LONDON'S MET FILM SCHOOL OFFERS HOPE

Is this the light at the end of the tunnel for scriptwriters? The bright idea to help Britain make more good original films than ever before?.

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Here is the pitch. You give the Met the first draft of a screenplay, they will pay you a competitive rate for it – that’s right, someone is finally actually offering to pay cash for an early work – and (it gets better) they will use their expertise to develop it with you over six months.

Five of the ten will qualify for another six months of development!

Development? What’s that? Among other things, they will arrangement placements at and advice from leading film companies.

Since the scheme is supported by brand name crews like BBC Films, Fox and The Weinstein Company, you would have to think these will be placements worth turning up for / advice worth listening to.

"Writers often don't understand enough about the commercial side of the business," says the school's director Jonny Persey, "because they can probably only understand it when they see it."

And the Met itself, based at London's famed Ealing Studios, is not a bad place to learn a little given that it takes the hands-on business element seriously and is involved in production itself as well as teaching courses.

Are you a typically frustrated writer thinking that this is too good to be true? That you should be looking this gift horse very squarely in the mouth?

No need, whatever happens, you retain the rights to their work.

So is the Met mad?

Actually, no. Persey says, What's in it for the school is the kudos that comes with success. (Obviously he is taking for granted that these scripts are going to fly.

Long-term relationships with the successful candidates is also an integral part of the deal, says Persey.

And they are only looking to take ten scripts, not every one in the land. And, secondly, they expect the writers to already have some experience of the craft.

Some experience? Meaning? "This course is for people who have already proven that they have a certain level of talent," says Persey.

Meaning? For the precise definition, perhaps best to check with the Met itself.

http://www.metfilmschool.co.uk/index.aspx

But do get a move on. Applicants need to send in their treatments by March 10. Email to wts@metfilm.co.uk.

The course begins in June with phase two starting in December.

Filed January 17, 2008.