ADAM TUCKER
Professional Writer
adamtuckerwrites.com
About me
I work as a treatment writer, script editor and story developer in advertising and film. Agencies and clients are increasingly looking to directors to add something to the approved concept. Sometimes it’s the dialogue that needs work, at other times it’s the scenes themselves.
That’s where I come in. I collaborate with the director/directors to make
a good idea better. Then put these thoughts down into a treatment
that wins the job.
I also work with feature film and documentary producers and writers as
a story developer, script editor, pitch writer and subtitle editor
(yes, that’s a real job).
My background
I spent 25 years working for some of the world’s best advertising agencies,
including (BMP) DDB, BBH, Leo Burnett, W&K, Mother, Buzzman Paris and Saatchi & Saatchi, as well as the BBC and Google. I’ve won many awards at the major advertising shows: D&AD, Cannes Lions, One Show and Clios, as well as some of the more obscure ones like Kinsale, which is, essentially, an excuse to drink Guinness in a beautiful seaside town in Ireland.
If you go to adamtuckerwork.com you’ll see what would take ages to explain here. I love writing and I hate meetings. That’s why I do this job rather than one that comes with a corner office and coffee with milk art.
Treatment writing
I’ve written over 400 treatments for production companies such as Stink,
Rattling Stick, Wanda, Tempomedia, Merman and Nexus.
Having worked as a Creative Director on 'the other side of the fence’ I have
a unique insight and an understanding of what agencies are looking for from a director. If you want more information on what I've worked on, please email me at adamtucker.work@gmail.com as it is a delicate area to say the least… especially in the UK where creatives seem a tad sensitive to the fact the treatment might be ghostwritten.
Production companies I've worked with
*Anonymous Content * Blink *Blink Ink *Bold *Caviar *Cobblestone
*Drool *Frank *Nexus *Phantasm *Pulse *Radical Media *Rattling Stick *SkunkUS *Smuggler *Somesuch *Stink *Tantrum *Tempomedia
*Think *Voodoo *Wanda
Script editing
I have plenty of experience in making scripts work harder, better, and most often, shorter. From over-length dialogue to leaden exposition, I take what’s written and sharpen it. I’ve worked on screenplays, development projects and series pitches, and am well versed in what works and what doesn’t.
Story development
I’ve just finished a development project that was sent to me as a movie and became an 8-part series that is now optioned. My job was to take a great but bulky idea and find the story beats and overall themes that would give it one narrative arc with episodic builds. Over the last 5 years, I’ve written several documentary, movie and TV series pitches. The approach is always the same. Take something with breadth and scale and strip it down to the one simple thing that makes it buyable.
Scene creation
At some point, most production company/ad agency meetings involve the phrase, “The script is not set in stone”. It usually means they wrote it safe and are hoping the director will improve it and persuade the client to buy that version as the agency can’t/won't/fear they might risk 2 more years of lucrative billings. So, it ends up coming to me. Having written innumerable scenes for innumerable ads over the years, this is something of a busman’s holiday for me. Funny, straight, serious, silly, epic, intimate; you name it, I’ve done it.
Glitter rolling
As someone wise and witty once said, “You can’t polish a turd, but you can roll it in glitter”. I do a fair bit of rolling. Usually, it’s a project for a production company or agency that’s one rubber stamp from approval. The situation is something like this; you are 5/5 presentations in. Maybe more. The script is on its last legs but they still “love it”. And it's still pretty good. Maybe not as good as it was but still worth a push. Too much change and it dies, but just a tickle here and there and it’ll go through. This is where 30+ years of scriptwriting experience comes in to take it over the line.
Subtitle translation
The experience of watching a foreign language series can be ruined by clunky subtitles. Poor translation, bad grammar, too few words for too much dialogue are typical. I work with the director or producer to ensure no story beats go amiss and that the director’s vision isn’t literally lost in translation.
Major awards as writer
D&AD: 5 Silver Pencils, 14 Nominations, 71 In-Book
Cannes: 4 Golds, 3 Silvers, 4 Bronzes, 3 Finalists
One Show: 3 Golds, 3 Silvers, 2 Bronzes, 5 Merits
Clios: 2 Grand Clios, 7 Golds, 8 Silvers, 3 Bronzes