Talent Campus 5.0 – what a ride that was! For those of you who don’t know, Talent Campus is organised by the incredible people behind the London Screenwriters Festival They select 28 applicants to participate in the Total Immersion programme which is designed to improve not only writing skills but professional ones as well and provides an exclusive opportunity to pitch directly to the industry. But before we even got to London we were given four separate writing assignments each with a week to complete it (which was a challenge in itself given that two of them fell over Christmas and the New Year) but we got them done and waited nervously for the feedback. And when those first notes came in it dawned on us that this wasn’t just for fun it was serious! (The fun part was a live zoom session with Pilar Alessandra!)
So, projects and feedback in hand, I set off for London with a mixture of excitement and trepidation, feeling a bit like Dick Whittington off to find my screenwriting fortune. Now I will schmooze if forced to but my comfort zone is definitely slinking in at the back trying not to be noticed. However, past alumni had hinted that we had to up for anything, so I made the decision to sit in the front row and raise my hand no matter what – little did I know that I was already opening myself up to the mindset juggernaut that is Talent Campus. Over that 5 days we had some brilliant folk come in to talk to us including Jed Mercurio, writer and showrunner of Line of Duty and Bodyguard and Gareth Ellis-Unwin, producer of the Oscar-winning film The King’s Speech (and yes, we did get to hold his Oscar!) And if that wasn’t enough we got a day’s course from TV producing legend and author of Into the Woods John Yorke (How I wish I’d known about his seminars when I first started writing). We also got time with each of the four mentors, before being allocated our mentor for the next few weeks. (Mine
However, the Talent Campus experience isn’t just about getting writing and industry savvy, oh no, it is so much more than that – If anything it was more like a self-help group for writers where we were challenged to examine who we were and who we really wanted to be. We had to learn to put aside our fear of pitching, networking, of imposter syndrome and start believing that we belonged there. After all, if we didn’t have the confidence in ourselves, how could we expect any agent or producer
We all left The Ignition on fire in more ways than one and fully charged to hone our pitches and treatments over the next four weeks with regular check-ins with our mentors and mentor groups, plus we had a live zoom session with Joey Tuccio of Roadmap Writers. This was all to get us in gear for the second phase of Talent Campus – The Crucible. It’s safe to say that we were all feeling a little nervous that first morning back but after a day of pitch, networking and mental preparation (telling that little doubting voice to f*** right off!), by the time the industry pitch event arrived we were confident networking powerhouses ready to schmooze the evening away with specially invited industry professionals from film and TV. Every one of us came away from it with new contacts and/or requests for reads.
I applied to Talent Campus hoping it would make me a better writer but I emerged as a Story Warrior (yes with capitals!) with the confidence to take the action I need to succeed. (Amateurs hope, professionals act!) and that’s down to everyone who is part of the Talent Campus team but in particular to Chris Jones whose incredible energy and positivity techniques infused us all with Wonder Woman awesomeness. And I came away being part of a close-knit tribe who are going to support and encourage each other every step of the way to screenwriting success. (Including the Oscar-winning my group are going to make!)
And if in the future I ever find that tiny little voice of self-doubt creeping into my head I’ll hold my little bottle of firewalk ashes, pose like Wonder Woman and tell it to f**k right off – I’m a Story Warrior and my stories are going to be heard.
