Script To Screen Launches ‘The Writer’s Room’

June 14th 2006

Script To Screen Launches ‘The Writer’s Room’

Screenwriting development organisation Script to Screen launched its monthly series, The Writer’s Room, at an event held in Auckland on June 7th at The Classic.

The invitation list was a ‘who’s who’ of New Zealand screenwriters and guests included Nick Ward (Stickmen, The Ferryman), Rachel Lang (Outrageous Fortune, Maddigans Quest, Mercy Peak), Gavin Strawhan (The Lost Children, Mercy Peak, Maddigan’s Quest), Vanessa Alexander (Being Eve, Mercy Peak, Magik and Rose), and Kathryn Burnett (The Lost Children, The Strip, Street Legal). Guest speaker, award winning screenwriter James Griffin (Sione’s Wedding, Outrageous Fortune), entertained the capacity crowd, sharing his humorous reflections on the often arduous journey a screenwriter must take to get a script to the screen.

The Writer’s Room series is booked for the last Tuesday of every month at The Classic. “Writing can be an isolating experience,” says Rebecca Kunin, Executive Director of Script to Screen. “Our aim for The Writer’s Room is to provide a regular home for both experienced and up and coming screenwriters where they can develop networks and share that often difficult process of getting scripts onto the large and small screen”

Each Writer’s Room features a panel discussion and a changing line-up of New Zealand’s top writers will discuss a different aspect of screenwriting every month. A comedy writing evening on Tuesday June 27th will be the first event in the series. Oscar Kightley and Dave Fane, one half of The Naked Samoans, will ‘reveal all’ and let fellow writers in on their secrets for writing smart, laugh-out-loud comedy. The July Writer’s Room will feature television drama, with two short film writing events planned for August.

“The Writer’s Room is all about placing writers at the centre of the New Zealand screen industry,” says Ms Kunin. “We want to support screenwriters. Script to Screen recognises that great scripts are crucial to the overall success of our film and television industries. We have made these monthly events accessible to all in the film and television industry. We encourage producers, directors and network executives to attend The Writer’s Room because within that forum, strong creative teams will be born.”

ENDS

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