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)

 

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

New Page for Old Short Films

Just a quick blog. Been meaning to do this for a little while and now finally have. Have got together a lot of my old DV Mission shorts along with a few other bits including a link to my award-winning 50 kisses film and have created a page for them.

Is located at the top of the blog next to the about page or linked here:

Old Shorts and New MV

Will try in the future to do a blog on each project but that will be over a fair bit of time I imagine and will also see if I can find any other work to add.

Stephen.

(Is hard to believe that my short film Accidental Death is 8 years old.)

Shooting a Music Video

So getting slightly away from my normal blog on script writing i’ve had a great, productive, day directing a music video. While a lot of my ambition lies in script writing I have a great passion for directing and producing as well. I’ve had limited success with both and always enjoyed the challenge. It’s been a little while since I directed my best work and today I believe I topped that with the music video.

With some strong encouragement we set out today to make an MV from a song my friend wrote that’s been getting some notice of late. We had an idea in mind of the vibe we wanted for the video and the locations we knew would suit this. The shots where something we knew we’d come up with when we where at the location. Thats always been a strength of ours, but for the first time a weakness we normally have felt like it had been overcome.

Well framed and composed shots have been our bread and butter but have often been let down by not really knowing how to get the shot we wanted outside of framing. So this year i’ve really worked hard on getting to know my camera inside out and doing a lot of work on improving my editing knowledge. Between all the hard work with the two I now feel confident of getting the shots I want in camera and knowing that I can get the enchantments in post. It’s a big weight off my shoulders to have this technical confidence and now means I can approach the shoot from a much more creative standpoint without the worry of how the clip will look when played back.

Today has just gone well, Everything clicked in place and the frustration of not being able to make anything for a while was just put into this project. Everything we tried seemed to work. While i know every day won’t be like this and great challenges will be ahead it just makes me smile so much to know how far i’ve come over the last few months. That all the practice shoots and hours and days and weeks of editing anything together just for the practice are working. That all the books and articles i’ve read have stuck in my mind.

I’ve been able to breath a sigh of relief today and be happy with my work outside of writing. Can’t wait for the next shoot. Just want to keep this momentum going now and really push forward towards all my ambitious goals.

Stephen

Never Switching Off

So i’m not sure if this is one of whose things that just affect me, or maybe just affect a few, or if it’s every writer (or every creative person) but my brain just doesn’t switch off.

Like ever.

I mean I can function and stuff, can get through the day and perform tasks and all but idea’s and notes are just always running through my head. The quality may vary, greatly at times, but they’re always there. Just ticking away.

And sleeping, that’s just a different beast altogether. It’s not so bad on average but if i’m writing an actual script, just doesn’t happen. At least doesn’t happen in a way that is really that worth while. Is part of the reason I work the way I do. I generally plan everything out in note form first, end up with hundred and hundreds of pages before I sit down to write the script.

That way I can bang out a draft in under two weeks and get some sleep at the end of it because during the writing time I just tend to wake up and write more notes or edit. Sleep is a distant non existent second.

Have literally woken up in the morning hazily with pages upon pages of notes sitting on my bed. IS that normal? I should probably look that up. Or see how many people comment back to me that it is in fact crazy… or the norm.

Personally I like that my brain works this way. Wouldn’t swap it but it is one of the reasons I don’t drive. Actually does worry me that i’d crash because i’m thinking about how best to create tension in a scene or deciding how to show my characters motive.

Have tried taking a few days off after being non stop for 6 weeks capitalising on a bit of a purple patch and in my days off i’ve written up notes for the next draft of a feature and edited a whole bunch of photo’s and taken a 1000 more. That’s currently my brain taking a rest. Again wouldn’t swap it but even trying to watch some dumb movies hasn’t overly helped because i’ve just worked on other stuff through them.

Maybe one day i’ll find peace in some silent forest somewhere or something but in all honesty i’ll probably still be working out new ways for my slasher character to hack someone up, at best i’ll be taking photo’s of the forest with my fried brain.

This is the life I want though. So know it will never change, I won’t allow it. But maybe one day off at some point wouldn’t be so bad for me…

 

Stephen

 

 

 

Chance to Write

So it’s been around 6 weeks since I left my full time job ( for reasons I won’t got into) and while i’m starting to stress a little over money I’ve been using the time to write. To catch up on some writing that the stress of a full time managerial job has maybe prevented.

Now while I do believe you can do both and in most cases including myself need to (Stupid money) it’s been incredibly refreshing to get up in the morning and just write. Has been a sample of what I want my life to be when I finally do make it as a paid writer.

I’ve been writing for about ten hours a day on average everyday for at least 5 of the 6 weeks and can’t begin to explain how productive its making me feel. Have now completed 2 drafts of different screenplays, made notes for a 3rd, wrote half a web show and a new short film that i’m particular proud of (that’s now a few drafts in).

Alongside this i’ve taken my camera out plenty and filmed a fair bit while honing some editing skills and read several film books on all kind of subjects. Because it’s been raining for 75% of the time as well, the time i’ve spent not being creative has been used to catch up on films and TV show.

So all in all a very good 6 weeks on the creative front.

It’s been important for me to have this in my life. Part of me was worried that i’d waste to much time during this period. That i’d end up watching movies more than writing but I managed to put any procrastination aside and make the most of the time available. Really needed to and did. For the first time in quite a few months i’m proud of myself.

Without going into detail once more things have been hard of late but writing is always a constant in my life and always will be. Being able to dedicate this much time to it of late is a dream. A privilege that i’m happy I took advantage of.

Going to be nice to give myself a few days rest, although I doubt i’ll make it through tomorrow without writing for a few hours at least, but I feel some of the pressure I’ve put on myself has at least gone for a while.

Although now comes the hard part, turning all this hard work over the last 6 weeks, and many many years before that into the career I want.

Can’t wait 🙂

Stephen

Plans going forward

Been thinking s lot of late about what lies ahead and how I’m going to reach my ambitions and goals. It’s been very apparent to me that a lot of it is in my hands and I’m ok with that because that’s the way it should be.  

Not going to lie, I thought I’d be further along by this point. Had a view looks through the glass ceiling and loved what I saw but haven’t broken through as such yet. Feels like I’ve come close, and maybe missed an opportunity or two that I could have done more with but I didn’t, not sure why, but not going to dwell on it either. 

I feel like I’m in a place in my life now where I can go all in. That’s cost me a lot but also gives me great hope for the future. 

So with that said (albeit somewhat vaguely because all still to raw) my viewpoint now is to be positive and as hard working as ever (even more so) and get stuff done. All my unfinished work can be finished and I can get myself out there and that’s the easy part because a lot of that work has been done. 

I’ve set myself a long term plan to produce a lot of work and a lot of content and feel confident that not only can I stick to that, but can do more. Want to write more, make more, see more, be more and I can. 

Want to use this blog and other social media to be pretty transparent with my journey to get scripts out there and stuff made. Want to chat about the short films I’m working on and the music videos I’d love to make.

So many times in my life I’ve told myself this is a new beginning…

…Well this time it really is. But it’s the beginning after 15+ years of prologue. I have a great starting point, and the right attitude and work ethic, so time to make that count and its 100% on me, which is the way I like it. 

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

New Blog, New Production Company, New Year

So its that time of the year again when I promise myself I will make a ton of changes to my life and be super productive and creative and awesome and……. you know the drill.

Seriously man, do I really Lie to myself every year.

I guess I don’t. I do work extremely hard, and put a lot of energy into writing and learning about making films but i’m not sure its enough.

Well, truth be told, it isn’t enough. Not because the business is super competitive (which it is) and not because I haven’t really made much money in the field (which I haven’t) but because I personally don’t feel like its enough.

I feel like I put more of my energy and time into my day job than my writing and film making as thats the way life works.

Fuck that.

I should be putting most of my time and energy and heart and love into the thing that I want to do with my life. The thing that consumes my every thought. The thing that I want to still be doing when i’m 80, not the thing that quite frankly I don’t want to be doing now, let alone next year and the years after.

Getting the right balance in life is tough, I’ve been trying it for years without great success so I’ve had a bit of an epiphany. Would it be so bad for my life to be out of balance more in the direction I want it to be. I’m not saying i’m going to quit my day job as i’ve got rent to pay and would like at least a little bit of a social life but how did I start putting my Retail job before my writing. That needs to tip the other way.

It times for the job to be just the hours I’m there, and even then film needs to creep into it more. Time for me to finally take control and stop making empty promises to myself that I can’t keep because of my day job.

Thats not how things are meant to work. You’re meant to follow your dreams, live them, enjoy them, be happy and somehow this year and every year after I will make that happen.

And hopefully this blog will track a fair bit of that.

Stephen 🙂