Four years of Journey



Today I decided to make this little update about my years of experience in the UK.

It's been four years since I moved to the UK. You may ask why this is important? It's only your personal life... who cares.

The thing here, is that I moved from Portugal when I was in my dream job writing for TV. Why I moved then? Because of the situation that led the country to the near bankruptcy, corruption and insecurity.

I moved on my birthday in 2011. It  was a birthday present to my own.

My town in Portugal is the most posh in the country. I end up in one of the most deprived areas in the UK. A bit of a shock. Starting absolutely from zero in the bottom of the bottoms.

My goal is to work for BBC, or ITV or Channel 4... maybe 5. I love television and film and that's what I want to do. But since I moved in the UK I need to work so I get jobs  in schools... seriously, my faith in the next generation went gone in a flush. The town didn't help, but blimey,  does schools need to be such a dangerous place to work?

In the meantime of this nightmare I kept writing... some of the stuff you can find here in my blog. Not the best thing as it was my "training" of writing in English. But very important to my improvements.

One day, about 3´0 clock in the morning, I received the good news. I won an EMMY... A real one. With my fellows of the SP Televisao in Portugal. Some of them went to NY to the announcement. I went to the school avoiding some punches (I couldn´t avoid twice) a taser and pepper spray. Really, that kids were trying to punch an EMMY winner.

My life changed a bit. I received congratulations from the Westminster Parliament (I don't believe my colleagues received any congratulation from the Portuguese Parliament).  I was also invited to be in a panel at the University of Brighton with the producer of Harry Potter and Sherlock Holmes, to speak to the creative writing students. Some doors start to open. Just slightly.

Since then I met lot's of people in the industry, I attend to meetings, I kept writing, I met more people, I kept writing, I did lot's of networking, I kept writing, I start this blog, I kept writing... Did it worth? Well I'm definitely much closer than I was when I arrived on the 7th of January 2011.

In 2014 I moved to York, and the things improved a lot. I'm now in the centre of the triangle Salford, London, Edinburgh. And York recently was nominated as the UNESCO MEDIA CITY. I'm in the right place at the right time. Eventually I recently received a good review from BBC about on of my scripts. That led me to the next step. I feel I'm near the door now. Ok, maybe I'm already in the atrium. But I still have loads of sets of stairs, and many doors to knock. Do I ever will enter? It will take time but I say, yes I will.

From the zero to hero time that I spent in these four years, I know I will do it at one point.

One of my contacts introduced me to a very nice guy, John Goodfellow who is literally a good fellow, a script editor who is working with me at the moment. We are working together in my ideas and extraordinary things will come up from this collaboration. John is the last piece I need it to take my English language scripts to the next level. I was lucky to meet him and it was immediately mutual chemistry. We are absolutely tuned. 

In these four years I found many different people. Some fantastic inspirations; Some bluffers; Many that I thought they could helped me but in the end they were looking for the same as me. I found amazing people willing to help but couldn't. People who could help but didn't. Lot´s of people much better than me, that makes me understand that I need to work harder every time. Also found people unfairly with good positions, because they are simply bad, and people unfairly with bad positions because they really deserve much more than they got.

It was four years hearing the old fashion jargons "we need new fresh ideas, we need scripts" but then they never give you a chance. "Get an agent" really? They only get new writers once in ten years. It's a vicious circle or as we say in Portugal, an Hake with the tail in his mouth. 

A good thing about my career, what I learned in my country, all the journey I walked from the beginning until we won the EMMY, helped me to avoid the errors of the past. It was a second life opportunity. What it take me fifteen years to achieve in my first attempt, it only take four years  this second time. That brings lots of hope but also lots of responsibilities.

Why this is important to scriptwriting? Well. That's Life. Life full of experiences. Life showing that the journey is not easy. But also showing me that it's possible. Just need to work harder and harder.

A big advice. Don't think everything is going to happen next week. It will not. Don't try to get 15 minutes of fame and then end up in the bin. Build something that will bring a life of fame. And as I said before when I was interviewed by journalist, fame is not to be recognized in the street. Fame is to be recognized in the offices of the producers. To be famous because of a persistent good work. That's what is important.

Cya soon