Lunch Break: Giving Your Own Green Light

Earlier this year Stephen Vagg produced a feature film from his own script All My Friends Are Back in Brisbane with a cash budget of $15,000. In this month’s Lunch Break webinar, he explains how this was accomplished and offers his thoughts on why more writers should roll up their sleeves and move into the producing space. 

About Stephen Vagg
Stephen Vagg is a writer, script editor, producer and story producer.  He is currently a writer on Darby and Joan for CJZ Productions, and wrote and produced the feature film All My Friends Are Back in Brisbane which is being released in 2026. He was worked as a writer, script producer, and script editor on Rock Island Mysteries, Neighbours and Home and Away and wrote and co-produced the feature films Jucy and All My Friends Are Leaving Brisbane. Stephen’s script for All My Friends Are Leaving Brisbane was nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay at the Australian Film Institute Award. He won an Australian Writers Guild Award for his Neighbours script Episode 6857, the first time the show had won in that category in ten years. 

Stephen is the author Rod Taylor: An Aussie in LA, a biography of Australian actor Rod Taylor (The Time Machine, The Birds) which was turned into the feature film documentary, Rod Taylor: Pulling No Punches, in which Stephen appeared as an interviewee. He has also worked as a freelance journalist, script editor, researcher and story consultant, and is the author of several plays which have been performed around the world. He is an internationally recognised film historian, who has published several peer-reviewed articles on film history and has recorded several audio commentaries.