Meet Philip Sedgwick | Screenwriter & Film Director

We had the good fortune of connecting with Philip Sedgwick and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Philip, what’s something about your industry that outsiders are probably unaware of?
From the outside filmmaker appears glamorous! In actuality, the making of a film requires extensive planning to include every unimaginable contingency. As well, the process of scheduling is more complex than herding cats. The actual filming can be fraught with all sorts of complications. As they say, if it were easy everyone would do it. Despite all this, the process is stimulating, applying all burners of creativity on full-blast. The end result is rewarding beyond imagination. Despite the long hours and dedicated attention, most filmmakers describe the process as feeling lifeblood surge through the body.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
The awakening required to become a filmmaker, for me, was a lifelong process. There were all those TV shows and movies enjoyed as a child. While in the Navy, the daily movie was one of the best parts of life at sea. Following the service, when I worked in electronics, an aspiring screenwriter/tech writer at the company befriended me. Every day coffee breaks were conversations were about plot points and creating stirring action sequences. Still, I didn’t get it. In my 30s I decided to write the Great American Novel. While about a third of the way through with a stack of hundreds of pages, I was conversing with a screenwriter friend who showed me her screenplay – 115 pages. It was at this point I finally realized, I am to tell stories through film!

I wrote a screenplay, then I wrote another. Not sure if I was any good at this, I submitted the first draft of my second screenplay to the Nicholl Fellowship, an Academy run screenwriting fellowship. I placed as a quarter-finalist. Then, the floodgates opened… I wrote and wrote and wrote until the act of writing became as vital to my existence as breathing.

One day I answered a job posting on Linked In to write a short film based upon a wartime scenario in Afghanistan. I was hired that day by the director of the film. Over the next weeks we created the screenplay for MIRAGE AT ZABUL PROVINCE. The director invested favors and significant resources to make this film the right way – brilliantly. The film won many festival awards and was in competition in an elite Oscar-Qualifying film festival.

The first time I saw my name on the screen, it all became worth it. All the hours, the criticism, the rejection (there’s so much of that in filmmaking), the debates over how it should be done… filmmaking is hard. Collaboration is not a simple thing. Still, when the going gets tough, I can remember realizing I know how to write with the screenwriting accolades received, and when I watch any of the films in which I played a role as writer or director, I see the quality, the accomplishment and those become the fuel of combating the difficulties encountered in the filmmaking process.

It distills to this: Every day, your fullest quality effort must be applied to that thing you want to be known for being or doing. There are no overnight successes. Success is about garnering the recognition for the volume of hard work and discipline applied to create the craft, hone the talent and apply it in a way that the world can recognize. The point of every project I write or direct is to leave behind a tidbit of inspiration for a viewer, such that their psyche can be bolstered and they can keep on keeping on.

Here’s one other point. You never know what’s going to turn into what. During the pandemic my partner and I conjured up the idea to film a short script that I literally dreamed up. That film enjoyed notable festival success, including selection into the Phoenix Film Festival and the Arizona Underground Film Festival. The director of the Silicon Valley International Film Festival took such a liking to my work that she funded and starred in my current short film, METEORIC. Without being annoyed by the pandemic, we wouldn’t have made the short film, etc. etc. Engage what “mysteriously” comes your way with full gusto. If you need confirmation, go hang out with a saguaro and listen to what they have to say about the matter. They are wise beyond their years.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Well, since I’m in Tucson (and all these points a day trip from PHX), a tour of one of the old west film sets would be in order. Maybe Old Tucson or Mescal near Benson. Over the years I have gained heaps of inspiration from our local desert. No doubt walks in the desert somewhere like in the grand Saguaro National Parks nearby. Definitely a sunset at Gates Pass. Tucson iconic spots such as the Biosphere 2, the Desert Museum and the Botanical Gardens are a must. Then there’s taking in the mural art of Tucson… so many brilliant murals populate the city and wow the eyeballs.

As for interesting people, well filmmakers. They are chock full of creative vision, nearly intoxicated by their next projects. Their inspiration is contagious. Probably I would encourage visiting Arizona while a film festival is running. Film festivals are absolutely my favorite thing and Arizona has many outstanding film festivals. From the Phoenix Film Festival, to Prescott, Sedona and Arizona Underground to name only a handful.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Gosh, this feels like and Oscars acceptance speech. There are so many people who have contributed to where I am… most without realizing what they did. I am of the belief that every person in ones life and every event directly contributes to whom that person has become and is in the present. That stated, you know, it’s my mom. She was patient while I didn’t want to go outside and play sports. She served my creative spirit by fostering my understanding of words, and being a stickler of grammar. And along the way, she told me heaps of jokes.

For industry inspiration, I’d go with Michael Blake, the writer of the Oscar-Winning screenplay, Dances With Wolves. Michael, who lived in Arizona in his last days, battled between writing his novel and getting it noticed, then dealt with the similar issues as the film engaged strong opposing forces in its development and was told for so many reasons why it wasn’t viable. Michael valiantly fought a life-threatening (and ultimately life-ending) disease with remarkable cheerfulness. I met him a few years back at the Prescott Film Festival. He was kind, gentle, an advocate for wild mustangs and a pure inspiration for the need to persevere with fervor to fulfill all life’s grandest objectives.

Website: www.philipcsedgwick.com; www.meteoricmovie.com; www.zapthefilm.com

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/philip-sedgwick-7942a132/

Other: www.zapthemovie.com www.meteoricmovie.com