Edwin McRae

Scribbler. Scribe. Scripty. Scrabblephile.

When you grow up on a Southland farm and have only sheep to talk to you develop an imagination, fast. So once I’d mentally transformed my homeland into a hybrid of Babe and Narnia, I vented this new-found skill on a 60s typewriter my mum gave me. Now, this monkey and his typewriter are essentially one and the same beastie.

Fast forward to the IIML Scriptwriting Masters that converted me from a high school drama teacher into a fledgling scriptwright with big ideas and even bigger words. And then television, an altogether different training ground. TV’s taught me to write fast, clear, and on time, every time. It’s taught me to play nice with others in a highly pressurized environment, and to bring ninety-nine more ideas to the table than will ever get used. Now my ideas are smaller, sharper and a whole lot more accessible. So are my words.

And writing for TV has taught me, above all else, a single golden rule. Viewers that care come back. Don’t interest them. Don’t make them curious. Make them like, loathe, or love, if you can. Make them care.

These days I’m branching out. Going digital. Getting interactive. Blogging, mobisodes, web content, and games. I’m a platform polygamist. Why tell a story once, and only one way? Really good stories are too rare to waste like that. All it takes is a bit of imagination, a bit of versatility, and a bit of grit. In the eternal words of Yoda. ‘There is no try, only do.’

So I’m all about making stuff that catches people off guard. I love reactions like…’what the hell was that…cool’ or ‘weird, but I think I like it’. That said, there’s always a place for ‘tried and true’. I’m not a revolutionary, I’m an innovator. I write it well, I write it fresh, and I write it for you.

Writing for the Screen – Any screen. And I’m a two minute specialist. That’s the maximum size for a Shortland Street scene. Any story can be told in 120 seconds. And be told well.

Character Development – Audiences fall in love with characters. A brand is as much a character as a soap opera surgeon or Lonelygirl15.

Content that Connects – Who’s looking and what’s going to make them care

Emotional Honesty – Where that caring bit comes from.

Quack and Quirk - To me, success is a smile. World domination is a hearty belly laugh.

Show, not tell.  

‘Unplug, now and then’, a mobisode campaign.

Blane and his girlfriend, Jane, are sitting at a bar texting friends on their mobiles. They converse only to comment on a text they have received. Neither responds to the other’s remarks. Jane is abruptly beamed up into a flying saucer by hideous aliens. She is thrown into a machine and is ‘processed’ (off-screen). The machine spits out her skin and several cans of ‘Jellyhuman’. An alien assumes Jane’s identity by wearing her skin and beams down into the bar beside an oblivious Blane.

Final Lines:    

Blane:    (TO ALIEN JANE) Another drink?

ALIEN JANE:    (IN DEEP ALIEN VOICE) Let’s go home, hon.  I’m hungry.

South Pacific Pictures - Shortland Street 7 & 8 June 2010 (TV)

An emotional power struggle between a lover and a sister over the rights and wishes of a man on life support. Two women learn how to let go of the man they love. The June 8 episode was the highest rating episode of the year so far, and almost toppled 2009’s highest rating episode.

The Gibson Group – Paradise Café, Season 2 (TV)

Four teenagers run a beach café besieged by malicious and mischievous Sea Ghosts. This was a start to finish writing process; character development, story-lining and script.

AUT and Script to Screen (Interactive)

In partnership with AUT and Script to Screen, I led a team in developing a proof of concept for Nymph, an educational gaming application for the I-Phone. It’s a ‘save the damsel’ adventure game making the most of the I-Phone’s advantages and idiosyncrasies. Concept development, scriptwriting, creative direction and project management.