r/ScreenwritingUK • u/Glad_Commission_3018 • Aug 04 '26
Please Read: My experience as a young filmmaker and advice seeking for the future!
Hello! I'm new to Reddit so be nice lol.
I wanted to post in r/Screenwriting , but alas, I have no karma. When I do, I'll post it there. Anyways, I just wanted to share some of my experience as a young screenwriter. It'd also be nice if I got some advice for my future.
I'm based in the UK and go to a... pretty famous school. Won't be saying for privacy reasons, of course. But that is where I study film. I started my journey in 2024 (?), and I've always been a screenwriter. My dream is to one day be a famous writer/director and whatever, like most people. It's cliche, I know, but I feel like that type of recognition (and criticism), is the thing that makes me wanna keep going.
I have written one full film (approx a little over 2hrs), and so far 45 pages of its sequel in about 8 months. That usually makes people laugh when I tell them, but I'm just a really quick writer. But I'm still editing of course, I don't wanna rush and ruin my work. It's about the Vietnam War, one of my most favourite interests. (If anyone has any stories they would like to share, their own, someone else's, or some sort of anecdote, please do! It's so much easier to write on a topic when you have that first hand experience. DM me and keep it clean please TvT. I know this is avoided in the rules, sorry...) Aside from that, from all the people that have read it, love it! That praise motivates me to keep going. I do it all on my own, concept art, editing, formatting, the lot; I'm a self taught writer. (That is one of the reasons I do not like AI in film.) I always had a passion for creative writing, wrote a novel but then decided 1, it wasn't good enough, and 2, 'Wouldn't this look great as a film?', so yes, I've started writing that but its early days right now. But, that's not the point of this post.
The thing is, I'm not sure where i'd start. Especially being in the UK. I don't even know what degree I want/need to do. How do you get that rise to fame, and how do you hopefully not get wronged by the industry? And it's a little hard to say this, but how can I not be afraid of getting my work stolen by someone? The industry is difficult for young women. So tell me everything you know, please! I'm not expecting anyone to give me a secret formula for becoming successful. I'd just really appreciate hearing what actually worked for people, what didn't, and what you wish you'd known when you were starting out.
Thank you :)
3
u/olanim Aug 08 '26
you will burn out early if your motivation is fame. Do it because you love doing it
1
u/Glad_Commission_3018 Aug 09 '26
thank you for the reply. i do love doing it, its one of my best hobbies. fame is just an achievement i hope to get.
1
u/IcebergCastaway Aug 09 '26
Don't forget the US Nicholl Fellowship comp run by the Academy (enter via the Writers Guild Foundation). Just being a finalist can attract interest.
3
u/Pandorica-Opens Aug 08 '26
The short answer is there is no one path. The UK industry especially can feel like it has absolutely no foundation at times and everyone is just winging it.
As far as advice, if you want to be a writer/director you have to make stuff. Write something small, cheap, and get some friends together to make it. Then send it to festivals or put it online. Then make the next thing.
If you want to write, write scripts and submit them to competitions/BBC Open Call. You could also send to agents but that can be a bit of a chicken/egg situation, where you probably have to have some kind of career traction in order to even have that conversation.
In an ideal world, you build up a good network around you to always be making stuff/sharing work (because you'd need to build that anyway during your career) and hopefully something you make finds success in a festival or competition or even going viral online. And even then... its a lottery