Script to Screen 2 day workshop....

This weekend, I've had the privilege of attending a two-day workshop about developing film scripts for the screen. It's a wonderful opportunity because I've kept missing this type of workshop over the years with so much already going on.

This 2-day workshop, however, allowed me some time to consider where my writing could go to in the future, after my studies, as I'm always looking for challenges to develop my writing i.e. taking it up another level.

It was neat to meet a wide range of people from different ethnicities, ages, backgrounds, etc. all brimming with film ideas and considering writing scripts to make them into short and/or feature-length films.

I'm at the short film stage and interesting in developing ideas for a 10 - 15 min short film in the next year or so in script form, whilst learning the ropes regarding production, etc.

It's early days with my studies as first priority and with more book ideas that I'm working at. It was exciting to even consider the idea, especially when there are so many film ideas to weigh up. Although, I've already decided that some stories easily lend themselves to film and others to publishing in short story form or poetry.

I got to listen to some Samoan New Zealand women filmmakers i.e. Nikki Si'ulepa (Snow in Paradise) and Marina McCartney (Vai - Samoan section) and watched some of their films and watched an interesting Maori short film called 'Hinekura' by Beks Arahanga.

We also had a pitching session whereby each attendee had to pitch a 3-minute film proposal to a panel of 3 and get feedback on it. My printer wasn't working so I decided to text it into my mobile phone and used that as my note taker which was funny as everyone else read from paper notes.

All in all, it was a neat experience and one that I would definitely recommend to any would-be filmmakers out there who're considering it, as it definitely is not for the faint-hearted. Even Peter Jackson started out making short films too.

So watch out world, there are some amazing stories that I heard today that need to be developed into scripts and then to get a good production crew around to start shooting after planning and budgeting and then to sit back and watch it on screen after distributing it worldwide. An interesting consideration for future filmmakers...