BEN S. HYLAND

Recently, a good friend and regular collaborator Tweeted something that got me thinking. His declaration was that he was doing the 6am challenge. He'd read an article somewhere that suggested that humans are programmed to do certain things and act in certain ways. Society dictates that we eat three square meals a day. That we sleep for eight hours a night. That we must follow certain social conventions that are deemed normal. So my friend decided that he was going to get up a

I wanted to share my thoughts on Producers. What they do and why you should try and find them. As an Indie Filmmaker you have to wear a lot of hats. Some filmmakers are also cinematographers, composers, sound designers and of course producers. So being an indie filmmaker can mean being the majority of your crew. I should really start by saying that I've been producing my own films since 2007. It's just something that I've HAD to do. I know a lot of other directors but produce

As an indie filmmaker it often feels like you're juggling multiple roles. This is, of course, true. When you start out you don't have the benefit of a Hollywood sized crew. You don't have access to a 1st AD, Gaffa, Spark, Key Grip or Best Boy. Let alone have any idea what these roles actually mean. It's important then to plan and try to factor everything into your filmmaking process. In this blog I want to briefly talk about something that is often forgotton by indie filmmake

When you're working with a minimal budget and self financing a project it can be very difficult to make something that appears to have a high production value. Especially when you're planning a WW2 battle sequence. I wanted to break down different elements, from my own experience, in the hope that it might help other fimmakers produce quality sequences with minimal budgets. LOCATION. In my experience it's always best to be honest with the local council office about what your

On Saturday 12th March, 2016, in Omaha, Nebraska, my short film, STAY, had it's World Premiere. It's a big deal for a filmmaker to have their film screened in front of an audience but sitting here in my shed in Sutton, some 4,500 miles away, dunking a digestive biscuit into a cup of tea, I wonder how a festival so far away, that I cannot afford to attend would benefit my career pathway? I think it's important to start by saying that the festival circuit is a minefield. There

Recently I had two scripts through to the final of the Create 50: The Impact writing competition. It's a Chris Jones initiative that brings creatives together to collaborate on something special. The competition got me thinking about the benefits of these competitions in general for aspiring writers/directors/creatives that are on the outside of the industry looking to find a window on a latch to try and break in. My first short film was made in 2007. A group of people with l

Being an independent filmmaker sometimes means you have to think on your feet and improvise in order to maintain your original vision for a project. I wrote an entire scene underwater without really thinking too much about how I was going to shoot. When preproduction began I realised that it was going to be an impossible task going down the traditional route. Not only from a financial perspective but also it was a logistical nightmare. I did the usual research. I contacted so

I've never been confortable calling myself a writer. It's not that I don't like write. I love writing. I love the whole processing of telling a story. I suppose when it comes down to it and when people ask me what my favourite part about the filmmaking process is, I'm always drawn more towards directing and working closely with actors. This doesn't mean that I shy away from writing my own films. At times I feel like an ideas machine and wish there were more hours in the day c