Jon Ellison

 So apparently, today's the 12th day of Christmas. I say apparently because I never fully believed that there were actually twelve days of Christmas, aside from Christmases Eve and Day and Boxing Day (December 24th, 25th and 26th). I'd've thought it was just some silly carol that suggests that there are 12 Days of Christmas. But my family follows this tradition and that is; when it comes to the 12th Day, i.e. 5th January, now's the time to start taking the Christmas decorations down. I would've thought it was Boxing Day, but in our family, we have a few other traditions each Christmas and this holiday just gone was no exception. For us, Christmas Day is family time and not only did I spend time with my parents and my older brother, but we were all invited to join some of our other relatives for Christmas Dinner. We had a mixture of turkey and pork and some vegetables and we had music associated with the holiday playing in the background. Sounds familiar doesn't ...

 One weekend per year, a film-making challenge is held in the Midlands - where local filmmakers team up to produce a film in relation to the genre provided to them and within two days precisely. Being how dedicated I am to film-making, I had developed my experience within the field and so far this year, I've worked on three films (one short), all of which I worked on as a boom operator. Despite this, and due to the two years before then, it felt longer. Because since early-July, I had not worked on another film... Until this weekend gone by. Because I was one of those who participated in the challenge. I worked with a few other fellow filmmakers from Leicester on a short film which for this year had to be an "urban fairy-tale". I had a go at writing a script for the short and I was thinking to myself what could count as an urban fairy-tale. Could it be like E.T. The Extra Terrestrial which is a sci-fi family feature with a sort-of fairy-tale feel to it? Or one of the more...

 As this is a monthly activity, the intention was to write a blog post sooner, but very important business stepped in, hence the delay. However, I would like to introduce to any fellow writers reading this, a Guild which I recently joined that may come in useful. The organisation I'm referring to is the Writer's Guild of Great Britain . It is a trade union that was formed to unite writers of films, TV shows, radio plays, books and so forth. This one was recommended to me by a mentor I know from Northampton. Of course this is early days and I've just started getting the hang of it. But it's been a good impression so far. I've even spotted well-known creatives on the website including Tony Robinson whose credits include as the actor of Baldrick in Blackadder and as a writer for a few children's history-based TV shows. There are a few sources of membership you can sign up for and these include Full Membership, Candidate Membership, Student Membership and Affiliate ...

 Just recently, I've entered one of my short films into a monthly film festival known as Lift-Off Sessions. The film is one which I made just a few years ago. It was shot in my hometown, Leicester, and partially in association with Seven/Five Productions, which was then a collective of independent filmmakers across the county of Leicestershire. I was recommended Lift-Off Sessions by a friend of mine who I knew through Seven/Five when he told me about it during a screening at a festival in Coalville. At the time, that very same film I was referring to was being screened there. For those of you who don't know, Lift-Off Sessions is an online monthly film festival based at Pinewood Studios. What happens is that they screen each film that has been entered on Vimeo for a certain period of time and provides the audience an opportunity to cast their votes, whichever film gets the most votes also gets shown at the Los Angeles Lift-Off Film Festival. All that have been entered are scree...

 Hello blog readers. So, here's a bit of news. I have submitted one of my feature film scripts to a couple of festivals. One is the Best Script Award festival which is based in London, England, and runs on a monthly basis. The other is the Los Angeles International Screenplay Awards festival. The film is a family adventure drama. Without giving too much away on what the film is about, I'll put it this way; it includes a working-class family, a TV game show, and sabotage. I first began developing the idea five years ago and also submitted the script as part of my dissertation. I guess I should talk about some of the family movies which influenced my writing. Not all of them have influenced just this one project of mine in particular, but are most likely to serve as influences for other projects as well. Some of the influences are very loose. I must warn readers that there may be spoilers. Also, this list is in no particular order. Films Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory ...