ASK & DISCUSS INDEX

2 days, 7 hours ago - ed sayers

Filmmaking is a thrilling business. The intensity of teamwork in prep, production and post is a high that’s hard to match. Joining up with equally passionate people to weave dreams into moving image and sound that can be experienced by others, it’s a privilege and a dream in itself! If you get it you get it, and if you don’t you don’t. But if you’re in this tribe you know there are also times when it can be a hella lonely affair. Time stretches between projects. Writing, pitching, applying, re-shaping, erasing, re-imagining. Ducking, weaving, rolling with punches you can’t even see, many of which may be coming from yourself - the faith can wear thin! We often go days, weeks, months without seeing others, many of whom are probably feeling the same! This is where community comes in. Online, IRL… this tribe needs to feel part of a bigger whole ALL the time. It’s not just about crewing up and practicalities. It’s solidarity, comparing notes, asking and answering questions, camaraderie. Congratulations to Shooting People for flying in the face of adversity for so long, waving the banner that says TOGETHER YOU CAN DO THIS! The world has moved on and we’re super connected online so maybe it’s now about keeping that spirit and keeping connecting in the bigger framework. Anyway the online world produces its own kind of hangovers which is why we’re big believers in getting to Real World events as much as possible. So hats off Cath, Jim and the team. RIP Jess Search X. Long live Shooting People People. Cath - go make your work and share it with us all. You can do a straight 8 2026 entry on the house. We’ll see you at the party!!

Ed Sayers
straight 8 founder

2 days, 7 hours ago - Animate Projects

Shooting People has been such an amazing resource and community. Thank you for everything you have done for filmmakers over the past three decades. It's been a joy to work with you.

Abigail
Animate Projects

2 days, 6 hours ago - Tina Walker

I'm sad to hear this! This community has meant a lot to me.
Thank you to everyone here and Wishing You All the very best.
Tina

2 days, 6 hours ago - Beadie Finzi

Cath, Stu - just sending the biggest hugs and high fives.
THANK YOU. For all the work over all the years, but also all the (excellent) play, the solidarity, the passion that has been the wind beneath the wings of so many makers in our community. Vital question: when is the massive party?! We will be there with bells on to celebrate you all.
With love and rockets from all the team at Doc Society,

Yours, Beadie x

2 days, 6 hours ago - Xenia Glen

27 years! I love SP. I’ve met so many filmmakers through the community who I’ve collaborated with over the years :-) and I’ve made some great friends too!

Hosting SP’s monthly Shooters in the Pub some years back was a real laugh - what a great gig to have alongside starting out as a filmmaker. I met so many wonderful people through it (some I’m working with now)!

Thanks a bunch, team SP. Looking forward to the party. Xenia x

2 days, 6 hours ago - philip ilson

London Short Film Festival has had a very close personal relationship with Shooting People that has lead to the Festival managing to develop and survive across 23 years since it was founded by myself and Kate Taylor in 2004. The Festival began very much as a passion project for us outside of the mainstream British film industry and Shooting People were one of the first industry organisations to want to partner and work with us, sponsoring an award and hosting a session about collaboration at the 5th Festival in 2008. A number of years later around 2015 and 2016, Shooting People were integral in helping LSFF survive difficult times as it had grown becoming unwieldly, and they stepped up to help make it a sustainable film festival with advice and much needed support, sharing an office with them in Shoreditch. Shooting People's dedication to independent filmmaking and cinema in the UK per se has been integral across the whole industry and across the decades, which has lead to collaborations, amazing films and projects and most importantly incredible relationships in both filmmaking and in exhibition. That's definitely the case for LSFF and for me personally, and I'm sure many other SP members who've found their careers through SP networking and collaboration. What Cath, Stu and the late Jess Search began in 1998 helped to define the UK indie film circuit of the new millennium and it's legacy should be celebrated while we look forward to next steps.

2 days, 6 hours ago - George Wright

Hey Cath, SP team,
Honestly, I’m gutted to hear this. It’s been such an important part of my film trip since I started out. I know you’ve all put your heart and soul into this, and I totally respect the decision, but it’s still tough to see it come to an end. You built something special for us in the UK, and it’s going to be weird without it. Thanks.
George

2 days, 3 hours ago - Jay Natrajan

It sounds like a great community of filmmakers, and SP's tagline,

"Not dependent on institutions. Not held back by gatekeepers. Just other filmmakers saying: yeah, I’ve got your back"
resounds and aligns with many of us including me as a filmmaker ,

appreciate, the talent and comradery among filmmakers,

as many us share the same view,
not an easy job, but there is no business as show business 100% (only works true if your true passion is the art and science behind filmmaking)
right from the early rubbish script to the beautifully crafted, completed Film,
Nothing equates to the magic of filmmaking,

so thanks for being there for all of us and from all us

2 days, 3 hours ago - Colm McAuliffe

Shooting People has been a superb resource for filmmakers for years; but even more than that, it has operated as a vital and essential Research and Development tool for the entire film industry. SP worked at the nucleus of ideas and practice and demonstrated how the social world of filmmakers can become a hugely powerful tool for the making of films.

Also, it's important to note that Jess, Cath & Stu played a brilliant role in hiring so many people over the past twenty seven years who have since gone on to work on magnificent things in film and within the wider arts world. SP provided an exciting, fun and illuminating springboard for working out how the film industry works. This influence of SP as an incubator on so many different levels can never be overstated and particularly in recent years, the dynamism of Cath, Stu & Jim in steering and steadying the ship in choppy waters has been wonderful to see. Viva Shooting People and the Shooting People community!

1 day, 23 hours ago - Janet Awe

This is such a shame. But totally understandable - running Shooting People must be extremely time consuming.
Thank you so much for the community that you built and the many brilliant, insightful and inspiring events you've hosted, in person and online. And, after championing everyone else for so many years, wishing you the very best of luck with your own projects.

Janet x

1 day, 20 hours ago - Molly Cowderoy

This is a huge loss for the independent film scene. SP has been instrumental in bringing together so many talented people, championing indie filmmaking and creating a thriving community of like-minded souls. It would be impossible to put a number on the sheer amount of amazing collaborations and films that have stemmed from this platform. From a personal perspective, I have such happy memories from our little office on Hoxton street and how we rallied together in lockdown to move New Shoots online. Cath- you have always been the most encouraging and inspiring person to work with. Big thanks to you and Stu for your endless hard work. So much cool stuff to look back on! SP will remain dear in my heart forever. Molly x

1 day, 8 hours ago - UK Actors TweetUp

We can’t thank the Shooting People team enough! As an actor I booked my first acting jobs in the UK on Shooting People and made connections with filmmakers who I’m still in touch with today.
As a festival Shooting People have supported TweetFest over the years since we started; Helping us spread the word about our indie festival, and supporting us. And SP has been an all-round legendary community for our industry.

Sad to see you go, but excited to see what everyone goes on to do next. Thank you for your 27 years of service to our industry.
Angela

1 day, 8 hours ago - Joanna Duncombe

Sad this chapter of incredible indie filmmaking community is coming to a close but the legacy of the network will no doubt live on for decades to come...

I’ve directed so many young and early career makers your way… both through my current work with new talent at British Council, and way back in the day with LSFF, Birds Eye View and East End FF. The feedback has always been amazing from everyone. And working with you and the team on various projects over the years has been a joy!

Thanks for everything you’ve done for the community - SP has been such a vital pulse in uk indie filmmaking :) The stuff of legends.

Lotsa love for what’s next,
Jo and all at British Council

1 day, 7 hours ago - Christoph Warrack

As a young independent filmmaker, discovering Shooting People was like stumbling off the windblown heath and into an online / offline glastonbury of likeminded folk - collaborators, supporters, mavericks, party people and fellow makers. I crewed every film I made from 1998 - 2009 with Shooters' help, and many of those I then produced through Open Cinema from 2009-20. That's over 100 short films and documentaries. This gave me the skills to bring the value of filmmaking into the worlds of social exclusion, mental health, homelessness, addition, care homes, prisons, and education in the founding and growth of Open Cinema, an international network of community cinemas and filmmaking programmes for the poor, now also sadly but triumphantly laid to rest. It was through Shooters that I met your barnstorming, game changing cofounder Jess Search, who with Beadie and the Doc Society crew sent Open Cinema stratospheric, as they tend to. I am as a result a social entrepreneur, now leading Common which helps communities to buy and manage land for nature recovery. And I owe it all to Jess to and SP back in the day.

The following has often been attributed to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, but was actually written by WH Murray (based on a couplet by Anser in turn inspired by Goethe), the leader of a Scottish expeditionary attempt on Everest:

"Until one is committed there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too."

To Cath, Stu and Jess, and the creative fires of providence they lit in the hearts of countless thousands of filmmakers, despite everything the art form and its dysfunctional industry could throw at us, undying love and green shoots

1 day, 5 hours ago - Jamie Kennerley

It's hard to exaggerate how important SP has been in pretty much everything I've done film and screening-wise since I start my journey in this world maybe 25 years ago. In my early 20s I used to print out the daily bulletins and categorise the info so I could rely on it one day to remind me of how to do something! Then, when I ran first open-mic film screenings in both Manchester (Filmonik) and London (Kino London) Shooters were first one of our main recruiting platforms for screeners and then further down the line an active partner in our film screening and film making events. This community was SO important to us. I can only say THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart for everything you guys did in creating, growing and maintaining this wonderful platform and community. ONWARDS AND UPWARDS!! xx

1 day, 5 hours ago - Heather McQuaid

Thanks for all you've done. Without SP I wouldn't have met my collaborator, Nuri.

A few years ago I saw a post on Shooting People from a director, Nuri Moseinco, who was looking for short film scripts with low budgets, minimal locations, and emotional impact. I checked out his work—he’d won Best Director in a 48-hour film challenge and made some beautifully sensitive documentaries.

I sent him a script. He liked it, and we met for coffee. We realised we had similar sensibilities and ambitions, and—amazingly—we decided to make a film together.

We self-funded it: £5,000 split down the middle. I co-produced too, which I really enjoyed. Using his experience and connections, Nuri assembled a fantastic crew. We refined the story together, aiming to make it as (believably) dramatic as possible in under 12 minutes—with multiple twists and an emotional gut punch.

One of the most exciting parts was being on set for the two-day shoot—watching a cast and crew of 14 bring our vision to life.

Since then, our little dystopian sci-fi A Positive Contribution has screened at 25 festivals worldwide—including BAFTA and BIFA qualifiers—and won Best Film at Coventry Phoenix FF.

We’re incredibly grateful to Shooting People—it brought together two strangers who now collaborate regularly. We’re currently working on a new short and developing A Positive Contribution into a TV pilot called Model Citizens.

Thanks again to this community for making creative collaborations like this possible.

— Heather (& Nuri)

ps. You can see A Positive Contribution for free on Crafty Films’ YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NG3bgJMunfk)

1 day, 2 hours ago - Lashaunda Alexander

Hi all, I had to stop and take it all in in. I will miss this community of creatives. " it takes a Village to build a community. " Will there be a way to reach out to you vía email, cath.❤️

1 day, 2 hours ago - Peter Spencer

I joined SP in, I think, 2002-2003, and it did so much for me. This may look like a bit of a saga, but stay with me. Memorables: me pitching a project and being lambasted in the bulletin by a writer (seems not to be around anymore) who called the pitch for my 'Northern Soul' film 'amateurish, only for the warrior that is Ben Blaine to step in and defend the pitch. But that pitch got interest from a couple of indie producers and directors, one of whom directed second unit for Neil Marshall. The other director, who made short films, came to meet me and we are still friends today. He and I made a micro-budget feature, then a slightly higher micro-budget feature that led to a a recommendation for a larger feature and a career of being recommended for work quite a lot of the time. My Northern Soul script? Well, there were three out there, the other two were produced but mine was not. But the pitch had done it's work, set me off on a path that led to work.

In 2009 I answered a call on SP for a writer, went to London to meet an amazing woman director, Louise, who had been making documentaries. We had a ten year collaboration. In the meantime Louise Hooper has taken great strides in TV and recently directed on The Sandman and Amazon's Lord of The Rings. All through SP.

I met my great friend, the remarkable Lucy V Hay (website Bang2write) through her script services on SP in 2007.

I first heard of London Screenwriters Festival through SP and attended the years 2010-2014 and 2016. Through LSF I met lifelong friends and future collaborators.
In 2010 or 2011 I spent a day pitching scripts with Kat Wood (now a writer on the new Fantastic Four movie) Kate Heron (Loki) was making brilliant and funny short films. I met show-runner Roland Moore, watched the rise of Rachel Paterson (Fallen), was in a pitching queue with Sophie Petzal (Hollington Drive) saw the amazing rise of my wonderful pal Stuart Wright (who won THE OWL and is a busy writer, but so much more; podcaster, interviewer) Lisa McMullin (Death in Paradise, Eastenders, Casualty) Philip Lawrence (Eastenders, Casualty, Holby- now has a film on ITV player). Sarah Cassidy, amazing playwright and screenwriter. A friend at LSF - Anita Parry - recommended me for teaching slots at East 15.

Through the meet ups I became friendly with Si Uttley (brilliant chap, recently wrote the Daisy Ridley thriller 'Cleaner') I met the amazing novelist and now sculptor, the multi-talented EJ Mack. All those people about to rise to the top. Other friends dropped out, perhaps wearied by rejection, others went on to great things. At a meetup in 2013 I met Holly Hudson and we are still great mates today and have a co-written romcom out there - see her on Instagram @holhuds - screenwriter, stand-up comedian, ghost writer, Instagram star. And the people I've met through people I've met and worked with, too many to list. All started here, on Shooting People. Thank you to Cath and every other member of the team that has wrought so much positive change. You did good. You will be missed.

1 day ago - Rob Speranza

Shooters in the Pub, when we established it in Sheffield not long after connecting with you all at the Encounters Film Festival in Bristol and then again at Sheffield DocFest, has totally transformed the South Yorkshire Filmmakers Network. Suddenly we were part of something bigger, something burgeoning - and it was an inspirational leap. I'll never forget James Mullighan talking to me about it, or whipping me around the dance floor at an unexpected ceilidh at DocFest.....maybe that's really what made me decide to take it on! We're so proud of you all for doing it for so long - we take major inspiration from that. We'll keep it up, keep meeting on the first Wednesday of every month, providing the platform for new members and old. Well done, all of you - and may the future be bright for everyone of you too.

1 day ago - Ben Blaine

I don't know where to begin... which is ironic as that's exactly how this all started 25 years ago when I had a camera, my first ever email address, a passion for the pictures and no idea how to begin. Then I found this beautiful place and everything changed. The films. The people. The arguments with the people about the films. The open arms to everyone who wants to tell a story with nothing but a beam of light. Whatever it is that I am, whatever it is that I've done, all of it starts here. All my love bB

22 hours ago - Helen Jack

Ah, Shooters. Where to begin??

Shooting People was my first "proper job" out of university. Having studied Film, I had become used to unsolicited comments that I'd never make any money in my chosen subject, especially if I didn't have any industry connections. I went for my first interview and met a rather obnoxious but endearing Australian man (love you, James) who took a chance on me to help him run Shooting People. I went on to work for shooters for a total of 5 years, and it's where I really learned about the industry. Alongside the hard work of keeping a small business going, there was a lot of fun - festivals, parties, beers on the office roof. It was a formative and important time in my life. Some of the people I met through my job are still good friends now, nearly 20 years on.

As a young woman starting out, I was aware early on how lucky I was to have the gift of working alongside Jess and Cath, two formidable, rebellious and funny women who took absolutely no shit. I still remember Jess and I calling Cath "the bulldog" after Cath cornered a well known filmmaker and doggedly pursued them until they agreed to do something for shooters. It was this bulldog energy between them that powered shooters for as long as it did.

I feel really quite sad that SP will be no more. It's the end of an era. Sending all my love to you Cath, Stu (and to you, Jess) x

9 hours ago - Cecile Sinclair

As an Actress, I value Shooting People immensely as I found my so many wonderful jobs and connections on here!

I only joined maybe 4 years ago but still feels recent. Thank you so much for everything you’ve done, enabled for people starting out or just continuing on and for creating this platform!! It really is my favourite platform filled with wonderfully talented people.


Beyond grateful to you all.
Wishing you Cath, and the entire SP team too ofcourse, amazing adventures ahead !!
All the best
Cecile Sinclair

4 hours ago - Yen Rickeard

OH NO! Thank you for the 27 years, the information and links with folk has been fantastic. Where would we be without you?
So glad to see in the above that you are thinking of new ways to connect, and crew calls etc. PLEASE please, give us those planks of info and connections so that we may cross the great expanse of doodoo to reach the reality of our dreams. 25 years ago I had not one iota of knowledge to step forward into my first film. I still only have minimal contacts, but big dreams, like the rest of us.
And of course best wishes for your own dreams and may the films be great. Again, thank you for the past and all the information.

4 hours ago - Andy Conway

Oh, what awful news. Shooting People has been a major part of my life - and for a decade it was a REALLY MAJOR part of my life! - and I can't imagine the indie film scene in the UK without it. Cath and Stu, what you've done here has transformed so many lives (and of course I can't say that without mentioning Jess too) and you've really made a difference. I don't know who the hell can possibly take your place. Much love. Andy xxx

2 hours ago - MarBelle Directors Notes

For some reason—for which I will ALWAYS be grateful—back in 2005 Cath, Jess and Stu took a punt on me as Editor of Shooting People's Filmmakers Bulletin which set in motion my career in the film industry and the launch of Directors Notes. Over the course of the past two decades, it's been SP's example of putting the community first and supporting filmmakers that has underpinned everything we do at DN. Shooting People will be sorely missed but the impact that the SP team have made will forever be felt.

Much love
MarBelle