I’ve just come across a great new resource for writers called Circalit. You can showcase your novel, short story or screenplay online through one of the many community fora. You can get feedback from other users. In addition, Circalit run periodic competitions with their partners which include book publishers and film producers. Some of these competitions are free. For more information visit http://www.circalit.com/public/
Archive for the 'screenwriting' Category
My short film Enemy Lines is about to cross the Atlantic. Director Mike Steel and I are honoured to have been chosen to showcase our film at the Short Short Story Film Festival in New York, this Saturday 21 November 2009, then the following Saturday on the 28th.
Festival organisers, Merging Art Productions, ask:
How do filmmakers tell a story in less than five minutes? Not just trailers, music videos, or experimental projects, but honest-to-goodness beginning-middle-end stories?
The Short Short Story Film Festival celebrates brevity in filmmaking, featuring films from across the globe. For more information visit the festival website
I’m chuffed to see that Enemy Lines is going to be one of the films shown in the ‘LONDON’ exhibition at the Branchage International Film Festival in Jersey. LONDON is a selection of films which were previously shown at the Rushes Soho Shorts Festival. In the words of festival director Joe Bateman:
LONDON will showcase an engaging variety of creative short films (from this year’s Festival Shortlist) about, for or made by Londoners. The work includes factual accounts, fictional settings and animated adventures that will be sure to transport the audience into the many different worlds of London.
One of the best blog posts I’ve read all week is over on Danny Stack’s Scriptwriting in the UK. If you’re wondering how to pitch your idea to the powers that be, zoot over there and see how Danny does it. But if you’d like to stay here and chat, please do so. Maybe you can tell us about your pitching highs and lows. This week I cold called a producer, not expecting a reply, and got a very warm response. A couple of emails later and I was sending him my feature screenplay which he’s looking at now. Sometimes it’s not as scary as you think. Go on, give it a try.
It’s an oft-quoted maxim in screenwriting that one should never write camera directions into a script. On the other hand, writers are encouraged to write as if viewing the scene through the camera lens. How does one achieve this apparently contradictory feat? The Crafty Writer asked writer / director John Allen to give us some tips.
My feature screenplay Another Man’s Shoes has just been announced as a semi-finalist in the SoCal Independent Film Festival in California. Finalists to be announced on 7 August. If I get selected I’ll be heading over there to meet agents and producers 🙂
And all of this on the back of a very successful festival run for Enemy Lines at the Rushes Soho Shorts Festival. We didn’t win, but certainly held our own.
My film, Enemy Lines, has been selected in the short film category at this year’s Rushes Soho Shorts Festival:
140 new films from 18 countries will be competing in 8 categories: Long Form, International, Newcomer, Short Film, Documentary, Animation, Music Video and Broadcast Design. The Official Competition Screenings will be held at The Institute of Contemporary Arts in central London. The Awards Ceremony will be held on Thursday 30th July 2009.
Enemy Lines will be screened on Thursday 23 July (6.30pm , Cinema 1; Saturday 25 July (9pm, Cinema 2) and Wednesday 29 July (9pm, Cinema 1).
Other films to be screened at the festival include Sadie Frost’s Directorial Debut, Danny Boyles End Credit Sequence for Slumdog Millionaire, actors such as Michael Bryne (Gangs of New York), Juliet Stevenson (Bend It Like Beckham), Nick Nolte (Hotel Rwanda, 48 Hours), Connie Fischer (Sound Of Music), Russel Tovey (Being Human), Chris Hehir (Green Street), Danny Cunningham (24 Hour Party People), Jack O’Connell (This is England), comedians such as Adam Buxton Lulu McClatchy and Alexei Sayle, and music videos from McFly to Royskopp, Will Young to Goldfrapp, Coldplay and U2 and many more.
Having grown dramatically every year since its inauguration in 1998, this year’s festival runs over 10 days and offers a wide range of events including the Opening Night Premiere ‘The Calling’, BAFTA Short Filmmakers Market, seminars, panel discussions, guest screening programmes, receptions and exhibitions held in 15 different venues in Soho district.
All events and full booking details can be found on their website: www.sohoshorts.com.
I’ll be going down for the Wednesday screening and will be meeting up with my director, Michael Steel. Please let me know if you’re going to any of the screenings.
If like me you’ve written a screenplay and been lucky enough to have had it made, you’ll be wondering what to do next. Does your film have a life beyond the first screening? Yes, on the festival circuit. But some producers and / or directors may not seem too keen to do the legwork involved in getting it onto the circuit (fortunately my director is, and ‘Enemy Lines’ has just been nominated for the Best Short Film at this year’s Rushes Soho Short Film Festival – but more of that in another post). If that’s the case with you, perhaps you should consider distributing your film yourself (check with your producer first that you have the right to do so). And of course, if you’re an independent who has written, directed and produced your film, you’ll need to do it anyway. Screenwriter Keith Jewitt gives us some advice on how to go about it.
Continue reading ‘How to get your short film onto the festival circuit’
I first encountered screenwriting teacher and script consultant Phil Parker at a workshop for the shortlisted candidates of Northern Film and Media’s Maxi Stinger scheme. I had to leave early to pick up my daughter from daycare, so unfortunately missed the last 90 minutes of the workshop. So I decided to get Phil’s book The Art and Science of Screenwriting to see what I’d missed. I’m so glad I did.
Phil is a producer and freelance development consultant whose clients include Aardman Animation (Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit) and The Mob (Terry Pratchett’s Hogfather). He is the founder and Course Director of the MA in Screenwriting, at London College of Communication, University of the Arts, London.
Continue reading ‘The Art and Science of Screenwriting’
The Crafty Writer’s guest blogger, Keith Jewitt, talks to film producer Jack Tarling about writing screenplays for micro-budget films.
TCW: First of all what do we mean by a micro-budget film?
JT: There are no hard and fast rules but I am going to be talking about films costing well under £1million and in most cases less than £250,000. Continue reading ‘Writing micro-budget feature films’
