BIOGRAPHY

For me, scriptwriting came from an unusual beginning.

I was a Police Officer working Undercover when an off the cuff remark proved to be a defining moment. It reset my compass and would help change the course of my life.

The thing to bear in mind is it’s rarely one thing that changes your world, usually it’s a series of events. In this instance like most instances, it was an unexpected alignment of situations that took me along an unforeseeable path.

What I also realised, was that I’d already started moving away from my original path. This off the cuff remark just became the catalyst that gave me a demarcation point.

And the remark in question, came from the most unlikely of sources…

One night, I was hooked up with an aggrieved mope known as B12. The irony here is that vitamin B12 comes from bacteria, and this guy was definitely made from bacteria.

We were prepping for a meet with two mid level dealers. The mope wanted to catch up with them big style, but they definitely didn’t want to catch up with him. Mainly because they had several house brick sized bundles of his hard earned they didn’t fancy returning. As I put the bacteria into the boot of my car for that surprise surprise Kodak moment, he looked to me and said “Ya na, if someone wrote about all the shit we get up ta, it’d make a great movie”, “I’d fuckin pay to see that!!”

I smiled the smile of a crocodile, shut the boot on his grinning mug and drove off.

Later that night, having reduced the net worth of the unsuspecting dealers I drove home.

As I lay in bed, I found myself staring into the pale moonlit ceiling. I watched as a small spider crawled from light fitting to cornice and back again, without rational navigation or sense of purpose. By correlation this made me question my own position. Previously I thought my career had reason and purpose, suddenly it had all but evaporated. With that feeling a mysterious light began to pulse in the recess of my mind, and I decided to chase it.

What if I could write, I thought. It had never been a consideration. Neither the thought nor the opportunity had risen before. Now, here it was mooning me like a drunk.

As my eyes traced the meandering arachnid, my mind exploded like a nebula. I was revaluating what I could and couldn’t do. I went outside sat under the stars and thought about the possibilities. I must’ve looked slightly loopy with the moonlight bouncing off my rapidly beaming grill.

Could writing a film script be as simple as having an imagination, some writing skills, and some life experience to draw upon?

With the notion of becoming a writer, I studied scriptwriting and started collecting material to write about. I had found something that energised me in a way I’d never known, a chance to use an almost untapped creative side.

Very few police officers get to work Undercover. Such an assignment brings out innate skills and abilities, the like of which you never knew existed in you.

It’s an opportunity to create a person that could be you but isn’t you. Well, in truth it is you, just in alter ego. After a time, I didn’t know where my personality ended, and where the fictitiously created persona started. The lines had blurred beyond recognition.

Then one day, during one of the prerequisite debriefings I asked the question, “Why do they restrict undercover officers to a maximum of two years?” The reply, “Because after two years the risk of Going Native increases exponentially”. Meaning, you change so much, any longer and the dark side may linger permanently. In short, your character is redefined and returning to the old you is precarious at best.

I had been under for two years two months.

Returning to regular duties was always going to be difficult, and it was. I was a changed man. In time, I knew I couldn’t stay in the job.

I left the police force and concentrated on writing. The passion for my new vocation swept into me like a tornado, and I wrote like a man possessed.

With a body of work now created, I’m looking for an Agent and access to production companies.

I write scripts for both Film & Television, from British and Australian dramas and comedies to Hollywood action and science fiction films.

Now in 2010 I’m chasing another passion, documentary making.

Please feel free to contact me for any information or enquiries.

Peter Dover