Marie Macneill

Beachcombing for Stories: finding inspiration, inner dialogue, and creativity beside the sea

Falmouth University, UK

“It was ace, I felt like I could write easily in comparison to my normal abilities, and
everything flowed well, it felt natural to write on the beach.”
Orion Blades, second year School of Film and Television screenwriter, Falmouth University. October 2023.

The screenplay lies at the very core of film and television drama: the foundations upon which
cinematic creative collaborations can be built. It is the beginning of the moving-image
adventure, but how do we, as screenwriters, begin to process what it is we want to say? How
do we grasp the nebulous, and find the opportunity and space for creative dialogue in our
own heads? How do we suspend our inner critic and allow ourselves time to pause, draw
breath and believe in what it is we want to tell the world? How do we begin to show and tell
ourselves the blueprint of our screenplay pages across the gap that lies between expectation
and execution? How does this inner dialogue begin?

Before the research, before the drafts, before the cutting and editing, do we need space to
realise our experiences or made-up story? Might that space be found in nature? The ‘plot
walk’ or the beach trip to sit on a sea wall and stare at the ocean. How do we suspend
distractions and simply wait for something to spring to mind?

This ongoing project continues to develop creative pedagogy, teaching, and knowledge, and
inspire student and practice-based lecturers to find ideas and develop stories across genres
and industry platforms. A study over many years is coming to fruition as Macneill continues
to explore how to enable and support screenwriters to find their greatest stories.

Marie wrote 11 episode The Tribe, and Revelations – Ep: David and Mr G. for Cloud 9/Channel 5.
Film and drama series commissions followed, including BBC, BBC Wales, S4C, Festival Films and
Celandine. Shorts: 2019 Katbottys (writer/producer) – nomination, Celtic Media Festival; 2020 The
Day of the Coyote (dir: Derek Hayes) Producer. Award Winner – The Laugh or Die Comedy Fest);
2020 BBC’s Writersroom – Cornish Voices, developing a 6 x 60’ drama series – End of the
Line. Writer/Director The Coastguard (Writer/Director) theatre play (5* review); 2021 Kestav (script
editor for Christopher Morris, Flym K, Screen Cornwall – winner Short Drama at Celtic Media
Festival 2022; To Whom It May Concern (dir: Orson Cornick) Writer. 2023 Fruitcake – short (dir:
Remy Madge) Executive Producer, script mentor. 2023 The Hag Stone (writer/director), set on
Falmouth’s Castle Beach, proof-of-concept short for Cornish feature Three Storms. Senior Lecturer in screenwriting at the School of Film & Television, Falmouth University. Chapter in The Palgrave
Book of Script Development, various conference papers and presentations, including SRN, RNA,
Haunted Landscapes.