https://vimeo.com/31537915 ‘Spaced’, ‘Hot Fuzz’, ‘Shaun Of The Dead’ and ‘Scott Pilgrim’… Edgar Wright at the London Screenwriters’ Festival! At the eleventh hour, Edgar agreed to join us at the festival and delivered an inspiring session to a crammed cinema of screenwriters and film makers. Please remember to add your comments on the interview below. If […]
Archive | Screenwriters Festival
Christopher Vogler: The Hero’s Journey Continues..
Unable to be at the festival in person, Chris Vogler joined us via satelite link up to have an in-depth conversation with Chris Jones about The Hero’s Journey, why it’s continued to be popular amongst screenwriters and filmmakers all over the world and helps them to write their stories. The Hero’s Journey, if you’re not […]
How to land a primetime BBC1 TV series with NO past credits
Three years ago Rob Thorogood had spent a decade writing scripts, sold one spec that went no-where and had one radio play commissioned. He was at the edge of sanity. His relationship with his wife and kids was strained. What else could he do? And that’s when he made a choice. To find someone who […]
What is happening now is less interesting than what may happen next
On Film-making: An Introduction to the Craft of the Director by Alexander Mackendrick, edited by Paul Cronin, is an extraordinary collection of notes and essays from film maker, writer and film teacher, Alexander Mackendrick. Responsible for three of Ealing Studios’ most loved films, Whisky Galore!, The Man In The White Suit and The Ladykillers, Mackendrick […]
The One Page Movie Competition Officially BEGINS NOW!
The script leg of the ‘Four Nights In August’ competition closed last week and now we have a winner. Stop the press! WE HAVE TWO WINNERS! Yes we had a tie, so we decided to split the award. First, and in no particular order, is ‘Everything You Need’ by David Turner. And sharing that top […]
How to be remembered when you network in a large room
In the run up to the London Screenwriters Festival, networking becomes VITAL… and in an event where you could potentially meet 500 new contacts and partners, keeping tack is essential. With three weeks to go I am suggesting to all our delegates that they do two things. 1. Make a business card and get it […]
Why community and total immersion is so important to creative people
I got a Tweet tonight about the London Screenwriters’ Festival at the end of October (and if you don’t know, I am the director of the festival) and we engaged in a short conversation about the value of attending the festival. Here is one of the tweets in the conversation… ‘Its not like there r […]
Special event, Oscar winners Gareth Unwin and David Seidler on ‘The King’s Speech’
Did you know that ‘The King’s Speech’ was nearly made on a budget for £1m as a multi part TV series for the BBC? That was just one of the amazing stories Gareth told us all at the opening to The Guerilla Film Makers Masterclass when he and writer David Seidler came to speak to […]
Take your writing to the next level
Highest rated speaker at the 2010 London Screenwriters Festival, Linda Aronson, is coming to town to run her landmark two day workshop on Advanced Screenwriting and Parallel story telling. When: November 12th and 13th How Much: £119 – discounted for blog readers to £65 (use code CHRISJONES) FIRST 50 TICKETS ONLY Where: Regents Park http://www.21stcenturyscreenwriter.com/ […]
Making ‘Zombie Undead’ at The Guerilla Film Makers Masterclass
For the opening of The Guerilla Film Makers Masterclass, I asked Rhys Davies to speak about his experience making ‘Zombie Undead’, a micro budget horror that he successfully sold in the UK. You can watch the video above. I was particularly pleased in that this session was to be followed by Gareth Unwin and ‘The […]
How can you go from being a struggling film maker and writer all the way to the Oscars and BAFTA's? Meet Gareth, he just did it!
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 […]
All you need a great idea, a camera… and a teddy bear!
I just discovered that there is a brand spanking new Misery Bear webisode, starring KATE MOSS (!) released today for Comic Relief. You can watch above. Any film maker will immediately see the references to other movies, but for me, the uber-low tech way the Misery Bear films are made is what makes them so […]
Writing For The Digital Film Makers Age, with Phil Parker, free 1 hour Seminar
JOIN LIST BELOW FOR YOUR PASSWORD As you may know, we filmed many of the seminars, workshops and panels at the London Screenwriters Festival, which was no small task I can tell you! Four teams, 9 HD cameras, four sound kits and four sessions a day… And that’s just the shooting! Then there was the […]
A Writers Guide To Helping Get Your First Feature Film Produced
At the London Screenwriters Festival we ran a session called ‘Should You Produce?’ Then concept was simple. If you are a director, writer or actor etc… why wait for the big break? Create the big break by producing a film yourself. Lucy V Hay, who we all know, also works tirelessly for the festival, but […]
The little blue line of death…
Those of you who attended the festival will have seen Chris Huang running around like crazy, managing the four camera and sound teams who were filming the sessions. He was clearly a glutton for punishment as on the final day he asked if he could edit them too. As we filmed around 40 sessions, each […]
Camaraderie, focus and chemical addiction – are you an addict?
I thought I would repost this blog about what happens when you undertake a massive venture with a dedicated team. In this case it was the first London Screenwriters’ Festival, but it’s the same deal with a film too. Post event blues is a REAL condition… you get it when you wrap your film. …I […]
Well that happened! The London Screenwriters' Festival 2010
Well that happened! It’s day two now, since the London Screenwriters Festival 2010 ended, and day two of planning the 2011 festival. More on 2011 in the coming weeks and months, but for now, what was 2010 like? Well we pulled it off, with minimal screw ups – yes we did get a few things […]
Rounding off. Feeding Back. Packing Up. Round of Drinks!
From guest blogger Leilani Holmes at the London Screenwriters Festival 2010 And so it is over. I can hardly believe that so much has happened and how quickly it’s flown. I don’t yet feel changed by the experience but I’m completely loaded up with information that I haven’t fully assimilated yet so I’m expecting some […]
Crime Pays
From guest blogger Leilani Holmes at the London Screenwriters Festival 2010 The last semiar I did today was Crime Writing with Rick Drew, Daniel Eckhart, Andrew Taft and Barbara Machin. Crime is one of the most popular genres and in the workshop the writers discussed with us why that might be. The overall consensus seemed […]
Cutting Edge #LSWF
From guest blogger Leilani Holmes at the London Screenwriters Festival 2010 Tim Clague, Alexis Nolant, Julian Gerighty, Andy Walsh and Rhianna Pratchet held a session this morning on writing for games. I think of all the workshops this is one that shows that there has been a large variety of writing advice taking place in […]
Fuelled by People
From guest blogger Leilani Holmes at the London Screenwriters Festival 2010 Any festival is really only ever as good as it’s people. And screenwriting is about people, it’s about touching people, watching people, learning about people, and hearing people’s stories. I have to say that one of the things that will always stay with […]
Distribution in the UK
From guest blogger Leilani Holmes at the London Screenwriters Festival 2010 The DISTRIBUTION IN THE UK session with Peter Buckingham and Alex Stolz from the UK Film Council was based upon the factual research the UKFC have done into what motivates audiences to see a film, who watches what, and the things that are most profitable […]
BBC2 to show my feature film on the opening day of the London Screenwriters Festival
What a wonderful bit of serendipity. On Friday, the opening day of the festival, at 55 minutes past midnight (which I know is technically Saturday), BBC 2 is screening ‘Urban Ghost Story’. What a simply marvellous way to open the festival! So if you have never seen it, now is your chance. It was screened […]
The future of the British Film Industry is in YOUR hands, and not in ‘THEIR’ hands…
Over the weekend, and as part of the London Screenwriters Festival, I was drawn into a newspaper article in The Observer about UK films being poor at economising. The basic gist being that I believe films need to be made more cost effectively if we are going to sustain any kind of infrastructure that can […]
‘Inception’, a screenwriters masterclass
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 […]
