With Stuart Hazeldine After trawling my archives, I discovered this cracking recording I made with screenwriter Stuart Hazeldine about working in LA, but living in the UK. It was held at Ealing Studios in 2009, just before his first feature film EXAM went into production. He candidly shared his experiences giving detailed roadmaps you can […]
For eight years now I have been writing articles on my blog to help filmmakers. Some great pieces are buried on there, months and years in the back history of the articles. And so I have begun pulling them out and tweeting them every day. So if you want to get them daily, just follow […]
I have been transferring all my podcasts to SoundCloud and came across this cracking podcast recorded by Gen and Zee in LA with Mark Fergus, ‘Iron Man’ and ‘Children Of Men’ screenwriter and Academy Award nominee. They recorded this in part to help with the new Hollywood Pocketbook, which is now in print, PDF, ePub […]
Earlier this week I recorded a podcast with attorney Joe Adams and Brit TV presenter (now US based) James McCourt about how Brits can make the leap to LA LA Land and launch a successful career in California. . If you are considering Hollywood as a destination for your career, this is a MUST listen […]
The new Guerilla Filmmakers ‘Breaking Into Hollywood Pocketbook’ is now selling well via our site here (http://www.guerillafilm.com/the-hollywood-pocketbook/) (in both hardcopy AND ePub / PDF, as well as Kindle here. I have had several requests for information about sending a spec script to LA, and so I asked Gen her opinion on what trips up a […]
‘Read this book, you’ll be five steps ahead of the game before you get off the plane’ Matt O’Toole, Co-Producer ‘The Expendables 1 and 2’ Over the last few months, Gen in LA has been putting the finishing touches to our new pocketbook, Breaking Into Hollywood: A Guerilla Pocketbook. We just sent it off to […]
There is no reason why you should not write and work in Hollywood. It’s a question I ask on many of my seminars, ‘do you want to work for Hollywood?’ And if the answer is yes, get on a plane. Genevieve my LA partner did this over a decade ago and has got representation and […]
Earlier this year I wrote on the blog about a seminal documentary that aired in the 80’s, about how ILM created visual effects. It was made by the BBC as part of the Horizon series. And when I discovered the doc in my old archives and posted it, I found that many other film makers […]
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 […]
Watch the short film and read the feature script now… (plus get access to extra drafts and production paperwork like schedule and breakdowns) Then on Saturday June 18th, at the Apollo Cinema, watch the movie (on the weekend of its 200 screen release), followed by a 2 hour seminar with Writer/Director Jonathan Newman. Finally, […]
FREE EVENT FOR London Screenwriters Festival 2011 delegates and The Guerilla Film Makers Masterclass delegates. Only a few years ago, Gareth Unwin was a struggling film maker, working on low budget films and shorts as a first assistant director. And on Feb 27th, he picked up the Oscar for Best Film, as producer of ‘The […]
Gen asked me to post this on the blog, about her LA workshop… I knew for a long time that I wanted to make movies in Hollywood. That was my dream since, like many, I was blown away by Star Wars all those years ago. It was an incredibly powerful movie that has now become […]
Only as Gen and Zee head to the airport after their workshop whistlestop tour have I had chance to sit down and write a blog entry about their final seminar on writing spec scripts for Hollywood. Last night, Gen and Zee spoke to a capacity audience at Ealing Studios of writers and film makers who […]
This weekends two day documentary workshop with Andrew Zinnes has just completed. It’s been an exhausting two days for everyone, but especially Andrew who last Thursday did a short workshop with me at the BFI. Then he did this rigorous two day workshop, and now we are prepping for the big one, the Hollywood Spec […]
In Hollywood, movies are like hamburgers… That’s how co-author of The Guerilla Film Makers Pocketbook Andrew Zinnes put it last night to an enthusiastic group of film makers at the BFI. The BFI had organised this workshop in conjunction with their bookshop as a ‘book signing’ event, but it quickly developed into a Hollywood workshop […]
Last Sunday I was a guest on Hollywood based radio show, Film Courage, with David Branin and Karen Worden. I Skyped in for the interview and we enjoyed a full hour of robust film chatter! You can listen to that show here on my blog (using player below). Their show is a terrific and inspiring […]
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 […]
Human beings are meaning making machines – as screenwriters it is our job to guide and manage the meanings that our audiences make, but in such a way as they are unaware that we are in full control. I just rewatched ‘Inception’ last night and I am still reeling from the experience. Every five years […]
Script to screen event at Ealing Studios, Sunday May 30th 2pm (£12.97 – sign up here). Read The Script, Watch The Film, Meet The Film Maker… Find out how one struggling writer made a short film of his feature script, got it made as a UK feature, remade as a controversial Bollywood feature, and finally […]
When I am watching a movie that is brilliantly written, it leaves me kind of breathless. Because I know just how much hard work goes into writing a screenplay that breezes along effortlessly, with no friction, without a single scrap of waste, simultaneously surprising and obvious at each turn (‘how is he going to get […]
Finally, I got to see ‘Kick-Ass’ this weekend. And Lucia my girlfriend liked it soooo much, she dragged me to see it a second time. Secretly, I also know that she has ordered a purple wig from the internet – she wants to become a night time crusader like ‘Hit Girl’… The interview I did […]
Yesterday I met with my old pal and editor, Eddie Hamilton. Eddie cut ‘Gone Fishing’ (trailer here) for us and most recently (you can buy it here), he has spent 18 months working on Kick-Ass as one of the editors, alongside Jon Harris and double Oscar winner Pietro Scalia, who Eddie speaks about in this […]
THIS IS THE THIRD AND FINAL CHAPTER IN THIS ADVENTURE… YOU CAN CLICK HERE IF YOU MISSED PART ONE, AND PART TWO… OR SCROLL DOWN TO READ… OK to recap… I got a call about a movie that needed a director, a big budget Hollywood studio picture… I dashed into central London to collect a […]
FIRST OFF… IF YOU DID NOT READ THE LAST POST, CLICK HERE OR SCROLL DOWN AND READ THAT ONE FIRST… OK, so to recap… 24 hours ago, this opportunity did not even exist. And now, having read a script, been grilled by Judy over and over, and after waiting in Starbucks for several hours, the […]
This week has been a white knuckle ride for me. I am writing this with a pounding head from the workload, the stress and the queasy feeling of being pulled backwards, forwards, up and down… There were so many times when I paused and turned to Judy Goldberg and would say… ‘this is it, this […]
