Why Writing A Short Story CAN and DOES Lead To New Opportunities
23 August 2024 · 3 min read
Author, screenwiter and past Talent Camper Mark Renshaw just posted about a recent thrilling journey that began with a short story he wrote – we don’t know which, but it could well be the one he wrote for Singularity50.
Here’s what he said…
Sharing this as the whole insane opportunity came about because I had managed to get a few short stories traditionally published.
I’m so glad I can finally talk about this. It’s been insane keeping my lips sealed, but now that the trailer is out I can spill some of the beans.
A couple of years ago, the company behind the Netflix TV show Love, Death & Robots (Blur Studio) got in touch with me. I thought it was a scam at first. They said Tim Miller, the director of Deadpool, had read some of my published short stories and wanted to invite me to pitch ideas for an exciting new series they were developing for Prime Video. I was like, yeah right.
Turns out it was legit.
I had to sign an NDA which is why I had to keep quiet when I wanted to scream it across the multiverse! The show was to be called Secret Level, an anthology of animated stories based on some of the biggest gaming franchises in the world.
I accepted and spent the next few months being paid to pitch ideas for an episode. I was sent materials about the IP, secret exclusive info that I’m still not allowed to reveal due to the NDA and I was to come up with as many ideas as possible. The deal was if they picked my pitch (and several authors had been invited) I’d then get a commission to write it as a short story and they would then adapt it into a screenplay and produce it as an episode.
I sent my pitches and then disaster struck. Blur Studio could not get clearance from the franchise I was working on and they dropped the episode. My heart sank. I thought my shot at the moon was lost.
A few weeks later they got back in touch saying they really liked my pitches and there was one episode left. I was invited to pitch again, so I dived back in.
The IP I was working on was outside my comfort zone but I loved the entire experience and I was proud of the ideas I pitched.
I’d love to be here telling you they picked one of mine and my episode will be in the show, but alas they went with another author’s pitch. It broke my heart. The head of development at Blur Studio sent me an email to say they really liked my work and would consider me for future projects, which was nice of them.
For a few months I was being paid to work on my dream job and I loved every single second of it. The teaser trailer for Secret Level is above and it is due out on Amazon in December.
Written by
Chris JonesPassionate about all things film, I have spent my life watching movies, making movies and helping others make their movies too. Most recently I have been directing Splinter Unit on 'Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning', parts 1 and 2 for Paramount. I also executive-produced 'The Enfield Poltergeist' for Apple TV+. Deeper into my past, my early major projects include action thriller 'The Runner', serial killer thriller 'White Angel' and paranormal horror 'Urban Ghost Story'. I co-created and authored The Guerilla Film Makers Handbook series, published by Bloomsbury. There are now eight books in the series. More recently I have run a series of London-based festivals, kicking off with the London Screenwriters Festival which attracts over 1,000 professional screenwriters from around the globe annually. I also set up and run TEDxEaling, an annual TEDx conference on storytelling and human communication. In 2009, I made the multi-award-winning and Oscar-shortlisted 'Gone Fishing', the whole process being heavily documented on my blog. In 2014 I completed my fourth feature film, the crowd-created 50 Kisses which entered the Guinness Book Of Records for most screenwriters on a feature film. Following this success, I founded Create50 to continue the idea of crowd-created projects. Twisted50, our first book, was published on Halloween 2016 and immediately toppled Stephen King from the top spot on Amazon. Five books have followed in the Twisted50 series and we are working on the sixth now. During the summer of 2016 I trained to become a master Firewalk instructor and now regularly take people across the hot coals for charity. Late 2017 I directed the short film 'Seeing Him' which collected a ton of awards too. Over the following years I continued to make award-winning shorts, such as Meet The Nativity and Never Too Late. In the summer of 2022 I premiered Impact 50, the second feature-length movie from Create50. This time I directed the segment at the start of the film, with Olivia Williams as the President, and written by Joe Eszterhas. In the summer of 2022, I also joined the Mission: Impossible 7 and 8 productions as Splinter Unit director. At Halloween 2023, the Apple TV+ show that I co-executive-produced, 'The Enfield Poltergeist', premiered. I run regular filmmaking workshops for filmmakers both online and in person. Some people ask how I began making films? Like most filmmakers of my generation, it was with a Super 8mm camera, summertime and school friends, usually after watching a behind-the-scenes TV programme on a Hollywood movie like Star Wars. My first film was a zombie horror called Necronomicon, heavily influenced by John Carpenter's The Fog. And I was hooked for life. Contact me at Ealing Film Studios, Ealing Green, London, W5 5EP, UK
