Is Your Plot Thickening?

This (photo) is of me and my friend Chris Jones, writer and director of award winning features – long and short, and Oscar shortlisted writer and director for the short film, ‘Gone Fishing’. 

Chris is also the co-author of the seminal ‘The Guerilla Film Maker’s Handbook,’ a book which graces the shelves of many of my film making friends, and if I’m in a name-dropping mood, I might mention Chris, our friendship and delight in the near-mythical status he has among said friends.

But that’s not why I’m friends with him. It was many years before I knew anything about his writing, directing or mythical status. We met through the LSF about 15 years ago (which he also set up) when he asked me to come in and deliver a masterclass to the participants during a lunch hour.

Over the years, he’s persuaded me to move from reading word-for-word from typed up notes, to presenting my ideas on power point (with notes) to giving a power point lecture without notes to close-to 200 people in April this year. (It was the most fun ever).

Year by year we’ve developed a trusting bond and a friendship based on creativity and mutual respect. We have the kind of back and forth where we can call each other out on crap ideas, and action the good ones. He is the most generous soul and gets high on creativity which is why he’s so able to revel in the success of others wherever and however it lands. He opens his contact list and network more readily than anyone I know because he understands this is how success in built in our fragile, ever-changing industry.

This week for the first time he told me the whole madcap story of how he came to write ‘The Guerilla Film Maker’s Handbook’ and bashfully brought it down from the shelf in his teeny office in London’s iconic Ealing Studios.

Something we are both very interested in, is the intersection of craft and commerce, which is why we felt it made so much sense to share our knowledge with others, and create and encourage creativity wherever we could with whoever wanted to hear about what we had to say.

After a successful first run of ‘The Plot Thickens with Eleanor Greene’ we’re running the course again in October but this time with a new title.

We’d love to see you there, cook up some ideas, and open up some neural pathways for YOUR success. Link in comments to How To Write Successful TV Drama with Eleanor Greene. DM me, or just sign up! Chris and I would love to see you there.