The New Zealand Film Commission in partnership with Louise Gough (Australia) is offering two opportunities for a select group of industry professionals to elevate and upskill their story assessment and development skills for screen storytelling.
Script Assessor Training - One day, Auckland, 25 February
Expressions of interest to Adrianne Roberts adrianner@nzfilm.co.nz by Friday 8 February.
This one-day course has been created to increase the skills of current feature film assessors for the New Zealand Film Commission (NZFC) and other agencies like the New Zealand Writers’ Guild (NZWG). Current early development assessors will be required to attend the course to become production financing assessors for the NZFC.
During this one-day training opportunity you will learn and consolidate your skills and knowledge on:
- tips on how to assess effectively
- how to format assessments
- effective, constructive language to use
- how to interpret assessment criteria
- how to use your knowledge of current sector trends and apply these to your assessment
- create constructive, quality feedback that will support the development of the writer/creative team’s practice/project.
The multitude of ways stories for the screen work will also be explored in depth.
You will receive examples of assessment commentary as part of this one-day course.
Who can attend?
- Current NZFC assessors – for both short and feature film scripted projects
- Assessors for other screen funds eg NZWG Seed, Script to Screen initiatives etc
The script assessor training day will be on Monday 25 February in Auckland.
Story Development Skills - 3-day workshop - Auckland 26-28 February
Applications must be made online via the NZFC funding portal by 9am Friday 8 February 2019.
This workshop is an opportunity for up to 12 screen practitioners (producers, writers, story/script consultants) to enhance their story development skills for dramatic feature film scripts. Over three days Louise Gough will lead a practical hands-on workshop focusing on development methodologies and analysis skills so practitioners can build their toolkit for developing existing or future projects.
The workshop will be practical and require collaboration and involvement from participants over the three-day course. Some preparatory reading and work will also be required prior to attendance. This will be provided to you in advance of the workshop.
The workshop structure may include:
- Pre-Workshop: participants required to prepare set project reading and analysis tasks
- Day One: building craft, analysis skills and adding to your development toolkit across early to late stage projects
- Day Two: deepening analysis skills and adding to your toolkit across genres and strategies for development
- Day Three: putting your toolkit into practice in preparing for development meetings, observation of development meetings, and reflecting on our individual methods and practice
- Post-Workshop: a follow up meeting with NZFC staff to discuss next steps and evaluation of workshop.
Selected out of town participants may be eligible for travel and accommodation assistance.
Who can apply?
To be eligible for the workshop, you must have a track record/history in screen production as a:
- Producer
- Writer
- Script consultant / script editor
You must have at least one feature film project in development with the NZFC, to be identified at time of application. In the application you must outline:
- Your track record and demonstrable experience in developing screen projects to date
- A personal statement outlining how this opportunity aligns with your skills and career strategy
- The project that you will have in mind for further development as part of the course, and its current stage of development.
You will be notified within one week of the deadline whether you have been accepted for the course.
Click below to apply. Please note that if you already have an account in the NZFC funding portal as an assessor you will need to create an acount as an applicant using a separate email address. If this is an issue for you, please contact funding@nzfilm.co.nz.
Applications for this programme have now closed.
Louise Gough – Dramaturg, Script Editor, Development Executive
Louise has 20 years’ experience in development, beginning in theatre as a dramaturg and extending into screen story development 15 years ago. In Australia, Louise was Editorial Manager at ABC TV Drama and Narrative Comedy, Script Manager at Film Victoria, in the development team at Madman Production Company and most recently Louise was Development Executive (Story) at Screen Australia. Louise’s past theatre positions include Literary Manager at Playbox (now Malthouse) in Melbourne, Resident Dramaturg at Queensland Theatre Company (now Queensland Theatre) and Literary Fellow at Vineyard Theatre (NYC) developing over 45 new produced plays. For the last ten years, Louise has worked as a script advisor with Sources 2 in Europe, leading residential feature film development labs and working on fiction features as a script editor or dramatic advisor throughout Australia and Europe. Louise is currently Head of New Work at Belvoir and Head of Development at Arenamedia.
Previously Louise has delivered workshops that assist and deepen story development practitioners in their knowledge of story, awareness of their own practice and building up their toolkit and methods to work well in development.