Independent Films.
Hard-earned Field Guides.
Weapons & Wildflowers is a creative company developing original feature films and publishing practical field guides drawn from firsthand experience in the business.
Human stories of hardship and resilience, shaped by the beauty and brutality of the natural world.
Our Creative MissionStories in development.
A growing slate of independent features - moving from a tightly contained psychological thriller to the brutal landscapes of the American West and the broad scale of a Viking epic.
Raven's Point
As a Deputy hunts for a missing mother and son, she uncovers a gardener's monstrous past and a sheriff's quiet complicity - threatening to destroy the fragile order of a seemingly peaceful 1970s town.
White Sage
In 1875, a woman with a buried identity sets out across a violent, changing America to rescue her daughter from human traffickers - risking everything to reclaim her family, her heritage, and herself.
The Yew Bow
Amidst the ashes of his past, a Viking fisherman races against time, weaving a tapestry of love and loyalty to shield his newfound family from a tyrant's wrath.
RANGE
RUNNERS
Range Runners
A thru-hiker stranded after two fugitives steal her pack must decide whether to retreat or fight her way forward to reclaim what was taken.
Best Director - Artemis Women in Action Film Festival
Best Director - Twister Alley International Film Festival
Dare people to dream. Build the plan. Tell the truth. Get the film made.
From firsthand experience
to a working system.
Our Field Guides are designed to tackle the many different challenges that arise across independent filmmaking — from financing, development, and production to outreach, positioning, career decisions, and the unexpected problems that rarely fit neatly into a single playbook. Each guide focuses on a specific topic or scenario, offering practical insight filmmakers can use when they reach that particular stage of the journey.
Passion gets your story onto the page. Preparation helps get it financed. This initial guide walks filmmakers through the investor process — project readiness, presentation, outreach, funding conversations, closing, and managing the relationship after the check is written — with practical companion tools to help put the work into action.
Field Guide 01 — Independent Film Investor Toolkit
Digital PDF · One-time purchase · USD
The Field Guide gives you the framework. The companion tools turn it into a working system.
The $50 standalone purchase includes the guide only. The complete toolkit adds these companion resources:
This is not eight hours of video you have to work through before you can use it. The Field Guide is designed to sit beside you while you prepare materials, identify prospects, take meetings, follow up, and manage investor relationships.
One-time purchases in USD. Applicable tax is calculated at checkout. The guide is delivered as a PDF; the complete toolkit is a ZIP with PDFs and an Excel tracker. After payment you will be taken to a private download page, and your Stripe receipt is emailed to you.
Checkout and payment support are provided through Stripe/Link. Keep your receipt and private download link.
1:1 Creative Sessions
For filmmakers, writers & story-driven creatives.
Sometimes a field guide can only take you so far.
Book a private one-on-one video session with Philip Plowden, Co-Founder of Weapons & Wildflowers, to talk through the real-world challenges of developing, writing, packaging, financing, producing, or moving a creative project forward.
These are practical, candid conversations grounded in firsthand work across writing, directing, producing, independent film financing, pitch development, production, and the long process of moving a feature from script to screen.
There is no set formula that guarantees your film gets made. But sometimes an experienced outside perspective can help you see the next move more clearly.
Possible areas of discussion
- Screenplays, story development, and project positioning
- Investor readiness and fundraising strategy
- Pitch decks, one-sheets, and investor materials
- Independent film development and producing
- Budget and production-planning questions
- Producer outreach and packaging
- Career questions for writers, directors, producers, and other story-driven creatives
- General project troubleshooting and next-step strategy
These sessions are advisory conversations based on firsthand independent filmmaking experience. They do not guarantee financing, representation, distribution, production, or any particular outcome.
Payment is required to reserve a session. Sessions are conducted by video call.
Filmmaker-led by design.
Weapons & Wildflowers, LLC is a family-owned, Illinois-based company founded by Philip and Mary Jane Plowden. We develop original stories with a taste for the dark, the human, and the unexpected, balancing realism with poetry and artistic risk with production discipline.
Shaped by work across film, television, photography, and the written word, our creative practice is as much about the process as it is about the finished product. Our field guides distill the lessons, mistakes, and practical realities behind that process, helping filmmakers move their own stories toward the screen.
Meet the FounderPhilip Plowden
Philip Plowden is a writer, director, and producer with over two decades of experience across feature film and television production. He directed the survival thriller Range Runners, earning Best Director honors at the Artemis Women in Action Film Festival and Twister Alley International Film Festival. He has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars in private capital for a variety of projects, bringing practical experience in financing and production to his creative work.
His television credits include eight seasons in location management and scouting on Chicago P.D. He has been a member of the Directors Guild of America since 2015. Plowden now develops original feature films through Weapons & Wildflowers, including the psychological thriller Raven’s Point, the Western White Sage, and the Viking epic The Yew Bow.
Get in touch.
Have a question about Weapons & Wildflowers, our films, Field Guides, professional opportunities, partnerships, press, or other company business?
We’d be glad to hear from you.
CONTACT WEAPONS & WILDFLOWERSPlease note: Weapons & Wildflowers does not accept unsolicited screenplays, treatments, pitch decks, or other creative submissions.