ABOUT: David Vincent Smith is an award-winning writer and director from Western Australia. His debut feature He Ain’t Heavy, starring real-life mother and daughter Greta Scacchi and Leila George alongside Sam Corlett, premiered at the Sydney Film Festival and is now streaming on Netflix. Its proof-of-concept short I’m Not Hurting You also premiered at SFF and screened at Academy Award–qualifying festivals including Austin Film Festival.

In 2016, David was selected for Screenwest’s prestigious Feature Navigator program, completing a three-month Director’s Attachment on a Netflix sci-fi production in Serbia. He previously trained in Los Angeles under renowned directing coach Judith Weston, whose students include Steve McQueen (12 Years a Slave) and Alejandro González Iñárritu (The Revenant, Birdman).

David has also directed three launch films for the WA Museum and Bilya Beneath, the headline performance for the Perth International Arts Festival.

​WORK WITH ME

In between my own projects I work as a script and film editor. As a writer, director and editor, I’ve been across every stage of production, which gives me a strong grasp of story. I’ve taught screenwriting everywhere from high schools to master’s programs. As a script editor I work closely with screenwriters and producers to refine their screenplays, align their vision, and build a solid philosophical foundation that’s tied directly to the characters and the drive of the story.

My process focuses theme and story structure, making sure your screen screenplay’s core ideas resonate and drive the narrative. I take real-world production experience and distil it into a streamlined, efficient approach, to help you hit your target. Speaking of targets; I’ll help you set clear goals, work towards them, whether its developing an outline, treatment or draft.

So look, why not just use ChatGPT?

It’s a fair question. ChatGPT can be better than the weaker script coverage services, but its strength is also its weakness. Because it learns from existing scripts and notes, it tends to give workable but generic feedback. It rarely digs into the deeper, more specific themes of your story.

In my own tests, I asked it to assess a story structure. It gave competent, surface level notes. But when I pushed into breaking structure, subverting tropes or deepening theme, it simply said, “Great, now you’re thinking like a real filmmaker.” So why not take ChatGPT's advice and work with a real filmmaker… like me and not a soulless clone.

Storytelling needs lived creative experience. You can’t shortcut depth, and the conversations we’ll have about your project will be sharper, with real emotion and more precise than anything an AI tool can offer.