Most Recent 50 Kisses Updates

Filming a Kiss Goodbye by Baz Hodson
Every now and then an online competition arises which allows you to push your creative abilities on a self funded production. It’s always a welcome change from the day to day grind of making a buck, which doesn’t get any easier when you actually rely

50 Kisses Masterclass 1 – recutting your film
As part of 50 Kisses we have invited filmmakers to act on our feedback and that of the community. Already, one filmmaking team, Sweet Home Films in LA has made their film over 20% shorter, fixed some audio problems and overall radically improved their work.

‘Colton’s Big Night’ – a production designers view
A month ago a friend of mine, Sebastian Solberg, asked me if I wanted to be production designer on his next project, Colton’s Big Night, and of course I said yes. I wanted to be a part of this production for a number of reasons.

And the screenplay award goes to…
Amidst the excitement and exhilaration of this weekend’s London Screenwriters Festival, we announced the winner of the 50 Kisses Screenplay Award to a packed Hall in the Keynote speech. Who won? “Enough” by Kirsty McConnell (Read script here) Screenwriting Legend John August said of the

Bringing the Script to life- an Actors opportunity too by James Kirk
“Some people want it to happen; some wish it would happen, while others make it happen.” I came across this quote only months ago in between another sales call at a very corporate company where I was doing my day job, selling my soul to

Coltons Big Night by Sebastian Solberg
I first heard about the 50 Kisses competition through Chris Jone’s blog. I loved the idea of making a crowd sourced feature film and was looking for another project to sink my teeth into. A two page script, I thought ‘how hard can it be’?

Unbearable…
“What was I thinking?” “Why did I think we could pull this off?” “I need to be at back work in 6 hours…” “I wonder if they’ll have bagels on set tomorrow morning? All these things were rattling through my head going into the 14th

Enough by Simon Straub
The first desicion we had to make was choosing a script. It was rather easy because we had certain limits, no money, not much time to prepare and the cast had to be easy available. “Enoungh” gave us all that. A simple but strong story,

Close Encounters at 1.15am…
So it’s 1.15am and I look over to see the shop manager looking sleepily at the clock. I had told him we’d be finished filming by 11pm and we’ve still got a couple of shots to do. I look at the crew but they’re working

Shooting ‘A Ghetto Punk Romance’ on RED Epic
I heard about the 50 kisses competition through a friend and decided to read a couple of scripts out of curiosity. When I read Lloyd Morgan’s “Ghetto Punk Romance” I instantly felt inspired. It was one of those moments that you can’t quite descibe. To

And the winnner is…
So the votes are in and we can now reveal the top ten scripts for 50 Kisses. The winner will be revealed at the London Screenwriters’ Festival next week. So to be clear, this is just the best screenplay award. There will still be awards

A German Dream Date
We chose Dream Date because we found the script charming and witty. We could relate as parents to the storyline, and as filmmakers, well, we are all about the humour. So far in our films, we tend to stretch ourselves and try new things. So

What Do Writers Do? By Peter Carruthers, writer and filmmaker for ‘Never Forget’
As soon as my girlfriend told me about 50 Kisses, I knew I was going to go for it. I’d never entered a writing competition before but this seemed like a no brainer to me. 2 pages? Anyone can write 2 pages in a month,

Standing with giants: Guest Blog by Shaun Bond
I have seen a worrying trend in some of the short film competitions I’ve seen over the last few years, where creativity loses out to high production values and polish. Often this is because the competition is held by a company looking to use the

Q and A with Sweet Home Films’ Evan and Kerry Marlowe
How did you hear about the 50 Kisses Competition? Kerry: I met Chris Jones back in 2004 at a barbeque at Ealing Studios. He was talking about his book ‘The Guerilla Film Maker’s Handbook’ and how to be an independent film-maker, this information has stayed

No Excuses
Maureen: For a filmmaker, I always find myself making up excuses not to make films. ‘I don’t have money’, ‘I have to work a full time job’, ‘I don’t have time’. I went to film school thinking: ‘I can write, but I can’t direct’. I

Jo Buckman on her RomZom ‘You Used to Bring Me Flowers’
It’s this funny thing being known mostly as a Producer rather than a writer. Truth is I write a lot. I’ve got a drawer full of short film scripts ready to go, a TV pilot, a documentary and a feature outline. It’s just that while

The 50 Kisses competition changed my life by Nathan Gower
There. I said it. In all its seemingly hyperbolic glory, that first sentence is completely valid and one that I will stand by, regardless of whether or not I ever have the pleasure of seeing another of my scripts make it on the “big screen.”

Unbearable…
“What was I thinking?” “Why did I think we could pull this off?” “I need to be at back work in 6 hours…” “I wonder if they’ll have bagels on set tomorrow morning? All these things were rattling through my head going into the 14th hour of the 2-day shoot. I was so exhausted from

Enough by Simon Straub
The first desicion we had to make was choosing a script. It was rather easy because we had certain limits, no money, not much time to prepare and the cast had to be easy available. “Enoungh” gave us all that. A simple but strong story, we did not have to change locations and the actors

Close Encounters at 1.15am…
So it’s 1.15am and I look over to see the shop manager looking sleepily at the clock. I had told him we’d be finished filming by 11pm and we’ve still got a couple of shots to do. I look at the crew but they’re working flat out – as they have been for eight straight

Shooting ‘A Ghetto Punk Romance’ on RED Epic
I heard about the 50 kisses competition through a friend and decided to read a couple of scripts out of curiosity. When I read Lloyd Morgan’s “Ghetto Punk Romance” I instantly felt inspired. It was one of those moments that you can’t quite descibe. To put it simply, I couldn’t let myself step away from

And the winnner is…
So the votes are in and we can now reveal the top ten scripts for 50 Kisses. The winner will be revealed at the London Screenwriters’ Festival next week. So to be clear, this is just the best screenplay award. There will still be awards for best film which could go to any of the

A German Dream Date
We chose Dream Date because we found the script charming and witty. We could relate as parents to the storyline, and as filmmakers, well, we are all about the humour. So far in our films, we tend to stretch ourselves and try new things. So of course we wanted to change an aspect or two

What Do Writers Do? By Peter Carruthers, writer and filmmaker for ‘Never Forget’
As soon as my girlfriend told me about 50 Kisses, I knew I was going to go for it. I’d never entered a writing competition before but this seemed like a no brainer to me. 2 pages? Anyone can write 2 pages in a month, right? My girlfriend keeps encouraging me to write more and

Standing with giants: Guest Blog by Shaun Bond
I have seen a worrying trend in some of the short film competitions I’ve seen over the last few years, where creativity loses out to high production values and polish. Often this is because the competition is held by a company looking to use the film for self-promotion and wouldn’t know creativity if it clubbed

Q and A with Sweet Home Films’ Evan and Kerry Marlowe
How did you hear about the 50 Kisses Competition? Kerry: I met Chris Jones back in 2004 at a barbeque at Ealing Studios. He was talking about his book ‘The Guerilla Film Maker’s Handbook’ and how to be an independent film-maker, this information has stayed with me and helped in every production I have worked

No Excuses
Maureen: For a filmmaker, I always find myself making up excuses not to make films. ‘I don’t have money’, ‘I have to work a full time job’, ‘I don’t have time’. I went to film school thinking: ‘I can write, but I can’t direct’. I came out thinking, ‘Ok, I get what directing is about,

Jo Buckman on her RomZom ‘You Used to Bring Me Flowers’
It’s this funny thing being known mostly as a Producer rather than a writer. Truth is I write a lot. I’ve got a drawer full of short film scripts ready to go, a TV pilot, a documentary and a feature outline. It’s just that while I’m creative, I’m also a born organizer: I’m very practical

The 50 Kisses competition changed my life by Nathan Gower
There. I said it. In all its seemingly hyperbolic glory, that first sentence is completely valid and one that I will stand by, regardless of whether or not I ever have the pleasure of seeing another of my scripts make it on the “big screen.” Let me give you some context. From my earliest memories