Updates and News
Confessions of a Crime Writer and Talent Camper… Interview with Angela Clarke by Fiona Hunnisett
You’ve only got to meet The Sunday Times bestselling crime novelist Angela Clarke to know that she’s already a bit of a Wonder Woman.
How One Talent Campus Writers Moved Into Direction by Vera Mark
Hey all, need to share some happy events with you. Last week, my DP/editor and I finished the rough cut of our little film
The Writers Room… What was the experience like with Nicola Larder, co-creator of ‘Marcella’ By Mark Renshaw
What do you do if you have one chance to impress Nicola Larder, the producer of several hit TV dramas and the co-creator of
Lessons From Russell T Davies by Alexis Howell-Jones
On 7th May some writer chums and I via the lovely people at the London Screenwriters’ Festival scored tickets to be in the audience on The One Show to listen to Russell T Davies discuss his new show, Years And Years.
Yes, that Russell T Davies. 5 BAFTAs. Queer as Folk. Wizards vs Aliens. Doctor Who, and many more. And when he talks, it’s worthwhile as a writer to listen.
So what did he discuss that should be part of a screenwriter’s armoury?
What does it take for an Author to make it in 2019? Meet Lucy Van Smit
At LSF we are taught to channel our inner Wonder Woman. Lucy Van Smit not only channels it, she owns it full time.
My Life Post Talent Campus by screenwriter Jo Ragett
It’s been 9 weeks, 3 days, 10 hours and 44 minutes since my official Talent Campus journey ended. What a ride!! Nothing has changed
Talent Campus: Mentoring… One view from a mentee turned coach
If you are still on the fence about applying, now is the time to throw caution to the wind and just get that application in – what have you got to lose? You don’t HAVE to go, even if you get in, but you won’t have that choice, if you don’t apply. Talent Campus has had a massive impact on me and my writing and you can read about some of this…
What’s the next step you should take when you hit a plateau (or block) in your writing and career?
Success lies not in starting, but in completing and THEN moving past completion rapidly.
Here’s how to do it…
When we go on any creative journey, those first few steps, once we commit and take them, can be exciting and exhilarating.
Massive leaps are made rapidly. New insights are made. Unleashed creativity flows out of us and it’s dizzying. Everything feels like it’s clicking and coming together…
Talent Campus is a calling… and boy, have I been called! By Antony Pickthall
It is only a few days since I left the Talent Campus and I am finding myself so changed by what I have experienced
Applications for Final Talent Campus Are Open
APPLY FOR TALENT CAMPUS HERE What is Talent Campus? A seven day and five week (work from home part) training programme for Screenwriters. It
What happens at the Talent Campus Crucible Party?
The new conclusion to Talent Campus is an industry party that we throw for the campers. The ratio is around one camper to two
How One LondonSWF Delegate Made a Declaration At The Festival… And The Journey To Success Was Set In Stone…
To Write For TV By (the magnificent – editorial note) Philip Lawrence I grew up with telly. Loved it. It was my best friend
Screenwriter Turns Exec in Hollywood… The Truth From The Other Side Of The Desk
Through The Looking Glass: A Screenwriter Becomes Executive
One of our recent Talent Campus delegates flew over from LA to be a part of the whole adventure. A successful writer in her own right, she has more and more become involved in the production side of things. She wrote this post for us following a FB post…
The day after I came home from Talent Campus, I started a job as a Development Executive at a production company back home in Los Angeles. Prior to this, I’d always worked on the production side–helping physically make movies and TV shows for major studios. This was the first time I’d be working full time at the beginning of the process. I knew it was going to be a great learning experience, but WOW!! Not even a month in and I feel like I’ve gotten such an amazing education. In just a few weeks, I’ve already gained such great perspective on what it is to be a working writer.
I wanted to share some of my biggest takeaways here. Please let me know if it’s helpful/what’s most helpful/what else I can tell you. (Oh, and because I’m going to try and be specific as possible, I will also be anonymizing some details for all the understandable reasons 🙂
Talent Campus 6.0 First Feedback Is In…
As we closed the final day of the first phase of Talent Campus 6.0 last Sunday, I asked for some comments from the 27
Meet some of the guest speakers at Talent Campus 5.0 and what people said about them
Talent Campus is a rich mix of challenging career development sessions, as well as hearing from worldclass industry experts. I asked our current campers
Before AND after TC 5.0… independent thoughts from one delegate… What did they think?
Originally posted on Mark Walkers blog, this was his BEFORE and AFTER Talent Campus 5.0 Ignition… Over to Mark… It is about this time
Talent Campus 5.0… ‘it’s been monumental’
We just ran our fifth Talent Campus and the first emailed fedback is coming in. If you want to know more abotu Talent Campus
In praise of the smaller more intimate sessions at LondonSWF
I know from feedback that we get from delegates, that they love the idea of the big name speakers, the large hall, the buzz… Often it’s why people buy tickets. But I also know that more often, people report that their biggest moment at the London Screenwriters’ Festival, paradoxically, was actually a small encounter or session. Foccussed, hyper relevant, personal even.
Mark Salmon wrote to me a few days ago, speaking about this, and here is his email… (and by the way, the session he refers to is the session I mentioned in the keynote as being what I believed would be the highlight of the festival). Read on…
The Magic of the London Screenwriters Festival
In September 2018, something magical occurred. The place was Regent’s University, the event – the London Screenwriter’s Festival. Dreamers and creatives, introverts daring to explore, and extraordinaryverts daring us all to dazzle. Those and more converged. The type of folk who were told at school they had bags of potential if only they would join the land of the living and stop gazing out of the window.
Like wizards at Hogwarts, they gathered from across the globe for a special event. Muggle life was forgotten for a few days as folk left doubt at the doorway, sallied forth and dared for a moment to live the possibilities.
Deep Characterisation Through Dialogue with Kira-Anne Pelican PhD #LondonSWF
In any screenplay, dialogue is a way to capture personality and reveal character, so to look at our approach to dialogue through human psychology makes a lot of sense. Kira-Anne Pelican PhD, came along to share with Fesitval delegates, her insights as a psychological researcher, lecturer and script consultant for over 25 years.
A Night with Screenwriter Rob Sprackling guest post by Barry Johns
Last week I was fortunate enough to attend a talk at The Chiswick Calendar’s Media Club by Rob Sprackling, writer of Gnomeo and Juliet, Mike Bassett: England Manager, and the eagerly awaited The Queen’s Corgi. Add to that the fact that he is currently writing the feature screenplay for his kids book Born-Again Ben, for which he recently sold the film rights, and it is easy to see why I couldn’t believe my luck when it turned out to be quite an intimate gathering.
The art of anxiety by Tracey Flynn… aka how to face the blank page
I love my job.
I’m a semi-abstract expressionist artist. That means that I create paintings and illustrations that don’t look like reality, but you can kind of tell what it is.
The Middle: Mastering the Midpoint with Philip Hughes and Ted Wilkes #LondonSWF
Regent’s University, has been the longtime venue of the London Screenwriters’ Festival and it’s picturesque landscape and comfortable facilities are a great place to come together to talk about story. The university is now the third ranking uni for media courses in the UK and course leader Philip Hughes along with lecturer Ted Wilkes joined in this year to talk about that crucial screenplay element, the midpoint, and how it can be used to reveal what a story is really about. Here are three top tips from the session that should help you make your midpoints something to work forward or back from because they are the heart of what your story is really about.
Scott Myers: How to Use Theme to Enrich Your Story #LondonSWF
Nebulous, often misunderstood, everyone thinks it’s important and yet many describe it differently. Screenwriter, Producer and Educator Scott Myers joined us at the London Screenwriters Festival this year to help us delve into the mysteries of theme and how to use it to enrich our stories.
My experience of winning The LSF Alien Competition… In the 15 ‘Save-The-Cat’ Beats. By Kendall Castor-Perry
Opening Image: Ping… and something unspeakably alien drips from the savage grin of the xenomorph in the leading image… This is surely going to be an interesting email….
Theme Stated: You – yes, you – can:
>> Write and have your ALIEN script produced DURING LSF!
Prime Time: In Conversation With Tony Jordan #LondonSWF
Prime time legend Tony Jordan, joined producer Nik Powell and the London Screenwriters’ Festival delegates once again this year, to discuss the writing style that led him to a long and successful career in television. Both frank and entertaining, the discussion revealed Tony’s insights into some of the things he’s learned help writing and story connect with an audience.
The Beginning: Using the First Ten Pages to Hook the Reader with Joey Tuccio #LondonSWF
https://vimeo.com/289709183
My FIRST London Screenwriters’ Festival… What was it REALLY like? By Emma Pullar
Why are you still here?
Please book your ticket, you have twenty seconds to comply …
You now have fifteen seconds to comply!
Wondering what on Earth I’m talking about? Let me explain … ROBOCOP!
Feedback from the 9th London Screenwriters’ Festival in 2018
Each year we ask our delegates what their experience was like, and here’s what they shared this year. ‘After LondonSWF, I’ve changed and developed
Success Stories From The Community… Staying On The F*cking Bus by Fiona Leitch
April 2018 was a pretty crap month for me. I’d written nine screenplays and one novel, all of which were languishing in a file on my laptop gathering the cyber equivalent of dust. I was (still am) 48 years old, also gathering dust and grey hairs and increasingly feeling that I was never going to get anywhere. If you’re a writer or artist of any sort, you’ve doubtless had similar months (or years) where the effort to stay positive seems to be just a little too much and you are THAT CLOSE to giving up and getting a ‘proper’ job. That’s certainly where I was heading.
Downton Abbey Script to Screen with Julian Fellowes #LondonSWF
In an enlightening script to screen Julian Fellowes brought the very first episode of his world renowned period drama, Downton Abbey, along to the London Screenwriters’ Festival to talk us through it’s creation and the decisions that made it one of the most popular period dramas in the world with a global audience of over 120 million viewers.
Joined by John York the discussion was truly an insightful look at how storycraft can give period drama an edge, so button down your best butler’s livery, be prepared to arch your Lady Mary eyebrows and join us to learn the top techniques you can use to create a compelling period drama for the modern age.
Choosing Alien: Airborne… Then recording a Radio Drama at LondonSWF
The challenge was simple. Write a two page script set in the Alien universe, we would select the best, then during our session with Dirk Maggs at the festival, we would perform, record AND master during the session.
Dirk is a world class expert in radio drama that is bang whizzy and high concept, and a tremendous speaker to boot. More on Dirk in later blogs.
He was backed up by our two amazing cast members, Mark Arnold and Nina Rubesa, as well as sound designer and editor Simon Reglar.
The script we selected was Alien: Airborne by Kendal Castor Perry and you can read it HERE.
Teamwork makes the Dream Work… Setting up our global writers group network
For those of you have ever been to London Screenwriters Festival, there’s one thing you will find there that’s better than even the high-quality selection of sessions on offer, the pitching to industry execs, the script clinics or so on. It’s the people. Your peers. Your allies.with me and vice versa, and we push each other towards success.
British Screenwriters’ Awards 2018 #LondonSWF
Founded to put the originators and architects of storytelling at the accolade forefront, the British Screenwriters’ Awards, now in it’s fifth year, gathered together
Lucy van Smit’s TOP 5 tips for getting your NOVEL published
The Hurting is her award-winning YA debut, a Nordic noir Wuthering Heights out on the 6th September 2018 with Barry Cunningham and Chicken House
How the LondonSWF changed EVERYTHING for me in three days by Lisa McMullin
Buying a ticket to the London Screenwriters Festival two years ago was one of the best decisions I ever made.
And it was a last minute decision. I very nearly didn’t go. It’s expensive. Over three hundred pounds for three days if you miss the early bird offer. So, I ummed and ahhhed and procrastinated.
