On Balancing Creativity with Commercial Success, Winning the Nikon Z9 & Avoiding Burnout: An Interview with Animator and New Shoots: 2022 Winner Simon Ball

Posted Thursday, July 6th, 2023

‘Another Presence’, the winning short film of the 2022 New Shoots: Filmmakers Awards, is a captivating animated short documentary that delves into the unique and often curious experiences of individuals living with dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB), the third most common form of dementia in the UK. Through the testimonies of those directly affected by DLB, the film takes viewers on a profound journey into the surreal world of this multi-sensory condition. When selecting the overall winner, we welcomed Wendy

Continue Reading

New Shoots: Actors Awards 2023 – COMING SOON

Posted Tuesday, March 7th, 2023

Exciting news incoming SP’ers – The New Shoots: Actors Awards is back for 2023 and better than ever. Since the start of SP back in 1998, actors have been an integral (and under-appreciated by the industry) part of our filmmaking community. Actors already have it tough with having to prepare auditions for every job… So, just like last year, we’ve made it as simple as possible to enter the New Shoots: Actors Awards. To enter, all you have to do

Continue Reading

NEW SHOOTS: HOW TO MAKE AN AWARD-WINNING DOCUMENTARY

Posted Thursday, September 22nd, 2022

Last night, we had the pleasure of welcoming the director/producer duo of the groundbreaking documentary ‘All That Breathes’, Shaunak Sen and Teddy Leifer, for our third New Shoots event of 2022 “How To Make An Award-winning Documentary”. ‘All That Breathes’ is set to hit UK cinemas on the 14th of October. Check here to see where you can find a screening. You can watch the recording of the event below. ABOUT SHAUNAK AND TEDDY Shaunak Sen is a filmmaker and

Continue Reading

John Addis: On Shooting with Mirrorless

Posted Thursday, April 28th, 2022

LUCKY BREAK, directed by SP member John Addis, was nominated for the BAFTA for best short film, and selected as the overall New Shoots winning film in 2021. We caught up with John to chat about his experience of creating this award-winning film, and what he has been up to since. ‘Lucky Break’ synopsis: Uloaku works the graveyard shift at a remote service station and is bored out of her mind. Fortunately a chance encounter with a suspicious stranger will

Continue Reading

NEW SHOOTS: VISUAL STORYTELLING

Posted Thursday, April 21st, 2022

For our second New Shoots event of 2022 – SP’s Cath Le Couteur welcomed two incredible cinematographers, Tom Townend and Annika Summerson, for an online Q&A focusing on all things cinematography. While very different in experience, the two collectively shared some incredible insight, including how they go about their relationships with directors, the importance of storyboards, what it’s like working with actors and so much more. If you missed the Q&A or you simply want to hear all their top

Continue Reading

NEW SHOOTS: WITH WILL SHARPE & SUZIE DAVIES

Posted Thursday, January 20th, 2022

For our first NEW SHOOTS event of the year SP’s Cath Le Couteur was joined for a special online Q&A with the team behind BAFTA longlisted feature THE ELECTRICAL LIFE OF LOUIS WAIN- writer and director Will Sharpe, and production designer Suzie Davies. The pair shared amazing insights into the relationship between the Director and Production Designer, as well as great advice on how to develop the look of your film, visual storytelling (including the use of VFX vs in

Continue Reading

Making Films with Mirrorless Cameras: Behind the Scenes on ‘A to B’

Posted Thursday, December 9th, 2021

Earlier this year, we joined SP member, Sundance director and New Shoots alumni Eleanor Mortimer on location at Victoria Park, London, as she filmed her new documentary.   Eleanor took a break from shooting to tell us how, using Nikon’s Z 6II mirrorless camera, she created a unique study of the relationship between humans, nature and public space.  Filmmaker Eleanor Mortimer What film are you working on?  I’m making a short documentary, which at the moment is called ‘A to B’.

Continue Reading

NEW SHOOTS: A MASTERCLASS IN FESTIVAL STRATEGY

Posted Tuesday, November 23rd, 2021

Following the success of our previous New Shoots event where we covered indie horror filmmaking with breakout directors Jennifer Sheridan (Rose: A Love Story) and Prano Bailey-Bond (Censor) back in July. Our latest New Shoots went down a treat as we delved into film festival strategy with two of the industry’s best – Rich Warren (Director of Encounters Short Film Festival) and Wendy Mitchell (Film Festival Consultant and journalist). If you didn’t manage to watch the full Q+A you can

Continue Reading

NEW SHOOTS: HORROR MASTERCLASS

Posted Wednesday, July 28th, 2021

Our NEW SHOOTS live event programme continues online and in July horror Guru’s Prano Bailey-Bond and Jen Sheridan joined us for a truly killer masterclass. Both directors are supportive members of the SP community, and both have made a screamingly bold entrance with two of the best debut indie horrors of the year. If you’ve missed it, you can catch up with the Q&A here. They shared expert advice on developing a first feature, working on a shoestring budget, capturing

Continue Reading

NEW SHOOTS 2020 Winner Lanre Malaolu chats about Filmmaking

Posted Friday, July 23rd, 2021

SP’s career development short film competition, New Shoots: Filmmakers, is open for submissions four times a year (January, April, July and October.) Guest judges have included the wonderful Sarah Gavron (Director: Rocks, Suffragette), Philip Ilson (Director of London Short Film Festival) and Johnnie Burn (Sound Designer: Ammonite, The Favourite, Under the Skin). The winner of each round takes home a heap of amazing prizes; including Industry Mentorship from BFI Network, Animate Projects or LONO Studio, state of the art Audio

Continue Reading