FÁS Screen Training Ireland have announced three new courses for the coming months.; Developing Commercial Ideas with Linda Seger; a Single Camera Directing Workshop and an Essential Book-keeping Workshop.
First up is the Essential Book-keeping Workshop taking place in Galway on the 27th of March. The workshop is devised for emerging producers, sole traders and small production companies and aims to enable participants to establish, understand and maintain a basic book-keeping system thereby ensuring good company financial management.
Areas covered include:
• Accounting for VAT
• Director obligations/ company returns
• Basic book-keeping and software options available
• Banking and bank reconciliation
• Petty cash
• Creating management information
• Reporting requirements
Sue Henderson (Royston Vasey) of Hell’s Kitchen Ltd and Billi Webster (In America, Breakfast on Pluto, Bloody Sunday, When the Sky Falls) will tutor the course.
Please apply online at www.screentrainingireland.ie or email Gráinne Tiernan at grainne.tiernan@fas.ie
The Single Camera Director Workshop has been organised in association with BBC Training and Development. Taking place in Dublin from the 3rd - 8th of April 2006, the course is targeted at Television assistant producers & researchers with experience of television location production who wish to develop their single camera directing skills.
Nigel Maslin (Single Camera Directing Specialist - BBC Training & Development) is to tutor the course. Nigel is the senior trainer for single camera directing (factual programmes), as well as for DV self-shooting. As a freelance writer/producer/director he has made many factual as well as dramatised documentary programmes for both the BBC and Channel 4 including: ‘Diana - The Week the World Stood Still’, ‘Dispatches’ (C4), ‘Horizon, Equinox’, ‘The Secret Life of Machines’, ‘Newsnight’, ‘The Money Programme’, and ‘Inside Out’.
The course will cover:
• the roles and responsibilities of the location director
• composing effective stories for television
• basic principles of shooting, recording & lighting
• directing & leading professional PSC crews
• planning realistic shooting schedules
• time management and cost-effective use of resources
• risk assessment, health and safety
Applicants must be nominated by a company with whom they are working in either a full time or freelance capacity. Companies should send a nomination letter and the applicants CV to grainne.bennett@fas.ie .
Finally, Developing Commercial Ideas with Linda Seger will run from the 10th – 11th of April in Dublin. Desinged for Irish professionals involved in writing and development in the film industry, the course aims to identify the elements to making a script commercially successful so participants can evaluate the commercial potential of original/adapted ideas and material in order to enhance their ability to connect with the audience. The first day will focus on original material, while the second day will focus on adaptation.
The course will cover the following:
• how to choose subject matter that is original, but has commercial potential
• getting ideas and evaluating their commercial viability
• developing ideas and the creative process
• the various phases of development
• ways of working with structure and story development
• developing rich, dimensional characters that the audience will find fascinating
• connecting with the audience through the theme
• the art of adaptation
• methods for breaking down novels, short stories, plays, and true-life stories
• connecting with and transforming the audience through choices that are made.
Dr. Linda Seger is an Author and Script Consultant. Linda has consulted on over 2000 scripts, including over 60 feature films and 35 television projects. Her clients have included TriStar Pictures, Ray Bradbury, William Kelley, Linda Lavin, Suzanne de Passe, Tony Bill, as well as production companies and writers from six continents. Linda Seger is also the author of nine books.
Apply for this course online at www.screentrainingireland.ie. For further details contact Criona Sexton at FÁS Screen Training Ireland. Ph: (01) 4830840 Fax: (01) 4830842
Email: Criona.sexton@fas.ie.
