Valerie Bundy has spent nearly 30 years working as a theatre actor, before quietly building a second career writing, directing and producing her own short films on next to no budget.

In this episode, Val talks honestly about breaking in without drama school on her CV, the years of touring theatre that followed, and the confidence it eventually took to call herself a writer.

In this episode:

• The last-minute phone call that led to her first professional job
• Years of touring theatre, from performances in schools to small venues and theatre festivals
• Writing, producing and funding her own short films from scratch
• A cast most independent productions could only dream of, and the festival rejections that came anyway
• Imposter syndrome, whether it's actor or actress, and AI's growing role in music and writing

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Chapters

0:00 Introduction — Valerie Bundy, actor, writer and filmmaker

0:30 Imposter syndrome — even a famous director has it

2:05 Theatre training without drama school

3:04 A last-minute call and moving to London within a week

4:08 Touring Shakespeare — three plays, one company

6:00 Touring with Black Hat Theatre and CragRats

6:44 The 247 Theatre Festival — and meeting her husband

8:10 Stepping back from touring after having children

8:54 Writing, shooting and editing her first short film, Henry

9:46 The Raising Films course and caring for her mum

10:46 Winning a BAFTA-linked writing competition

11:28 Choosing Miranda Hart as a mentor

12:59 AI, ChatGPT, and what actually counts as writing

20:06 Test screenings and reworking a film score

21:01 AI-generated music, Suno and Udio, and copyright

25:12 Scoring Facade with composer Troy Masters

26:00 Meeting director Darren Westwood and writing Facade

27:08 Crowdfunding and producing for the first time

29:00 Writing a feature film using the Save the Cat method

32:26 How Covid affected freelance and TV work

33:18 Three TV and advert jobs that never made it to air

38:44 Told not to bother with comedy, so she wrote a comedy short

43:00 Actor or actress? The debate over titles

45:36 How many ways can you say one line? Directing voiceovers

50:08 Writing 'What Would Julie Do?' and casting Julie Hesmondhalgh

54:54 A long-shot letter that got a surprising reply

57:38 Festival rejections despite a dream cast

59:06 Turning rejections into festival wins

1:02:19 Getting paid for music on short films

1:03:55 Why sound design gets forgotten on tight budgets

1:06:18 Royalties, stock music, and considering film scoring

1:07:04 An idea for exclusive podcast intro music

1:08:02 Self-taught, and how the music actually gets written

1:10:07 Writing routines — Spike Lee, Stephen King and Aaron Sorkin

1:13:44 Being mentored by Miranda Hart

1:16:24 Finding composers and sound designers through networking

1:18:18 The debate over working for free early in a career

1:21:09 What's next — Facade, a new feature, and a sitcom pilot

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Media Music Now Conversations — real, unscripted chats with people working in the music and media industry. Hosted by Lee Pritchard, co-founder of Media Music Now.

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