Whether you’re a writer, director, producer or an actor, you’re certainly sitting on a passion project you’d love to create or portray. Something very personal, something that keeps on returning in your wildest dreams waiting to be realised.  Building this concept or story up, constantly changing, improving and waiting for the right time to share with the world is an art in itself. The more passionate we are about something, the easier it is to be disappointed, having built up…

Picture this: a couple enters a bustling hotel lobby, check in, and are escorted to their suite. They enter the room, closing the door behind them. What happens next? That’s up to you to decide. Harper’s Bazaar and Esquire are have teamed ing up with The Ritz-Carlton to launch a global short-film competition that aims to discover and support the best emerging talent in the world of film. They’re looking for writer/directors (individuals or teams) to submit a finished script,…

At our SHORT CUTS Launch Party last month, we were lucky enough to be joined by Producer and SP member Manon Ardisson who has seen huge success with the break-out hit of last year, God’s Own Country. The feature, directed by Francis Lee, premiered at Sundance 2017, winning the Special Jury Award for Directing in the World Dramatic competition. The film went on to win awards at international festivals, notably Best British Film in Edinburgh, Best International First Feature in…

Now in it’s 10th year, Film London’s Microwave scheme commissions two £100k budgeted features each year. We spoke with two SP members with projects selected for the scheme. The first was with director Ryan Vernava, and below is our second, with writer and director Alex Winckler. Alex is involved in Microwave with two producers, Maria Forsstrom and Jude Goldstrei. Their film, Smalltown Boy is “a rite of passage story about a different type of skinhead.”

Now in it’s 10th year, Film London’s Microwave scheme commissions two £100k budgeted features each year. Before this though, 12 participating project teams are selected, given extensive development support, mentoring and training; and then, in a way, pitted against each other as they pitch their projects along several phases of the shortlisting process, until the final two are selected. Though, on the surface, this might seems a little like an independent film version of The Apprentice, in reality it’s not quite so…

In this guest blog, SP member Brendan Cleaves talks about his process, struggles and successes raising funds for his short film Roger via Kickstarter. Some vital, honest input on the ups and downs of short film production, and some insightful tips for those looking to crowdfund.

We profiled the expanding career of American filmmaker and October Film of the Month judge Ira Sachs at the beginning of the month. Here he tells us his side – how he got his start, how he’s maintained his independence, and how he has been giving back.

Pegah Farahmand is the Editor of Channel 4’s short film strand Random Acts. Dedicated to the arts, Random Acts was created in 2011 to “escape the conventions of arts broadcasting and to expand its possibilities.” Pegah joined them last year, and in this guest blog tells us about her experiences with shaping a new direction for the platform, as well as offering advice to SP members about how to pitch films to her.

In this guest blog, we hear from The Guardian’s resident doc-head Charlie Phillips about how to stand the best chance of getting a film made for the news organisation’s online documentary strand. Until just over a year ago, Charlie Phillips was Deputy Director of Sheffield’s Doc/Fest, having run the successful ‘MeetMarket’ marketplace there for 7 years. Since then, he’s been at The Guardian, acting as their ‘Head of Documentaries’, the first person at that organisation to hold that title, and as he quipped “hopefully…