Stephen Follows is a writer and producer, with projects spanning features, shorts and the web.  2010 sees the launch of FreerunningTV.com, Stephen’s web project starring Freerunning-founder Sebastien Foucan, and the release of Baseline a feature film starring Jamie Foreman and Dexter Fletcher.

What kind of projects attract you?

Powerful and emotional stories well told.  It seems really simple to say but it’s amazing how few scripts do any of these things!  A great story needs to grab you from the moment you first hear the premise right until the end.    When you hear the pitch of a truly great story you need to know what happens.

You can produce the film of your dreams.  What would that entail?

An intelligent British action movie.  Part ‘Die Hard’, part ‘The Transporter’ and part ‘Shaun of The Dead’.  It’s so easy to make a sub-par B-movie but to produce a genuine action classic along the lines of ‘Die Hard’ is a tall order.  And doing so whilst keeping it culturally British makes it all the harder!

What’s the best advice you’ve been given as a producer?

‘It’s all about the team’.  You’re only as strong as the team of people you can bring together.  Everyone needs to look around the set and feel lucky to be working with people of such talent.  Then people work hard not from duty but not wanting the let ‘the team’ down.

I always used to wonder how you break into other people’s professional circles.  Now I realise you don’t break into someone’s circle; you make your own.

Most significant moment in your career so far?

The most significant moments have all been negative experiences that I’ve learnt from.  In one case I was working with a writer a number of years ago who wrote what I thought was a brilliant short film.  We didn’t get funding and I lost touch with him.  He’s now doing very well (Sundance, industry recognition, etc).  I knew he was talented but didn’t put enough energy into working with him.

I’ve also had to deal with some pretty unscrupulous people and it wasn’t until I stood up for myself and refused to back down that things got resolved.  That taught me to better protect myself from the nasty elements of our business.

I’ll die happy when…

I’m doing well enough to take weekends off!

www.stephenfollows.com

Lisa Gornick wrote, directed and acted in two features: Do I Love You? (2003) and Tick Tock Lullaby (2007).

What training have you received?

I feel I learn all the time, more by doing and being with other people. It’s also good to watch film and television and either not like it and wonder why – or love it and unpick why. I have done some formal training too – I went to Bristol University’s Film and Television Postgraduate Diploma Course where I got a grounding in all sides of film production. I find the more I know about the filmmaking process the more intrigued I am to write for the screen. So far I’ve tended to write, knowing that I will direct the script. I think this makes me less formal in my screenwriting format and style – I have to say I like that – experimenting with how a screenplay looks and how it gets onto the page.

What themes do you like to explore in your work?

My immediate response to this is: opening up to one’s truth, exploring that truth and ultimately, not being scared to express it. My urge to write is to try and find out what we hide. My first two features are about relationships – and the mire and doubt we can get into. I tend towards the wry tone – as I can’t take things that seriously but now with some added sage to my life perhaps I would like to go for pure drama. Women have always been my protagonists; now I’m intrigued by men.

What’s the best advice you’ve been given as a writer?

I’m always on the look out for good advice. However, I’ve begun to trust myself more, which I like. The advice that I keep returning to is – write, keep writing, finish it, allow yourself to fail, don’t get hurt by rejection or bitter criticism, try not to read bitter criticism, play a lot.

Most significant moment in your career so far

The first huge laugh from the audience when Do I Love You? premiered at the BFI Southbank in London. I was sitting next to a woman who slept through the film, but the rest of the audience was fantastic. At the Q and A afterwards the cast and crew just made me love the experience we had all gone through.

You’ll die happy when…

A film I make inspires at least one person to stop using violence as a means of finding their inner truth.

www.Valiantdoll.co.uk

Tracy Brabin is an actress and writer. A regular team writer on Crossroads, Family Affairs, Heartbeat, Tracy Beaker and Hollyoaks, her first episode for Shameless was recently screened on Channel 4. She has two feature films in development with Sally Hibbin at Parallax Independent and recently wrote and directed her first short film, Leaving Home. She currently plays Sarah in Sainsbury’s new advertising campaign: ‘Feed Your Family For a Fiver.’

What training have you received?
I received a BA Hons in Drama from Loughborough University, and an MA in Screenwriting from London College of Printing, plus many Script Factory courses.

What themes do you like to explore in your work?
How everyone lies. Seriously, I write about things that I see played out in my life. Family. Love. Injustice. Social change. Written down like that, it sounds highminded, but it’s really small vignettes, comments on my own life that I hope will resonate. I also try and make sure my work has heart and humanity. Cynicism is totally overrated. My most serious obsession, however, is Barack Obama and how hope has been marketed as the power for social change. I even have the standee in my office to give me inspiration!

What’s the best advice you’ve been given as a writer?
Serve the story. Make sure you’re saying something. Make everything a little movie. And from that amazing producer Sally Hibbin: “TV is complex story, simple character. Film is simple story, complex character.” A brilliant rule of thumb when you’re tackling bigger projects is to keep it simple. Lastly, remember that as a writer you might have several projects on the go at any one time, so get organised. Buy a diary; life is going to get complicated.

Most significant moment in your career so far?
Seeing my episode of Shameless on TV. Oh, and watching ‘Leaving Home’, the short film I recently wrote and directed for the Virgin Shorts competition, edited and graded…

You’ll die happy when…?
One of my feature films gets made. Although, by then I’ll probably be too blind, deaf and incontinent to appreciate it!

Having trained in film and video production, Sue Heel received a commendation for her graduation film at the 1993 Royal Television Society Awards. In 2003 she conceived, wrote and directed the feature film entitled SCHOOL FOR SEDUCTION starring Kelly Brook, Dervla Kirwan and Tim Healy. Recent projects include Granada Television’s Parents on the Edge of a Nervous Breakdown.

What training have you received? Can you really be “trained” to write?

I think you can learn how to format a script or be taught about structure, but the real content of what you write has to be something that is already within you. I remember when I first discovered that I could write: I could read well before all the other kids at school and I was often allowed to read the latest book to the younger kids at “story-time”. I soon found out that I could keep the kids attention much better when I just made the stories up. This gave me the confidence to write my own stuff down from a very early age and I soon began exploring deeper and darker themes. I realised that I may have been quite an intense child, given that a few of the kids ran out in tears, but I just loved to write down my thoughts. Looking back, I guess that was training of a sort. But it felt more like my first job. In hindsight, I should have billed that school!

What themes do you like to explore in your work?

Identity, loneliness, death, yearning, anger, betrayal—I’m a real barrel of laughs!

What’s the best advice you’ve been given as a writer?

My own. It came to me a few years back and it’s very simple—“Believe in yourself and trust your intuition, you daft bitch!”

Most significant moment in your career so far…

Writing and directing a feature film but it was a hellish experience. I strayed from the path of my original intention to make a drama with comedic elements and instead made a comedy with some drama. I was young and naïve, and believed the “executives” when they told me that a lighter film would be more successful. Subsequently, the script and the film bear little resemblance to what I set out to make. I won’t fall into that trap again.

You’ll die happy when…

…one of my films is listed under the classic section.

www.sue-heel.com ■