Scotland

Join us for a Scottish summer

As festival season gears up for another year, WGGB has headed North to take part in three major events on the Scottish creative calendar.

We have already ticked XpoNorth and Edinburgh International Film Festival off our list (see below) and the next stop on our tour is the Edinburgh Festival Fringe (3-27 August 2018).

The world’s largest arts festival showcases a wide range of performing arts, and includes cabaret, children’s shows, comedy, dance, physical theatre and circus, events, exhibitions, music, musicals and opera, spoken word and theatre. In addition, events along the Royal Mile during the Festival represent the largest street fair of its kind in the world. Entry to the Fringe does not involve a selection committee, and so it often showcases experimental works that wouldn’t make it into other festivals.

For the seventh year running, Scottish representatives of WGGB will be holding a stand at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Participants Fair on 20 August 2018, 1-6pm at Concourse Space, Fringe Central, Appleton Tower, corner of Windmill and Chapel Streets, Edinburgh EH8 9LE.

Entry is free, so just pop in and see us anytime.

If you are a WGGB member in the Scottish region and would like to find out more about our work there please email kate@writersguild.org.uk

Previous events in Scotland this summer:

XpoNorth

27-28 June 2018

Scotland’s leading creative industries festival took place against the beautiful backdrop of the Highland capital of Inverness. It included over 50 film screenings, upcoming Scottish music acts and more. WGGB President and BAFTA-nominated screenwriter Olivia Hetreed spoke at the following two sessions.

Auteur! Auteur!
Date and times: 27 June 2018, 4.45pm-5.45pm
Venue: OneTouch Theatre, Eden Court

This keynote speech explored authorship in the film industry, which has long been a vexed question. There’s a script and a screenwriter, a producer who quite probably came up with the idea and made it happen, and a director who makes the choices that shape the final film. Not to mention hundreds of other highly skilled and artistic people who contribute along the way. Is authorship even relevant to such a collaborative medium? How is it reflected in the legal and rights holding framework? As more and more work moves to digital platforms and the lines between film and TV become increasingly blurred, the question of whose work it is, is more than ever urgent.

The Invisible Women: Women and Careers in the Screen Industries
Date and times: 28 June 2018, 1pm-2.15pm
Venue: The Jim Love Studio, Eden Court

A century after representation in the political sphere, women are still struggling to be visible in the mainstream media. A recently released independent report, commissioned by WGGB and launched alongside our Equality Writes campaign, shows that women writers in film and TV are severely under-represented – only 16% of working screenwriters in film in the UK are female, and only 14% of prime-time TV is written by women. This panel discussion explored the reasons why TV and film struggle even to represent reality, let alone provide aspiration for the next generation – for example, only 30% of doctors on TV are female, while in real life that figure is 52%.

Page to ScreenEdinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF)

20 June to 1 July 2018

This annual fortnight of cinema and screenings and related events is one of the world’s oldest continually running film festivals. WGGB President Olivia Hetreed (left) and Film Co-Chair Andrea Gibb (below left) spoke as part of a special Industry Programme for professionals or students in the film or media industries.

 

 

Page to ScreenPage to Screen: The Writer’s Point of View
Date and times: 29 June 2018, 5pm-6.30pm
Venue: Traverse Theatre 1
EIFF Press and Industry Centre

Creative interpretations of literary works are often credited to the director, but what about the writers involved in the process? How does it feel to see your story morph from page to screen? How easy is it to shape someone else’s ideas into another format? WGGB President Olivia Hetreed (Girl with a Pearl Earring, Wuthering Heights) joined WGGB Film Co-Chair Andrea Gibb (Dear Frankie, Swallows & Amazons) and screenwriters Paul Laverty (I, Daniel Blake, The Angels’ Share, My Name is Joe, pictured below left) and Stephan Elliott (Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, pictured below right) to discuss.

Page to Screen

 

Lead photo: Shutterstock.com/Stefano_Valeri

Other photos: Pako Mera/Edinburgh International Film Festival

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