The next South African Script Writers Association workshop will help writers to develop the treatment, a vital stage in getting work considered by producers and directors. It is facilitated by screenwriter and international lecturer Dermod Judge.
Judge reports that the course will pass on the Sediba process, which is rapidly becoming the standard method of assessing a script. It will shortly be the only way to present a script in South Africa and is the format required by the SABC and National Film and Video Foundation, which makes financial grants to film makers.
"They might not read your script, but they'll probably read your treatment if it is properly presented, says Judge. "In the long struggle to get your film script onto the screen, the treatment, or story outline, plays a vital role." It is part of the supporting documentation that a screenplay requires before it is seriously considered by a producer, a financier, or a broadcaster. So it has to be vividly written, highly dramatic and visually evocative. It should set the tone and style for your movie and indicate clearly how you see the final product on the screen. It could be the crucial step in the difficult process of getting your project read, financed and produced.
The course will also cover the other important support material, the single sentence description of the project, single paragraph description and statement of intent. It is designed for writers with a developed script for a feature film, a short film, a TV drama, a documentary or a stage play. Participants will be required to complete a treatment during the course.
The workshops include four full plenary days, Saturday 23 and Sunday, 24 April and Saturday, 7 May and Sunday, 8 May. Between the two weekends, participants will have hour-long one-to-one sessions with Judge and will be expected to complete their treatments.The outcome will be that each participant will have a complete treatment of their project, a firm understanding of all required supporting documentation, valuable insight into the dramatic potential of their script and a new perspective on their script's structure and characterisation.
According to students from Zambia, Bhutan, Germany and Kenya, who have been on his previous courses, Dermod is an excellent facilitator. Werner Nowak, Course Director at Deutsche Welle, "His professionalism as a writer, his training abilities and human contact with the trainees greatly contributed to the success of this workshop. Moreover his personal talent and passion for his work have had a strong impact on the participants who have started a forum of Kenyan scriptwriters as a consequence."
The cost of the course is R 2000 with discounts for SASWA members and graduates of previous workshops.
For further information call;
Dermod Judge
Tel: +27 21 438 1653
Fax: +27 21 438 3268
Posted on Monday 4 Apr 2005
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