Celebrating his win at the 2025 Melbourne International Screenplay Awards, taking home the awards for Best Mystery Screenplay and Best First Time Screenwriter, screenwriter and author Isaac Jeffrey is building on this momentum as he transitions from his corporate career to his creative pursuits.
Looking to further his passion for storytelling, Isaac turned to AFTRS Short Courses, enrolling in Intro to Screenwriting and Voice Over Workshop, before progressing to Screenwriting for Film Bootcamp where he worked on his award-winning script, The Meditation Room*.
We spoke with Isaac to learn more about his screenwriting exploration with AFTRS and how these short courses have helped shape his storytelling journey.
Can you tell us about your background?
“My background is in marketing, communications and management across Defence, politics and private enterprise but I’ve always been a lover of storytelling in all formats, from musicals and stage to film and television to novels and audiobooks and everything in between. As a kid, my earliest form of storytelling was writing and delivering speeches, which I’ve continued to do in my professional career. I’ve since gone on to write six novels under the pseudonym Xavier Wallace and my first screenplay, The Meditation Room.”
Why did you choose to come to AFTRS?
“People enjoy stories being told in a bunch of different formats and through a variety of mediums. I’ve written six novels and while the feedback from readers has been extremely encouraging, I do get a lot of people saying they don’t read anymore and instead watch or listen to stories. I enrolled at AFTRS to explore ways of bringing my stories to new mediums, including audiobooks and screen. I started with the Intro to Screenwriting short course and a couple of days in the studio in Sydney for the Voice Over Workshop. These were both incredibly insightful, immersive and inspiring, and really lit the flame to pursue further learning and to move into the creative world as soon as possible. AFTRS has a great reputation and the industry professionals who lead the courses are wonderful people with real life experience in their fields.”
Why did you return to AFTRS for the second, and third, courses?
“I enrolled in the Voice Over Workshop and Intro to Screenwriting courses pretty much at the same time to learn more about what it would take to turn my novels into audiobooks and screenplays. I discovered an even stronger passion though for both voice over and screen while on the courses and decided to pursue further studies. That’s why I enrolled in the Screenwriting for Film Bootcamp. It provided hands-on learning, creative thinking, amazing demonstrative examples and real-world screen experience provided by the course tutor, Jonathan Ogilvie, who is an engaging, supportive and incredibly credentialed Australian writer and director. His industry know-how and positive learning and creating environment was second to none.”
What were the key things you learned in each of the courses?
“The VO course was a real eye-opener into the world of voice over and really made me consider the types of voiceovers we all hear in our everyday lives – from public transport alerts to television advertising to screen narration and video game characters. I learned practical skills like breath control, warm up exercises and how close to be to the microphone, while being exposed through hands-on studio learning to what it’s like to work up a script and record it for clients.
The Intro to Screenwriting course gave great insights to really tease and excite about the world of screenwriting, along with practical writing tips, from structuring screenplays to real examples we could work through to highlight how the theory worked in practice.
The Screenwriting for Bootcamp course was a much deeper dive into the techniques from the intro course. We delved into different formats and structures, worked through character development and genres, and moved through the end-to-end process of developing ideas, plotting those out, turning them into industry-standard formats, and how to pitch and look for writing opportunities.”
How has this helped you with your craft?
“All three courses have helped with exploring concepts and finding the throughline and themes of creative works. The screenplay courses have helped develop my thinking on characters and how their backstories, even if they aren’t shown, can shape the character we do see in the pages or on the screen. It’s also just a very different style of writing and so the practical learning on structure and format has helped me understand of the world of screenwriting.”
What are the next steps for your screenwriting?
“I’m so thrilled to have won two awards at the Melbourne International Screenplay Awards for The Meditation Room and receive a nomination at the International Indie Film and Screenplay Festival. It’s a story about a heartbroken staffer who must navigate the dangerous world of politics and power, and shake off suspicion, after his boss and lover is assassinated only days before claiming the Prime Ministership. I’d love to move the screenplay into the next stage by developing a pitch and starting to look for partners to get it developed.
I’ve also started the adaptation of my first novel, Shaw Vengeance, and a second standalone screenplay called Rebellion, which is a story about a young atheist journalist who discovers links between a series of grisly murders of religious leaders to the ancient Greek Gods, and is drawn into the second rebellion of Olympus. I’m very excited about the prospects of moving into creative writing full time and pursuing a career change to do something I love – telling stories!”
Why would you recommend AFTRS short courses?
“It’s a supportive learning environment with passionate and encouraging peers who love the creative space, and it’s just incredibly rewarding to be in the presence of creative exploration. The courses are run by real industry professionals who are dynamic, engaging and motivating, and who I genuinely believe want to see you succeed. Plus, you get practical and theoretical learning and experience to see if the field is something you want to pursue into the future, and the skills to start you on the journey!”
*Along with its win at the Melbourne International Screenplay Awards, The Meditation Room was more recently a finalist at the Brisbane Indie Film Festival, and has been nominated/selected for the upcoming International Indie Film and Screenplay Festival, Cannes Film Awards and Los Angeles Film Awards.
Ready to explore and expand your passion for storytelling and join our AFTRS Short Courses Community like Isaac? Explore AFTRS Short Courses today.
