not a crime drama, which is just as well, because it would've been too predictable. But this was a showcase of emotions, a real drama, how one thing impacts on a community, and that has been shown perfectly. The acting, all the way through, has been incredible, as has the writing, all the way through. I am disappointed about the killer, to be honest, because I think it was the murder mystery/crime edge keeping people watching, rather than wanting to see Beth cry every week. But ultimately, I don't mind who the killer was, because I, and clearly everyone else judging by Twitter, can tell what the series was really about. And the emotion, the character, has been perfection all the way through. I can't fault the script (except maybe pick holes in the shed) and the dialogue has been amazing.

Episode Eight was predictably strong and emotional. It chose to reveal the killer early on (in a shed, just saying), so it could focus on the emotion. Ironically, it felt as if the impact of the killer wasn't felt enough, as if there needed to be more. I think that's maybe just cos I was a bit deflated about it being Joe, so when I rewatch it I probably won't notice that. But the way the news spreads around Broadchurch is typical of the whole series, and the cycle of the Latimer's finding out about Danny and then finding out about Joe in the same place, in the same positions, was excellent writing. The other fantastic thing, which I noticed back watching episode seven when I was adamant the killer was Joe, was the mirroring of Ellie's line to Susan. "How could you not know?". I'm not sure Beth needed to repeat it quite so explicitly, could that not have been a muted long shot to allow people to guess that the line was being mirrored?, but it was good to have that mirroring there. That just proves how clever and intricate the whole script has been. Perhaps that's why I'm so deflated about it being Joe- because the only thing that hasn't been clever and intricate is who the killer was.

Overall though - the series has been incredible. A special mention to Olivia Colman (not spelt with an 'e' Twitter) and David Tennant. David Tennant has portrays DI Alec Hardy well, without the shadows of playing the Doctor, and plays him as a full and believable character. The changing of how he acts when he knows that Joe is the killer, calling DI Miller 'Ellie' and the arrival of compliments (!) is perfect writing and foreshadowing. Ellie's reaction to Joe being the killer was also acted amazingly and with complete realism. Perfect.

And on the news of the next series. Well. We'll have to see how that one pans out. Another murder's unlikely - but doesn't Broadchurch then just become a soap? And how will we warm to detectives that aren't Hardy and Miller (if one could be said to have warmed to the former), without there being a contrived way of bringing them back?

I'm not 100% happy with the killer's identity, but I'm 100% happy with the emotion, the writing, the acting, the directing - in fact everything else.

#closure

Tuesday 16 April 2013

Broadchurch | The Detective's Notebook (Eps 1-7)

This is it! The final week next week, and I'm completely engaged in a programme I didn't even think I'd enjoy. Broadchurch is one of the most well written dramas I've ever seen - it is so real and brilliant, and the acting is superb. It's a great cast, a great script, great music, and now everyone's guessing who they think did it.

In my previous Detective's Notebook I outlined some suspicions and questions - "who's the father of Beth's baby", "what link do Susan and Nige have", "why does Nige have a crossbow" and "what happened to Mark Latimer in those missing two hours". Three of those, well pretty much, have been answered. We know Mark's the dad, which is surprisingly sensible, Susan and Nige are mother and son (which I didn't see coming) and Nige is weird so he owns a crossbow. Oh and he does pheasant stuff and went out on trips with Danny, so. We don't know what happened to Mark in those missing hours... And we still don't know why the Latimer clocks stopped in episode one..

Considering the five minute mystery at the start of the episode one (with the missing oil from the tractor) has been solved - maybe the Latimer clocks are important. There also things to update concerning Jack Marshall. I said it definitely wasn't him, or Mark, and I expect I'm right. I hope so - 'cos Jack Marshall threw himself off a cliff at the end of episode five anyway.

So it's time to update the suspect list. I'd pick up on Nige and Susan being weird and having a connection - and they did, but now Susan says Nige dragged the body onto the beach.. So with that in mind; who are my suspects?

Suspect A - Joe Miller (with Tom)
Yes, Miller's husband is still my top choice. It has to be him. He's bald, Nige is bald (thanks to Twitter for pointing that out) so Susan could easily have expected to see Nige, knowing he'd be capable of that, but would have actually seen Joe. And there's definitely something going on, or there was, between Tom and Danny. Tom and Danny sent messages (which Hardy the Detective says "of course" to) to each other which Tom was frantically trying to delete. We know Tom and Danny fell out, and Reverend Paul Coates says that he thought Tom mother's, which is Miller the Detective, knew about the fighting and falling out. She didn't. So maybe her husband said she knew. Maybe her husband found out about some Tom/Danny trouble, possibly involving the £500 in Danny's bedroom, and Joe sorted it. Did Tom send Danny messages saying he'd meet him at the hut where the murder happened?
So - Joe Miller, because of Tom. Which is what I believed after episode four - "We know that Miller's son (Danny's best friend) is hiding something, and perhaps Joe found out about this and acted to stop his son getting found out? Joe would also have a more emotional impact if it turned out to be him".
Or it could just be Tom, with Joe dragging the body. Tom is "that much bigger" than Danny anyway, according to Rory (I mean Paul) the Vicar.

Other Suspicions:

To be honest, it is Joe/Tom, no doubt, in my eyes. But I'm hoping that there's a further twist to surprise me. And I still believe innocent reporter Olly Stevens could have something to do with it. Or; does Steve Connolly have more secrets, or is he just a psychic? Probably that.

And one last suspicion, which I'm half hoping it was..
Could it have been DI Hardy..? Or even Chloe Latimer's boyfriend? Those would be real shocks. Especially the latter - I would be truly amazed. After all - Chloe Latimer's boyfriend doesn't have too much hair...

It definitely wasn't:

Paul Coates, that's too obvious, though maybe he knew something. And I'm pretty sure Nige and Susan are actually innocents in this case.

With the murderer, the clocks, and Danny's secret paintballing and pheasant trips with Nige and various others, still to be solved - HURRY UP NEXT WEEK!


Monday 1 April 2013

Broadchurch - The Detective's Notebook (Eps 1-4)

Aha, a non-Doctor Who post! Those who follow me on Twitter and actually read my Tweets will have seen a couple about the new 8-part ITV Drama by Chris Chibnall, Broadchurch. This is essentially a summary of who I feel are the most likely suspects in the murder of 11 year old Danny Latimer. (Note: This is clearly only going to be for people who have watched the show. If you haven't, you're missing out, watch it!)

Suspect A - Joe Miller
Yes, it's happy husband of Detective Ellie Miller, or "Miller", depending on how good with first names you are. He's, so far, made friends with Alec Hardy (the only person to make friends with the moody detective), kissed his wife, looked after his children, and done a really good job at just being nice. And so he's a suspect. We know that Miller's son (Danny's best friend) is hiding something, and perhaps Joe found out about this and acted to stop his son getting found out? Joe would also have a more emotional impact if it turned out to be him.

Suspect B - Reverend Paul Coates (thanks Wikipedia for reminding me of all these names...)
A half-suspicious half-very nice man, I feel it might be a little too obvious to be Coates. Surely his insomnia and his late night walkings about are too obvious? Yet, he knew the kids, and he's the one that no one can seemingly think of a motive for. He also knows about a lot of things - did he act on someone else's instructions? Maybe. Maybe not.

Suspect C - Olly Stevens
The news reporter. Started off looking a bit annoying in Episode One, and has now faded into the background to support the storyline of fellow dodgy journalist Karen White. He still could have been the one to set it up, and again, there's no clear motive (except his evident desire to move up in the world of journalism).

Suspect D - Steve Connolly
The psychic phone engineer, who's clearly up to something, even though I'm fairly sure it isn't murder.

also: What about other suspicious people?

Well everyone's suspicious, and the four I've picked are perhaps the most 'odd' choices, which is why they're there. But other characters like the mad caravan lady with the skateboard, Susan Wright, and Mark Latimer's best buddy with a crossbow in his van, Nige Carter, know something's happening. Doubt they actually did the murder though.

and lastly: People it Definitely Isn't:

-Jack Marshall, creepy shop owner, is definitely looking the most likely with increasing connections to the case. But it's only episode four (at the time of writing this), so it isn't him.
-Mark Latimer, he may be a little bit creepy, but he's near enough been cleared. He was missing during the time of the murder, I think - but again, he's been raised as a suspect a little too early.

Other Mysteries:
-Whose the father of Beth Latimer's new child?
-Why does Susan Wright have a skateboard, and a secret with Nige Carter?
-Why does Nige have a crossbow in his van?
-Where was Mark Latimer between 1 and 3?

Oh and of course.. Anyone remember in the first episode? Where Beth notes that the clocks have stopped...

Episode Five of Broadchurch airs tonight!