writer/director

Settings are vital to any movie and can provide just as much social commentary, movement of the plot, and character development as any actor. Let’s see how filmmakers use setting as if it were an individual character. Courtesy of Jack Nugent’s Now You See It.  

#harrissavides #cinematography # directing #filmmaker “I really learned – relearned – how to be a filmmaker. Because I learned how to distill things down to what we needed to tell the audience. Now when I look at this page, or this paragraph, I think: “What do we want to tell them, and how can we do it in the simplest way?” And once I’ve figured that out, then it’s easy. Then it becomes: “Do I need to make it better?” And usually there’s not a lot of reason to do so. Because all you’re doing is delivering information. To me that’s the best filmmaking, you’re editing in camera. You’re actually making the movie. As opposed to giving yourself choices, and then you have to figure out what to use later.”

– Harris Savides on how he prefers to shoot films

Every single time I write about there being NO writing “rules”, yet more writers come rushing out the woodwork with counter-arguments on why there ARE.

Look, I understand. When someone says you can do WHATEVER YOU WANT, it can feel weird and scary.

Human beings are pack animals, so it makes sense to stay with the crowd doing what is considered “common sense” rather than forging out on your own and doing your own thing.

Bang2writers ask me quite frequently for my “top tips” on  surviving the writing process and this industry. Before now I always felt that it depends on the person, what they’re doing, how they work and who with.

But actually, having worked on a variety of projects now with various people over the last ten years, I think there are 6 things all writers of ALL formats need to know and live by, whether they’re screenwriters, novelists, playwrights, journalists, transmedia writers, the works.