You’ve had a great story idea – but how do you turn that into a full screenplay that can attract actors, directors, producers and financiers? We’re not just talking about correctly formatting your screenplay. You need to take a deep dive into the world of script development to make your plot exciting, your characters relatable and your themes relevant to what audiences and financiers want.
Once you get development right, lots of doors can open. Giving good development notes is also a skill you need in lots of other jobs, such as producing, directing, script-editing, working as a development executive, or working within sales, distribution or financing.
Whether you’re a writer who needs to hone their skills, or an actor, a director or producer who wants to learn how to spot great screenplays to work on, or someone wanting a job in development, sales, distribution or finance, then this is the course for you.
When: Wednesday February 25th at 7:00pm
Where: Online Zoom Video Call
Who: MFJF PRO Members Only
Cost: Free for MFJF PRO Members!
What is development?
- How to get the best out of your story idea
How does development usually work?
- How to give good development notes
- How to understand notes and action them as a writer
Who gives development notes, and why?
- Producers, directors, financiers, script editors, sales agents, distributors
Key development phases:
- One-pager, beat sheet, treatment, first draft, second draft, revisions, polish
Questions you need to work out during development, and how to answer them:
- Who’s the protagonist?
- What’s the problem?
- How does it begin and how does it end?
- What are the tangible and spiritual goals?
- What’s it about?
- Why do we care what happens?
- What does the protagonist want?
- What is the protagonist doing to get what they want?
- What is at stake?
- What are the main things to stop the protagonist achieving their goals?
- What does the protagonist learn?
- What’s the moral of the story?
- What statement or issue finds voice in your characters?
- If the theme was your title, what would it be?
- What film is yours most like and what can we learn from that?
Jack Tarling has produced five feature films and many short films through his company Shudder Films; KNEECAP, featuring rap trio Kneecap alongside Michael Fassbender, premiered at Sundance 2024 and sold to Sony Pictures Classics. It was shortlisted for 2 Academy Awards, nominated for 6 BAFTAs (winning Best Debut) and won 7 British Independent Film Awards; GOD'S OWN COUNTRY, which won prizes in 2017 at Sundance, Berlin, Edinburgh, Galway and many other festivals, won 4 BIFAs, including Best Film, received a BAFTA nomination for Outstanding British Film, was the highest grossing UK debut of the year; AWAIT FURTHER INSTRUCTIONS, which was critics pick in the New York Times and sold to Netflix.
Currently in post production for 2026 releases, Jack has produced:
LEARNING TO BREATHE UNDER WATER, directed by Rebekah Fortune and starring Ezra Carlisle, Rory Kinnear and Oscar nominee Maria Bakalova, is financed by Screen Ireland, UK Global Screen Fund, Ffilm Cymru, the Netherlands Film Fund and sold by Bankside.
DAUGHTER OF EDEN, written and directed by Fateme Ahmadi, starring Yasmin Al-Khudhairi, Hiam Abbas, Amir El Masry and Lindsay Duncan, is financed by BFI, BBC Film, Screen Ireland and Civic Studios.
Jack has also line produced several other feature films for the BFI, BBC Films and others, including two which premiered at Venice, and he previously worked in development at Ridley Scott's production company Scott Free. In 2019/2020 he worked to produce an unannounced US-set interactive feature film for Sony Interactive Entertainment
Jack has produced short content for Disney/Hulu, exec produced a slate of ten short films for Northern Film + Media and produced short film ASSESSMENT which was shortlisted for a BAFTA in 2010.
Jack co-founded the Mother Tongues Development Award (in partnership with Curzon, Charades and Intermission) which supports UK-set films told in a language other than English.
This workshop is for MFJF Pro Members. To join and participate create your account on MFJF and then upgrade to become a PRO Member.
Any MFJF Pro Member can attend regardless of prior film industry experience or knowledge.
No experience is required, if you are simply curious about a career in film or are a recent film graduate we welcome you to join us.
Please look at our Career Stages Pathways to understand where your experience lies in the grand scheme of things, it will help you navigate and plan your next steps.
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