Bianca Rowena's Blog, page 4
November 30, 2015
CKXU Radio: In Conversation with Bianca Rowena
CKXU Radio: In Conversation with Bianca Rowena
Tune in next week to CKXU’s Radio Program Universe Peace, hosted by Courtney Creator, in conversation with author Bianca Rowena, for a one hour interview on CKXU Radio 88.3 FM ! Or listen from anywhere in the world online (streaming live) at ckxu.com Wednesday, December 9th at 3:00pm – 4:00pm Mountain Standard Time – Canada
November 20, 2015
Speaking In Public: Are you Afraid?
Speaking In Public: Are you Afraid?
“Public speaking is listed as American’s number-one fear, before death at number five, and loneliness, weighing in at number seven. Guess that means that most of us are less afraid of dying alone than of making fools of ourselves in front of others.”
-Quoted from Toastmasters Website: http://westsidetoastmasters.com/resources/off_the_cuff/chap1.html
A few years ago I would have dreaded the idea of doing a reading at an open mic, and quite frankly wouldn’t have signed up. But now I’m actually looking forward to it! This upcoming Tuesday I will be doing a short reading of my novel at the Medicine Hat Library open mic night.
So what changed? Why am I actually looking forward to it than dreading it? Well firstly, I practiced, a lot. Not in front of the mirror, but in front of the people in my writer’s group. They weren’t professional speakers or a critical audience, they were always encouraging. I’ve been reading my stories out loud to them for over two years now and it’s made a huge difference in my fear of public speaking. I still get nervous sometimes. It’s impossible to step away from the feeling of self-awareness when you’re in the spotlight. Someone might laugh or sigh loudly or even walk out to use the washroom while you’re reading. It’s hard not to over analyze your performance and the reaction from the audience when you’re public speaking.
But the turning point for me was my last public speaking experience at Words In The Park in Sherwood Park, Alberta. It was the first time in my life I enjoyed public speaking without the fears that keep one second guessing oneself. The reason was simple. I actually believed the chapter of my novel that I was reading would entertain the people listening, and it did.
Suddenly my public speaking wasn’t about how I sounded or what people would think of me or if I would make mistakes or get embarrassed somehow, it was about entertaining the listeners, reading something I thought they would enjoy and making them a little less bored that morning.
Once I went from thinking about myself and how I came across on stage, to thinking about the audience and what would make them enjoy the session, it became fun!
Another great event I attend monthly is a local spoken word / poetry open mic night. It is a small group and the audience is very open and non-judgmental. I find my confidence for public speaking has grown a lot by attending this event. At first it was a personal challenge to use this ‘safe environment’ public speaking opportunity to give me practice speaking in front of a group of people, but now I do it for fun. I look for poems (and write them too) that I think the audience would enjoy. I want to share it with them, I want to engage with those who are there and they want to be entertained. They aren’t just a sea of heads who may think my dress looks dumb and my hair is frizzy.
So next time you’re nervous about speaking in front of a group of people just remember it’s not about you, it’s about your material that you’re presenting. And those listening almost always want you to succeed, they want to enjoy your speech or reading, they will probably find some entertainment in it, even if you mess up (maybe even more so, if something funny happens). It’s about them, not you. You’re there to give them something interesting to hear and experience, not to get approval of your voice or what you chose to wear that day (although I do recommend dressing appropriate to the audience, business, casual, formal, etc.)
And if you’re in the Medicine Hat area this upcoming Tuesday night please come out and see if I mess up in my reading of the chapter of the Virgin Diaries I will be presenting. Or just come and be entertained. I’d love to talk to you afterwards and ask if I succeeded in entertaining the audience for the short time I was in the spotlight.
Happy writings everyone,
-BiancaR
November 11, 2015
Today I Have Freedom
Today I’m free to go to work (and have a job because I want one) and to buy whatever I want and say whatever I want, as well as post my opinion on a public website like Facebook (not all countries are allowed to use Facebook), even if it’s about the government. I can celebrate whatever I want and write a novel about whatever I want and publish it too if I want, even if I’m a woman, and I’m also free to travel if I want because of something that holds a lot of merit in the world (a Canadian Passport).
So today, at 11am, I took a moment to remember (and write this post) that if the soldiers hadn’t fought for our freedom, back when it was in jeopardy and Canada was a younger and more vulnerable country, we might be under a different type of government right now, living different types of lives, having less rights, the way my parents lived under a communist government, you wouldn’t want that.
If we take just a moment to think on how truly lucky we are to be Canadian we’d be grateful today, and ever day.
Happy Remembrance Day
-BiancaR
October 31, 2015
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
October 29, 2015
Do You Have the Pitch Factor? (What I learned at London Screenwriter's Festival 2015)
Do You Have the Pitch Factor? (What I learned at London Screenwriter’s Festival 2015)
Imagine being in a large tent, the audience packed with writers that have all their attention focused on the stage, where you’re about to go up and pitch your film idea, with only two minutes to speak!
I was among these gutsy screenwriters daring enough to take this terrifying yet fun challenge of pitching in front a live audience as well as four Industry Professional Judges on a panel at this year’s Pitch Factor at the London Screenwriter’s Festival 2015. We were nervous, we were excited and we were having fun.
My favourite pitch was ‘The Children’s Table’ about a 15 year old girl who is still being sent to sit with the children at the ‘children’s table’ during a wedding dinner, even though she no longer feels she should be categorized as “one of the kids.” When things go awry and the wedding is attacked by gunmen, it’s up to the children at the children’s table to save the day. Brilliant! That was just one of many excellent pitches at the Pitch Factor last weekend.
The winner of the pot of money that night was Frank, with his outstanding pitch for On The Wire, a movie surrounding the bar sport of darts and the world dart championships. I don’t recall the details unfortunately (it must have been close to my turn to pitch at that point), nor Frank’s full name (If you know frank or his pitch please feel free to comment below), but he definitely got the attention of not only the industry professional judges but the audience as well!
So then what did I learn at this year’s London Screenwriter’s Festival? A lot!
Before I attended this festival, my first ever, all I knew was how to format / write a professional looking script. But there’s so much more to learn. Here’s what I found out:
A scriptwriter does not go to a screenwriter’s festival to ‘sell a script’ on site.
This was my misconception when I told all my friends in Canada I was going to London to attempt to sell my screenplays at the festival. When I got to LSF I quickly learned that these festivals are about networking and getting to know, and to be known, by the execs. The Great British Pitchfest (which I attended this year) wasn’t for handing over a printed copy of my script (yes I printed all my scripts before going to London and no I didn’t take take them to the Great British Pitchfest, not after the helpful crash course on pitching by Hollywood pitching guru Pilar Alessandra at Thursday’s Pitching Workshop).
So what happens during the Pitchfest? You get five minutes to give the exec sitting at a desk in front of you a logline of your movie that is so catchy, the exec becomes interested enough to give you their business card and asks you to send them a synopsis of your film or TV treatment of your series, or maybe they take your OneSheet if you’re lucky.
What doesn’t happen? You won’t be handing over your entire printed out manuscript in those five minutes and the execs won’t be pulling out papers for you to sign. Even the best case scenario would involve a lot of back and forth emailing and working together for months before things get off the ground.
2. No one Wants to Work With a Difficult Screenwriter
I knew this before going to the festival but it really came to light while I was there. The execs are tired, they’re overworked, they’ve got thousands of potential screenwriters vying for their attention. Who would the execs be most comfortably working with? Not the guy who gets pissed off because they aren’t looking for the genre he writes and didn’t take his OneSheet. I met SO many nice writers at LSF. They were friendly, open, knowledgeable, hopeful, etc. Then, on my last day, I met a very bitter screenwriter who was calling the execs (insert swear words here) names because they weren’t interested in his work. It really opened my eyes to something. Even if execs aren’t interested in a screenwriter’s genre at this time, a good attitude and a friendly smile could still go a long way in furthering a writer’s career in the future. It’s a process and there’s a ‘big picture’ to keep in mind.
It’s not hard to see how this works. Just put yourself in the execs shoes. Are you the kind of person they would want to work with as the screenwriter of their next upcoming movie, whom they will spend months corresponding with back and forth and being part of their team? Hopefully the answer to that is yes.
3. Learn Your Craft
I didn’t realize how much more there is to know about the industry, for a screenwriter, than simply knowing how to put together a professional looking script. From learning that character arcs in a TV series are important or how to make an excellent TV treatment, to understanding the process of getting your script optioned or your TV series onto Channel 4, a screenwriting festival is a great place to start accumulating the knowledge a writer will need to turn screenwriting into a career, starting with a realistic understanding of how the industry works (it’s not like winning the lottery).
4. Make Friends
I was standing in a cue for the ladies washroom, looking all around and moved almost to tears at the large amount of writers standing with me. I’ve never been with so many screenwriters under one roof. The writer’s group I attend in Canada is made up of novelists and poets. None of them writes screenplays. And then suddenly I was in London, surrounded by a sea of scriptwriters just like me!
I turned to the lady behind me and said “Wow, I’ve never seen so many writers all together like this” and she said “Yes, just look at all the competition”. I laughed because it was something that hadn’t crossed my mind. All I can say is, the like-minded writers that I became friends with last weekend made me feel like I’m part of a team, part of a bigger picture, a group that can encourage one another and help each other take the steps toward getting their screenplays optioned and eventually getting their work onto the big screen, or small screen, by sharing knowledge and inspiration and encouragement.
I learned that this industry is like a family. So it’s best to find friends and execs that you’d want to be part of your career “family”. It’s not a competition. The nervous group of us waiting in line to go on stage for The Pitch Factor weren’t looking at one another as the competition, but rather, we were encouraging each other with whispers of ‘you can do it!’ and ‘I think we’re either really courageous, or just plain crazy’. The girl in front of me said ‘I actually don’t know what I’m going to say yet’.
5. HAVE FUN
LSF was FUN! I met so many great writers and I didn’t even think of that as one of the goals of attending the festival. I thought I was going to pitch and sell a script. I came back with experience in pitching, a much better understanding of the industry and the tools I will need to realistically reach my goals of a screenwriting a career.
Happy writing everyone,
Bianca
** Photos courtesy of Tim Prescott https://twitter.com/prescottim
October 25, 2015
London According to Me....
London According to Me
L O N D O N 2 0 1 5 – The Journey of Dreams….
This post was really fun to write! My experience in London so far has been a little bit of culture shock and a LOT of amazement. At any given moment I felt like I was on a movie set, akin to the ones we walked through in Disney World, only these are not backdrops or wooden sets down these foggy streets, but in fact they are real buildings! So here we go, for my friends back in Canada, here is London according to me (and for my British friends please note, most of these are just a bit of fun)
Men in London say “pleasure” or “my pleasure” or, if they fancy to make you swoon, they’ll say “entirely my pleasure, seriously” (instead of “you’re welcome”)
People in Britain say “let me have a think” rather than “I’ll think about it”
Mistletoe grows on trees here! This can be a very exciting discovery, until you ask a local about it and they tell you that it’s not mistletoe but “Holly” and that mistletoe is actually an ugly large blob of leaves akin to a tumble weed (but still alive) very high up at the top of a tree where you’ll never see it, thereby shattering your false image of mistletoe from Canadian media.
Cars have the right of way to pedestrians, ALWAYS, no matter what. They’re likely to bump you with their front bumper if you don’t run across the intersection fast enough (I’m exaggerating, slightly). It’s just as hard getting used to cars being in the ‘wrong’ lane as a pedestrian, if not harder, as it is driving in the ‘wrong’ lane. When it says Look Left on the pavement, look EVERYWHERE, including right in front of you, behind your shoulder and basically in every direction possible.
Nobody that lives in London seems to know where any of the Catholic Churches are, even if one is just around the corner.If you ask someone for directions, get a second opinion, then a third. Keep asking until at least two directions are the same, otherwise you’ll walk in a loop forever.
Early Sunday morning traffic is as busy as Friday night party traffic (akin to Vegas on a busy day), which is the same as 12am, 2am and 6am and basically any time. London never sleeps. The little grocery stores scattered at every street corner, called Tesco, are open 24/7.
It’s always raining in London, but it’s never actually quite raining. Take a hooded coat that you can put on and off your head every 10 min as it is impossible to discern if it’s raining or not, and how that may or may not affect your hair.
Chocolate shops look like fancy jewelry shops, and the selection is amazing. Be prepared to pay lots, but it’s worth it!
“Cheers” has 1000 meanings, some of which include: “No worries” “See you later” “Thanks” “Don’t mention it” “You’re welcome” and whatever the equivalent of a wink in your direction would be, if it were translated to words.
A car trunk is called a ‘boot’
London doesn’t have garage sales or yard sales. They have carboot sales, where owners sell trinkets right out of their car trunks!!!
A subway train is called the ‘Tube’ and the station is called a ‘Tube Station’
London buses DO NOT TAKE CHANGE OR CASH. And if you didn’t know that, the bus driver may not believe you and get angry at you for trying to get a free ride, despite any change you may be holding in your hand. There is an 80 pound charge for not using the Oyster card to pay to catch a bus. More people ride the top level of a double decker bus than the bottom level.
You don’t have to be big or strong to deal with ruffians, you only need to have the glare of a Frenchman and no one will mess with you.
All the squirrels in London are French.
Little shacks down pathways are not someone’s grandma’s house in the woods, they are actually gardeners / grounds keepers sheds.
Some toilets are square not oval and you will feel like you’re 4 years old trying your best not to fall in, because they’re massive.
Money: When people say quid they mean pounds, for example “10 quid” is 10 pounds. The 10 cent is a much larger coin than the 5 cent (logical, but quite confusing if you’re Canadian). London still uses the 1 cent. There is no tax on anything, ever. The price you see is the price you pay.
There appear to be no homeless people in London. And there’s too much activity all day and night to ever feel unsafe in the city, with mass amounts of people around you all the time, anyone could help you should something happen.
Ambulance lights flash blue and an ambulance drives by every 45 minutes wherever you happen to be in London, every day. Their sirens are piercing.
It is very expensive to get into a London night club (like Fabric – not pictured here because I didn’t bring enough money on my night out to actually get in) and you should buy your tickets in advance online, or you’ll pay more at the door, that is if you make it down the lineup all the way to the door. Don’t come early, they don’t open until 11pm, and they close at 8am so the party doesn’t really get started until like 3am anyway.
The beautiful red payphones don’t actually have phones inside. Don’t go inside…
So there you have it! If I could have a magic teleport transporter to anywhere in the world it would be to London (via a nice smelling, new model, red phone booth!) :) I took all these photos myself, in the last 4 days, in the heart of London! I can only say that photos cannot do it justice. This place is magical and surreal. It is truly a city where dreams come true. The British are polite, friendly and all around fantastic, every last one of them.Thank you London! From this starting point, here at the London Screenwriter’s Festival 2015, I’ve begun to manifest my destiny! *Cheers* 
