In collaboration with the TorinoFilmLab.
The Hezayah Screenwriting Lab is organised by the Doha Film Institute in collaboration with the TorinoFilmLab. The lab is designed to assist emerging screenwriters and writer-directors to develop and write an original feature-length screenplay. Participants work in small groups with the support of experienced mentors. The lab consists of four sessions of four-day workshops, which take place intermittently over a period of six months. During each four-day session, participants are expected to work on all agreed assignments and reach key milestones as they build toward their screenplays. Strict deadlines must be followed, and participants will be asked to read and engage in the other lab attendees’ work.
Participants are selected on the basis of the strength of their screenplay idea, their writing ability, their vision and approach, and their previous work. Candidates who are shortlisted for the lab will go through a selection process, which will assess their potential to expand and develop their ideas into a passionate and interesting work of cinema.
The lab is a transformative experience where filmmakers examine and explore their inner creativity and personal voice. Development takes the form of group sessions and individual feedback, in a sharing process guided by experienced mentors and tutors. Candidates are encouraged to develop personal stories that come from the heart, and that reflect contemporary life in the Gulf region. Candidates should also consider how their films might realistically be achieved on budgets of differing scales, including a more micro-budget approach.
Dates
Session 1: 6 to 9 May, 2017
Session 2: 21 to 24 September, 2017
Session 3: 7 to 10 December, 2017
Session 4: 11 to 14 January, 2018
Please note that each session lasts four full days.
Hours
Each session takes place from 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM, including lunch and breaks. Participation is required for all four days of each session, as the work, sharing and learning build from day to day.
Language: English
Lab Fee: 2,000 QAR
Group Size: 8 - 10 participants
Submission Deadline: 19 April, 2017
Lab Programme
TorinoFilmLab
TorinoFilmLab is a year-round, international laboratory that supports emerging talent from all over the world – with a special attention to those working on their first and second fiction feature films –through training, development, funding and distribution activities.
Linked to the Torino Film Festival, TorinoFilmLab is promoted by the main film institutions established in Turin and Piedmont – Museo Nazionale del Cinema and the Film Commission Torino Piemonte.
The four main fields of intervention of TorinoFilmLab are training, development, funding and distribution.
TorinoFilmLab runs several activities and offers various forms of support in each of these fields. The training initiatives Script&Pitch, AdaptLab, Story Editing, and Audience Design, as well as the pre-production- and development-focused FrameWork programme run parallel during the year. They all reach their conclusive moment at the TorinoFilmLab Meeting Event during the Torino Film Festival in November, when projects are presented to a selected group of producers, sales agents, distributors and other professionals working in independent filmmaking all over the world.
Participants are selected on the basis of the strength of their screenplay idea, their writing ability, their vision and approach, and their previous work. Candidates who are shortlisted for the lab will go through a selection process, which will assess their potential to expand and develop their ideas into a passionate and interesting work of cinema.
The lab is a transformative experience where filmmakers examine and explore their inner creativity and personal voice. Development takes the form of group sessions and individual feedback, in a sharing process guided by experienced mentors and tutors. Candidates are encouraged to develop personal stories that come from the heart, and that reflect contemporary life in the Gulf region. Candidates should also consider how their films might realistically be achieved on budgets of differing scales, including a more micro-budget approach.
Dates
Session 1: 6 to 9 May, 2017
Session 2: 21 to 24 September, 2017
Session 3: 7 to 10 December, 2017
Session 4: 11 to 14 January, 2018
Please note that each session lasts four full days.
Hours
Each session takes place from 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM, including lunch and breaks. Participation is required for all four days of each session, as the work, sharing and learning build from day to day.
Language: English
Lab Fee: 2,000 QAR
Group Size: 8 - 10 participants
Submission Deadline: 19 April, 2017
Lab Programme
| SESSION | Session Description and Milestones | |
| 1 | Introduction and pitching of the ideas. Input and feedback from the other group members and tutor. Character and theme development. Overview of documents to be produced for the next sessions. | |
| 2 | Review of new and revised materials (the first scene-by-scene breakdown, or extended treatment). Feedback and input from group and tutor. Revisiting of character and theme, adding to the discussion/further exploring a structural dimension (plot, resolution, inciting event etc). | |
| 3 | Review of the new materials (revised scene-by-scene breakdown, revised character documents etc.), first draft or some written scenes from the revised breakdown. Visual research, and other materials reviewed. Premise and pitch further developed.. | |
| 4 | Feedback sessions on first draft. Scene analysis. Group feedback and input and/or tutor input and feedback. Setting trajectory for the next steps of the project, in regards to financing, casting, etc. The final Hezayah session will include a pitch session with an external panel. Participants will submit their written work to the panel members and present the project they have developed over the four sessions. |
TorinoFilmLab
TorinoFilmLab is a year-round, international laboratory that supports emerging talent from all over the world – with a special attention to those working on their first and second fiction feature films –through training, development, funding and distribution activities.
Linked to the Torino Film Festival, TorinoFilmLab is promoted by the main film institutions established in Turin and Piedmont – Museo Nazionale del Cinema and the Film Commission Torino Piemonte.
The four main fields of intervention of TorinoFilmLab are training, development, funding and distribution.
TorinoFilmLab runs several activities and offers various forms of support in each of these fields. The training initiatives Script&Pitch, AdaptLab, Story Editing, and Audience Design, as well as the pre-production- and development-focused FrameWork programme run parallel during the year. They all reach their conclusive moment at the TorinoFilmLab Meeting Event during the Torino Film Festival in November, when projects are presented to a selected group of producers, sales agents, distributors and other professionals working in independent filmmaking all over the world.
