Education

Stephen has taught at major film schools, normal business schools and minor primary schools. His lessons range established topics from Producing at MA and BA level, online video and the business of film producing to more adventurous topics such as measuring the unmeasurable, advanced creative thinking and the psychology of film producing. Within the third sector, Stephen has taught storytelling and communication strategy to charities, press groups and campaigners.

Courses

Stephen has created and led a number of niche short courses, including…

  • Micro-Budget Mentor. Four-month, part-time program mixing physical lectures and workshops with networking events, online resources and one-on-one support. Supported by Creative Skillset.
  • Data-Led Indie Film Strategies. Held in London and New York in collaboration with the NYU Production Lab.
  • Seven Step Producer. Weekend course giving a producers and filmmakers a blueprint for getting their first feature film made.
  • Online Video Masterclass. Weekend course teaching filmmakers how to turn their skills to commercial, professional online video production.
  • Practical Producer. Weekend course designed for filmmakers who want to learn what a producer does.

For more details on past courses, and to access the slides and resources, please visit

stephenfollows.com/courses

Schools

Stephen has taught at film and busines schools around the world. These include:

  • Annual or semi-regular sessions at NYU and NFTS.
  • Multi-month courses including at the Met Film School and Birmingham City University.
  • Weekend courses, including with Raindance, Filmbase and the Malaysian government.
  • One-off lectures, including at the Nashville Film Institute, Royal Holloway and Hult Busines School.
  • Keynotes and lectures for numerous industry events, film markets and film festivals.  

Stephen has previous designed teaching syllabus for the Met Film School and is currently the Chairman of the Board of the Central Film School.

Clients

Stephen has created and delivered private training for a number of companies, charities and pressure groups. These most typically fall into one of three categories:

  • Film industry insight and dynamics. This includes a wide variety of topics, from broad introductions for companies outside of the film industry, such as Google, to niche deep dives for those already in film, such as BASE, BECTU and the Film Distributors Association.  
  • Creative problem solving and creative thinking. Helping employees and executive breakdown problems and generate creative and unusual solutions.  This has included work for Wordtracker, Hubbub and Unilever. 
  • Harnessing storytelling to create measurable outcomes.  This ranges from one-off lectures to multi-session workshops for organisations such as Amnesty International and a three-year nationwide training program for National Trust.
Stephen Follows