Underground shorts film maker - Jeff Keen

"Keen started making films in the late 1950s, when he was 37. His muse and wife-to-be, Jackie Foulds, was attending college in Brighton as an art student, and Keen, then working as a gardener for Brighton council's parks department, was running a film society. He recalls his decision to become a film-maker with characteristic nonchalance. "Looking back, I didn't really think about a trajectory. I just asked to borrow a camera. I always worked with borrowed cameras. Once I started filming, I just had to carry on. I couldn't stop. It was natural."

More from the Guardian

Arvon Foundation Courses

I have to recommend these highly - I've been on two (one tutored and one untutored) both helped me onto the next level with my writing.They are pricy but have incredibly generous bursaries for students and low income people.

more info here

Book as soon as possible as they fill fast.

South African Links

The Writing Studio and ScreenAfrica they both look like good starting points.

Clubbed the film

I know this is blog is about short films but I had to post about the feature film my friend is distributing and getting its premier in Birmingham tomorrow.

Official site here.

Andrew MacDonald Masterclass Edinburgh

From Rough Cuts (sign up at Scottish Screen if you haven't already).

Date: Friday 16 January 2009
Time: 2-5pm
Venue: Studio 2, Screen Academy Scotland Production Centre, School of Arts and Creative Industries, Napier University, 2A Merchiston Avenue, Edinburgh, EH10 4NU

Andrew Macdonald is a producer, perhaps best known for his collaborations with screenwriter John Hodge and director Danny Boyle, including Shallow Grave (1994), Trainspotting (1996) and A Life Less Ordinary (1997).
Together with Duncan Kenworthy, he is also the founder of DNA Films, the production company responsible for The Parole Officer (2001), 28 Days Later (2002) and Sunshine (2007). He is the brother of director Kevin Macdonald and the grandson of filmmaker Emeric Pressburger.

For a full list of his work, please visit www.imdb.com/name/nm0531602.
For more information and to book your place, please e-mail info@screenacademyscotland.ac.uk.

Friday On My Mind

then... I discover that the Australian Film Television and Radio School run free yes FREE events every Friday with a speaker and networking.

Sydney - making a film - next steps

Then I would find a script. Now I could perhaps write one but having only lived in the city for a short while it would be too easy to fall into a kind of 'touristy type film' made by an outsider. One which is more firmly rooted in place will always be a better sell. I'd go online and try and find scripts, contact all the screenwriters courses advertised on line and see if I could circulate my details to the writers and specify the length of script needed. Then sit down and do a lot of reading. My criteria being

1. is this a good compelling story
2. is it a good story but not well told? Can the writer do rewrites?
3. is this feasible and realisable? You might need to find a Sydney based film producer or get someone to mentor you and would be prepared to answer questions. For example I know that films set on public transport in the UK are prohibitively expensive but that might not be the case in Australia.