The following are some of the teaching staff for the MA course. In addition to this list and alongside the staff across all areas of study, our full-time staff, a wide range of visiting lecturers, guest speakers and panellists visit us regularly.
Tutors
Sophia Wellington
Course Leader MA Screenwriting, Head of Screenwriting and Staff Governor - Management team
Sophia Wellington began her film career on the floor – literally: placing marks for Richard Gere as a camera assistant. After years in the camera department, working on a number of Anglo-American features, Sophia moved into the cutting room where she is, to her knowledge, the only (living) assistant editor to get an apology out of Harvey Weinstein.
Sophia moved into script development in 2003 when she joined World Productions to develop a feature slate for their production deal with Sony Columbia. During this time, she worked with a variety of writers and directors on films including Layer Cake and Becoming Jane.
Another move, this time to Singapore where Sophia taught screenwriting for the Graduate Film and Dramatic Writing programmes of NYU Tisch School of the Arts Asia. Returning to London in 2015, Sophia combines teaching with writing and script development whilst maintaining her links with the South East Asian film industry. She runs feature workshops for the Cinemalaya Institute in Manila and recent script consultancy credits include Remittance (2016) a low budget feature exploring the life of migrant workers in Singapore and the upcoming Polis Evo 2, (2018) a high octane, Malaysian action movie.
Amanda Schiff
Producer
Amanda has been a film executive and independent producer, joint-Head of Producing at the National Film and Television School, visiting lecturer at the RCA Film School, University of Westminster and London South Bank University. She was Artistic Director of PAL Screenwriters’ Labs, one of the founders and directors of Dartington Screenwriters’ Studio, and has been an advisor to the Arts Council of Great Britain Lottery Film Fund. She was a workshop board advisor on several Equinoxe screenwriting programmes in Bordeaux. Amanda has been a course leader on D&AD Workout Screenwriting and Storytelling for Film workshops since the beginning of the programme over ten years ago. She has been teaching screenwriting part-time at the London Film School on the MA Screenwriting and Filmmaking courses since 2005.
Amanda has worked at Columbia Pictures, was a consultant to the Samuel Goldwyn Company, Head of the National Film Development Fund and Head of Film Development at Goldcrest Productions. She set up Astoria Productions in partnership with Barbara Broccoli, where they produced Emmy-nominated ‘Crime of The Century’ for HBO. She has developed feature film projects through her own production companies Alchemy Productions and Doppelganger Films. Amanda has co-written screenplays, and is currently working on a novel and and cross-media projects. She has had solo exhibitions of her multi-media artwork, including afour month installation at the Grant Museum of Zoology in London. She has an MA in Creative Writing from Birkbeck College, University of London.
James Clarke
Visiting Lecturer, MA Screenwriting
James Clarke has been teaching as a Visiting Lecturer on MA Screenwriting since autumn 2018. He has also taught on the MA Filmmaking course at LFS. As a screenwriter, James has a background in writing (and producing) short film. His projects include BAFTA long-listed short film, Space Dance and the short film Chasing Cotards which premiered at the IMAX cinema in London before playing internationally at film festivals. Currently, James is developing several feature film screenplays with producers. He has also written for children’s theatre. In his film journalism work, James writes regularly about the animation and visual effects industries and his latest book is Blue Eyed Cool: Paul Newman from ACC Books and Iconic Images. James is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and also works as an External Examiner within Higher Education.
Jane Wittekind
Visiting Lecturer, MA Screenwriting
Jane was for many years Head of Development at David Puttnam’s company, Enigma Productions. There she worked with many internationally acclaimed writers and directors, including Colin Welland, Hugh Hudson and John Frankenheimer whose TV film The Burning Season:The Chico Mendes Story, which David exec-produced, won multiple Emmys and Golden Globes. She also worked closely with renowned theatre director Robert Lepage on his directorial feature debut, Le Confessionnal, which won four Canadian Academy awards.
Jane later became Head of Development for film production and finance company, The Film Consortium, where she oversaw a large slate of projects from leading producers. She developed scripts with both established and emerging writing talent, and supported industry-wide training initiatives. She was involved in the development and production of many award-winning films, including Pawel Pawlikowski’s My Summer of Love and John Hillcoat’s The Proposition. Since going freelance as a script consultant, she's worked for the BFI Film Fund, Film London's Microwave scheme, Universal Pictures International and Focus Features. She's been a Visiting Lecturer on the MA Screenwriting since 2014.
Karen Askar
Script Editor and Writer
Karen has been a freelance script editor, consultant, reader, editor and biographer for many years. She is a Visiting Lecturer on LFS MA Screenwriting & MA Filmmaking and is pursuing a collaborative screenwriting partnership. She was previously Series Script Editor of ITV's The Bill, and in-house script consultant on films and television series for an established comedy writer.
Mark Boutros
Screenwriter / script editor
Mark is a TV writer, having written on The Dumping Ground and Lagging for CBBC, as well as on Romesh Ranganathan's sitcom, The Reluctant Landlord. A one-off story about Muhammad Ali he co-wrote for the Urban Myths season on Sky Arts was part of the International Emmy-nominated series, and he's developed a mini-series with Raindog Films. He's also script edited on a UKTV pilot called Perfect, and was a story consultant on some of bestselling author Adam Croft's Knight and Culverhouse series.
Neil Hunter
Writer / Director
Neil has co-written and directed three feature films, Boyfriends, Lawless Heart and Sparkle. Lawless Heart won the award for best screenplay at both the Evening Standard and the British Independent Film Awards. He regularly advises at the eQuinoxe script workshop, and has worked as script consultant for various European projects, including Jasmila Zbanic’s Oscar-nominated Quo Vadis Aida.
Nick Hoare
Screenwriter, script consultant
Nick Hoare is a screenwriter, script consultant and teacher, with experience of writing and developing for film, TV, stage and radio. A graduate of the NFTS, he has written extensively for television, both on ongoing series including Waterloo Road, Doctors and UgetMe, and developing original material for BBC, Size 9 and Bentley, among others, has written several short films, and has acted as script consultant on a wide range of projects, including documentary features and stage plays. He teaches on MA Screenwriting at both NFTS and London Film School, and on BA Filmmaking at University of the Arts London, and has served on the jury for the script prize at Munich International Student Film Festival.
René Mohandas
Visiting Lecturer, MA Screenwriting
René has been a reader, script editor, continuity supervisor, stage actor, producer, writer and director. He holds a BA in Film, Photography and Photographic Arts from the University of Westminster and an MA Screenwriting from LFS where he was a Leverhulme scholar.
René has read projects including the BBC 2 series Babyfather, feature film Peggy Su! BBC Films’ Sixth Happiness, Tim Roth’s The War Zone, John Maybury’s Love Is The Devil, Jimmy McGovern’s The Lakes and Lynne Ramsay’s Morvern Callar. He has worked with writer-director Sara Sugarman and script edited Jon Akomfrah’s feature film, Speak Like A Child, BBC Scotland’s Tartan Shorts and BBC1’s Monarch Of The Glen with audience figures of 7.6 million.
René’s feature screenplays have been finalists for the BBC Scotland / Scottish Screen Fast Forward development and Breakout Talent Competition (Screen East / Warp X). His short films accompanied feature films Monsoon Wedding and East Is East across national theatres and broadcast-theatrical commissions include BBC 10x10, London Production Fund-Cineworld, BBC Scotland Tartan Shorts and Scottish Screen-STV. His film awards include wins for Best International Film at the LA Shorts, Mumbai, Black Maria and CIAFF festivals, the Lawrence Kasdan Prize for Fiction, Kodak, Royal Television Society and BAFTA nominations and a Scottish BAFTA for best film.
René is currently part of the creative team of Three Worlds dramatic improvisation theatre company and is a visiting tutor at LFS for MAS and MAF.
Roger Hyams
Writer, Filmmaker, Script Editor
Roger is a visiting lecturer for the LFS MA Screenwriting and MA Filmmaking.
He started his career as an actor, working extensively for companies such as the RSC, English Touring Theatre and the Traverse. He became a script editor in BBC Television Drama, went on to be Head of Drama Development at TalkBack Productions, then left to pursue his own writing and film-making, as well as continuing to work as a freelance script editor. He’s developing two feature projects, one an adaptation of his own novel The Lightman System (Wrecking Ball Press). He recently completed a trio of short films - Sunday, Grand Union and the as-yet-unreleased Darkling. The first two, along with other films and more information, can be found at www.rogerhyams.com.
Rupert Jones
Visiting Lecturer, MA Screenwriting
Rupert is a writer and director. His 2016 feature, KALEIDOSCOPE, a dark, beguiling psychological thriller, premiered at the Chicago Film Festival and subsequently screened at the Edinburgh Film Festival, where Anne Reid won the Award for Best Performance for her role. Earlier in his career, Rupert was a prolific music video director (working with Bob Dylan and The Streets among many others.) He has also written and directed comedies and award-winning short films, including poignant multi award-winning comedy THE SICKIE, and the BBC comedy series THE LIFE & TIMES OF VIVIENNE VYLE, starring Jennifer Saunders, Miranda Richardson and Conleth Hill. He is co-writer of the feature SURGE, starring Ben Whishaw, which came second on the Britlist and was in competition at last year’s Sundance Film Festival. Rupert is currently developing a new original feature, UNTOLD JOY, with Producer Zorana Piggott and the BFI; and THE PARROT with The Bureau.
Virginie Guichard
Writer
Dr Virginie Guichard is a film scholar, writer and editor. She is a Visiting Lecturer at the London Film School, National Film and Television School and Ravensbourne University. She was the founding editor of Electric Sheep Magazine and was co-director of the Miskatonic Institute of Horror Studies – London. She has written and lectured widely on horror, fantastique and exploitation cinema and runs an annual course on surrealism in film.