EDN launches film school program
EDN has launched a workshop format aimed at film schools with documentary students. The workshop is bridging students from film school to the international market.
The EDN Films School Workshop is tailored for students who are about to finish their documentary education and therefore soon will be making films for the international documentary market. The aim is to equip film school students with skills and knowledge preparing them for the coming meeting with the documentary film market.
The workshop format is flexible in terms of length and number of participants. It can be from one to five days long, but has a preferred length of 2-3 days. The format consists of a number of content components, which can be combined according to the needs of each specific film school. Among the standard components included in the workshop are sessions covering:
- - Making a documentary project with international potential
- - Pitching documentary projects: a closer look at the oral, visual and written formats included in a pitch
- - Analysing the essence of a project’s market potential and unique selling points
- - Valuable knowledge and tools for the international documentary market
- - The doc market vocabulary: an introduction to key expressions and mechanisms in international documentary making
The EDN Films School Workshop is developed by EDN Head of Studies Mikael Opstrup. He has just this week conducted the very first edition of the workshop in collaboration with the National Films School in Lodz, Poland. The film school offered the workshop to their graduate year students at the documentary department.
Upon completing the two-day workshop student Tomek Jeziorski states: 'The 2-day workshop led by Mikael was one of the unique occasions to confront our projects with requirements of the international market. Mikael underlined the necessity of clear dramatic structures, which should be applied even to such experimental or intimate projects, as I had. I received great feedback from the whole group and I realised what my project is really about. Thank you for a wonderful workshop'.
Head of Film Production at the school Marcin Malatynski stated after the workshop: 'Thank you. It was really a very good and useful workshop. In my opinion the worst in pitching is a lack of confidence and a fear of making a fool of yourself. And this is probably why our students pretend it does not exist. This workshop changed their attitude a 180 degrees. They understood that pitching is another tool to help them understand what their project is really about and if it can be interesting for a potential viewer. And this is the shortest way to build the confidence'.
EDN is currently in contact with other film schools about offering the workshop for them. If you know of a film school interested in offering The EDN Films School Workshop to their students, please contact EDN Head of Studies Mikael Opstrup – .
Here you can read more about the workshop in Lodz.
Related links at edn.dk
See Upcoming EDN Activities
See examples of good pitch pilots in Resources