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Training
TV Forum 2009
Tony Grisoni's Red Riding Trilogy
Thursday 12 & Friday 13 November, 10am-5pm
Soho Theatre, Dean Street, London W1
SEE YOUR NAME IN THE CREDITS....
The Script Factory TV Forum is a two-day training and networking event devoted to writing for the small screen (or even the plasma HD-ready widescreen...). While Film and Theatre require the audience to come to you, television uniquely reaches them right where they sit. If you are serious about a career writing drama - and want to actually make some money doing it - then spend two days in November with us finding out how to get your work into living rooms across the land.
Through a combination of training and guest speakers TV Forum aims to inspire participants to consider how their talents, ideas and aspirations may be suited to the wide range of TV drama opportunities, from soap writing to original single dramas or innovative sitcoms. Over two days, we aim to give screenwriters an essential overview of the current TV landscape coupled with the language, resources and industry knowledge required to further explore how to forge their own TV writing career.
The Programme
Both mornings of TV Forum are devoted to four practical lecture sessions, each taught by Rob Ritchie, a regular Script Factory tutor who has extensive experience as a TV script editor and story consultant. Afternoons are reserved for a range of industry guests who will talk about their work and take questions, including the screenwriters of two of recent TV’s most starry ‘event’ dramas, an essential BBC figure for new TV writers to meet, and one of soap's most legendary writers:
TV Forum GUESTS include:
The Unloved - Tony Grisoni - one of the UK's most celebrated screenwriters, responsible for the award-winning scripts for both the Red Riding Trilogy, and Samantha Morton's directorial debut The Unloved, joins us to unpack the art of switching between film and TV.
Kate Rowland - Creative Director of New Writing for Drama, Entertainment and Children’s programmes at the BBC who created BBC writersroom in order to develop the BBC's new writing strategy and initiate opportunities for original and diverse talents across television, radio and film.
Collision- Michael A. Walker - a writer who is relatively new to TV but who has co-written the next big ITV event drama – the five-part series Collision which will be stripped over five nights in a single week in November. Collision tells the story of a major road accident and a group of people who have never met and aren’t connected (as far as they know) but who all share one single defining moment that will change their lives. It features an ensemble cast including Douglas Henshall, Phil Davis, Jan Francis, Kate Ashfield, Claire Rushbrook, Paul McGann, David Bamber, Dean Lennox Kelly, Craig Kelly, Lucy Griffiths and Sylvia Syms. Walker, who co-wrote with Anthony Horowitz, will explain his role and explore his understanding of this new way of scheduling major TV drama.
Bill Lyons – one of the UK’s most prolific and well-respected soap writers whose career began writing Z Cars, and whose CV includes soaps and long running serials from Blakes 7 and Juliet Bravo, to Heartbeat and Eastenders. He is currently a lead writer on Emmerdale and joins us to explore the benefits of soap writing for a screenwriter's career; explain the tricky process of team writing; unravel the art of creating characters an audience care enough about to spend time with each week or even each night; and explain how to skillfully juggle the need to satisfy a loyal audience whilst also keeping the programme accessible to newer viewers.
WORKSHOP SESSIONS:
Workshop session: Small Screen Stories
Writing for TV involves skills and techniques unique to the medium: from handling multiple storylines to structuring a story in four acts. This session explores the challenges facing writers working in a medium where deadlines are immovable, the audience may have missed last week’s episode and dialogue is perhaps more important than pictures.
Workshop session: What’s On Tonight? Examining TV Formats
TV drama embraces a variety of different styles, genres and formats – everything from ten-minute plays to serials that run for years. This session examines the rules and conventions of the major British TV drama formats from daytime soaps to prime time series and serials.
The Bill - one of the UK's most successful long-running series
Workshop session: Story of the Week - Drama Series
How do you create characters an audience will return to week after week? Why is the precinct of a series so often a police station or hospital? This session illustrates the role of story bibles, pilot episodes and research in creating characters and a world that will generate an endless supply of stories.
Workshop session: What’s so Funny? The challenge of writing Sit-com
Sit-Com is one of the most challenging and popular forms of TV drama. This session identifies the premise of a range of comedies and explains why a family of characters sharing a flat or a workplace remains the essential formula for both British and US shows.
Booking Information
TV Forum costs £185 + VAT (£212.75 total).
Script Factory Members are entitled to a 10% discount, making the fee £166.50 + VAT (£191.48). if you'd like to find out more about Membership.
The programme is supported by a full training pack.
To make your booking please call The Script Factory on weekdays between 10am-6pm on 020 7851 4890 with your credit or debit card details.
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