Location is a really important aspect of low budget filmmaking that a lot of writers may not take in to consideration when writing a short. Fantastic locations add immense production value to your film and if your film looks snazzy, your script is fab and your actors zing, then you can take over the world. …
Things I Learnt This Weekend – London Screenwriters’ Festival 2011
If any of you know me at all, you know that this is my favourite weekend of the year. The London Screenwriters’ Festival. This was the second festival that’s happened and I’ve been to both and I cannot even begin to try to explain to you how much I get out of this weekend. If …
Writing Short Films
Hey gang, I’m currently on restricted internet access for the next week, but I promise I’ll finish off my posts about auditions and introduce you to the cast I settled on really soon! For now, I decided to gather together all my posts on writing short films and short film structure in one place, so …
Pre-Production: Auditions – Part 01
I am delighted to report that regardless of any qualms or nerves expressed in previous posts, the auditions for With A Little Help From Our Friends went mind-blowingly well. I’ll break down the process during the week, but in summary (at the beginning, I know, it’s a bit weird) we had: – Roughly 100 applications …
Sharing the Love
Two friends of mine and I are trying something new and different. Just for fun. Jamie has popped up on this blog before (and he also has his own blog). Leilani hasn’t (but she, too, has her own blog). One thing we all have in common (other than how awesome we are) is that we …
Think About Your Audience…
Rewrites. A word that sends a shiver down the spine of most writers. Not me. But I’m a bit weird like that. I’ve just done what I hope is the final rewrite on With A Little Help From Our Friends. I’m not planning on doing any more until I’ve locked in what’s actually happening with …
Short Film Structure: Pace
The unsung hero of short films is pace. Pace does not mean that everything races along at a million miles per hour. In the instance of film, pace does not mean speed. In the instance of film, pace means the rhythm of the story. You’re watching a horror movie. The main character is watching television. …
The Changing of the Guard
How lucky are you guys? You get TWO blog posts this week! This one is a bit of a sad post, really. After chatting to Oli, my producer as to whether or not Friends would actually be able to go ahead in July/August with me at the helm and him keeping me on track, he …
The Writing Of It: Restrictions
Most of the short film writing I’ve done of late has been for competitions. I’ve had a pretty good hit rate so far – out of the three I’ve entered, two have been shortlisted. No first place ribbons as yet, but in a backwards way, I’m kind of glad about it because it pushes me …
You Know What You’re Trying To Say? Say The Opposite.
As Ronan Keating once put it ‘You say it best when you say nothing at all.’ Perhaps not the best way to start off a new blog post, but I’m going to stick with it. The flashback to the nineties aside, I went and saw Thor on Tuesday night. I was looking forward to it …