Dispatch From The Quest: Meet Emma Millions

Over the course of the 24 weeks I will be working with the writers in “The Quest,” I will be posting ‘dispatches’ from them to the GITS community. There are several reasons for this, the main one being educational: Hopefully you will learn something of value for your own understanding of the craft from the experiences of the Questers.

I should also add they are a great group of people, so I expect you will enjoy getting to know them.

Today I would like to introduce Emma Millions to you. Emma is based in Sussex in the United Kingdom. She has managed to carve out some work primarily as a TV writer [for the record, not a Guild member] and has an interesting background which she describes in brief here:

I wanted to be a writer even before I could talk. My childhood ambition was to see my name on the credits of films and TV shows. So I started making super8 films as a kid and then did an actual proper degree in film and TV at Portsmouth University. I went straight from university to a real life job producing late night TV and from there blagged a ‘gig’ writing for kids television. I accidentally found myself doing a bit of stand up comedy before I realised that was total madness and I concentrated on writing comedy instead. I’ve been writing TV comedy for the last 10 years, scraping by and eventually managed to ditch the ‘day job’ producing and developing TV. I somehow found myself working with the late legendary British director Ken Russell for a while which was crazy, beautiful fun. I write kids TV, sketch shows, sitcom pilots when I get the chance and the occasional film script. I also do a bit of commercial stuff for the cold hard cash and write continuity links for various broadcasters. I am currently developing a crime comedy drama for the BBC and so, so want to write more movies so this opportunity is one I could not afford to miss out on. Hoorah!

Here is Emma’s first dispatch from her Quest experience:

So, The Quest has begun. How did I come to be on it? I’m still kind of surprised that I am. After realising that the UK summer was going to be a complete washout I decided I was going to distract myself by writing a new spec feature script — then, perhaps, I wouldn’t notice that it was raining EVERY SINGLE DAY. I’d already finished Lego Batman 2 which was my original distraction plan. As I writer I often find myself shut inside a darkened room lit only by the light of my computer screen, unwashed and unkempt, lost in the world of my script with no concept of reality to interfere. Perfect for the wettest summer on record. So I announced my intention to lose myself in a new feature script but had several ideas and no clue which one to write. Then, ta-dah! The Quest came along and decided that for me. A pleasant and exciting surprise, like realising you still have those couple of beers left in the fridge, but much, much better. As a writer, I prefer to have more than one project on the go at a time and one project had just come to an end, literally on the day the Quest began, I finished that job and I needed something to take it’s place. Weird, huh? Like fortuitous or what? So right now I have a juicy TV comedy crime drama to work on — and plotting murder is so much fun — and now I also have a big fat comedy feature running round in my head waiting to find it’s way onto the page thanks to The Quest. First things first — get into ‘the zone’ by watching movies and reading scripts that are in someway relevant to my idea. What other job do you legitimately get to sit on your arse in front of the TV for ‘research purposes’? Who cares about the sun, anyway?

If you have any questions for Emma, feel free to post them in comments.

Tomorrow: Another Dispatch From The Quest.

For background on “Go Into The Story: The Quest,” go here and here.

Comment Archive