ESSAY FILMS

Jeff, a former teacher of Media Studies, History and Economics, began his writing career scripting pre-school children’s TV before moving into advertising & marketing, training videos, and co-publishing a community news-magazine. He found he had a penchant for comedy after taking a course by the late Barry Took, comedy writing partner of the late Marty Feldman.

 

He has three completed novels – 'Legacies', 'Sojourn', and ‘Duplicity’, and a work-in-progress in the style of Stephen King's 'The Body' (aka 'Stand By Me').

 

He has several screenplays on the market, one of which, 'New Deli' (a romantic-comedy set in Brooklyn), was awarded second place in the 2017 New York Metropolitan Screenplay Competition, and semi-finalist in a number of others including the 2017 The Art of Brooklyn Film Festival and 2019/20 Chicago Screenplay Comp. 

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Other scripts include: the Rom-com ‘Once Bitten’, semi-finalist in the 2016 Creative World Awards; the dramedy, 'Positive Aging in Happy Valley', awarded semi-finalist in the 2019-20 Miami Screenplay Comp; the comedy-western, 'The Legend of Willie Telberg and Son', (a comedic nod to the legendary Swiss hero, William Tell), semi-finalist in both the 2020 Chicago Screenplay Awards, and 2021 Screencraft Feature Screenplay Competition; and the comedy 'Phoebe's Exchange'.

 

Three other screenplays, the drama 'Legacies', the rural-noir 'Good Country', and the thriller-horror 'Grave Danger', are all set in Australia. 

 

As a writer benefiting from several years experience performing in live theatre, and in film, television and TVCs, and many years as a teacher of Media Studies, Jeff has developed an appreciation of the intricacies involved in writing character development.

 

Jeff has represented the interests of writers in several capacities; as a member of the former South Australian Film Industry Assessment Committee (SAFIAC, SA Dept of the Arts, subsumed by the SA Film Corp), and as a committee member of the Australian Writers’ Guild (SA), during which time he was responsible for coordinating script entries for various categories of its annual writing awards – eg Monte Miller Award, Radio Comedy Award.