Make an Impact

One of the best things you can do as a screenwriter is write short scripts. Trust me. One day I submitted to a micro-short festival, the next I had a Skype call, an option and a director asking for script edits! Me! The nobody who thought something up sitting on the sofa listening to a cat snore!

My producer is lovely and we're now at the stage where we have thirteen cast and crew and are looking to shoot our short in summer but... and here's the kicker... finding a producer and director is often more luck than judgement. I am lucky.

While on one hand that script was blowing it's trumpet, my other script 'Bless You' on 'Impact50' hasn't faired so well. It's one of over a hundred short scripts waiting to be made into a feature about the impact of a meteor crashing into earth.

The baby of Guerrilla Filmmaker Chris Jones, he has used @Create50 to inspire writers and filmmakers to join together to make something new and compelling. With an opener written by Joe Esterhaus of 'Basic Instinct' fame and Olivia Williams from 'The Sixth Sense' it's bound to be a project to keep an eye on.

There are some fabulous script on there and each and every one deserves an opportunity. The stories are a mix genres with everything from inevitable tear jerkers to comedy pieces.

My favourites that I've read have included one-pager 'Hope' by Ryan La Vie. A short tale of love and betrayal, it tells the story of a mother and her disabled daughter. What do you do when there is one bullet left in your gun and the world could end in a flash. Do you take control and end it, or do you play Russian Roulette? And where does a dog come into it?

In 'Last Broadcast' by Chris Williams, a lone news reporter decides to keep broadcasting as his job is, basically, his life. He's forsaken family and friends to be with viewers until the end. A one room, one location set up, I think this would be a super script to film as the lead character goes from being the composed on air man and has the choice to let himself go on air and be human, or keep up the suited pretence to please any last viewers.

In 'Dance me to the end of love' by Sian Rowland. A pair of teenagers harass a shopkeeper but the young teen has sympathy for his Mrs. with dementia and has a relationship with her akin to that of Raul Julia and Jessica Tandy in 'Batteries not Included'.

I also really enjoyed 'Last Supper' by LSF contemporary Carmen Radtke, a must for dog lovers and 'Jerry and Ben Forever' by Tom J Hingley.

There are lots of crackers in there and some just need a professional eye to tighten them up and get them filmed. So, come on filmmakers, what are you waiting for! Get reading, get making and lets 'Make an Impact'!