Everything is moving along nicely; we have six of the eight scripts in at first draft stage (the other two being slightly delayed due to one unfortunate writer’s catastrophic computer crash).
At this point in the process the scripts don’t quite gel together as a series. This is to be expected as all of these scripts have been written in isolation with just the character bible and the plot overviews as reference.
This will be addressed on Sunday when we will be having a script-reading. All of the writers, actors and music people will be getting together in Cardiff to sit down and read through the scripts. Notes will be taken, discussions will happen and I am sure a lot of yummy om nom nom donuts and pastries will be eaten.
From this the writers will be able to go away and amend their script to better fit with the overall series. They will learn from the each other and hopefully will emerge from the weekend enthused for the project and infused with a new understanding for the characters and situations. They will then have a set amount of time to produce their final drafts, which will come to me for my final changes before the recording scripts are produced.
The read-through will also allow the actors to get a sense of their characters and offer advice to the writers on writing for them. I am particularly looking forward to hearing the characters I have created come to life.
Finally, the music people will be able to look at the scripts and let the writers know if what they ‘hear’ in their mind is actually possible. I am sure there will be lots of raiding of various sound archives and maybe even some ‘sound outings’ to record various bits and bobs.
So, this weekend is all go for us. Expect a report and pictures will appear next week.
