MIDPOINT Shorts 2019-2020

How to prepare for the change from the writing process to preproduction and prepare effectively to becoming the director of one’s screenplay?

his plenary will address issues of working with sales agent. New Europe Film Sales is Warsaw-based directors' driven boutique sales and production company where Marcin Luczaj is responsible for acquisitions. Where and when to find a sales agent? What's the role of a sales agent in various stages of your project? How to find a right sales agent for your film? How to prepare for your premiere? DOs and DONTs in working with sales agents, festival strategies, marketing and pitches at parties.

In the first part of the lecture I plan to start from a scene within the script and take you step by step through the process until the final realization. We’ll work on the actual scene from my last feature film God exists, her name is Petrunya. In the second part of the lecture I’ll speak of the importance of the location and its treatment as a core element of bringing the context to the story.

Whenever you do something from the bottom of your heart all the great energy you put in reflects in a form of an excellent result. There are no general rules that define a great pitch. The only rule is to know your story well and be able to have your heart present while pitching it. During her lecture, Michaela Sabo will guide the audience to find their strengths and weaknesses and make an advantage of both of them, to create a custom made pitch. And last but not least, Michaela will give useful tips on how to overcome jitters, how to stay focused, how to find the core elements of the story and how to transfer it to the pitch audience.

Storyboarding is the main tool of film language. The shot size creates emotion, the camera angle defines the perspective of a story, the order of shots develops the meaning. We will be watching relevant examples to see how to break scenes into individual shots to control their outcome.

Things seen and heard during the development, pre-production, shooting, post-production, distribution and extinction of a short film.

Before a short film is ready for the screen the usual way of communicating it to the talents, partners or funds is providing them with your package of materials – treatment or script, logline, synopsis, intentions, budget, financing plan, distribution strategy and etc. How do I stay consistent with each of the documents? How do I deliver what’s promised? How do I promise what is deliverable? Producing in the framework of the shared leadership.

Breaking down your script is a common procedure for scheduling the shoot. Breaking down the whole project at an early stage of development – is not. What does it stand for? What is the right timing for this? How do I benefit from that? Understanding the shared leadership through film development.

All around the year and all over the world there are hundreds of opportunities to pitch your film and find new financial and creative partners. No matter if it is a short or a feature or a documentary, it is always essential to plan in advance your strategy and combine carefully all the ingredients you can use to best introduce your project to the rest of the film industry.

Film language enables the viewers to engage with a film work on emotional, rational and subconscious levels. During the screenwriting process, film language is inseparable from the script. It is useful that a screenwriter envisions their film on the screen. Often the visual and sound components are the key ingredients that make films original works of art. As early as the discussing of the scripts we will look for parallels, use the principle of analogy and analyse the final version, which will have been solely in the minds of the authors at that time.
We will discuss the principles of the film language, the script-film relationship and watch and analyse clips.

There are many different ways of script consulting. Each script consultant gradually creates and starts using their own method, which is based on their experience. They are not methods in the real sense of the word – there is no modus operandi that can be simply passed on. It is necessary to look for an optimum meta-language, which the script consultant will use to communicate with the scriptwriter. It is always unique as each author has a different mental morphology and a different way of conceptualising both filmmaking and the world. The script consultant has to tailor their expression accordingly. I believe that despite all differences everyone will have a common aim, a certain horizon, limit, which will refer to the historically tested principles that will be formed authentically by the scriptwriter through their own reflection of the world and themselves as its part.
At the same time, there are codified dramatic principles – a more rational part of scriptwriting. We will initiate a debate concerning this topic, which should help us to understand the stances of the other participants and to clarify and refine terminology.