At the prize-giving ceremony

This script was a tough one for me to write. It was actually a reworking of an earlier script I had done years ago and when I rewrote it, it grew to become nearly movie length. It was with a lot of hard work and many constructive comments from my wife that I managed to pare it down to an hour. It took nearly six months to complete and as the deadline for the competition loomed, I had to edit the script even when I was performing reservist training! But the effort was worth it.

The only damper was what happened to the script after the competition. It was picked up Rushes Network and helmed by Sun Koh. She took the liberty of taking the script and rewriting it completely. The only thing that remained of the script was the title and the names of a few of the characters. Otherwise it was a completely different story. I took up the issue with the MDA but they refused to act. They said they were fine so long as the final product kept to the spirit of the original story. In my humble opinion, the spirit of my original story is completely missing from the final product.

Sun Koh bascially took the chance to tell her own story. Instead of a story about a boy who discovers the truth about his father, it has been transformed into a road movie. Is it better? I don't think so. Rushes never let me near them so I only saw the final product when it went live. And there was nothing remaining of my story. My story was buried and was now lost. The one that went go to air is not the story that was submitted for the National Scriptwriting Competition.

Being interviewed by Suzanne Jung of Channel NewsAsia

And that's the saddest part about this. The National Scriptwriting Competition was supposed to nuture writers. It had lofty goals of introducing new writers to the industry. The competition was the vehicle of helping scriptwriters get in touch with production houses and other industry professionals so that the writer could learn about the industry, learn more about the production process and hopefully find employment within the industry. Lofty ideals indeed. None of that happened with "Running With Scissors". I wasn't allowed to help craft, edit nor improve on my own script. I didn't meet the director, I wasn't involved in any part of the production. With "Ceciliation", the director sat down with me and together we improved the script. I wrote two more drafts for it and I was happy with the story. My input was sought regarding casting and shooting style. This time round, I wasn't contacted and my emails were ignored.

Do I sound disappointed? Of course I am. Especially since I received a "Based on the original winning story by Amos Kwok" credit. To my eternal regret, that will always be there. Just because several of the names are the same, doesn't mean it's my story. I should've requested an Alan Smithee credit. I know changes happen to scripts all the time. It's the nature of the industry. What finally goes on air often bears no resemblance to the script that the writer wrote. But this time it's different. The Blueprint series was supposed to be a showcase of the scripts that won the National Scriptwriting Competition. But it didn't happen. It's like a novel winning the Booker Prize and then the publisher takes the book and passes it to another author to make changes. That's what happened here.

I have additional comments on the final version and some good news about the positive changes to the National Scriptwriting Competition.