What drives me? What drives you? Why do we have these deep seated needs that often others cannot connect with, or they just plain think we are crazy? The need to create and share? The need to write that film? Scribe that novel? Paint that painting? Act? Make that movie? What is it? I have […]
We all know Skynet is coming, though if the digital revolution we just lived through is anything to go by, it’s gonna look less like Blade Runner and more like Zoom. Who knew. Meanwhile, MidJourney, an AI image creation tool is getting better and better every day. I don’t mean that in some overly used […]
I just ran a firewalk for Shine PND and one of the Warrior Mums was kind enough to write a post about her journey. Over to Laura Wyatt… During one of my first sessions at Shine there was a serious buzz of excitement from Lauraine! She’d just been part of a group of Shine mums […]
By Mark MacNicol DREADED LIGHT is now available on Amazon UK & US more info HERE I’ve been a member of the Chris Jones/LSF tribe for several years and I’m grateful to all of the networking and peer support opportunities. I wanted to do a post that might add some insight. I’ve struggled a bit […]
Well, both yes and no. The old adage used to be, ‘shit in, shit out’. And that’s still true. Kinda. I have been experimenting with a tool from Topaz Labs called Video Enhance AI. It takes in old footage, typically say Standard Definition video, and then up-scales it to HD, 2k, 4k, whatever you like. […]
What materials do you need to enter a film festival? Impact50 has been selected for its FIRST Major Festival… Details to follow soon… I can’t say which festival yet as the line up has not been announced, but it’s in the early Autumn, it’s in Europe and it’s a BRILLIANT one. Ahead of the announcement […]
Last week I recorded a fabulous Desert Island Disks inspired show for Screen To Screen on Soho Radio. It’s a great listen to play in the background with some personal favourite music to boot. Hosted by the dynamic duo of Liz McMullen and Steve Harcourt (Liz who I met through The Impact). It’s a true […]
Crowdsourcing is not for everyone. But it can work, for the right project. Equally it can work brilliantly with a specific stage in a project too. I have crowdsourced two feature films now and have perhaps more experience than anyone I know when it comes to corralling very large groups of creative people to come […]
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. […]
Every so often we experience magic. Actual real world magic. Not a trick. Not supernatural. But awe inspiring scientifically backed up magic. I just opened the box containing the Meteorite that the Final Draft have so kindly sponsored for the Best Script Award at the Impact50 awards. And yes, sorry for the strong […]
After a HUGE amount of debate within the team and community, we have decided to use the poster with the meteor for all online presence. It works really well in the fast-paced environment of social media, such as account headers or thumbnails and square posts. But for the HUGE and permanent movie poster, we have […]
It all began with a riot. Four nights of rioting across the UK actually, but mainly in London. It was August 2011 and walking through Ealing on my way to the office at Ealing Studios reminded me of a war zone. This was the start of Create50, though right now, it was just a […]
Last week we began the final grade for The Impact. This is where we adjust colours, contrast and even add subtle visual effects like shadows or flares, to polish the look of all the films. Aside from the obvious creative element we can address, the grading also helps make the films all look like they […]
Announcing The World Premiere of Impact50! May 31st, The Genesis Cinema, London Join us to celebrate in style and party like it’s the end of the world… ‘cos it just might be! Nearly a decade from conception to World Premiere, The Impact is a stunning feature film like no other. Prophetic? Yes. Ambitious? Absurdly […]
I say the final cut. I am of course still cutting. But it’s close. Very close. So close that I finished it last week. Then I realised I knew I had to do yet another recut. With the premiere looming, the vice is tightening. There’s nothing like a good deadline to get the creative cogs […]
About three weeks ago my Facebook account was hacked. I don’t want to go into details of the ‘how’ as it was a sophisticated hack, and I am still unsure of how they did it. The bottom line is that the platform is very far from secure. Tumbling from this I then also lost my […]
It seems about two thousand years ago, as in this time last year, that we published two books for Xmas. One a kids book, the other a collection of Christmas ghost stories. Both are on Amazon globally and both feature stories written by new writers in the LondonSWF community. So if you want a unique […]
This Girl is on Fire by Emma Johnson “Leaving behind nights of terror and fear I rise. Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear I rise.” Maya Angelou There is a moment, just before you step onto hot coals, where the whole world seems to hold its breath. The guiding arm in front of you falls […]
It’s just over one month to the three days onstage in London. But the Screenwriters Festival this year is also SOOOO much more, especially for those who want to stay home and do it all online. Firstly, so yes, everything will be made available online. All the events over the weekend of the 10th to […]
Next year I am planning to make a low budget feature film and I am inviting submissions. It’s time to get back on set! The emphasis here is low budget and we ALL need to go into this with our eyes wide open. There will be rewrites, collaboration and plenty of compromise. Money will be […]
We live in a digital age where we are creating SOOOO much data, very few of us are archiving with an eye on the future. Or at least the long term future. For some reason, at a very early age, I realised that I should archive everything I create, ideally at the best quality, or […]
The London Screenwriters’ Festival is among more than 2,700 recipients to benefit from the latest round of awards from the £1.57 billion Culture Recovery Fund This award ensures that the festival will not just survive beyond the pandemic, but will thrive in these uncertain times. The London Screenwriters’ Festival is delighted to announce that it […]
One week in and not we are not even a third of the way there… LondonSWF365 seems to be doing exactly what we had hoped… Elevating energy, inspiring action, feeding the creative soul, loading the mind, and connecting like minded folk with their tribe. It’s exceeding even my own expectations and I had VERY high […]
The feedback from the first couple of days at LondonSWF365 is in and it’s bonkers good! I am delighted as we have worked really hard to make it high energy and exciting so as to enhance the learning, opportunities and experience of everyone attending. All sessions are recorded to watch later, so you can still […]
Buckle up… Nearly a month of screenwriting events begin tomorrow at 7:30pm, all live and available to watch on demand after for one year. We have over 100 sessions set up and around 50 world-class speakers. Now, here’s the biggest reason to join us: Momentum. For many of us, February will be a tough month, […]
