** SPOILER FREE ** I rather loved Joker. The design. The universe. The cinematography. The story arc. The performance. My god the performance. The soundscape and music score. Love the music by Hildur Guðnadóttir. LOVE (one track below). So, some story observations that make it fascinating for me. The Joker is in almost EVERY scene […]
When parents at the school gates first started talking about the charity fire walk that was coming up later in the month, I didn’t think too much about it. It seemed like a great idea, but that’s as far as it went. I thought it would be a nice idea to go along as a […]
It all seemed like a good idea at the time. A firewalk to raise money for our school. What I didn’t know at the time was just how far and deep I would have to reach inside to achieve it. Fire kisses. That’s what they’re called… tiny little marks, where the red hot embers made […]
It’s an astonishing story so brilliantly and chillingly written by Craig Mazin. The pace, the casting, the direction, the design, the cinematography ALL work in concert to create this unforgettable experience. But the soundtrack, the music score and the fusion it creates with the soundscape, stand out for me. Immediately evocative, the score by Hildur […]
Film insurance is always a quesiton I get asked about – how muhc, where from, what kind of cover… So I asked the lovely people at Performance Media and Film a few basic questions for indie filmmakers. Q – What are the different types of insurance needed for low budget films? A – You can […]
The Numbers is a supernatural thriller inspired in part by TV shows from the 1970s such as Tales of the Unexpected, and the Amicus and Hammer films of the 1960s and 1970s. It originally started life as a short film script, but as I was doing a re-write, I thought that I could add at […]
Martin Gooch is a VERY old friend of mine, and his latest SciFi movie is premiering in London as part of SciFi London. He will be there to answer questions and you can get tickets HERE. I asked him to share his thoughts on making low budget SciFi as his experience and wisdom is gold […]
I love this video essay by Alex Ball with long term, John Carpenter collaborator Alan Howarth. It harks back to a time when innovation was profoundly inventive and deeply analogue, even though of course the score is ‘digital’. John Carpenter was a massive influence for me as a kid and while I was making Zombie […]
One extraordinary man fights for lives, reform and justice in the most forgotten jails in the world and I want to help. Will you help too? LINK HERE This is the cause we have chosen got Talent Campus 5.0 and it’s very personal to one specific screenwriter in our community. Imagine you had a daughter, […]
The film market can sometimes be seen as a battle for eyeballs between the studios and lowly independent filmmakers – a kind of David versus Goliath showdown. There is no way your no-budget indie will ever make as much money as a studio film. No way you’ll ever be as well-known, and no way you’ll […]
We just ran our fifth Talent Campus and the first emailed fedback is coming in. If you want to know more abotu Talent Campus 6.0 and apply, you can do that HERE. ‘Utterly transformative week. I am so tired I could (and may) sleep for a week, but my god it’s been monumental’ Angela Clarke, […]
Over the last week or so I have been doing some soul searching, as well as building the curriculum for Talent Campus. By chance, during research an idea I came across resonated with something I did over a decade ago and have done many times since (I even posted about it here in 2010!) Three […]
As creative people we often beat ourselves up. We could have done more. We should have done more. Everyone else seems to be doing so much better. Hmmmm. Social media amplifies this as we watch other people share their successes with us. Even though we know these are often rose tinted, heavily edited, photo filtered […]
Yesterday I got some very sad news. Filmmaker, friend and passionate advocate of storytellers Anil Rao passed away in the early hours of Christmas day. I got to know Anil very well through Create50, mostly during the 50 Kisses production. His film version of Neil won best film, you can watch it here on my […]
Not many people know about this but I do a lot of Santa work around Christmas, for the local kids. It all grew out of my very first seasonal job when I was 15, that of Stunt Santa for the local department stores in the North West of England. It would be me that arrived […]
What a SPECTACULAR evening we share at the Twisted50 vol 2 book launch and awards last Tuesday. The video will give you a sense of the event, the show and the passion present on stage. For those not present, here is a list of the main category winners for both books (which you can now […]
Earlier this year we shot this little Xmas film to highlight the challenges some older people face in the winter months. It grew from the idea and question, ‘what would happen if Father Christmas needed physio?’ The script for ‘Never Too Late’ was written by LondonSWF delegate Jon Ryan who we also collaborated with […]
It’s time to take your filmmaking game to the next level… After being asked what fells like 1,000 times, I am bringing the Guerilla Filmmakers Masterclass back. And with an eye watering deal for the two day rollercoaster that will arm you in your heart, mind and soul to make your movie NOW! I used […]
Ahead of the Impact50 re-launch on Dec 18th (and you will likely see lots up changes going on across the site right now), I thought I would share the video of the whole show for The Impact50 Awards at the British Screenwriters Awards 2018. It really was a night to remember and a very special […]
Next week we release the short film Never Too Late in time for Christmas. It’s a wonderful little festive gem than explores the need for physio over the colder seasonal months, especially for the older people in our lives. The story evolved from the idea, what would happen if Father Christmas needed physiotherapy? And we […]
by Brian Barnes As seriously independent micro-budget filmmakers we need an edge. Any little thing that will make our projects more likely to survive and thrive in the big, cruel marketplace that is feature film distribution. In pursuit of that edge, before making my first feature film, I did my due diligence and performed as […]
I love my job. I’m a semi-abstract expressionist artist. That means that I create paintings and illustrations that don’t look like reality, but you can kind of tell what it is. I love to create a painting for someone that expresses something they didn’t feel able to express for themselves. It’s a wonderful moment when […]
Last night the team behind Meet The Nativity took the stage to accept their award for their hard work in making the time travelling Christmas rom-com that went viral last Christmas. The four part webisode series took the offbeat premise of ‘what would happen if you discovered the actual first century nativity taking place the […]
Twenty-Five year television veteran Frank Spotnitz is a big believer in luck. He was lucky that his parents never supervised their son’s voracious and indiscriminate consumption of 60s and 70s television, allowing him to build up a vast catalogue of narrative strategies in his mind. He was lucky that Chris Carter hired him for his […]
Guest post by Jude Poyer, images by Tom Cheshire Playing to your strengths and embracing your limitations helps get your film made, and making it fun. My name is Jude Poyer, I’m a stunt coordinator and action designer from London, England, and I’m an action movie addict. Less than two weeks ago, before we’d even […]
