The It: Gaylene Preston Advanced 2-day Workshop

The It: Gaylene Preston Advanced 2-day Workshop

CALL FOR APPLICATIONS!

Finding, articulating, protecting and promoting the core essence of your film from the originator's mind to the screen audience
16 and 17 April, Auckland

Deadline for applications: 5pm Friday 25th March

An intensive 2-day workshop with Gaylene Prestonexploring ways to protect the core essence of a film throughout the rigorous process that is filmmaking. This workshop builds on Gaylene's hit seminar, and will explore practical ways to protect 'the It'. Every aspect of collaboration from script development to directing on set through to post production will be discussed and a session workshopping with actors is included. A maximum of 15 participants will be selected.

We need to explore that big mysterious exciting unfathomable unifying thing deep in the heart of the film – which I call the ‘It’. The It is why you want to make the film in the first place. This workshop explores ways of finding It, articulating It, protecting It, promoting It. - Gaylene Preston
The NZ Film Commission are generously susbidising participants' attendance, thus halving the cost of attending to $100 per participant
Praise for Gaylene's Auckland seminar:

'Filled with gems. I loved being inside such a creative space, where creativity was recognised for the driving and intuitive force it is. Gaylene is the master.' - Sumner Burstyn, writer and producer, This Way of Life
"The 'It' is a project's nameless, ineffable essence ... Gaylene's method is a beautiful complement to the reductionist model of development.' - writer Guy Hamling

'In an industry when all too many filmmakers find themselves in development hell Gaylene Preston’s “The It” seminars come as welcome respite. Preston offers a positive and a practical approach to finding the essential creative heart of a project and maintaining the integrity of that heart through all the vagaries of the development and production process. Personally I found the seminar a great inspiration and very useful, as did the writers on two of my projects.' - producer Matthew Horrocks

Gaylene’s ‘It’ was also a huge success at January’s Banff Women in the Director’s Chair Workshop. “NZ filmmaker Gaylene Preston was a tremendous hit at The Women In the Director’s Chair Workshop (WIDC 2011) held this January in Banff, Canada,” says Carol Whiteman, award-winning WIDC Producer, President & CEO of Creative Women Workshops Association. “Gaylene’s depiction of the “It” was an extremely useful tool. Exploring the “It” helped the participants focus and distill their stories to their core essence.” – Carol Whiteman, Producer, WIDC Workshop

We make films in noisy spaces. It is not unusual for filmmakers – even when their film has successfully found an audience – to feel that somehow the original glorious idea has been rendered bland and more ordinary by the collaborative art business that is filmmaking. Are there ways to minimize the watering down effect? Are there tools a creative team can use to protect and clarify the big idea that sits behind and beyond theme, plot, character and story while dealing with all the restraints that impose limitations on original vision? – Gaylene Preston.

This advanced workshop is for creative teams or individuals who have previous filmmaking experience and are actively developing a feature film. Doco/drama hybrid feature teams are welcome. Priority will be given to experienced practitioners working in creative teams. Click here for full application requirements
Gaylene Preston’s award-winning work has screened extensively at international festivals including Venice, Sundance, Toronto, London, Chicago, Sydney, Melbourne and New Zealand.

Her latest film, Home by Christmas, won critical and popular acclaim and is one of the top 15 grossing New Zealand films of all time at the NZI box office. Gaylene’s career has spanned three decades, and her generosity of spirit and her powerful mentorship and advocacy skills have been central to the development of New Zealand’s filmmaking community. Gaylene’s mentorship extends beyond New Zealand’s shores.

She has recently returned to New Zealand from Canada where she has reprised her role as Mentor Director at the internationally renowned BANFF Centre’s 2011 Women in the Director’s Chair Workshop. Full Bio
This event is generously supported by the New Zealand Film Commission
Click the 'Like' button on our facebook page to follow news, events and industry updates as they happen.

ends

© Scoop Media