The last three years have been brutal for me. As I know they have for so many others too. I am not unique in this regard. While smarter people may have chosen to allow their companies to go under during the pandemic, I chose to fight through bankruptcy and have emerged from the other side. […]
You can now get the book on Amazon HERE. Wow, well that was a whirlwind! We had 230 stories submitted to this initiative and each one was read by four experienced readers before selecting the 25 to go into the book. I plan to share an analysis of the experience in the coming days so […]
SUBMISSIONS NOW CLOSED This Christmas I am inviting you to write a bedtime story for children. Are you in? We want to create some magic for families around the world and get all of us… imagining, dreaming, creating, writing, rewriting, peer reviewing… and all on a short timescale and low word count. We will select […]
Screenwriters Slogans For The Wall… by Alexander MacKendrick © The Estate of Alexander Mackendrick www.alexandermackendrick.com At the London Screenwriters’ Festival, Paul Cronin delivered a terrific session on Alexander Mackendrick and the preverbal language of cinema. Paul also sent me some scans (above) of the aphorisms Mackendrick had stuck to his wall when he taught […]
As a film maker I am in the business of communication. It is the cornerstone of my business. Communicating big ideas with the world. Communicating stories with financiers, backers, actors, producers and broadcasters. And communicating with my community, sharing my journey and sometimes asking for help. As I write this I am downloading 79 emails. […]
Earlier this year we hosted a cracking event with Ted Hope and Christine Vachon, we called it American Independents Day in London, and we filmed the whole day. The videos are nearly ready and we are about to start building the website for it. And here’s the good news, the whole thing will be shared […]
I just bought a kindle, not because I wanted one (though it is of course very nice), but because it’s time to migrate the Guerilla Film Makers Handbooks onto digital platforms. This has been in the planning for some time now and I have just needed time to breathe to actually take steps to make […]
For those of you who haven’t ever seen it, we interviewed Chris Nolan and his wife Emma, in the second edition of The Guerilla Film Makers Handbook, after he had made ‘Following’ and while he was in post-production on ‘Memento’. ‘Batman’ and ‘Inception’ were but a twinkle in his eye back then, so it makes […]
As I have been rewriting Rocketboy, I have also been re-reading some of my favourite screenwriting books. I have been looking for tips, tricks, insights and wisdom on the screenwriting concept that writing is rewriting. But it’s also about being tough in those rewrites. Killing your darlings. There are a few very good books on […]
Reviews for the new ‘Guerilla Film Makers Pocketbook’ are now coming in thick and fast, like this one below from the actors newspaper, ‘The Stage’. I have also just completed a microsite on www.guerillafilm.com for anyone who wants to buy a signed copy of the book direct from us – in the UK, USA and […]
I am about to depart for Cannes, but thought I would share with you some feedback for the books that I have just received. We have sold out of the new pocketbooks already, and right now, you can only get them in bookshops (if they have stock) and Amazon and other online retailers (while they […]
Come to our book launch and meet a whole host of film making experts and professionals, network with them, pick their brains… and help get your next amazing poject made…! (see list below of confirmed experts attending – more to follow). OK, the new shiny tiny Guerilla Film Makers Pocketbooks have arrived from LA, which […]
Continuing Jon’s tips of the day as we run up to the Distribution on 2010 Workshop on May 8th / 9th. Over to Jon. Jon Reiss’ Tip of the Day 4 – Setting A Marketing Strategy Depending on the type of filmmaker that you are, marketing does not need to be thought of as catering […]
One of the strategies I find useful is to always think and behave like you have nothing to loose. Every time I complete a major project, I can’t help but reflect on the genesis of the very first Guerilla Filmmmakers Handbook in 1994 – we are fifteen years down the line now, on our seventh […]
We are getting very close to completing the all new Digital Film Makers Pocketbook – a guerilla film makers handbook for the digital age. And isn’t it tiny! In fact isn’t this 'mock up' tiny, this isn’t the final book. And actually, this isn’t the final cover either (it's with a designer now), but it […]
The final interview I did for the Guerilla Film Makers Pocketbook last week was with writer and director of Microwave Brit feature ‘Shifty’, Eran Creevy. Immediately likeable and extremely energetic, it’s not hard to see how Eran has achieved so much in so little time. In only a few years, he has gone from runner […]
‘People laughed at the end of the screening, and we thought huh, this isn’t funny is it? It’s an indictment of human greed…’ Said co-director Olly Williams, proving that artists don’t always know what they have created. If you have not seen it, do yourself a treat now and watch this two minute gen above, […]
We have begun work on a new Guerilla Film Makers book, not an update to the last one, but a whole new book. It’s going to be called The Digital Guerilla Film Makers Pocketbook. Yes you guessed, it’s going to be tiny but very dense. The focus is going to be entirely on ultra low […]
There’s a new film making book out there, a kind of Rebel Without A Crew for 2009, called ‘Either You’re In or You’re In The Way’, about Logan and Noah Miller, who managed to make a top notch US indie feature called ‘Touching Home’, starring Ed Harris. They had no past experience, contacts or budget. […]
I have just finished reading Joe Eszterhas’ book, ‘The Devil’s Guide to Hollywood: The Screenwriter as God’ which I picked up in the USA and is now out in the UK in paperback. I have always respected Eszterhas (most famous for ‘Basic Instinct’ and high profile script auctions) as an outspoken rebel against the Hollywood […]
