graffiti artists

Just had an excellent conversation with a man who runs projects for the Southbank centre and it appears that the graffiti artists collaborate every year with the Hayward gallery and exhibit their art.
They also have a number system so all artists get a turn at the large areas where skate park is.  This all seems really positive and this man seems genuinely on the side of these young people.
He also told me that in 2020 the park might be moved but MOVED not got rid of and that the young people will have lots of meetings with the Southbank centre to decide on the best place for it to go.  They want a full weather canopy so skating can happen on rainy days and this is something that may get the go ahead.
In his words 'the skate park has been here for 30 years, it is embedded in the culture of the Southbank and it will always stay.'
Excellent! Fabulous! Brilliant!

The guardian angel

The guardian angel character doesn't work at all because he does all the work for Frank, therefore we don't see a strong enough character arc of the main character.
New idea:
Frank goes on news program but is set up by Clarissa and Sinclair to be made to look stupid.
He is really cross at this and decides to do his own investigations into the whole area of the Southbank.
He uncovers corruption.
He makes Clarissa help him.
He shows up Sinclair for what he really is.
He gets to save skate park.  Yippee!

By leaving out guardian angel and making Frank more pro-active I think I'm giving him a better voice.  God.....I hope so.  Two weeks to go before this has too be handed in.......help........!

Formatting the story

I have had an idea for where the script is going from this research for some time but I've changed the original idea more times than I've had hot meals in the last four weeks.  I didn't intend to do this at all, it was just very much needed.  I have really struggled with the actual formatting of the script.
The original idea was 'Frank'  (its always been Frank) a young skater always at the Southbank has a gang issue with boys from Surrey coming in and using the park.  The London boys verses the Surrey boys leads to tension.  Meanwhile Frank has a disasterous home life with his stepfather regularly attacking his mother. Eventually after a severe beating Frank takes the law into his own hands and borrows a knife off a Surrey boy.  He stabs his stepfahter and has to flee London.
The problem with this idea is that it's all very stereotypical of how we view young people and that is exactly what I set out to NOT do.
Second idea, much more a documentary about the lives of the skaters but problem being I then had no story!!!  One extreme to another!
At this point I realised I needed to understand how to format the script better.  Research required I thought and turned to  Christopher Voglers 'The writers journey' and the best thing I learnt was how to apply the hero's journey more concisely.  This helped me refocus and try again.
Now the story is very different and has the most potential although I still need to make it original and less cliched.  Frank is a keen skater, the skate park is threatened by outside influences, he fights to save it but gets double crossed.  A guardian angel type character appears, helps him and makes him have some self belief.  The story is positive and hopefully the young people are not now as stereotyped as they were.  I think by making it a happier story than the first one it helps make the characters more positive and there seems more hope.  There's enough doom and gloom without making up more!!!
I've still got along way to go with this script but hopefully sooner rather than later it will improve and be original!

Interviews

In order to gain insight into the lives of the young people at the skate park I needed to talk to them.  This might seem very obvious but it is quite daunting when you are invading their space.  I'm not going to post their answers to specific questions because I feel this would betray their confidence and some of the comments were very personal.
What was interesting with most of the young people I spoke to, was how they didn't like being formally interviewed but were quite happy to give opinion to why they used the park.  This in turn led to much more detail about their lives outside of the skating.  This meant I needed to change my technique and deformalise it.  This was something I was not prepared for.  However, needing to gain information, I decided to let them talk freely and I just gave pointers when things dried up.  This was much easier than I expected.  Also after talking to the first couple of lads, they told their friends I was interested in their views and some people actually came and found me!  This seemed bizarre but a great insight!  Some of the questions I started with are posted below.

Why do you come here?
How often?
How long have you been coming?
Do you know everyone here?
Do you use other skate parks?
What is the most worrying thing about attending this place?  If anything?
What else do you do?
How old are you?

The morning peace

The calm of the water mirrors the quiet of the pedestrian walkway. It is 6.30am and the air is still. The lack of life could be sinister but it is more welcoming because of the usual hustle of the place. A welcome lull before the madness begins.

A refuse collector, solitary, wearing his flouresent jacket and carrying a broom. He looks comfortable collecting last night's rubbish, stoping for a smoke and collecting his thoughts. How long has he been doing this job? He looks like he's been here forever, he knows where the rubbish will be before he reaches it. The rubbish bin he uses looks like part of his uniform. It serves a practical purpose but without it he would feel less confident. His tools of broom and bin give him identity and in this he is safe and content.

A few lonesome indivduals scuttle to work, bag in hand and food parcel hovering. If no food parcel is evident there is an oversized cup full of morning wake up juice. Coffee. There must be more coffee sold in the World than anything else. Everyone in London drinks coffee. Everyone buys it, pays for it and carries it to another destination. Bizarre really, what would we do without coffee? Mornings would be a very different story without this caffine fueled drug.

Two different refuse collectors appear with much more sophisticated tools than the first refuse man. A proper cleaning cart, with gismos and attachments coming out of the little rectangular box thing on wheels. A machine no less! Conversation I can't understand, banter I can't fathom but an awareness of comradship. No anamosity regarding the cart from the guy who only has a bin. If I had the bin I'd want the cart. He isn't concerned, he's simply pleased to see his friends.

A van appears, could be delivering something, could be masked terroists inside, possibly aliens having hijacked the van as a keen disguise for their ploy. But no, none of these are true. the van belongs to a man who works for Westminster Council. His job? Ah, yes, his job is too remove grafetti from the Southbank. This is somewhat hilarious when the skate park shares its home with the grafetti artists. However, he is doing this job and trying to keep the grafetti contained just in the space for the skaters. An impossible job yet one that needs to be done to prevent this tourist riddled walk through becoming like other parts of London. He retrives from the van a mini roller and paint and quickly applies the blue mixture over a small area of scribble. It is quickly and easily applied and there is a sense of satisfaction that the World is in order.

I can smell coffee. I can see everyone else drinking or carrying coffee. I need to go get some coffee.

More photos

Graffiti
View from Waterloo bridge looking across to the Southbank
A tourist sat with Skaters.
All the signs placed around Southbank.
Graffiti
Graffiti
Graffiti

Recent photos of arena

The view from the side of the skate park, looking out onto the river Thames.
The view of the ceiling within the skate park.
The dirty floor of the park
In contrast with the tree lined avenue of the river.
A closer view of the ceiling
Each photo depicts different elements of the surrounding area and there is a real juxtaposition between the grey concrete dirty floor and the beautiful green walkway next to the river. I find the ceiling really interesting with patterns of specific symbols. Who has dome this? Must have taken patience, time and commitment to see this through.