This year, I inadvertently became a film producer.
It’s not quite what I set out to do but it seems to suit me.
Here’s the thing. I’ve always seen myself as a creative person and have channeled that creativity into writing but there is an obvious white elephant I’ve been ignoring. It is namely that I spent 12 years in very corporate sales and marketing environments learning to hustle a deal and promote three legged Rocking Horses as thoroughbreds.
Now while corporate doesn’t automatically mean producer and creative doesn’t automatically mean writer or director, I find myself with both skillsets and wondering which way to turn. I’m 35 and don’t want to fuck around anymore waiting for people to say yes to my scripts and ideas, hence, I’m saying yes to myself.
How did this start? Well, earlier this year I attended the Producers Masterclass with Chris Jones and Stephen Follows. The information here, plus the great seminar from Jon Reiss about distribution and marketing a few month later, blew my mind as to the possibilities producing had to offer. Yes, you are starting from scratch on the project and are there until the rights dry up years down the line but it is your baby. You can mold it anyway you want. Be it your original idea or an original script by someone else. If you want to have the creative and commercial control in a project, you have to be the producer. End of.
I produced my first short film this year – Spare Change, written by me, directed by Andy Carslaw. You’ll need to ask Andy how well I did divorcing myself from the writer in me on that! But it all seemed to go well. We are getting ready for some final sound work and then the film will probably be ready for early next year.
Further to this I am midst producering of 50 Kisses. 50 Kisses is the Screenwriters Festivals feature film initiative and is the world’s first crowdsourced feature film. I’ve been developing the scripts with writers, sending out contracts to the filmmakers, watching all the films coming in and am now talking distribution and premieres.
Amazing things happen when you turn your head in one direction or another. As well as my own Directing debut for next year, Time for Oneself, I already have a fairly full “slate” for next year with the 50 Kisses sequel and a potential low-budget feature film. While I’m not at the Weinstein stage yet, I’m certainly heading in the right direction and the best bit, it is making me a more educated critic of my own work.
It’s not quite what I set out to do but it seems to suit me.
Here’s the thing. I’ve always seen myself as a creative person and have channeled that creativity into writing but there is an obvious white elephant I’ve been ignoring. It is namely that I spent 12 years in very corporate sales and marketing environments learning to hustle a deal and promote three legged Rocking Horses as thoroughbreds.
Now while corporate doesn’t automatically mean producer and creative doesn’t automatically mean writer or director, I find myself with both skillsets and wondering which way to turn. I’m 35 and don’t want to fuck around anymore waiting for people to say yes to my scripts and ideas, hence, I’m saying yes to myself.
How did this start? Well, earlier this year I attended the Producers Masterclass with Chris Jones and Stephen Follows. The information here, plus the great seminar from Jon Reiss about distribution and marketing a few month later, blew my mind as to the possibilities producing had to offer. Yes, you are starting from scratch on the project and are there until the rights dry up years down the line but it is your baby. You can mold it anyway you want. Be it your original idea or an original script by someone else. If you want to have the creative and commercial control in a project, you have to be the producer. End of.
I produced my first short film this year – Spare Change, written by me, directed by Andy Carslaw. You’ll need to ask Andy how well I did divorcing myself from the writer in me on that! But it all seemed to go well. We are getting ready for some final sound work and then the film will probably be ready for early next year.
Further to this I am midst producering of 50 Kisses. 50 Kisses is the Screenwriters Festivals feature film initiative and is the world’s first crowdsourced feature film. I’ve been developing the scripts with writers, sending out contracts to the filmmakers, watching all the films coming in and am now talking distribution and premieres.
Amazing things happen when you turn your head in one direction or another. As well as my own Directing debut for next year, Time for Oneself, I already have a fairly full “slate” for next year with the 50 Kisses sequel and a potential low-budget feature film. While I’m not at the Weinstein stage yet, I’m certainly heading in the right direction and the best bit, it is making me a more educated critic of my own work.
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