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.”

50 Kisses has all been about “Taking Chances”
The making of 50 Kisses has been a long road.We’ve learned a lot as we have travelled from script competition, to film competition to post production. One of the things we have been pleasantly surprised by is the amount of engagement and affection for the project that even those who didn’t make it into the

50 Kisses is now fine cutting and close to picture lock
So we have been a little quiet for the last couple of months as we have been beavering away at post-production on 50 Kisses. I sat today with editors Simon Reglar and Ricky Milling and watched what was pretty close to a fine cut of the final movie. And I have got to tell you,

50 Kisses Edit Update
We have been working away on the edit of 50 Kisses and we have had to batten down the hatches in order to get it done. And we still have a long way to go. Sadly, we still cannot reveal the shortlist as that will immediately limit the final edit – we learned this with

Entering competitions and funding processes – top nine tips from the real world
As the 50 Kisses song initiative draws to a close, I thought I would share some of my personal observations about the entrants, what we can learn from them, and how we can apply those lessons to our own scripts and films when submitting to a process such as a competition or open call for

Smasheroo: from page to screen by Evan Marlowe at Sweethomefilms.com
Saturday afternoon found me squatting in my bathtub with a digital camera, distorting my spine and kicking up my sciatica. My wife Kerry was on the toilet, Kaden was at the sink, and a hazardously thin girl named Jamie was struggling to reach in with a make-shift boom pole. This is the cast and crew

Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained, by Jonny Evers
Part 1: How It All Came About This whole thing started when I attended a scriptwriters event back in June. Props must go to Euroscript, who host them for free every couple of months, as an incentive to sign up to their courses (which, to be fair, look pretty useful…I’m just cheap!). The free events

The Making of “Practice Makes Perfect” By: Samantha Skelton
I came across the 50 Kisses competition two days before the script stage was about to close, and I told myself, “I have to do this.” Not only is it an amazing catalyst for up-and-comers’ careers, but getting to collab with writer’s and filmmakers all over the world sounded like a life changing experience. I

50 Kisses Music Challenge
50 Kisses post production is in full swing and we are looking for some songs for both the end titles and the trailer. Are you a composer? A songwriter? A band? Do you know anyone whose work would fit in 50 Kisses? Or someone who would be interested in creating some music for us? All

Writing “That Good Night” by Kenneth Lemm
I am still dazed by the experience afforded by the 50 Kisses competition. I stumbled across the competition quite by accident, and immediately envisioned the story I would set out to tell. It was one of those moments when later asked ‘where did you get your idea?’ you realize you don’t know yourself. The story

‘Colton’s Big Night’, Behind the Scenes with Sebastian Solberg
Last week we had the cast and crew screening for ‘Colton’s Big Night’. The showing was in London at the Genesis Cinema. It was a wonderful night with all the cast and lots of the crew members turning up to see their hard work on the big screen. https://vimeo.com/55348620We also showed the Making Of, which

Editing 50 Kisses… The Team Assembles
After my post a few days ago about the future of 50 Kisses, and after much consultation, deliberation and thinking, we have some announcements to make. Many of you contributed to the blog post – and we were blown away by the passion, commitment to excellence and amazing ideas. We have already taken many of

Writing Poster Boy by Tracey Flynn
It was said to me recently, “You’ve been at this a while; about time you saw some success.” “This” being screenwriting, which I have been “at it a while,” but I realised, after stewing on this comment, that the writing is only part of it. To see some success, you also have to put that