The unique path that led to a unique creation

Embryo Films began in Sydney, Australia in 1999 — a production company formed by Los Angeles native Jeff Bollow, with the goal of expanding into an independent film studio that produces 3-6 films per year.

But after searching exhaustively across Australia for projects to produce, Jeff discovered a problem. The small screenwriting community and limited funding sources in Australia created a huge obstacle: the vast majority of submitted screenplays were not ready for serious consideration — they were not internationally competitive or viable without extensive additional development.

So Jeff began teaching screenwriting workshops from the producer's perspective — "everything writers needed to know to write something producers could really use." The goal was to lift the quality of screenwriting in Australia, which would lead to a greater pool of possible projects to produce.

After 4 years, Embryo Films' Weekend Screenwriting Workshop had been presented more than 80 times to over 1200 participants in 9 cities in 5 countries — with a 100% "recommend" rate. Yet less than 5% of participants followed through and wrote their screenplays, with most typically citing the enormous challenge of screenwriting, and the lack of available time.

So in 2004, Jeff designed FAST Screenplay, originally conceived as a home-study DVD course, as a way to continue spreading information about the producer's needs, while freeing up his time to get back to the business of making films. But the cost and time required to put it together made it a risky venture, and the project was put on hold. In 2009, after 5 projects fell apart in rapid succession, Jeff re-imagined FAST Screenplay as an online screenplay development system. He began building it in November of that year, funded by a Charter Group of over 120 participants from 17 countries. The system was completed and officially launched in September 2011.

FAST Screenplay was built without any government funding, investors, or corporate sponsors, in order to keep it independent and flexible to change. It is supported entirely by the enrolment and subscription fees of satisfied participants.

 

The Credits

JEFF BOLLOW

is an award-winning producer/director, best-selling author, film festival organizer and public speaker. Jeff has been in the film industry since age 12, starting as an actor before doing nearly every job in production (including experience in development, post-production and distribution). He has worked on feature films, TV shows, TV commercials, music videos and more. He has directed full length plays in Australia and TV shows in New Zealand; script doctored in Singapore, Australia, NZ and the US; and performed in studio and independent projects on 5 continents. He was co-founder of New Zealand's Big Mountain Short Film Festival, producer/director of the ATOM Award-winning DVD Making Fantastic Short Films, co-author of a book for Apple, and has worked with some of the top names in the industry. Through his production company, Jeff has reviewed over 15,000 project submissions, and has edited, assessed or mentored over 350 projects. Past students have been optioned, produced, and have won (and placed) in competitions worldwide.

Jeff is the architect and designer of the FAST Screenplay system, which combines screenwriting theory and practice, as well as hands-on insights gleaned from his nearly 30 years in all aspects of the global film industry (including 15 years in his native Los Angeles). He spent over 2 years carefully weaving everything into the 200+ detailed steps of FAST Screenplay, and he is the author of all the system's articles and most of its interactive content. Jeff is the driving force behind the system and a tireless optimist.

RIE NATALENKO

has a Doctor of Creative Arts in screenwriting, and an Honours Masters degree in Education. She has taught in high schools, College and University and in 2003, won the IF Award for "Best Unproduced Screenplay in Australia" for Heloise. She also wrote the DVD script and teaching package for Embryo Films' ATOM Award-winning Making Fantastic Short Films. Since 2008 she has worked full time as a screenwriter, with commissions which have included writing an historical mini-series, adapting an award-winning young-adult novel for the screen, adapting an Australian best-seller for a TV pilot and series, and scripting a documentary series on Ancient Greece. She is also a freelance script editor, with regular assignments from several production companies.

After their success on Making Fantastic Short Films ("Best Instructional/Training Resource" ATOM Award), Jeff brought Rie on board FAST Screenplay, to edit content and design the steps' exercises, to ensure sound educational princples that cover all learning styles.

 

An attempt to solve your problem and ours

Jeff's intention was never to teach screenwriting, but the further into the problem he dove, the bigger the fundamental challenge revealed itself to be.

Every year, tens of thousands of screenplays are written. By some estimates, the number reaches into the hundreds of thousands. Meanwhile, producers worldwide complain that they can't find screenplays to produce. This creates a natural opposition between writer and producer — producers (rightly) assume that most submissions will not be ready for serious consideration. This makes them put up walls, which writers then resent having to knock down to get noticed.

We're not going to lie to you — FAST Screenplay was created to solve our problem. Sifting through thousands of submissions for a needle in a haystack is exhausting and consumes enormous resources. Even free volunteer script readers need to be trained in what to look for, which requires time and energy that is then not spent making films. With a step by step system of development, we can guide any writer through the entire process, leading to screenplays that can be used.

But as writers ourselves, we know the subtle challenges that new, intermediate, and even advanced level writers spend years attempting to master. If we could shave even half the time off the learning curve and devleop market-ready screenplays with a fraction of the resources, it would give you time to go beyond the obvious creative choices and into the spectacular. This leads to better quality projects to choose from, which connect more effectively with audiences, which leads to a win/win business scenario for all of us.

It is from this perspective that FAST was created — a simple way to bridge the gap, and bring writer and producer back to the same side of the table.