Biography
David is a Screenwriter and Story Consultant. Having studied at UBC in Vancouver, David worked as a freelance photo-journalist in South Asia before taking to screenwriting in 1990. David has written seven feature screenplays, as well working as a story consultant and script doctor on several independent feature films, including the multi award-winning Bruce Macdonald feature, HARD CORE LOGO (1996). Since returning to the UK, David has also developed a range of TV drama projects as well as working as a factual programme designer for independent TV production companies in the UK and Canada. Between 1999 and 2004 David was Company Secretary and a Producer for Posh Pictures in Glasgow where he developed factual programmes for the various networks, as well as producing 4 highly acclaimed short films, including 'All Over Brazil' and 'Bye Child' (BAFTA Nominated Best Short, BAFTA Scotland Winner Best New Director 2004). He also teaches Screenwriting for Scottish Screens Writer's Factory and the Drama Department of University of Strathclyde and has written two screenwriting handbooks for Scottish Screen, which are available for free download from their website.
David grew up in a medical family and has a good basic knowledge of medicine, the medical world and medical politics within the NHS, BMA and GMC.
Selected Writing Credits:
2004
GILLIAN GUESS (aka THE LOVE CRIMES OF GILLIAN GUESS)
Story Consultant: In for the CBC this feature length TV film tells the true life story of Gillian Guess a Canadian woman obsessed with her English heritage, whose superiority complex lead her to sleep with the main defendant in a organized crime trial, perverting the course of justice and a good deal more: Dir: Bruce MacDonald for CBC / Shadow Shows, Toronto
1999
THE HISTORY OF THE FUTURE
Series Originator: A 6 x 60 documentary series with Rez Productions for the CBC and WGBH Nova, THE HISTORY OF THE FUTURE asks how the idea of the future came into existence and how it has changed through time.
1998
AMERICAN WHISKY BAR
Story Consultant / Script Doctor: A feature length live TV drama for Moses Znaimer's City TV. Constructed around the concept of an intellectual talk show, AMERICAN WHISKY BAR rapidly descends into the realms of Jerry Springer as it explores the paradoxes, ironies and ambiguities of censorship, morality and voyeurism in the American entertainment industry.
1997
PLATINUM
Story Consultant / Script Doctor: A feature length TV movie directed by Bruce Macdonald for the Really Useful Company, PLATINUM follows the trials and challenges of Record Producer, Simon Tucker as he tries to keep his Independent Record Label on the tracks and in the charts in the face of a corporate takeover and exploding egos.
1996
HARD CORE LOGO
Story Consultant / Script Doctor: A feature mockumentary, end-of-the-road movie in which director Bruce Macdonald follows punk bank Hard Core Logo on a harrowing last-gasp reunion tour throughout Western Canada. As magnetic lead-singer Joe Dick holds the whole magilla together through sheer force of will, all the tensions and pitfalls of life on the road come bubbling hilariously to the surface. HARD CORE LOGO won awards for both Best Picture and Best Screenplay at the 1996 Vancouver Film Festival, as well as being nominated for a Genie Award. The movie was picked up by Quentin Tarantino's distribution company Rolling Thunder and opened in New York and 30 other US cities on Nov 13th, 1998. 'HARD CORE LOGO is the best rock 'n' roll movie in the history of rock 'n' roll movies' The Montreal Gazette "HARD CORE LOGO is equal parts biting satire and an homage to modern-day rebels.": Hollywood Reporter
Projects In Funded Development:
AMERICAN CREEPS
Screenwriter: A feature length co-production between Shadow Shows in Toronto and Good Machine of New York, AMERICAN CREEPS is set in 1954 when juvenile delinquency is on the rise and moral vigilantes are panicking. A bible student is sent to New York to stamp out the most corrupting influence on American youth, the crime-and-horror comic books known as 'creeps'. Unfortunately Ward gets hooked himself, finds his world slipping into a comic-book hallucination, and ends up on the lam with a beautiful delinquent girl: To be directed by Bruce MacDonald.
PONTYPOOL CHANGES EVERYTHING
Story Consultant / Script Doctor: A reformed addict takes a job house-sitting on a farm in Northern Canada far away the temptations of the big city, but discovers that even here there are forces from which a man cannot escape: To be directed by Bruce MacDonald.
THE MILE HIGH CLUB
Screenwriter: Based on the remarkable true story of Dr James Tytler, THE MILE HIGH CLUB is a historical adventure-comedy about Britain's first aeronaut, and an outrageous bet between two powerful aristocrats as to who could arrange "the first fuck at 1,000 yards from the earth.": Script Development funded by Scottish Screen.
THE LOATHLY LADY
Story Consultant / Script Doctor: Based on the tale of Sir Gawain and the Loathly Lady, THE LOATHLY LADY is in preproduction with Capri Films in Toronto and Dreamworks.
Recent Production Credits:
2004
HEAD ON BACKWARDS
Writer-Director: A 'vox pop' interview backfires on an inexperienced documentary crew when they pick the wrong person to interview. The man's violent confession is transformed by the editor into a reverse linear deconstruction of an angry man and his self-delusions, as well as the documentary form itself: Theatrical Short.
2003
Executive Producer: A short film based on the Seamus Heaney poem 'Bye-Child' written and directed by Bernard Mac Laverty: Producer: Andrew Bonner: Funded by Bernard Mac Laverty, National Lottery Short Film Production Fund, Northern Ireland Film and Television Commission:
BAFTA Nominated 2004 Best Short, Winner Scottish BAFTA 2004: Best New Director
2003
ALL OVER BRAZIL
Production Executive for Posh Pictures: Tartan Short for BBC Scotland shot in April 2003: Writer: James Havlin: Dir: Dave Ward: Official Selection Edinburgh Film Festival 2003, Berlin 2004 and over 200 festivals Worldwide.
2002
WHY THE TOWERS FELL
Production Executive for Posh Pictures: 2003 Emmy Award Winning Documentary for WGBH Nova: Dir: Garfield Kennedy: about the World Trade Centre and the 9/11 terrorist attack: The programme was also versioned for the BBC's Horizon strand.
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