Dear Friends,
I am sure all of you must have felt exhilarated having Jean Claude Carriere start off the post workshop screenwriting project.
His presence and assurance of continuous support to our ideals will certainly fuel us to bring out the best in us in order to give back to cinema what she has given us over the past 110 years!
We at Rajkamal Films International and on behalf of all of you at the Screenwriting workshop express our heartfelt thanks to Jean Claude Carriere for the encouragement given to take this movement forward!
As an extension of the screenwriting workshop we have finally found a way to make a practical attempt to write for the screen. Thanks to this step the mentoring process will now have a focus and conviction since there is a project at the end. With this in mind, to ensure maximum spread among participants and optimum quality of writing it has been decided to adopt the short film format of 10 minutes. We will therefore develop the project around an anthology package of about 30 short films
The subject of this anthology will be ‘Chennai’ and all participants are requested to let their creativity loose on the various possibilities that can develop ‘Chennai’ as a concept. Since Chennai also boasts of a variety of ethnic/ linguistic diversity, the language of the film could be the writer’s preference.
The narration could be either a realistic documentary style or a fictional mode or even a mix of both! You could visualize it as an animation film or even as an experiment in digital cinema. The concept note should evoke your deep urge to express along with a solid informational base to substantiate the credibility of the feelings expressed.
Participants will need to submit a single page concept note to the RKFI panel at chennai@screenwritingindia.com
You may choose to write alone or in collaboration with other participant/s. The deadline is the 25th of July ‘09. We shall accept only one entry from a participant, as an individual or as part of a group.
The panel will select the best 60 concepts and request the participants to work out the 10 page screenplay. In the next week or so we shall provide the precise formats and templates that will be required to be adhered to in the process of writing the final screenplay. In the long run this will also help us develop an appropriate Indian way of writing for the screen
Out of the 60 screenplays submitted, 30 screenplays will be selected and their writers will be asked to come to Trivandrum, a few days prior to the International Film Festival. They shall be mentored to fine tune it for further clarity and also for purposes of scheduling and budgeting. These chosen screenplays will then be sent to a panel of well known directors and actors for further development
Hopefully, if all goes well, we should go on floors by March 2010 and writers will be requested to come on location to see their works transform into ‘butterflies’!
Let’s hope for the best and wishing you all the drive and conviction to bring out the best in each one of you!
Warm regards
Kamal Haasan
