Hitting ‘save’ for the final time on the latest draft of Rocketboy and I am pretty sure we have nailed it. So much has changed in this new draft, but the one big note I want to share is just about using fewer words. I posted on Facebook recently, in the midst of the redraft, […]
We recently completed the new draft of Rocketboy, by far the biggest reworking of the script ever undertaken. We sent the script to a handful of trusted people for feedback and we are still waiting from a few to come back. Waiting for feedback and getting feedback can be a nerve wracking experience, so I […]
Yesterday, we wrote the final few words of ‘Rocketboy’. It was an emotional moment to get to the end, but also an emotional moment to see what happens to these characters we have fallen in love with. To write those final few scenes that you have been dreaming of, structuring and planning for so long, […]
Judy and I are closing in on the final few pages of ‘Rocketboy’ and I thought I would share our rather unusual writing process. You may know that I have been writing ‘Rocketboy’ on my own, on and off, for many years. The truth is I have lost count of the drafts, probably around 17 […]
So having been in a bad mood all day, it hit me tonight why. We spent most of the afternoon dealing with writing the death scene for a major and much loved character in ‘Rocketboy’, and then discussing how best we can inflict huge amount of angst, grief and pain on our hero. We literally […]
So Judy and I have begun week 2 of redrafting ‘Rocketboy’ Regular blog readers will know that Rocketboy has been on the cards for many years – it was in fact the genesis of ‘Gone Fishing’. Over the years and between other projects, we have written draft after draft, attempting to nail it – each […]
Well, we did get it down from 145 pages to 127 pages. But by that time, Judy and I had gotten ourselves so lost in the ‘wood for trees’ that we needed fresh eyes on the script. It was time for some feedback on ‘Rocketboy’. The script was sent off to about six close and […]
Yep that's Wilbur. More on him at the end of the post. Big news for us though. It’s time for us to make a change. For years now our email user group has been growing and it's time to move to a new home, to a shiny email system which delivers a much better service […]
Judy and I have quickly found a routine that works efficiently where we read a chunk, discuss changes at length, spitball new ideas, plan and re-structure, then Judy writes. As Judy is such a terrific writer, this is usually the fastest part. But it does give me the chance to do a few chores before […]
To me, it’s amazing just how hard writing can be. It looks so simple. When written well, a good movie flows so effortlessly. It looks so simple that most people, who have never written a script, think that it can’t be that hard… ‘why all the madness, complaining, ranting, late nights, early mornings, compulsive behaviour, […]
I am starting back on Rocketboy now, and today I had a really productive meeting with Ramon Woolfe, from Remark! Ramon is a Deaf film maker and we met to discuss, among other things, his possible involvement in Rocketboy. The central core of the story in Rocketboy is first love, between 16 year old rocket […]
Having just completed the Masterclass in Vancouver, I decided to head up to the hills (Rocky Mountains actually, and nothing like a hill) and rest before starting work on my redraft of Rocketboy – with a view to possibly resetting the film in North America. My redraft is the second part of the ‘Gone Fishing’ […]
I am working on the screenplay for Rocketboy today, and going over my notes from the reading last weekend. Two further things have since struck me. I can’t express just how valuable it was to hear my dialogue read out loud. It really does take on a new life – on the page and in […]
Yesterday we did an actors read-through for Rocketboy – organised by my good friend, casting director Cathy Arton, it was a long but revealing and emotionally overwhelming day. At Ealing studios, around 15 actors of all ages, sat in a large circle and performed the script. One actor read the ‘narration’ (descriptions and slug lines) […]
As many of you will know, I have spent many years working on a project called Rocketboy – and yesterday we had the best meeting yet with a very serious possible producer who just loved it. This has kicked me into MASSIVE ACTION, which is a terrific feeling. Already I have knuckled down and penned […]
I am working on my film Rocketboy with concept artist, Matt Allsopp, and have again been struck by much impact large colourful and imaginative images from the story can have. We are talking to film companies and we often get ‘WOW, let’s do a meeting…’ after they see it. But the biggest impact comes with […]
Pitching is something I don’t fully enjoy, but when it goes well, I love it. I have been pitching my movie ‘Rocketboy’ around town this week and I have been using some new simple techniques I heard about from a professional negotiator. Here it is – ‘shut up’. I ask a question, ‘so tell me […]
I am just organising my pass for the Cannes Film Market / Festival right now. This year I am going in through the Short film Corner, which is basically a way to ‘buy’ your way in very cheaply (75 euros). All you need to do is sign up, pay, and send your film in. You […]
Over the last week or so I have been doing some soul searching, as well as building the curriculum for Talent Campus. By chance, during research an idea I came across resonated with something I did over a decade ago and have done many times since (I even posted about it here in 2010!) Three […]
‘Five Came Back’ is a three part Netflix documentary about five Hollywood directors who ended up shooting and making documentaries for the US government about the Second World War, often from the battlefront and in genuine peril. My parents lived through WW2 and my dad was a conscript in the years after the war, stationed […]
Last month we shared that we were quarter finalists in the 2016 Academy Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting. We were delighted as there were 6,915 scripts entered. This morning we received this email… ‘Congratulations! You have advanced into the Semifinal Round of the 2016 Academy Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting. Your script is one of only 149 […]
The last couple of weeks have been pretty tough – first I got the Nora Virus and spent three days looking down a toilet. Nice And just as I was recovering I got a crazy eye infection that landed me in the special eye A&E unit in London. Already having lost a week to the […]
Last week I posted about Rocketboy and how another movie, ‘The Bridge To Terabithia’ had been an inspiration for the current redraft. I found the whole film on YouTube and embedded it into the blog. At the time I did think twice as it is unusual to find an entire film on YouTube, especially when […]
Recently I laid out my plans for the movie we will spend the next two years making. It began with a decision, and ended with a choice. These two words may sound similar, but they are for me, profoundly different, operating on different mechanisms inside our heads. How The Decision Was Made First, the team […]
Passionate about all things film, I have spent my life watching movies, making movies and helping others make their movies. My major projects include action thriller ‘The Runner’, serial killer thriller ‘White Angel’ and paranormal horror ‘Urban Ghost Story’. I also co-created and authored The Guerilla Film Makers Handbook series, and currently there are eight […]
