Daniel Lyddon's Posts - National Theatre Wales Community2024-03-29T11:55:20ZDaniel Lyddonhttps://community.nationaltheatrewales.org/profile/Daniellyddonhttps://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3396124294?profile=RESIZE_48X48&width=48&height=48&crop=1%3A1https://community.nationaltheatrewales.org/profiles/blog/feed?user=3awzpw0t71qm1&xn_auth=noFrom Screenwriter to Playwrighttag:community.nationaltheatrewales.org,2019-07-30:3152760:BlogPost:2856562019-07-30T14:44:47.000ZDaniel Lyddonhttps://community.nationaltheatrewales.org/profile/Daniellyddon
<p><span style="font-size: 12pt;">It's been YEARS since I've been on the NTW community, but I'm back now, looking for information and inspiration as I embark on writing my first professional stage play. I haven't written a play since 2005 when I wrote a one-act piece for Bridgend County Youth Theatre's Halloween celebration. I'm currently scripting a two-act two-hander to be performed in Cardiff in spring 2020 followed by a transfer to London and hopefully, a brief New York run. That's the…</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 12pt;">It's been YEARS since I've been on the NTW community, but I'm back now, looking for information and inspiration as I embark on writing my first professional stage play. I haven't written a play since 2005 when I wrote a one-act piece for Bridgend County Youth Theatre's Halloween celebration. I'm currently scripting a two-act two-hander to be performed in Cardiff in spring 2020 followed by a transfer to London and hopefully, a brief New York run. That's the plan anyway. I'm circling a director and two actors for it, but all the crew roles are currently up for grabs.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Over the next few months I'll stop by periodically to let you know how I'm getting on. I plan on treating it as I would treat the film productions I've worked on - raising the budget via grants, private investment and sponsorship. I've sourced two grants worth applying for already, and now I'm on the lookout for a small(ish) theatre in central Cardiff to hire for a week next March as I complete the script.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 12pt;">If anyone has any advice or pointers about this stage of the process, I'm all ears :)</span></p>Novel or Script?tag:community.nationaltheatrewales.org,2011-11-18:3152760:BlogPost:943332011-11-18T14:43:19.000ZDaniel Lyddonhttps://community.nationaltheatrewales.org/profile/Daniellyddon
<p>I'd never had doubts about which way to tell a story until this year. I always knew from the start whether something was going to be a novel, a stageplay, screenplay, or short (both story and film). I know that other people sometimes have a dilemma in choosing which format to tell their story but it's never been a problem for me.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>This changed a few months ago (August? September?) when I woke up at stupid o'clock and wrote a short film in an hour and a quarter. Just like…</p>
<p>I'd never had doubts about which way to tell a story until this year. I always knew from the start whether something was going to be a novel, a stageplay, screenplay, or short (both story and film). I know that other people sometimes have a dilemma in choosing which format to tell their story but it's never been a problem for me.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>This changed a few months ago (August? September?) when I woke up at stupid o'clock and wrote a short film in an hour and a quarter. Just like that, as Tommy Cooper would've said. It started off with the image of a man in a crumpled suit sitting on a beach. Then it veered from the beach quickly and I ended up with a seven-scene screenplay.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Looking at it in the blurry-eyed light of day it dawned on me that, with a bit of jiggery-pokery, it might actually work better on stage. Or why not both? That's when I started to get this indecisiveness - why couldn't I just pick one?</p>
<p> </p>
<p>I decided to leave it as a screenplay, one written in the throes of inspiration that I still couldn't give you a log-line for. What's it about? It's about three people...and their relationships...or lack thereof...or something else. For the first time in my writing life I think I've written something that isn't all about plot.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The question still remains: novel or script? My previous post on NaNoWriMo elaborates: two novel ideas pushed aside in favour of pursuing a script. Is one more attractive to a writer than an other? And is it best to carry on down the attractive route or maybe push on in the opposite direction?</p>
<p> </p>
<p>For now I guess I'm working on a script, but one of the novels has to come right after that because the story might fall out of fashion pretty quickly.</p>NaNoWriMo Failtag:community.nationaltheatrewales.org,2011-11-17:3152760:BlogPost:942102011-11-17T18:19:20.000ZDaniel Lyddonhttps://community.nationaltheatrewales.org/profile/Daniellyddon
<p>I first heard of NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) in 2010 and liked the idea of committing to writing 50,000 words from November 1st right through to the 30th. So long as I had the research, characterisation etc. done by the first (which might actually have been cheating) it would've been easy enough to plod along through it.</p>
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<p>Everything was ready, inspiration was sky high. Started out with a few thousand words on Day 1 just to kick off. A few hundred words on Day…</p>
<p>I first heard of NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) in 2010 and liked the idea of committing to writing 50,000 words from November 1st right through to the 30th. So long as I had the research, characterisation etc. done by the first (which might actually have been cheating) it would've been easy enough to plod along through it.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Everything was ready, inspiration was sky high. Started out with a few thousand words on Day 1 just to kick off. A few hundred words on Day 2. On November 3rd I stalled. It wasn't for lack of inspiration, drive, ideas, ability to write. It was time. Not just procrastination, but finding time and setting it aside to focus on writing and nothing else.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>I gave up.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>This November I told myself it wasn't going to be the same. I knew what I was going to write (and in my mind already was) and I was going to make up for last year's poor showing by blasting a few a few thousand a day in the first week.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>I stalled again: this time because a different story came along that was much better, much more interesting to me. So I switched ideas (again probably cheating) on Day 3. By Day 5 I'd stalled again - once again because of lack of commitment to writing.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>I had had it all planned out: I'd tweet about it, I'd write notes about it on Facebook, I'd blog here. And then I realised that if I was doing all that I might as well use that time for actual writing.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>I stalled again: a better idea came along. A script this time. TV not film. A lot nicer I thought. I mean to stick to this because I can't keep chopping and changing projects. So I've given up on NaNoWriMo for the second year running. I'll do it in my own time, whenever I can make some. The problem lies in committing myself to it, not with shortage of ideas...</p>PRESS RELEASE: BAFTA-WINNING DIRECTOR TO HELM THE FINAL PUNCHLINEtag:community.nationaltheatrewales.org,2011-02-28:3152760:BlogPost:506602011-02-28T13:01:43.000ZDaniel Lyddonhttps://community.nationaltheatrewales.org/profile/Daniellyddon
<p>Well the weeks are rolling by quickly and its about time we started attaching people to the project. We're drawing up a list of names for casting, being realistic about who we can afford within the budget. In the meantime we've found our director; the press release is going out today:</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"> </p>
<h2 class="uiHeaderTitle" style="text-align: center;"><span class="font-size-2">PRESS RELEASE: BAFTA-WINNING DIRECTOR TO HELM THE FINAL PUNCHLINE</span></h2>
<p>BAFTA…</p>
<p>Well the weeks are rolling by quickly and its about time we started attaching people to the project. We're drawing up a list of names for casting, being realistic about who we can afford within the budget. In the meantime we've found our director; the press release is going out today:</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"> </p>
<h2 style="text-align: center;" class="uiHeaderTitle"><span class="font-size-2">PRESS RELEASE: BAFTA-WINNING DIRECTOR TO HELM THE FINAL PUNCHLINE</span></h2>
<p>BAFTA award winner joins The Final Punchline</p>
<p> </p>
<p>UK indie production company Seraphim Pictures has attached BAFTA-winning David J. Evans to direct its forthcoming short film "The Final Punchline". David won the BAFTA Cymru Best Film award in 2006 for "Daddy's Girl" starring Jaime Winstone, and most recently directed the online superhero series "The Splott Division". The Cardiff-based director has also directed episodes of the hit series "Caerdydd" for Welsh language channel S4C.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>ABOUT THE FINAL PUNCHLINE (<a href="http://www.indiegogo.com/punchline" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.indiegogo.com/punchline</a>)</p>
<p>The Final Punchline follows stand-up comedian Jason Rees, a cancer patient determined to carry on entertaining despite his deteriorating health. Filming is set to begin at the end of March in Cardiff, South Wales, with part of the budget being raised through online crowdfunding site IndieGoGo.com. The film will make its market debut at the Marché du Film of the Cannes Film Festival, screening at the Short Film Corner from May 11th to 21st 2011.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>ABOUT SERAPHIM PICTURES (<a href="http://www.seraphimpictures.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.seraphimpictures.com</a>)</p>
Seraphim Pictures is an independent production company based in South Wales, UK. Its portfolio includes short films, documentaries and music videos that have been screened across Europe and North Africa. The Company screened its first short film The Things Unsaid at the Cannes Film Festival in 2006Introducing our crowdfunding campaigntag:community.nationaltheatrewales.org,2011-02-23:3152760:BlogPost:501692011-02-23T11:50:28.000ZDaniel Lyddonhttps://community.nationaltheatrewales.org/profile/Daniellyddon
<p>With almost a month to go before we start filming, here's an intro to the crowdfunding campaign for our short film <em>The Final Punchline</em>:</p>
<p> </p>
<p></p>
<p> </p>
<p>With almost a month to go before we start filming, here's an intro to the crowdfunding campaign for our short film <em>The Final Punchline</em>:</p>
<p> </p>
<p></p>
<p> </p>Attention seeking newsfeedstag:community.nationaltheatrewales.org,2011-02-21:3152760:BlogPost:502542011-02-21T14:22:07.000ZDaniel Lyddonhttps://community.nationaltheatrewales.org/profile/Daniellyddon
<p> </p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Attention! Seeking!! Aggregate newsfeeds!!</span></p>
<p> </p>
<p>I woke up this morning to find a random tweet by a random tweeter who I don't know tweeting about me. Adding to the usual Monday confusion (why is it still not Sunday?) said random tweet directed me to a random website - <a href="http://paper.li">http://paper.li</a></p>
<p>From what I can tell it's some kind of news aggregate site billed as an…</p>
<p> </p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Attention! Seeking!! Aggregate newsfeeds!!</span></p>
<p> </p>
<p>I woke up this morning to find a random tweet by a random tweeter who I don't know tweeting about me. Adding to the usual Monday confusion (why is it still not Sunday?) said random tweet directed me to a random website - <a href="http://paper.li">http://paper.li</a></p>
<p>From what I can tell it's some kind of news aggregate site billed as an online 'newspaper'. Not in a "The Times Online" way, but in a "look - free info about stuff - all in one place - read it!!" kind of way. Truth be told I didn't stick around long after the initial read of the plug for my short film <em>The Final Punchline</em> and performed the obligatory self-promotion on social networking sites.</p>
<p>It got me thinking about aggregates, and newsfeeds, and the random bots that just pluck you out of cyberspace and put you down somewhere unexpected. I have one of those Google-friendly names that means I can find easily find myself in all sorts of nooks and crannies online. During my days of corporate movie production and social media optimisation I could turn up on anything from obscure tech blogs to Japanese social network postings.</p>
<p>I'm not sure whether this random dispersal of information has any useful effect for any kind of promotion. Aggregate sites and newsfeeds literally trawl the internet, fish out bits of info and often dump it somewhere completely irrelevant. I've seen plenty of sites listing my birthday and age but do I get any extra cards? No. It just makes me wonder whether there's any use in aggregated dispersal of information outside of mainstream PR sites.</p>
<p>Incidentally I did the same search for "The Final Punchline" and I had to go as far as page 9 for a random aggregate site listing. One of our Facebook posts turned up on page 13...and in point of fact the 1st listing at the top of Google is my posting on the National Theatre Wales community! Social networking 1, news aggregates 0.</p>The Final Punchline - IMDb listingtag:community.nationaltheatrewales.org,2011-02-14:3152760:BlogPost:493832011-02-14T13:00:00.000ZDaniel Lyddonhttps://community.nationaltheatrewales.org/profile/Daniellyddon
<p> </p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span class="font-size-4" style="text-decoration: underline;">The Final Punchline on the IMDb</span></p>
<p> </p>
<p>As the weeks go by we're gaining momentum on the project and starting to get some decent publicity. Our first press article was featured in <span class="profileName ginormousProfileName fwb">the February edition of Los Ange</span>les magazine Satellite - "transmitting the worlds of fashion, design and culture". You can read it online…</p>
<p> </p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span class="font-size-4" style="text-decoration: underline;">The Final Punchline on the IMDb</span></p>
<p> </p>
<p>As the weeks go by we're gaining momentum on the project and starting to get some decent publicity. Our first press article was featured in <span class="profileName ginormousProfileName fwb">the February edition of Los Ange</span>les magazine Satellite - "transmitting the worlds of fashion, design and culture". You can read it online here:</p>
<p><a href="http://satellite-mag.com/Satellite/TheFinalPunchline.html">http://satellite-mag.com/Satellite/TheFinalPunchline.html</a></p>
<p> </p>
<p>On Friday the the film was accepted to the IMDb; the entry is now live with more details being added in the coming weeks. Check it out here and please hit the all-important Facebook like button:</p>
<p><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1837680/">http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1837680</a></p>
<p> </p>
<p>With more articles and publicity lined up for the next few weeks you should see mention of the film online and when you're out and about! In the meantime our crowdfunding campaign is still ongoing at:</p>
<p><a href="http://www.indiegogo.com/punchline">http://www.indiegogo.com/punchline</a></p>
<p>Please visit the page, hit the Facebook like button, share with your friends, leave supportive comments, and if you'd like to support the project donate whatever you can in return for rewards!</p>
<p> </p>
<p>More news soon...</p>
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<p> </p>My first ever blog post!!tag:community.nationaltheatrewales.org,2011-01-20:3152760:BlogPost:484612011-01-20T11:30:00.000ZDaniel Lyddonhttps://community.nationaltheatrewales.org/profile/Daniellyddon
<p> </p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span class="font-size-5" style="text-decoration: underline;">My first ever blog post on the NTW community!</span></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"> </p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><span class="font-size-2">I hope that you're all well; I haven't been on the National Theatre Wales community for a while so I apologise if I've neglected or forgotten people. My last status update tells me it was September, and that's a shocking gap that I need to make up…</span></p>
<p> </p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span class="font-size-5" style="text-decoration: underline;">My first ever blog post on the NTW community!</span></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"> </p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><span class="font-size-2">I hope that you're all well; I haven't been on the National Theatre Wales community for a while so I apologise if I've neglected or forgotten people. My last status update tells me it was September, and that's a shocking gap that I need to make up for. I haven't posted a blog here before which, considering I'm a writer, must mean I'm lazy. Or easily distracted. Most likely a combination of both.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"> </p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><span class="font-size-2">Anywho, I'm finally getting around to it and promise to make more of an effort in future! For the foreseeab</span><span class="font-size-2">le future</span> <span class="font-size-2">I'</span><span class="font-size-2">l</span><span class="font-size-2">l be using it to promote the crowdfunding campaign for our short fi</span><span class="font-size-2">lm "The Fina</span><span class="font-size-2">l Punch</span><span class="font-size-2">line". You'</span><span class="font-size-2">l</span><span class="font-size-2">l find more detai</span><span class="font-size-2">ls of the campaign at</span> <a href="http://www.indiegogo.com/punchline" target="_blank">http://www.indiegogo.com/punchline</a><span class="font-size-2">. </span></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"> </p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><span class="font-size-2">Press re</span><span class="font-size-2">leases have been going out to We</span><span class="font-size-2">lsh, UK & G</span><span class="font-size-2">loba</span><span class="font-size-2">l media out</span><span class="font-size-2">lets with a focus on fi</span><span class="font-size-2">lm-re</span><span class="font-size-2">lated websites & pub</span><span class="font-size-2">lications, and we're p</span><span class="font-size-2">lugging the fi</span><span class="font-size-2">lm on <a href="http://www.facebook.com/seraphimpictures" target="_blank">Facebook</a> & <a href="http://www.twitter.com/SeraphimPics" target="_blank">Twitter</a> (and here obvious</span><span class="font-size-2">ly!) with Myspace & YouTube to come next. If anyone can make any suggestions as to how e</span><span class="font-size-2">lse we may be ab</span><span class="font-size-2">le to p</span><span class="font-size-2">romote the campaign p</span><span class="font-size-2">lease get in touch!</span></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"> </p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><span class="font-size-2">More soon...</span><span class="font-size-2"><br/></span></p>