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Award-nominated production company Transition Stage Company presents Enter Stage Write, a glittering awards night celebrating new writing from a nationwide screenwriting and playwright competition.

An X Factor style writing event showcasing West Midlands acting talent, the top five playwrights will see their work brought to life in front of a panel of industry heavy-weights. Accompanied by a comedy compere, the evening opens with a surprise celebrity singer with an uplifting tune and ends with the Hip-Hop Dance company ‘Let’s Make It Happen.’

The Industry Judges:

Chris Sudworth – Director of Artistic Programme at Birmingham Hippodrome
Sean Foley – multi-Olivier Award-winning actor, writer, director and newly appointed Artistic Director of Birmingham Repertory Theatre
Darcia Martin – Director of Hollyoaks and BBC’s Call the Midwife
Lisa Walters – Producer of Backlight TV’s 4Stories series for Channel 4
David Ralf – Executive Director at The Bunker Theatre, London
Corey Campbell – Associate Artistic Director of Belgrade Theatre, Coventry and owner of the award-winning theatre company, Strictly Arts
Martin Sketchley – Published novelist and scriptwriter, West Midlands Chair, Writers’ Guild of Great Britain
Neil Reading – Director of Arena Theatre, Wolverhampton
Andrea Montgomery – Director and Writer, Belfast based production company Terra Nova Productions
Zac Hancock- Head of the content of Social Chain

Expect a fast paced night of dance, comedy, live singing and suspense as you decide who wins the £1,000 prize and is crowned Enter Stage Write Champion 2020.

Details
Date: 11th March, 2020
Time: 7pm
Location: Patrick Studio, Birmingham Hippodrome

Dress code is smart as this is a red-carpeted gala event.

Click here for tickets.

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Young filmmakers at Stratford College were thrilled to receive a few tips from a top director during a recent visit to the campus. Coventry-based film director Debbie Isitt dropped by to teach Creative Media students about her improvisational filmmaking style.

Debbie, whose credits include Confetti and the Nativity film franchise, was keen to encourage the students to experiment with improvisational filmmaking, Debbie stressed to them the importance of knowing exactly what story a director wants to tell before any improvisation takes place. She said: “The process of making a film is a really wonderful experience. As a director, I take the cast and crew on a journey that’s physical and emotional, and work with talented people on a project that everybody feels a sense of ownership over… I don’t make up the story on set; we only improvise the dialogue. The story has to be very carefully conceived, structured and controlled. The actual words that are spoken aren’t as important as the subtext and the story.”

During her visit, Debbie also talked to students about the real-world challenges they may face in the industry and how they can successfully overcome them.

“While it’s good to be optimistic about the industry, I think it’s important to know about the hardships as well. That way, you can develop tenacity as well as technical skills.” she said.

Source: www.stratford-herald.com

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The 2020 edition of MIPTV, due to take place March 30-April 2 in Cannes, has been cancelled this year due to coronavirus concerns. MIPDoc and MIPFormats, programmed for March 28-29, have also been cancelled.

The third edition of Canneseries, set to run parallel to MIPTV, has been postponed to October 9-14, alongside MIPCOM. Screen has confirmed that as of today, TV event Series Mania is still going ahead as planned from March 20-28 in Lille, France.

MIPTV organisers Reed MIDEM said last week they had been hopeful of going ahead on the original dates, but a spate of new infections in France, and the recent ban on gatherings of more than 5,000 people, appears to have forced their hand.

In a statement, Reed MIDEM chief executive Paul Zilk said, ”In the current context, many of our clients have expressed concerns about travelling at this time. Rescheduling MIPTV in the coming months is not feasible, so the most appropriate course of action is to cancel MIPTV for 2020. The well-being of our clients, partners and staff is our priority. We are grateful to clients for their support and constructive input during this challenging period. We look forward to welcoming everyone to MIPCOM in October 12-15 and we are delighted that CANNESERIES will be at our side again this year”.

The next edition of MIPTV will take place April 12-15, 2021, with MIPDoc and MIPFormats set for April 10-11, 2021. The fourth edition of Canneseries will run in April 2021 during MIPTV.

Source: www.screendaily.com

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Rural Media invites you to celebrate the remarkable young filmmaking talent emerging locally and across the Midlands.

Join them as they screen a selection of creative short films. These include the premiere of Rural Media’s BFI Academy films and a collection of shorts from the BBC’s New Creatives programme, plus more. There’s also the opportunity to find out more about gaining your very own short film commission from the BBC. Not to be missed.

The films will be followed by a discussion.

Details

Hereford, The Courtyard

Wednesday, 4th March

5:00pm

This event is free, but please book your spaces here.

Source: www.borderlinesfilmfestival.co.uk

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The National Film and Television School (NFTS) is excited to continue its new Access NFTS programme with an event in Birmingham. These pop-up events are designed to find, inform, engage and inspire a new generation of talent,  wherever they may come from and whatever their means so that they have the opportunity and support to reach their full potential.

When and Where

Birmingham City University
15 Bartholomew Row, B5 5JU
Birmingham, United Kingdom
Saturday, 29 February 2020
The morning (AM) session will run from 10am – 12noon. Registration is from 9.30am.
The identical afternoon (PM) session will run from 1pm- 3pm. Registration is from 12.30pm

On The Agenda

This event will focus on Producing and Production Management. Industry experts and NFTS Heads of Department, Bex Hopkins and Chris Auty will be leading sessions talking about their personal experience, pathways into the industry and opportunities available at NFTS. They will also give a presentation entitled “What IS the state of British film (and top-end TV drama) production today? And why is drama production in the age of Netflix such an exciting – and varied – career choice?”.

Also planned is the screening of a graduate’s short film with a Q&A with one of the films creators. Bex, Chris and our student will then be available to talk to attendees and answer any questions.

Speaker Information 

Chris Auty began his career as a journalist (Time Out, Sight and Sound, Hollywood Reporter), before launching his first business venture — a successful film distribution company that also acquired cinemas (the Gate in London and Cameo in Edinburgh); and then extended the business into international sales and film finance.  He spent the 1990s building up The Recorded Picture Company for owner Jeremy Thomas; working as a producer alongside him on numerous films; and with him created Hanway Films (one of Europe’s leading film sales companies). In the 2000’s he went on to build up TFC/The Works, a film finance and sales business that backed some 25 films.
As a producer or executive he has worked with a very wide range of directors — from Peter Greenaway and David Cronenberg to Shane Meadows, Bob Rafelson, Bernardo Bertolucci, Vincent Ward and Michael Winterbottom – filming everywhere from Argentina and the USA to Germany, Italy and of course England.
Chris joined the NFTS as Head of Producing in 2012. In 2013 he set up the school’s ground breaking cross-media business program (CBEE – Creative Business for Entrepreneurs and Executives), and in 2016 he planned and established the Marketing & Distribution (MDSE) course which is run by HoD Debbie Rowland.

Bex Hopkins began working in Sports production in 1999 as Assistant Producer and also Production Managing short films. She worked as line producer and producer of a number of award winning films, including the BAFTA nominated and Oscar shortlisted short film Lucky and BAFTA nominated Nits. She produced the feature film Mad, Bad & Sad which was released in cinemas in July 2009. Bex previously worked in the Producing Department at the NFTS and has been course leader of the Production Management course since 2011.

Eligibility

These events are open to anyone over the age of 16 interested in a career in the Film, TV and Games industry. Ideally you will have a special interest in the specific area covered in the event, but if you just want to learn more about it then do come along. Anyone is welcome regardless of your experience or background. The aim of these events is raise awareness and experiences of the industry and inspire you to aim to be a part of it.

To Book

For full details of the event, including  speaker information and to book tickets please go to our Eventbrite booking page .

For further information on the Access NFTS programme please go to www.nfts.co.uk/access

Do you have questions about Access NFTS Pop Up : Producing and Production Management? Contact National Film and Television School

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Birmingham-born designer Osman Yousefzada joined the small but growing number of designers who forgo the traditional runway in favour of more creative and / or sustainable options. For his London Fashion Week presentation, Yousefzada collaborated with the Whitechapel Gallery and Livia Firth to screen his film Her Dreams Are Bigger.

The provocative art film aims to highlight the importance of sustainability, the harsh reality of fast fashion and the global concepts (or misconceptions) of beauty. The London-based designer says the idea for the film germinated on a trip to Bangladesh, where he showed a suitcase full of discarded clothing from British charity shops carrying the “made in Bangladesh” label to women who worked in the industry.

“They sat in a circle and started to try on various pieces, taking selfies and posing,” said Yousefzada, himself the son of working-class Afghani-­Pakistani parents who migrated to Birmingham in the 1970s. “I asked them to imagine who their muses were.”

Some of the responses he got – and went on to capture at the London Fashion Week Screening – were: “They are tall”; “They look beautiful”; “Their hair colour is red”; “They wear different types of dresses which makes them look more beautiful”; “They eat different kinds of food, they only eat fruit, they eat frog, they eat different kinds of snake”, “They’re not black like me, they’re much fairer and very pretty”; “Beautiful faces, their lips, they are like dolls”.

“The women who make clothes don’t really know who they are making them for,” added Yousefzada. “They don’t wear those kinds of clothes, clothes that are put on ships and then offloaded halfway around the world to wind up in high street stores. That’s fast fashion.”

Source: https://www.thenational.ae

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