This summer, Waddell Media will host a two-day storytelling course at its base in Holywood, Co. Down. Hosted by BAFTA Award-winning Director/Producer and TV’s Trouble Shooter Robert Thirkell, the course gives you the opportunity to listen to a riveting performance in storytelling. It also challenges participants to transform an impossible pitch into a hit, as well as to restructure a failed rough-cut.
The intensive two-day course will take you through Thirkell’s toolkit, which is C.O.N.F.L.I.C.T - Characters, Out, Narrative, Front, Loved, Interview, Care, Timeline. The course aims to develop an understanding into what makes a factual programme work or fail from its creation to formatting, filming and editing. The C.O.N.F.L.I.C.T seminar will sum up all the things that are done wrong and shows how easily one can get them right every time.
Robert Thirkell has a proven record in creating hit TV documentaries and formats. He has worked on a number of BAFTA and Emmy Award winning series such as ‘Troubleshooter’, ‘Jamie’s School Dinners’, ‘Back to the Floor’, ‘Blood on the Carpet’ and ‘The Boy Whose Skin Fell Off’. He now specialises in helping broadcasters and production companies to create documentary formats, oversee new brands and sort out problem series, as a creative consultant, series editor and troubleshooter.
This in-depth course will also see Thirkell cover choosing the right stories, casting, presenters, honing one’s script, the importance of pre-titles and the value of crossfertilising of genres and enhancing your commentary skills. By using ‘before and after’ clips from his series ‘Jamie’s School Dinners’ and ‘The Boy Whose Skin Fell Off’, including rough-cuts of both when they were failing, Robert will show how these techniques transformed the shows into hit series.
Anyone who wants to develop their storytelling skills, including researchers, APs, directors, series producers, execs and commissioners, should apply. Whilst the course is primarily focussed on factual programming, it is also relevant to other genres.
The course takes place over two days, Wednesday 30th and Thursday 31st July 2014. The cost is £550 plus VAT. For Freelancers this will be reduced to £110 plus VAT due to support from Creative Skillset.
To apply please email catherinemcdowell@waddellmedia.com
