Paint in words, paint in images | Irish Writers' Centre

Shane Connaughton will be reading as part of the Lunchtime Reading series at the Irish Writers? Centre today?Friday, 24th February at 1.05pm.?The Lunchtime Readings will run on Fridays throughout February and March in the Irish Writers? Centre and are organised in association with Poetry Ireland. The readings will be alternating between prose and poetry, offering audiences the chance to experience a wide-range of literary talent.

How and why did you begin writing? The how and the why are identical twins. A mixture of aloneness and wanting to express that so I could fill my head with friends. Also an urge to tell the world about the people I met.

You have written screen plays (of the most famous being ?My Left Foot?) and novels. If you have completed a script and your next project happens to be a novel how do you make the mental/intellectual switch between the two genres? Is there one side of the brain for screen writing and one for the novel? It?s like a cobbler going from a clog to a shoe. Or a boot to a high heel. It?s just part of the job. It?s Grub Street out there. So you have to do what pays. One can illuminate the other. You paint in words, you paint in images. You write about a mirror or you look into it.

On screen writing you have suggested elsewhere that a treatment for a film-movie script should shorter rather than longer. How long? What would be the maximum words in terms of the ?sell? for a treatment? Two or three pages are enough for starters. If it grabs the attention they?ll ask you for more. One good page is better than ten dud pages.

When it comes to screen writing what makes the best balance between scene description and directions, and the dialogue? Some Producers want everything explained. Others want the minimum. Tell it simply so a child can get it. Never underestimate the stupidity of a Producer. He understands the market maybe. Not the art. He can sell your beast at the Mart. He can?t feed it beforehand. Dialogue is ?ear?. Listen to people at the bus stop. In the street. They talk crooked, not in straight lines.

You are a Cavan man! In terms of films and books do the ?Border Counties? get enough attention in Irish culture given that they seem to be a hinterland between the burgeoning conurbations of Greater Dublin even up along the eastern coast and life in Northern Ireland? Is hinterland a rich seam to mine stories from? Probably don?t get enough attention. The capital always comes first in every country. Except Australia. (Canberra?) You had Brendan Behan and Patrick Kavanagh. Who was the best? The Border does have a great edge. But no matter where you come from, edge is the thing you need. A good edge ? you can cut with it. The Border country is my territory. I love juggling two realities instead of one. Two languages, two religions, two sets of politics?But then London is my country too. So is Stoke-On-Trent. So is anywhere I?ve ever lived.

You have ?crossed the line? from actor to director, and possibly back again. Did you find it easier to script and direct having treaded the boards? Yes. Acting is a great way to learn how to write. You see how it works. It?s all about an audience. Never forget your audience. Even if it?s only your Auntie Mary. (Or your Uncle Mary)

Corrie fans will be delighted to hear that you acted in Coronation Street! This brings up the apparent divide between ?popular? and so-called ?high culture?. Do you think budding screen writers should be eclectic? Should they be prepared to script for a soap as much as to the art house cinema project they have been obsessed with since they were teenagers? Just remember ?ART? hasn?t got a capital ?A?. Especially in theatre. A writer should be prepared for anything. If he/she/it wants to make a living from it. There aren?t any rules. If you see yourself as an art house person ? go for it. Beckett did. If he needed the money though, I?m sure he?d have turned out scripts for Coronation Street. Shakespeare did it for both. The Court as well as the Groundlings. Obsession is a good word.

What is your next project and what does it entail? My next project is the filming of A Border Station. Hopefully this year in Cavan. But I?m also acting in my own play ? The Pitch. That?s a Cavan play but it?s based on Philoctetes. I?m also writing the follow-up to A Border Station.

What advice do you have for budding screen writers? There are, as I said before, no rules. If it works ? anything goes. If it doesn?t ? you?ve broken the rules. Be true to yourself. If you have a story, write it, get your friends to act in it, get, borrow, steal a digital camera, it?s so much cheaper nowadays and getting cheaper. If you have a play, put it on over a pub or in the street, or?anywhere. You CAN send it to theatres. But most of those places are run by educated morons. Don?t give up. Be wary of ex-teachers. And Cert X Producers.

After working on farms, in factories and city offices, Shane Connaughton trained as an actor at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. He has played leading parts in rep at Perth, Scarborough, Victoria Theatre Stoke-On-Trent, The Half National Theatre London, toured with 7:84 Theatre Company, Pirate Jenny, The Tricycle Theatre. His numerous television credits include Coronation Street. He has acted in films for Ken Loach, Mike Leigh, Gillies McKinnon, Jon Avnet and Peter Yates. He has written plays for the National Theatre (Sir is Winning), the Victoria Theatre (Western Coyney Cowboy), Half Moon Theatre (George Davis is Innocent OK), 7:84 (Relegated), Dublin Theatre Festival (Divisions). His film work includes the scripts for Every Picture Tells A Story, My Left Foot, The Playboys, The Run Of The Country, O Mary This London, Dollar Bottom, Tara Road.? For My Left Foot he was nominated for an Academy Award. Dollar Bottom won the Academy Award for best ?Live Action Short?. He has won the George Devine Award, The Hennessy Literary Award, The London Irish Post Award. He has been the subject of two television documentaries A Border Childhood (BBC TV)and From Redhills to Beverly Hills (RTE).? A Border Station, his highly praised first novel, was shortlisted for The Guinness Peat Literary Award with the Irish Independent commenting? ?Comparisons with the work of John McGahern and Patrick Kavanagh is inevitable?It is a tribute to Connaughton that his child?s view of life holds its own with those two giants.? He has recently starred in his own play The Pitch at The New Theatre, Dublin and on tour around Ireland.

Source: http://writerscentre.ie/blog/?p=584

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