Working Schedule
Phase One:
Rotterdam Saturday 30th January -Thursday 4th February 2010
The workshop schedule follows the pattern successfully applied in Babylon's first three Rotterdam workshops 2007/08/09 with certain adaptations to accommodate the more diverse range of participants.
The workshop will be housed, as in previous years, at the Goethe-Institut, Westersingel, a short walk from De Doelen and the International Film Festival Rotterdam.
As before, plenary sessions and information exchanges will lead through group sessions to highly detailed one-to-one project consultancies. This method is designed to maximise both collaborative skills and individual progress. Excerpts from participants' previous work are screened to create accelerated creative recognition and professional bonding.
Producer/writer teams stay together till the late stages of the workshop. Producers will be obliged to take responsibility for guiding the onward creative development of their project.
Pitching in the final stages will be accompanied by personal industrial consultancies for producers and screenplay writers. As in earlier years we expect a wide range of guests from leading branches of the industry. During our working lunches highly-placed speakers explain their organizational function. In the past these have included Cinéfondation, ARTE, ZDF, MEDIA Programme, Sales Agents, Distributors and Senior Producers as well as the MEDIA Programme. As an additional feature, industry decision makers will listen to early project pitches and give feedback. This exchange enables early network construction between European and West African industries.
Phase Two:
February/March/April 2010
Project and script development.
Electronic and telephonic/skype consultancies.
Personal meetings wherever feasible.
Project producers will take responsibility for the onward creative progress of their project, supervising the onward development of screenplay, artistic package and marketing strategy along lines agreed in Rotterdam.
Consultants will be available for interim advice on request. Regular check-up calls and e-mails will be issued by Babylon International to ensure that progress is being made.
Phase Three:
April/May 2010
Jos & Abuja, Nigeria
Jos: Project Workshop (cont), Film Shoot using Local Film Crews, Young Audience Development with Students of National Film Institute.
Abuja: Zuma Film Festival. Presentation of workshop results. Industrial networking and market development forum with invited distributors and sales agents.
The National Film Institute (NFI) was established in Jos by the Nigerian Film Corporation in 1995 as Nigeria's premier film training school with the objective of offering training and capacity building, and to bridge the gap in professionalism within the industry. It houses a Sound Stage Complex, a 350-seat Auditorium, a Stills Photography Studio and Laboratory as well as Cybercafé, Bookshop and Canteen.
The aim of this part of the schedule will be to advance each project by means of further project analysis based on new draft material, accompanied by intensive practical workshops, using all the facilities available. These will include two film crews and two editing suites working in parallel to generate short films based on the projects in development.
Joint teams (European and African) will work collaboratively side by side, sharing best practice and their different creative and industrial working methods.
Each shoot will be accompanied by an experienced production consultant.
This will allow the European filmmakers an insight into the vigour of Nigerian film practice while imparting to Nigerian colleagues some of the skills and expectations of European filmmaking.
Time remaining, away from production duties, will be allocated to further script consultation and production packaging.
The Zuma Film Festival, formerly known as the National Film Festival, is derived from the Zuma Rock, a famous landmark in the federal Nigerian capital. The Nigerian film industry is regarded as the fastest growing film industry in the world. Nigerians have found their parallel to the American Hollywood (and India's "Bollywood") in "Nollywood". The Zuma Festival attracts further global media attention for Nigeria's new industry.
Ten leading European sales agents, distributors and industry decision makers will be invited to visit Abuja to gain first hand experience of "Nollywood" production exhibited at the festival; to share the results of the Babylon workshop projected on screen and pitched by the participants; and to exchange networking and marketing contacts with their opposite numbers of the Nigerian and wider African film world.
Phase Four:
Onward mentoring.
Industrial contacts.
Membership of the BABYLON network.
Co-production and co-finance advice.
Promotion of finished films.
