For The Love of Film

How To Make A Movie:

Have a great idea.
Write a screenplay.
Offer it to Hollywood (this step may take sixteen years waiting tables)
Sell your soul (i.e. tarnish your great idea with two nudes, an astronaut, graphic sex, two vampires and three fart jokes)
Watch the whole thing get mothballed and die in pre-production.

(Despite promises to the contrary, Johnny Depp will not be involved) But there is another way...

Tonight we welcome into the studio three authors, three film buffs, two directors and a memory of jam-- all contained by three great guests! Shamim Sarif not only had a great idea, wrote a novel, had it published, adapted it for film, wrote the screenplay and directed it herself-- her partner Hanan was the producer. And they've won awards. Dozens-- plural! And this isn't some low-budget zombie high school rom com set on an exploding train (copyright LAD). Her Cold War Russian love thriller, Despite the Falling Snow, has big-name stars and is coming soon to a theater near you. How did Shamim do it?

Well, for one thing she bought a copy of the Guerrilla Film Makers Handbook, co-authored by tonight's second guest-- accomplished filmmaker, screenwriter and certified cinematic sniper Chris Jones. Chris is currently running the AI Singularity edition of Create50, a collaborative film project which "began life with a simple question-- how can we get fifty screenwriters' work produced?" Chris is also the genius behind London Screenwriters' Festival, 2nd to 4th September.

As if that weren't enough, our final guest is up-and-coming novelist and Sofilm contributer David Sanger. His hauntingly compelling post American civil war novel All Our Minds In Tandem revolves around The Maker, a man whose supernatural animation can erase, enhance or alter people's memories. We'd tell you more about it except-- OMG it seems our cranial hard-drives has been compromised!

Tonight's show encompasses memory, love, sexuality, voyeurism, moral compromise, the smoke-and-mirrors that is Hollywood and film, film, film! Oh and jam. Mustn't forget the jam.

Follow Shamim on twitter! Read her books! Watch her films!
Follow Chris on twitter! Buy his books! Join Create50!
Follow David on twitter! Buy his book! Share your first memory at #memoryswap!