123. Commissioned Writing
When I made the transition from writing and directing documentaries to concentrate on theatrical feature films and television drama/comedy series, I needed to arrange some form of steady income that would tide me over until I could establish myself as a fiction screenwriter. At the time in South Africa, there was a growing demand for corporate, training and motivational videos. I found that, fortunately, it was an interesting field covering a huge range of subjects. These varied from hedge funds, financial futures, other forms of financial activities to factory operations and product knowledge, and to a series that traced the development of commerce from barter to banking.
I was often asked how much I knew about a particular subject, such as electricity, for example. My standard reply was, “I have no specialist knowledge of the subject, which is why I’m the ideal person to write it. If I can be made to understand it, then I’ll be able to communicate the data at a level where the man in the street will also understand it.” This seemed to make sense to most of my clients and I managed to maintain a steady flow of work, while developing my skills as a screenwriter.
When I returned to the UK in 2013, I had difficulty in finding the same kind of work. I also realized that my age counted against me. Companies were reluctant to employ or commission someone in their late seventies (at the time), feeling that my ageing mind would not cope with technical details. I think they may be surprised if they see me passing the ExoManual tests nearly ten years later.
As it happened I had to think again. Coincidently, one of the other residents in the boarding house where I was staying (before Hero left Johannesburg to join me) was a young Hungarian, Zoltan Mogyorosi, who worked in a nearby warehouse but who was determined to become a science fiction writer. He had already written his first novel in Hungarian, which is probably the most obscure language in Europe. Unlike the Germanic or Latin languages, it doesn’t seem to relate to any other tongue. Theories about its origins range from possible links to Finnish – and believe it or not to Chinese! At any rate, the young man’s ambition to become an internationally recognized writer was certainly limited by his choice of language. To his credit, he then tried to translate the book into English, which resulted in a weird and garbled effort in Hungarian English.
I’m a sucker for challenges. For a ridiculously small amount of money, I undertook to unscramble the “Hunglish” and produce a fully anglicized version. Although it nearly drove me nuts, I think it did force me to examine the structure of written English more closely than I had ever done before.
Eventually, the novel Lost Universe was published with Zoltan calling himself Keith Brandon. As with so many novels that are published by small publishers, and particularly those who ask for the author to pay them money up front, the book never really took off. I think it was an interesting science fiction concept and it should have received a better fate. Undeterred, Zoltan wrote another novel, this time in English, but I still had to unscramble it for him. His English was definitely better than before. Perhaps it could now be called “Henglish”! To my horror – no pun intended – it was a vampire story called The Last Vampire. Even though I’m not into that genre, I have to say that it was quite ingenious and I’m sorry that neither book reached much of a market.
I can’t even remember how I was referred to my next client, Alexis Maxime Feyou de Happy, but he was also looking for someone to straighten out his English. He was from Cameroon or somewhere in West Africa but now lived in New York. He wrote very well in a flamboyant manner, and I did not have to do any massive rewriting as I had with Zoltan. His story Bracelet of Awe was a curious mixture of science fantasy and African folklore. It was fascinating stuff. I only wrote about twenty-five pages before Maxime announced that he could no longer afford to pay me at the time but hoped to resume eventually…. I’m still waiting!
I was then referred to a lady from Sierra Leone who asked me to write her biography. I will not reveal her name because of possible repercussions. She is a remarkable woman who grew up in extreme poverty in Freetown, the country’s capital. By the age of seven she was selling fruit and vegetables in the streets of the city, getting up very early, going to the market and selling her produce until it was time for her to go to school. Her mother was crippled, and she virtually supported the entire family, providing just enough money to buy them at least one meal a day.
She was subjected to FGM (female genital mutilation) at the age of nine, married at fifteen and suffered terrible abuse. Despite that, she was academically gifted and worked with her husband to build a thriving business. Sadly, the husband was continually abusive and lazy, leaving his young wife to do most of the work. She finally left the husband and struggled on her own, somehow still supporting her mother, siblings and now her own children.
She was eventually coerced to join her husband in the UK, where they built up a very profitable business. The abuse continued and the husband kept most of the money. She now had six children of her own and, when the husband savagely attacked one of her daughters, she finally left him for good. Amazingly, she managed to study and earned a good university degree. She also started her own Human Rights movement, as well as creating an orphanage back in Sierra Leone with the help of her family. She even paid for her mother to go to Mecca for the Haj, which had been her mother’s lifelong dream. Sadly, the effort was too much for the old lady and she died a week after returning home, but she had after all achieved her dream.
Her daughter has slowly built up an international reputation for her Human Rights work and has flown all over the world to speak at important conferences. I recently finished her biography, which is now in the hands of the graphics design and layout person I found for her. The book is entitled Walking in My Mother’s Shoe and is a tribute to her incredible bravery and resilience as she continues to speak out about abuse, particularly of women, as well as the abuse and neglect of the crippled men and women in her homeland.
I attended a couple of the lady’s seminars and was suitably impressed by the caliber of the people whom I met there. One of them asked me whether I would consider writing the biography of his uncle, Sidikie Bangura, who was one of the top surgeons in Sierra Leone until his retirement and subsequent stroke while living in the United States. I was put in touch with him and was quickly persuaded to write his story, especially as I now had some knowledge of Sierra Leone. I had found that, as with the previous biography that having lived in Africa for much of my life, I had a good understanding of conditions under which so much of the population of Africa live and I have always had a natural affinity for the African people.
Sidikie’s story was very different to that of the unnamed lady I had previously written about. But in one respect they are alike: they both have had a fierce determination to succeed and make something of their lives. Sidikie grew up in a remote village far from Freetown, where his father was a reasonably prosperous farmer. Sidikie went to local schools until it was clear that he was academically gifted. With the support and encouragement of one of the Catholic priests at his school, Sidikie was eventually able to get a scholarship to an Italian University and later did his postgraduate studies in Germany. He then returned to Sierra Leone where he soon established himself as one of the leading surgeons in that country. Unfortunately, the terrible civil war from 1991 to 2002 took place shortly after his return to his homeland.
The later part of the book deals with the terrifying experiences that Sidikie and his family underwent during the civil war. Sidikie resolutely continued to treat his patients, despite the fact that the hospitals were sometimes overrun by rebel soldiers and then recaptured by the Sierra Leone army. Both sides tried to prevent Sidikie and his staff from treating “the other side” but he and his team were fully dedicated to the precepts of the Hippocratic Oath. Not even death threats stopped them from continuing to save lives of both soldiers and rebels. The situation finally got so bad that Sidikie had to send his family to the safety of their neighboring country of Guinea. He was later also smuggled through the lines by car and by truck to the border with some scary adventures along the way.
While we in the West sometimes despair of the crazy antics of the governments that are meant to look after our welfare, the harsh reality of life in the trouble spots of continents like Africa comes as a salutary wake-up call. Our entire planet is deeply troubled and much of that revolves around the inability of the average person to judge what is true and what is not. The launch of ExoBrain will at least provide a secure platform for the truth to be communicated to humankind!
An ExoTech Ltd shareholder, Chris is currently authoring two of the four books to be published the day ExoBrain launches and has helped to create ExoBrain’s introductory video to the Confidential Technical Briefing. Chris has spent his working life in the film and television industry, starting with BBC Television in London, then ATV in Birmingham becoming, at the time, the youngest Studio Manager in Britain.
Later, in South Africa, he wrote and directed film and TV commercials, having four South African entries at the Cannes Advertising Festival. After a number of years of writing and directing or producing documentaries (eight international awards) and corporate videos, he concentrated on writing feature film screenplays (five screened) and television series (seven screened). He has a novel, ”Pursuit of Treachery,” with a literary agent and is currently obtaining finance for an action adventure feature film he has written and is co-producing. He is a published poet and has given many readings.