In trying to get different angles on Screenwriting and the screen industry, I recently attended C21's Content London Drama Summit, which brings together 1500 industry professionals to get insights about upcoming shows, understand the current marketplace and look at trends for the future amongst many more topics of discussion.

My interviews include:

Catherine Oldfield - Creative Director, Tall Story Pictures

Graeme Mason - CEO, Screen Australia

David Hannam - Screenwriter, Wanted, Nowhere Boys

Elizabeth Kilgarriff - Senior Commissioning Editor, BBC Drama England & Wales

Andy Ryan - Co-Head of Drama, Nine Network

Julie Eckersley - Producer, Matchbox Pictures

Jenni Tosi - CEO, Film Victoria

Nick Waller - Business Development Director, C21 Media

Deb Jourdain is a Co-ordinator at Margot Robbie's Lucky Chap Entertainment in Hollywood.  She was Assistant to Producer John Edwards in Sydney for many years and moved over to LA a few years ago.  

If you're interested in moving to Hollywood or just interested in what happens over there, then Deb's story of working her way up the Hollywood ladder is a great listen.  She also has some great tips on how to gain credit, get a bank account and all those things you might overlook when setting up in a new city. 

At the recent AWG Event: Representing Disability Onscreen, Luke Buckmaster, the film critic for The Guardian Australia gave a keynote address talking about how people with disabilities have been represented on Australian TV and film throughout the years.

Tim Pye has had an illustrious career and it's far from over.  He's worked on everything from A Country Practice, E Street and Water Rats to Lockie Leonard, Stupid Stupid Man and Love Child.

Tim's won numerous awards including Awgies, AFIs and Logies and he now works as Head of Development at Scripted Ink, a screenwriter development company created up by NCIS Showrunner Shane Brennan.

On Thursday 28 Sept, AWG's Write Night presented the event Broadening The Horizons: Representing Disability On Screen at AFTRS in Sydney.

Genevieve Clay-Smith of Bus Stop Films chats to filmmakers Daniel Monks, Emily Dash, Johanna Garvin and Creative Director of Robot Army Ryan Chamley.

• Emily Dash's short-film I Am Not A Work Of Art... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzClTxpaI0Q
• Daniel Monks' film trailer for Pulse... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4IvKK4EsLs
• Daniel Monk's shortfilm Marrow... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vo8b3gxeGGg
• ABC News story about The Milky Pop Kid... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhMms9LEBmA
• Robot Army's film trailer for Jeremy The Dud... https://www.facebook.com/Jeremythedud/videos/163547627541430/

Vicki Madden got her break on the Flying Doctors in the early 90's and went on to write shows like Halifax f.p. and Sea Patrol amongst many more in Australia.  She has also worked a lot in the UK on shows like The Bill, The Clinic and K9.  But we go in depth to her most recent work, the highly acclaimed The Kettering Incident.  Vicki talks about where the show came from, working as a Showrunner and all things writing.  If you haven't watched The Kettering Incident yet, Spoilers!   

The AWG kindly invited me to cover the 50th annual Awgie Awards on Friday 25th August.  I interviewed the winners after they came off stage.  The interviews were:

Richard Lane Award for Outstanding Service and Dedication to the AWG - Kelly Lefever

Theatre For Young Audiences - Finegan Kruckemeyer

Children's Television 'C' Classification - Thomas Duncan-Witt

Children's Television 'P' Classification - Melanie Alexander

Animation - Tim Bain

Stage - Leah Purcell

Interactive - Que Minh Luu, Chris Burke

Music Theatre - Danny Ginges with Philip Foxman

Community and Youth Theatre - Lachlan Philpott

Television Serial - Faith McKinnon

Comedy Situation or Narrative - Luke McGregor and Celia Pacquola

Comedy Sketch or Light Entertainment - Declan Fay, Henry Stone, John Campbell, Stuart Daulman, Greg Larsen, Jonathan Schuster

Documentary Community, Educational and Training - Sam Meikle

Documentary Public Broadcast or Exhibition - Sally Aitken and Tim Ross

Feature Film Adaptation - Luke Davies

Television Telemovie or Miniseries - Kris Wyld and Kym Goldsworthy

2017 Major Award - Leah Purcell

This AWG Event was recorded live at 107 Projects in Redfern, Sydney on 1st May 2017. 

Writing for interactivity can present many challenges to the newcomer, and involves shedding a lot of what we've always been taught about storytelling.  Are beginning, middle and end really essential?

Moderated by Teresa Crea, Christy Dena, Leena van Deventer, Anna Irwin-Schutze, Krister Collin and Nicole Stark talk about their experiences in writing for interactive media. 

Rebecca is currently writing a rom-com feature film.  Her career started when she was commissioned to write a sitcom for the ABC and soon transitioned into freelance script consulting and editing.  Highlights in her career include being Creative Executive for the Producer of Capote, William Vince, writing script notes for Terry Gilliam's The Imagination of Dr Parnassus and story consulting on Paul McGuigan's Sci-fi feature Push.   

AWG NSW Write Night event recorded live from the Harlequinn Inn in Pyrmont.

Featuring screenwriters Debra Oswald, Shane Krause, Rebecca Sommi-Fisher and Story Consultant Karel Segers.