My new novel Skies Of Venus is ready for preorder!
My new novel Skies Of Venus is now available for pre-order. Skies Of Venus is a new instalment in the "Carson Of Venus" series of scifi novels by the grandfather…
London Screenwriters Festival, sequences & me
The London Screenwriters Festival may well be the biggest and best conference for screenwriters on Earth right now. There used to be a plethora of L.A.-based writerfests - I've been…
Dialogue Is Just Another Sound Effect
When a civilian meets a screenwriter, usually the second thing they say is, "Oh, so you write all the dialogue then?" (first thing is "Have you written anything I would've seen?")…
I Ask Inga von Staden: What IS Transmedia?
The term “transmedia” seems to have originated in 1991 with Marsha Kinder, the critical studies dynamo of USC’s cinema school. When I was at USC, cinema students were divided into…
A Tale Of Two Star Warses, or Why The Phantom Menace Gives Us A Bad Feeling
(this article originally appeared at screenwriting website Twelvepoint.com, July 2010) I stepped out of Star Wars: Episode 1 - The Phantom Menace (1999) onto the sidewalk in front of Mann's…
Full Spectrum Story Dominance
I'm on my way now to the third and final day of the Transmedia Next Training For Media Professionals, where the Pickfords, Chaplins, Fairbankses and Griffithses of the 21st century…
Introduction To Sequence Structure
(this article originally appeared at screenwriting website Twelvepoint.com, March 2010) I always pat myself on the back for having written a great scene, but writing a great scene doesn’t help…
Escape From L.A., Pt. 2
(this article originally appeared at screenwriting website Twelvepoint.com, Jan. 2010) - Read Part 1 of "Escape From L.A." - And so, with growing dread, I came to understand that this…
Escape From L.A., Pt. 1
‘(Los Angeles) is a country coming down from its trip. We are 91 days from the end of this decade, and there's gonna be a lot of refugees. They'll be…
Click to watch the Avatar trailer
Avatar (2009)
Saw James Cameron's "Avatar" (2009) yesterday afternoon in 3D at the Shepherd's Bush VUE Cinemas in London. Went with my Dad who has seen more movies than I am ever…