Blogging Next Year

So for the first time I’ve managed to keep my blog going for a year. Was a little gap in the middle of the year when life got in the way but I’ve mostly updated it regularly and feel like I’m improving and expanding with it.

My question to myself is what would I like to do with it in 2017.

Am always looking to improve the quality so would like to spend a little more time on the posts which I believe I can do, and maybe look for a set amount of posts a week along with certain set days that they come out.

Have a lot of ambition for 2017 that isn’t just scriptwriting so think that the blog will end up being more than just a scriptwriting blog and would cover a lot more of my other creative endeavours, but feel it’s already going that way anyway.

Know that it’s best for a blog to really centre around one core thing but that’s just not the way my brain works.

Would like to write more about past writing and filming experiences so will look to do that. Will keep up to date with my script writing and any thoughts I have on the subject along with trying to be as transparent as possible about my script writing career.

Have plans on making plenty of music videos and short films next year so that will become a bigger part of the blog along with a little more about my photography. Alongside this I’m looking to put a lot more work into the film review channel so will write about, and promote, that more which I’m sure will also lead to a couple more bulk review blogs.

The idea of the blog was always to track my creative progress and give a little insight to who I am and that remains the main idea. I want to share anything I learn and experience in the writing and film world while also sharing stuff I love and am passionate about.

Feel like next year has to be a big one for one, although I do feel that every year. Have a few things lined up that could really make that happen and will share as much of that as possible. Recently finished (I hope) a new feature script so will be looking to do something with that later in the year and have another one ready to get out there.

Going to make things happens, one way or another. Feel more confident about my writing and where I’m at with it and have made big steps forward this year behind the camera so now need to do something with that. So have my sights set firmly forward.

So thank you to everyone who’s been reading this year. Have had far more readers than any other year, in fact probably all the previous years and blogs combined don’t come close to this year so that’s been awesome and hopefully will only get better.

Stephen.

(This my final blog of the year most likely, but will be back super early next year)

 

Photography Challenge

So a few times in the past I’ve considered the whole photo a day thing. Even downloaded an app last year but never kept it up. But think it’s time to give it a go. Might wait to the start of next year but seems like a good time in my life to try it.

Find myself using the camera on my iPhone nearly every day. Use Hipstamatic and Snapseed every chance I get. Love my Canon 700d and any opportunity to use that is one taken. Have a Viewbug account that I update regularly and enter photo contests and challenges all the time. So why not?

Certainly my life doesn’t feel exciting enough at the moment for their always to be the opportunity for great pictures but guess that’s part of the challenge. Have to find something other than my costa coffee’s and laptop to take photo’s of, but am sure I will.

Will try and take the photo’s on a range of different camera’s, at different aspect ratio’s. Will try as many of the lens and film options on Hipstamatic as I can along with trying some different editing styles on Affinity. Alongside that want to try a few different techniques as well, but we’ll see how it goes.

Think Instagram is the best place to show the photo’s (unless anyone knows of anywhere more specifically suited) and will load the best ones onto my Viewbug as well.

Have found photography has helped me a lot this year both on a personal level but also when it comes to filming things and making videos. I’ve learnt to fully use my camera and moved away from auto settings a long time ago. Feel like I have control with my camera now and can capture the pictures in my head rather than just getting close. Have a bit more to learn with Affinity but I’m getting there and have several apps that I’m very comfortable with in post as well on my iPad.

So I guess the question to myself is do I wait until the start of the new year and make it a bit of a 365 challenge, or do I start from tomorrow as why wait? Not sure the answer yet but like the idea of starting afresh in the new year.

Stephen

This Song is About You Music Video

So after writing my last blog about wanting to make a music video I decide… Why not just make one now. So I did.

I found a song of my friends that I loved and made a stop motion music video to go with it. Had a few ideas and set pieces in mind for it and pretty much managed to pull them all off baring one. Happy with the end result, especially as it was made on my own over two days. Shot and edited.

Despite the silliness of the video there is a fair bit of underlining meaning in it, but most of that is more of an inside thing, but hoping it’s entertaning enough without knowing.

Alongside making the MV I also shot a kinda making of diary to go alongside it. Will hopefully edit that together soon and release that as well.

The song itself is doing amazingly well on Streetvoice so hoping the music video does it justice. I’ve heard it got radio time in Taiwan and is still doing great in the chart so super proud and excited for it.

Will write another blog soon with a little bit of a making the music video vibe to it as there where a few challenges and things I had to do differently that I don’t fully cover in the diary so worth putting on here. Always try to be as transparent as I can.

Anyway.

Here’s the video. Let me know what you think:

 

Stephen

Want to direct another MV

Really have a strong urge of late to direct a new music video. Is the time of year where the light outside looks awesome (when it’s not pitch black in the middle of the day) and want to take advantage of it. Feeling very creative and energised after a bit of a lean spell and almost finished a draft of my latest script so need something else to do while I take a week or two away from it before going back for the next draft.

Listening to more and more music and have loads of ideas running through my head. Have a few basic concepts I’d like to try but feeling open to any idea. Hasn’t helped that I’ve watched a few music documentaries of late and that’s got me in the mood too.

Am looking to direct a lot more come next year. Feel the work I’ve done behind the camera this year has been a vast improvement on before and really enjoying it. Feel comfortable with the camera in my hand and have worked hard on editing. The many many many many many hours spent on both seem to have allowed the technical stuff to catch up with what’s in my head and has given me the chance to better show my original vision.

Keep thinking about studying Music Video’s more but feel I’m getting a lot from just watching different ones from around the world. Got some real decent constructive feedback on the last one I made from an awesome band and that’s helped too. Am keen to have another crack. Want to learn on the job and have plenty of fun honing my skills while creating some work that I’m proud off.

So here’s hoping I create a chance to shoot another in the not to distant future.

Stephen

Writing and Directing Short Films

Been working on a few short film scripts of late and has felt nice. When learning to write I’d write short films all the time and used to enjoy it, even directed a couple and had some play at festivals around the country. Was a great experience going to showings and seeing people enjoying my work up on the screen. Then after a failed short my attention turn to writing feature scripts, after all, that’s where I wanted to be.

I’ve been writing feature scripts and TV pilots for a while now. Have 4 feature scripts completed, another one close and have written countless drafts of others which I’m sure at some stage I’ll go back too (Two are very advanced and probably only one good draft away). Along with this I have 2 pilots ready and have written another ill-fated one a while back which I still love the concept but cringe anytime I read it and stop after the first act.

So shorts have kind of taken a back seat, but are always on my mind. Which is why of late it’s been really good to get back writing them. Writing The Moment a few years back and seeing it take off as part of London Screenwriters Festivals 50 Kisses Project really got me back in love with shorts especially after having some success with one I’d written just before that as well. Since then they’ve been part of my life again never more so than now.

I have a handful of shorts fully written and ready and another couple well on their way and am deciding really what to push forward with and direct. With my aim being to direct a no budget feature in the next few years shorts seem like a great way to get the necessary directing experience especially when I’m enjoying them so much at the moment.

The trouble I had back when I started features was that I’d done so much work on my shorts that they ended up becoming feature scripts or TV shows. Two of the four feature scripts I’ve completed  started life as shorts and the one i’ve almost finished started as a similar concept to the first short I directed. (Unseen short as was a practice shoot with City Eye). Alongside this one of the two pilots was also a short, one that I was very close to directing until I decided that the idea could be a lot bigger. So shorts where constantly being overshadowed by longer formats.

This seems to have changed recently. Now the shorts I’ve been writing have really been ideas more designed to be shorts than anything else. I’m sure I could work and expand the shorts a lot but there’s no real appeal in that when I already have such a long list of feature ideas anyway. Plus they work as shorts so why change that.. I think it’s something missing from my work in recent time and could help me a lot.

I like the idea of having a few shorts I’ve directed once again playing at festivals especially now that I have the feature script work to back it up. It seems like the short and longer format have both been part of my life for the last 10 years or more but have never really co-existed. Now seems to be the right time for that.

So whats the plan…

… The plan is to direct some of the short films I’ve written. To work with some of the people I used to work with and enjoy meeting and working with others. I have a few similar ideas where I might need to choose one or the other, and have a few idea’s that don’t really match the genre I’m working with in the longer format so will need to make some decisions there, but the idea of getting behind the camera and writing, directing and producing shorts gets me really excited.

Simply put, It’s something I feel I need to do for both my future, and something I greatly overlook at times, my present.

 

Stephen

 

(Have several older shorts on a separate page to my blog at the top of the page so feel free to check them out. Or here’s the link if the scroll up seems to far which I totally get after the last two weeks I’ve had)   Old Shorts

Past Filming Weekends

It feels like a lifetime ago, and in some ways maybe it is since these two weekends, but they have both always stuck in my head and will never leave. They are a reminder of one thing, I love making movies.

The two weekends are very different. The first a not so great movie that I was the camera man for, the second a lovely little film that I AD on called Alice and the Bear directed by Nick Maltby. Both must have been around 2008/9.

Neither was my film but both had a profound effect on me. The reason for this was simple. I loved being on set, being part of the movie making process. The first film that I shoot in truth wasn’t  a very good film but for a lot of us working on it it was our first real shoot. We had shot a short of mine a few weekends before, which I’ll talk happily about in another blog one day, but this was a bigger shot, more actors, bigger location, my complicated scenes etc.

I was just in awe of the whole process. Wanted to do everything, would have done everything. Felt incredibly alive being on set. Capturing the action unfold behind the camera I had a great sense of self satisfaction. I could have stayed behind that camera and continued shooting forever, or until I was thrown out the building. I’m not sure in my professional life how often I’ve felt that way, and I think the reason for that is simply not making enough stuff. Something that has to, and will, change over the next year.

The second shoot was completely different. Everything was a lot more professional. The short had a budget and a fantastic crew and excellent actors and the whole thing felt a lot closer to what I imagined a feature film set would be, especially the food table.

I was by far the least experienced on set and wanted to learn everything. While also trying to do the best job I could possibly do as an AD. Luckily for me everyone there wanted the film to be great and offered a ton of great advice and support. It felt like a community. Everyones goal was the same and everyone’s work ethic was the same. I’m not sure if this is the norm or not but its certainly how I want all my future sets to be.

Once again I found myself wanting to stay in the moment forever. I could have gone back to that studio and woods everyday for the next few years and just continued working. Would have been the best film school ever. The amount I learnt in two days was insane. If the shoot lasted a few months I’m pretty sure I would have walked away an expert.

I look back on both these experiences with such fond memories. I know I could have stayed on either set for much longer. If the shoot required me to stay awake for a week I would have done it and my smile would never have dropped.

Now I need that attitude back.

I’ve reached a point where I have to make more. Its as simple as that. And I will. So hopefully over the next weeks, months and years this blog will be filled with wonderful filming experiences and insights. I’ll be as transparent as possible about all of it and gain a lot more memories like these and be happy about every single one of them

Stephen