Last year was my first year attending the London Screenwriters Festival. I remember looking at the existence of it online and thinking – maybe the networking side of screenwriting happens at an event like that? I should go!
I bought a ticket. Then, I decided to make sure I got as much from the experience as I possibly could so I began applying for every extra event and program on offer.
As a result I was a successful applicant into the Talent Campus programme. In the time between acceptance and the festival I spoke to a couple of former course tutors a few people who had worked with me on my scripts. They all knew of TC and congratulated me. This only ramped up my excitement and added maybe, just possibly a little fear to go with it.
I could easily have dawdled around the outskirts of the festival; randomly chatted to a few people I would probably not see again and left, probably to the pub. Every day! Maybe that’s just me.
I knew this was a distinct possibility and one that would have haunted me up to opening day of the festival and for weeks after. So diving head first into TC was my way of avoiding that.
Talent Campus broke down all that self-consciousness.
I met some really nice, intelligent people. Our group became one big team pumped to the eyeballs with pitching skills and confidence ready to infiltrate the festival together and really get the most from it. Entering a room full of film industry professionals is daunting. To have a friend or two you’ve just spent a week walking on fire with makes an incredible difference. It’s a bit like escaping from a ‘Saw’ film together. I met some people during those two weeks I know will be friends and collaborators for years to come. TC, especially Chris Jones but the whole crew that run it turn you into kings of the room.
I did get a couple of script requests. I’m also still in touch with a pretty heavyweight Hollywood head honcho who I still pitch to – long after the festival – having read my work – we still speak. Crazy! None of that would ever have happened, for me anyway, without Talent Campus.
If I could capture the manifestation of me that existed on the final day of Talent Campus and bottle him I could take over the world!
He escaped recently this year in Transylvania, Romania. I was at a Vampire literature and film festival called ‘Vampfest’ and began talking to the crews behind two of the competing films at the festival. Suddenly my inner talent camper took over and I became invulnerable. More leads, more contacts – Producers and Directors making horror films to be precise. It all takes time and develops.
There aren’t any guarantees in the film industry for a Screenwriter. There are open doors into it like the London Screenwriter Festival. Talent Campus gives you the training needed to get what’s on each of the pages of your screenplays and in your head into the minds of people that can make it happen.
By Liam Wisker
Talent Campus Alum
More about Talent Campus HERE.
Posted by a member of the London Screenwriters’ Festival team.
