EKRAN 2012 — Call for Applications
The application deadline is 31st January 2012.
What is "EKRAN"?
The European training programme EKRAN is a collaborative project between the Andrzej Wajda Studio and Film School, FOCAL (Switzerland), Austrian Film Institute (Austria), Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung GmbH (Germany), with support of Polish Film Institute and MEDIA EU Programme.
EKRAN (the Polish word for “screen”) is an international training program focusing on the creative pre-production process based on shooting practice. EKRAN focuses participants on exploring, identifying and refining the tone and visual language of film.
As the creative pre-production process is based on teamwork, EKRAN includes each of the key creative roles in its training curriculum. Every participating project is therefore represented by a Creative Team consisting of a director (or writer/director), a writer (or co-writer), a producer and, optionally, a director of photography.
EKRAN trains directors not only to develop each aspect of their Projects, but also to tighten the collaborative working process with the writer/co-writer, producer and DOP.
EKRAN is also a brilliant and unique opportunity for producers to develop their project using the most cost effective and creatively concentrated methods. EKRAN offers to participants a production component prepared in close collaboration with EAVE; one of the best programs for producers available in Europe. The EKRAN training component for producers focuses on creative aspects of film production.
EKRAN aims at advancing participants’ treatments/scripts and producing two scenes from each script/ treatment.
The EKRAN process includes:
- Treatment and / or script development; group and individual work on scripts and / or treatments
- Preparation for shooting; casting, storyboard and individual consultancy with tutors
- Shooting; tutors’ directing consultancies
- Editing; tutors’ editing consultancies
- Evaluation; individual, group and tutor analysis of the produced scenes
- Pitching; individual and team presentation of participants’ projects
- Production and Marketing strategies; individual, group and tutor consultancy on participants’ projects
The creative team (director, screenwriter, and producer) are offered a choice of locations, actors and set design within the usual logistical and budgetary constraints. EKRAN supports shooting with expertise and help from casting directors, set designers and production managers.
In order to ensure the best possible market opportunities, EKRAN will favor applicants with independent film projects with a strong personal vision.
The 'Godfathers'
To bring the experience of the most distinguished generation of filmmakers to the participants, Andrzej Wajda, as the main ‘Godfather’ himself, has invited two more ‘Godfathers’ of EKRAN to act as Masters of visual grammar, and to interact creatively with the teams. These Godfathers are Volker Schloendorff from Germany and Alexander Sokurov from Russia.
The team of tutors involves experienced film professionals from all over Europe including: Wojciech Marczewski Head of EKRAN Programme, Agnieszka Holland, Jerzy Zielinski (Poland), Mogens Rukov (Denmark); Ildiko Enyedi (Hungary); Udayan Prasad, Pawel Pawlikowski, Witold Stok, Nigel Orrillard, Marilyn Milgrom, Alan Fountain (England), Antoine Jaccoud (Switzerland), Roshanak Behesht Nedjad (Germany).
Photo: Andrzej Wajda Master School of Film Directing
Who organizes EKRAN?
The Andrzej Wajda Studio and Film School (Warsaw, Poland). Supported with the honorary patronage of the European Film Academy, the School started its activity in November 2001 and became the platform for film discussion, the exchange of ideas and meetings of young filmmakers. The School founders are Andrzej Wajda, Wojciech Marczewski and The Warsaw Film Studio. The School is the only training center for film professionals in Poland and runs fiction and documentary courses based on project development at a Master Class level. The School produces short and feature films.
FOCAL (Lausanne, Switzerland). This Foundation for professional training in cinema and audiovisual media promotes the development of creative, technical and entrepreneurial skills among professionals in the areas of film, audiovisual arts and new media. FOCAL is a well renowned institution with a long established tradition of organizing European and world film training programmes.
Polish Film Institute. PISF is the newest film institute in Europe, established in 2005 in accordance with the new cinematography law, passed by Polish Parliament. It is set up similarly to the mechanisms of film industry support existing in many countries of Europe. The Institute's principal task is to provide the Polish film industry with the modern mechanism of support — from the development of projects, production, promotion, distribution and circulation of Polish and European films. We support films from concept to screen, with particular emphasis on international co-productions.
Austrian Film Institute. The Austrian Film Institute is a federal institution established to provide funding for Austrian films with regard to cultural and economic aspects. The provided funding aims particularly at strengthening the Austrian film industry and the creative-artistic quality of Austrian film which is a prerequisite for its success in Austria and abroad. It is a legal entity under public law and its registered office is located in Vienna. The financial year of the Film Institute is the calendar year.
Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung (MDM). Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung GmbH (MDM) awards funding to promising film and media projects realized in Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia. Funding schemes are available for all phases, starting from idea development through to production and distribution. To be eligible, production companies must spend at least the awarded funds in the region of Mitteldeutschland. In general, the funds must be paid back unless the projects's revenues fall short of a certain minimum.
Who can apply?
EKRAN is based on teamwork and involves professionals from several fields. The primary target group consists of European directors or writer/directors who have realised their first feature or several shorts. Writer/directors will participate with their own treatment/script, whereas directors will participate with a treatment/script they are developing with their co-writer. In order to be accepted by EKRAN, the creative team should be consisting of:
- director or writer/director
- the writer or co-writer of the script (where applicable)
- the producer committed to the project
- the director of photography they intend to work with (optional)
The writer or co-writer, producer and director of photography are the secondary target group of the programme. However each and every professional team member will be given specific guidance by experts with professional experience in each of the creative teams’ production roles throughout the programme.
How do I apply?
The application must contain:
- CVs of all team members (3 copies, plus an electronic version on CD)
- a 10 page (maximum) feature film Treatment (3 copies, with electronic version on CD) – (if the script exists it should be translated into English and available for individual consultancy for the first session)
- a letter of commitment from the producer or the producer’s production company, as well as a producer’s statement outlining their intended strategy for the development of the project (1 copy)
- an entry form signed by all the members of the team (1 copy)
- a DVD of the director’s work (1 copy)
- a filmography and samples of the director of photography’s work (1 copy)
The application deadline is 31st January 2012
All Swiss applications must be sent until 31st January 2012 to:
EKRAN
FOCAL
Avenue de la Rasude 2
CH – 1006 Lausanne
How are projects selected for EKRAN?
On the basis of the material submitted, a pre-selection will be made in each of the partner countries by professionals/tutors chosen by the partners. Wojciech Marczewski, the Mentor of the project, will interview the pre-selected candidates at the beginning of January 2011. He will choose the final 11 participants’ teams.
How is EKRAN training organised?
The EKRAN training program is divided into three sessions of 6 days, 10 days and 10 days respectively.
Between these sessions, participants are expected to develop new and further drafts of their scripts or treatments and to write two full scenes to be shot at the second and third sessions.
English is the language used during all EKRAN activities. All treatment/script, scenes versions prepared by participants during the programme must be delivered in English.
Session 1:
19 – 24 May 2012
Participants: directors and scriptwriters only (9 teams, 18 persons).
Duration: 6 days
The session will begin with the presentation of EKRAN programme. The presentation will be followed by a three days participants’ treatments group analysis module. In order to ensure that all participants gain a good working knowledge of each others’ projects, each team will pitch their project. Group analysis and discussion of these projects will enable the participants and tutors not only to get to know each others’ perspectives and approaches but will also help to clarify EKRAN’s perspectives on film as art and as business. The group analysis will be followed by scenes’ writing skills workshop introduced to the participants by EKRAN script consultant Antoine Jaccoud and followed by individual consultancies focused on the analysis of both: scripts/treatments and the scenes proposed by the participants to be shot during the second and third session. Special stress during the individual consultancies will be put on the scenes’ dramaturgy, the structure, the character, and the conflict. In order to enable participants’ films to express the authentic power of the author’s personality, the programme of first session will include the master class on the topic of long-term directing experience and the art of working with actors run by Volker Schloendorff.
During last two days participants will meet the Casting Director and Art Director in order to prepare the shooting of the scenes from their own scripts during the 2nd and 3rd session.
Session 2:
09 — 18 July 2012
Participants: directors, scriptwriters and producers (9 teams, 27 persons; producers stay for around. 5 days)
Duration: 10 days
This session will be devoted to a further treatment/script development and the exploration of visualisation strategies for ensuring a truly personal tone to the film. The core of the session will be the production of scenes from participants’ projects with 2-3 actors (Polish actors speaking English). The session will begin with the scenes’ group analysis. The pre-production of the scenes will begin with consultancies with shooting supervising tutors (one for each team). They will acompany each team during the location scouting and advising how to approach next steps of production of the scene. Each team will be given time for rehearsal with actors, one day of shooting and one day of editing. Having made decisions at the first session about casting and shooting locations, participants will now concentrate on developing images and camera movements through storyboard sessions run for each scene by a professional storyboard artist. In this way the taste and personality of a director will find its expression on the screen.
Those tasks will be supported with a seminar run by Wojciech Marczewski examining relationship of biography and fiction and methods of leaving the director’s fingerprints on the screen. The seminar will be based on a case study of the film “Shivers” dir. by W. Marczewski — awarded the Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival ‘Berlinale’ in 1982. The discussion will also provide participants with a valuable perspective on the life-long pursuit of a career in film and methods of managing personal talents and experiences.
Two individual treatments/scripts consultancies with EKRAN script consultants will be run simultaneously with the shooting and editing activities.
This session will also introduce participants to the EKRAN Producing component, prepared in cooperation with EAVE programme. Producers, directors and writers will explore how best to pitch their projects with expertise of the experienced European producer and producing consultant Roshanak Behesht Nedjad. The group pitching will create opportunity for closer networking and exchange of experiences between participants. Pitching will be followed by individual meetings with Roshanak Behesht Nedjad who will present market-oriented expertise to the projects.
Over the next few days the Producers will participate in both individual script/treatment analysis and in the process of production and post-production of the scenes.
The session will end with the evaluation of produced scenes.
At the end of the session, participants will meet Casting Directors and Art Directors in order to prepare the shooting of the scenes from their own scripts for the 3rd session.
Session 3:
17 — 26 September 2012
Participants: directors, scriptwriters and producers (9 teams, 27 persons; Producers stay for around 5 days).
Duration: 10 days
The last session will summarize the process of development of the projects and put stress to final testing of visual strategies for the future film. Each team will have the opportunity to invite a director of photography and 2 actors from their native countries to produce a 5-8 minute scene from the script. These scenes will be shot in the native language of each director and his/her actors, contrary to the previous sessions, when they had to be directed in English. The session will begin with the group scenes’ analysis. The pre-production of the scenes will begin with consultancies with shooting supervisor tutors. They will acompany each team during the location scouting, advising how to approach next steps of production of the scene. Each team will be given time for rehearsal with actors, one day of shooting and one day of editing. Each scene will be subtitled in English for evaluation purposes.
The session will also be devoted to further script development through individual analysis with tutors. Once again, after almost four months of intense projects’ development, the main areas of interest will be: the dramaturgy of scenes, the development of character, visualization, the tone of the film with regard to its future promotion and distribution.
Participants will be asked to address, and articulate answers, to the following questions:
- How can we achieve a ‘true’ and intense sense of film reality on a screen?
- How can we avoid “the sound of paper” on the screen?
- How can we exploit a film language to its fullest?
- What is the target group of your film?
Each filmmaker should explore and articulate their own answers to these questions.
The seminar devoted to the creative personality of an author, run by Alexander Sokurov should help the participants to search for their own individual sources of creativity and values of art.
The producers will be invited again to take an active part in the scenes’ production process as well as to participate individual script/treatment analysis.
The session will end with an evaluation, screening and discussion of the produced scenes.
What Do I Take Away from EKRAN?
At the end of the EKRAN programme each team will have a well developed treatment or a first draft of a script and two scenes, presenting the tone, genre and visual language of the project. Those scenes (the second scene especially, with its specifically cast actors, selected location, props and style of photography) can be treated by participants and their producers as a Demo/Pilot visual material to accompany the script as a part of the Production Package, and to be used in search for financing of the film. However they can be as well treated as a testing material or visual laboratory and not to be shown to decision makers. The final decision how to approach the EKRAN scheme depends on the participants.
In addition to all the new experience, knowledge and networking, which can only be outlined above, the most important aspect of EKRAN is the unique opportunity for directors, producers and writers to gain the experience of creative development that may influence their future professional lives.
How much does EKRAN cost?
Participation in EKRAN is FREE!
The selected directors and their teams will be granted scholarships including participation fees and accommodation. Travel costs are to be covered by participants.
The Andrzej Wajda Studio and Film School — EKRAN coordinator reserves the right to make changes to the programme without prior notice.
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