March 12, 2012 Stephen May No comments exist

The Screen Arts Institute (London) launched its “Storytelling for the Screen” programme in February this year.   Based in central London’s Portland Place, the programme is designed to help emerging film talent develop, package and sell their movies and TV programmes in the most efficient manner possible. Ten filmmakers joined us in February to develop feature…

December 15, 2011 Stephen May No comments exist

Yesterday, Amy Ricker (class of 2010/11) won the EU’s 3D Film Mart Competition with her film “Billy and the Goblin Rebellion”.  The script was developed as her major project on the MA Screenwriting & Producing programme.The win guarantees her a Euro 3,000 further development deal and links her to financiers, sales agents and distributors. http://www.3dstereomedia.eu/en/film-festival-mart/3d-film-mart          …

October 25, 2011 Stephen May No comments exist

So here’s the thing.  Has Robert McKee (McKee, R, Story, Methuen, 1999) and all his work made one bad writer a good one?  Or, indeed, a good writer a better one? Has his work helped one film script, one movie, to be better than it would have been without his influence?I’m a huge admirer of…

October 3, 2011 Stephen May No comments exist

The writer/director Joanna Hogg has cemented a reputation as an auteur after just two movies (“Unrelated” & “Archipelago”).  Working with no script and muttering a “When you’re ready…” rather than screaming “Action!” she’s putting actors at the centre of the creative process. She’s made a fully-fledged star of Tom Hiddleston (“Thor”, “The Deep Blue Sea”,…

June 29, 2011 Stephen May No comments exist

Ryan Gosling in “Drive’, 2011 Hossein Amini’s script for “Drive” helped Nicolas Winding Refn to this year’s Best Director gong at Cannes and Hoss is not slowing up. This month his script for “47 Ronin” (Keanu Reeves, Rinko Kikuchi) goes into post, and he’s presently scripting “Snow White and the Huntsmen” (Kristen Stewart, Chris Hemsworth,…

June 16, 2011 Stephen May No comments exist

Bogdan Mirica (Class of 2007) has won the Best Short award for his film, “Bora Bora”, at the Transilvania International Film Festival – the film continues on around the festival circuit. Bogdan’s first feature, “Ho Ho Ho”, was distributed by MediaPro in 2009 and the same company is in post on Bogdan’s latest script, “Las…

June 9, 2011 Stephen May No comments exist

Jeff Nottingham (Class of 2010) has received Arts Council funding for his urban musical, “Lost in Mozart”.  The stage show is a high-drama bromance set in the, factually-based “postal code wars” between the Mozart and Kilburn estates and pitches classical music head-on with the “spitting” scene of North West London. “Lost in Mozart” will premiere at…

May 6, 2011 Stephen May No comments exist

“Condemned” Paul Joseph (Class of 2010) has optioned his graduation feature script, “Condemned”, to multi award-winning team, John and Shannon Jennissen, at Seeing Pictures.  Earlier this year, Paul won the Raindance Pitchfest with his horror story about a condemned building that fights back.  “Great script,” says John, “Can’t wait to get it out there.”http://www.seeingpictures.co.uk/index.htmlhttp://paulbjoseph.tumblr.com/

April 1, 2011 Stephen May No comments exist

Gemma Pascual (class of 2006) has just moved as Head of Development at Factotum, Barcelona, to be Head of Development at Desert Road in New Zealand. “Out of the Blue” from Desert Road Desert Road is an award-winning film and TV company with features and docs being distributed worldwide by the likes of Sony, Lionsgate…