film, video & TV training | professional development

Discipline/s:	writing & directing
Level:	Advanced
Course code:	C2S110
Date/s & times:	Register your interest
Contact hours:	102 plus script edit (post-course)
Places:	10
Fee:	$1,230 OC members  / $1,500 non members (Membership: $55 / $44 concession - join Open Channel here) Subsidised places available. Contact Open Channel for more information.
Prerequisites:	Applicants should have completed Screenwriting Introduction, or have scriptwriting experience, plus a concept in development.

 

“An idea is but a seed, therefore grow up tender young shoot and flourish so your fruit basket can feed the people.”
Traditional Maori saying.

Concept to Script is an intense, collaborative workshop designed to help students develop a commercially viable screenplay. Turn your concept for a feature, short, telemovie or series into a completed draft script that will attract market and development interest.

The course is run by leading international Screenwriter Riwia Brown (Once Were Warriors, Flight of the Albatross, Script Assessor NZFC). Let your idea be guided in a collaborative, protected, workshop environment, and:

• Find your structure
• Build character profiles and improve characterisation
• Work collaboratively with other writers
• Write an outline and 30 pages of script
• Script edit and write coverage
• Read a screenplay
• Write for budget
  

The course also includes a range of other industry guest speakers. Participate in other activities to inform and develop your script including:

• Workshop your script with actors
• Pitch your project to industry and learn the business of being a screenwriter

"It is so important for us as a culture to develop great Australian stories that entertain as well as enlighten. Congratulations must go to Open Channel for having the foresight to run such a course which I think is the only one of its kind running in Australia." Marilyn Tofler, previous tutor.

Who should do this course?
Concept to Script is aimed at new writers who wish to pursue a professional career in screenwriting and/or directing film and television drama, and offers the opportunity to develop and write a treatment/script over a 5 month-period supported by industry professionals.

Where can I go after this course?
Graduates will continue developing a feature screenplay or television series commenced in the course.

Are you interested in being Accredited for this course?
Read about Accreditation Options on Short Courses

How do I Enrol?
Application for this course includes two stages.

Stage One: Please submit:
a) 1-2 paragraph synopsis of a film project by email to training@openchannel.org.au
b) Attach to this email a signed copy of the Unsolicited Submissions Agreement

Stage Two: Your concept will be evaluated, and you will then be required to complete a short course enrolment form (use course code: MARKET109) to secure your place in the course.
Short Courses Application Form (pdf)

If you wish to enrol in this course as part of a full Certificate III in Media / Advanced Diploma of Screen and Media, with up-front payment, click here.

Tutor

Riwia Brown
The daughter of a Pakeha diplomat and a Maori mother, Riwia Brown was inspired to become a writer after the excitement of seeing her brother Apirana Taylor's play Kohanga.

Her 1988 play Roimata was based partly on her own youth. In 1989 she adapted and directed Roimata for television as part of M?ori anthology series E Tipu E Rea. Over the next six years Brown wrote (and occasionally) acted for theatre. A week after deciding to quit her day job to concentrate on writing, she bumped into director Lee Tamahori, who invited her to work as a project consultant on a film adaptation of Alan Duff's controversial novel Once Were Warriors. Brown was soon enlisted to write the screenplay. The hope was that she would shift the focus of the original book from the aggressive husband Jake to his wife Beth. "I feel very connected with the film, a lot of emotional heart and soul went into it", Brown said soon after its release. Her work earned her the Best Screenplay award at the 1994 New Zealand Film and Television Awards.

In 1995, Brown was one of a number of writer/directors enlisted to contribute episodes to Steve Sachs' docu-drama series True Life Stories. Her next film project was the interracial love story Flight of the Albatross (1996) based on the book by American Deborah Savage - winning Best Children's Feature Film at the 1997 Berlin Children's Film Festival. In 1997 Brown's script for Nga Wahine was chosen for the Montana television drama series. Based on her play of the same name, and directed by Brown, the one hour drama contrasts a well-heeled lawyer (Simone Kessell) and an impoverished student (Nancy Brunning) who are both pregnant. Since then Brown has written for supernatural series Mataku and historical drama Taonga: Treasures of our Past (2006). Brown is also co-writer of US feature The Legend of Johnny Lingo, (2003).