IMG_1276.jpeg

“Tell the stories you want to tell, not the stories you think you should be telling.”

— Abraham Adeyemi, Founder (Creative Blue Balls UK), Screenwriter, Director, and Producer

ABOUT

So what do you actually do?

I create stories for film and tv and, on occasion, I have a greater hand in the creation through directing and/or producing said stories. I also, sometimes, direct and/or produce stories that other writers have written. I am also the founder of production company Creative Blue Balls UK.

What has your career path been?

Bloody hell… where do I start?!

Brief internship at a production company, 4 year part-time Creative Writing degree (you don’t need that), part-time job in a theatre, part-time job in a phone shop, seasonal job at a summer school, cleaning the office of a mate , graduating, homelessness, working as a creative copywriter at production company (and failing probation), working night shifts doing customer service at a travel company then, finally, juggling the following three: admin assistant to a social worker, cover-supervisor (supply teacher without the teaching qualification) in secondary schools and working in a theatre bar - scraping by month to month, to pay my bills and rent, all whilst squeezing in time to write wherever I could and having lots of small encouraging wins (and many Ls), along the way. 

Then, a pandemic happened at the same time as my debut short film No More Wings (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Lzpgl8PA9I) won best narrative short film at one of the biggest film festivals in the world, Tribeca.

And then, finally, I landed where I am now. A full-time writer-director.

What is the best part of your job?

Working with actors, seeing the script come to life on set and sharing the finished work with an audience for the first time.

But, also, I don’t think anything makes me happier than actually sitting at the laptop and writing the words.

Why do you do your job?

So many things.

I’ve always, always loved words. Reading them, writing them. I have a mild obsession with information and knowledge. I want to understand everything, everyone and why they do the things they do, good and bad.

I think that stems from a desire to understand my parents, having lost my childlike innocence at a very young age and realising they were not infallible. I wanted to understand why they behave the way they do.

To write film and TV, specifically, was inspired when I was 19, and I met someone a year older than me who was from a similar background who had sold a script to the BBC.

One piece of advice for someone starting in your role?

Tell the stories you want to tell, not the stories you think you should be telling.

Enforce routine, discipline and consistency as quickly as you can because the scripts won’t write themselves and you won’t improve without them.

Final words?

I am always happy to give advice and answer questions and want to see everybody win. But only via email. Not DMs. Social media is for me to laugh at silly things with my friends. If your message requires more than half a sentence from me and even one iota of brainpower, put it in an email (my email is easily findable on all my socials). 

The more specific the questions, the better. Vague questions like wanting to know about my journey or vague advice requests, will usually result in me directing you to listen to some of the podcasts (http://bit.ly/AbePodcastAppearances) where I’ve gone into great detail about the vague, general parts of my life. 

Check out Abraham’s socials below!

 

DAY IN THE LIFE

Is there a non-cliché way of saying ‘no two days are the same’?!

The simple version of my working day is that I wake up, work out, shower and then write scripts for the rest. The reality of that is more complex, with many variables but I’ll attempt to give the most typical version with some interjections of the variables here and there.

First thing about me: I love structure and routine. I can write from anywhere and at anytime but structure and routine works best for me and yields results. It also ensures I’m able to commit time to my loved ones and also to myself (self-care - major key!). 

I wake up at 7.30am every morning and between then and 10am is a mixture of walking, working out, prayer, meditation and listening to podcasts. I also might have a half an hour phone call catch up with a friend / acquaintance, which is a more recent development. There are so few hours in the day and when my working day is done, I very rarely want to have a phone call. Even with friends, I schedule my calls and with those who are up so early, I’ll say we can talk whilst I’m on my walk.

If the gyms are open, that usually looks like an hour working out whilst listening to a podcast and half an hour in the sauna / steam room whilst praying / meditating (I’m all for habit stacking). People tend to assume that my podcast-listening is serious topics or things to do with my career but, honestly, 90% of the time it’s something like The Receipts, the Reggie Yates Podcast or The Mo Gilligan Podcast. I find it really hard to switch off from work, it’s something I have to do consciously. And part of that is listening to podcasts that are nothing to do with work. Besides, I can’t listen to podcasts when I’m writing. I also enjoy therapist Esther Perel’s podcast series where she counsels real couples - it’s special and really makes you put a mirror up to yourself and how you behave in relationships (both romantic and platonic). 

I try to begin my actual working day at 10am or thereabout and I work at a desk - whether that’s at home or if I’ve gone to work in my co-working space for the day. If I have any calls scheduled for the day, the first will be at 10.15am. This could be with my agent to catch up on any projects that’ve been sent through for me to consider (“Do you want to join this writers room?” “Are you interested in being attached to this film?” “Have you decided which production company you want to accept the offer from and make this series/film with?”), being updated on ongoing negotiations and being made aware of any ongoing conversations that are relevant to me. It might also be him checking on my progress on anything I’m currently working on, seeing if I have capacity for new projects or sometimes it’s I’ve heard about a project I’d love to be involved in as a writer or director that I’d like him to find out some more information about. Sometimes it’s also him giving me notes on a pitch or script we’re about to send out, so that’s it’s perfect and ready to go.

Other people I might have calls with is usually production companies. These typically fall into three categories: 

  1. Generals - meeting with a production company, usually for the first time, to just have a general chat. We get to know each other - they’ve usually read or watched some of my work which has piqued their interest. So it’s them saying what they like about the work, letting me know some more about them.

  2. Pitching - this is never as formal as it sounds and tends to be more of a conversation. I’d have typically sent a one-page document for them to read ahead of our conversation. So it’s for me to go into more depth as well as them to ask any questions they might have had.

  3. Development / production chats - This is when I already have something in the works with a production company. It ranges from brainstorming to story lining to receiving notes on things I’ve already written. Or, when I’m directing, it’s going over any of the hundreds of things that I need to answer questions/provide my opinion on for whatever we’re making.

When all the calls are out of the way - or if there are no calls - I’ll typically check and reply to my emails. Sometimes I’ll actually do this whilst I’m out walking, though I do try to preserve that time as a no work zone. Sometimes, though, it’s just easier to get it out the way. I’ll also check social media, Twitter and Instagram, and that happens consistently throughout the day. I wouldn’t call myself a procrastinator but I do have a very low attention span. I tend to work best in small but meaningful chunks / bursts.

I always say it’d be hilarious for someone to observe my working process for a day because it’d probably blow their mind how much I manage to get done, considering how inconsistently I do things. I consume more than I contribute on social media; I like to think of it as the equivalent of background noise if I worked in an office. It also helps me keep abreast with both industry news and a range of worldly affairs, all of which no doubt ends up infiltrating my writing.

When I finally get started with writing, it’s accompanied by music - an album, a playlist, whatever I’m feeling for. I can listen to anything whilst writing, I’m not too specific. The stage I’m at with the project dictates what I’m doing; my favourite time is when I’m working on the actual script. But a lot of the time I’m doing other things; development, research, reading and generally trying to figure things out. Sometimes it’s also putting together a pitch or a treatment as well, to sell a project to a production company (or, for a production company to sell to a broadcaster/streaming service/financiers).

You might have noticed that I am yet to mention food; this is not because I have an eating disorder. I intermittent fast and usually break this at 12.30pm, accompanied by watching an episode or two of TV (usually 30 mins comedies - at time of writing I’m currently watching Dave, Ramy and Awkwafina is Nora from Queens). I might also go for a brief walk as well, either right away or as a break later in my writing afternoon - I try to walk 15,000 steps a day which is the equivalent of about 9 miles for me.

When I return to write in the afternoon, it’s more of the same as the morning. If I have a call scheduled for the afternoon, this will typically be scheduled for 2pm. I try not to schedule too many calls in one day - it gets very exhausting, especially when discussing ideas! 

My writing day can end as early as 5pm and as late as 8pm. If it ends at 5pm it’s either a really good day, because I have an engagement I have to get ready for or because I just can’t be bothered to go on. 6pm is typically the optimal time. If it ends at 8pm, I’m either very behind on work or because I’m having calls with production companies in the US (that 8 hour west coast time difference is brutal).

Writing day outside of home: If I’m writing in my co-working space, the day isn’t too dissimilar other than I start everything earlier and maybe finish a bit later, because of the commute time.

In a writers room (physical or virtual): So when I’m in a writer's room - which is when a group of writers come together to work on a TV series by a show runner (the head/lead writer/creator) - these days are pretty full on and consume my full attention. There’s no time for emails, checking my socials or anything like that. The day is fully consumed by talking ideas all day long. There’s usually someone in the room taking lots of notes - script editor, writer’s assistant or a story producer - and there’s usually paper all over the walls to write things on. There’s no set way of doing these but it’s all about throwing ideas about, talking characters, storylines, themes and more. In advance of the room, we’d have usually been sent something to read; either a pilot script (first episode) or a pitch/treatment/outline of the series. Something to get us started and introduce us into the story/world.

Directing: When I’m on set filming for TV or film… My life is entirely consumed by whatever we’re filming. I am literally a slave to the schedule. My self-care habits (gym, walk, etc.) is a lot more difficult to maintain around this because one day my day might start at midday, whilst the very next day it begins at 5am. It wildly varies as we’re making decisions based on sunlight, the requirements of the scene we’re shooting (is it day or night? Interior or exterior?) and many more factors. On set there’s so many things going on but I try to give the majority of my focus to as few things as possible: typically the script and my actors. As the director, plenty of people will be asking you questions all the time. In an ideal world, I’ve prepared and answered as many questions in advance to limit the questions I get on set. But when I do answer questions, the hope is that I can answer quickly and with brevity, to maintain my focus and to keep everything ticking.