Screenwriting India

Dear Friends

On behalf of Sri Kamal Haasan, let me express my sincere thanks to all of you for having responded to our invitation to the first International Screenwriting workshop to be held in Chennai from the 29^th of May to the 3^rd of June ’09.

As you would have noticed, the number of applications has been overwhelming. People from all backgrounds and age groups from India and abroad have acknowledged our workshop and it has reinforced our strong belief that the only way to improve the quality of Indian cinema today is to empower the fraternity of screenwriters.

We are now putting out the first list of approved candidates and the selection was indeed a difficult one, considering the fact that we have only a limited number of seats in the IIT auditorium here. If you do not find your name on this list, please do wait for the release of our second list on the 19^th evening.

At the same time, not getting you name on this list does not reflect in anyway about your capability of becoming creative screenwriters. We assure you that we will do our very best to hold another workshop in the near future to accommodate all those who have missed it this time.

Thank you all and with our best wishes

Warm regards

K. Hariharan, Director, LV Prasad Film & TV Academy

On behalf of

CHENNAI INTERNATIONAL SCREENWRITING WORKSHOP

Wednesday, the 13th. You could blame it on the number.

The results have been put off to Wednesday night due to the mind-numbing volume of applications. Our screening committee is almost done processing your applications. So hang in there for an extra day.

The decision of the committee is final and no emails regarding selection/rejection will be entertained. Sorry about that, folks.

But even if 13th proves unlucky for you, don’t lose heart. There will be many more of these workshops in future. Do stay tuned. Thank you all once again for your patience and participation.

Please note: Those selected will have to send in their Demand Drafts before May 19 or email us from the same email account used to send in the application to withdraw your application (just Reply to the acknowledgment received to withdraw your application). This will help a waitlisted candidate take your spot. If we do not receive your delegate fees by May 19, we will assume you’ve withdrawn your application.  A list of waitlisted candidates will be put up on the site on May 20.

While we wait for the results, here are a few clarifications about the screening process, just so that we can dispel your fears of your applications going missing, confusion over duplication and other related myths.

Why is my name in red/bold on the list?

Nothing to worry, it is just to indicate that the missing names have been added following your email to us. Our team of volunteers from IIT have had an enormous task of finding out duplicates and omissions from the list. There are also some names in bold, that does not mean anything either. It’s purely an internal coding system to keep track of names as and when they have been added to the list.

My application is complete but my name is not on the list. Will I be considered?

Do not worry, it must be a clerical error given the volume of applications that came in during the last 3 days of deadline. 70 per cent of all applications came in between May 2 and May 5 and we had a team of volunteers from IIT sending you acknowledgments while they simultaneously entered names of received applications into an XL sheet. So even if a volunteer forgot to enter a name or two in the XL list, it still means that your application is safe and received and will be processed as long as you have got a temporary acknowledgment or a proper acknowledgment from us.

After we closed applications, we realised that the number of applications in the folder and XL sheet did not tally because of the huge number of duplicate applications sent by anxious candidates.

The XL list is primarily put up to let you know that we have received your application just as an alternative to email acknowledgment because it is possible that these generic emails could go to your SPAM folder. An omission of your name from the list in no way means that we have lost your application nor does a duplication mean we will scrutinise both your applications. But yes, we will retain your latest application and store the earlier drafts under Duplicates.

So do not worry about it at all but do email us at helpdesk@screenwritingindia if you do not find your name on the list so that we can investigate it further.

Given the volume, will the judges have time to go through all the applications?

Given that only one out of every seven candidates who have applied would get in, given the level of competition, candidates who are serious about screenwriting can be rest assured that they have an edge over the others because this workshop is targeted at those interested in pursuing screenwriting as a career. This includes film students, students of media/communication/journalism/film studies, filmmakers, assistant directors and even techies whose Resume indicates a passion for cinema.

Yes, judges will go through all original entries. And at the moment, that number does not seem to be too big.

How do you ensure selection of quality participants?

We would first go through each application and copy, paste all the information into a powerpoint slide for our jury to consider. But as we do this, we run a plagiarism check of your synopsis. If your 200-word synopsis has been plagiarised in part or whole, your application will be rejected. If your 200-word synopsis exceeds 400 words, your application will be rejected. If your Resume indicates that you have nothing to do with screenwriting/films/media, you will still be considered as long as your synopsis is original and you have word discipline

I missed the deadline by a few minutes and I didn’t get an acknowledgment. I got a mail saying Applications Closed. Will my application be considered?

After we are done considering all applications that were submitted before deadline and incomplete applications (the ones that forgot to send their photographs), we will consider the entries that came late (within two hours of deadline).

Our jury will run through the powerpoint slides of all candidates who

1.Have submitted a synopsis that’s not plagiarised

2. Not exceeded 400 words (for a 200-word synopsis) and

3. Are Cinema/Media related professional/student/candidate whose Resume indicates a strong passion for cinema/writing.

If they are still unable to find enough to fill in 250, they will scan through the late applications which are original and applicants who have stuck to the word limit.

If they are still unable to find 250, they would give up and we would cut down on the number of seats.

Over to the selection team now. If you have any further queries, email helpdesk@screenwritingindia.com

The list of applicants as on midnight, May 5, 2009 has been put up on http://screenwritingindia.com/list

Do keep following the LIST section in the header for updates on the status of your application.

* * *

We have some good news for those who missed the deadline by a couple of hours. We will be considering your application only if it’s out of the ordinary, after we are done processing the incomplete applications that came before the deadline.

So do not lose heart.

Thanks to the overwhelming response, there are plans to conduct another workshop in November. And we will make sure that deserving candidates who miss out this time around due to the level of competition will not need to apply again.

Do keep an eye on http://screenwritingindia.com for updates.

We are all set to hit 1000 applications and hence, processing is taking more time than we expected.

Please do not panic and keep resending your applications.

If you have emailed us/are mailing us your application, you will get a temporary acknowledgment which will be taken into account if your name does not figure on the list when the list is updated on Monday night.

The deadline for applications is the midnight of May 5 – Tuesday night. And if your name does not figure in the complete list of all applications as on May 6 morning, then you can forward your temporary acknowledgment to helpdesk@screenwritingindia.com

Some of you who applied on May 1st and early May 2nd morning would not have got any acknowledgment until now. You will get an acknowledgment by tonight. Please note that the list put up earlier is as on the midnight of April 29th. So those of you who applied on April 30  need not worry since you would have got an email acknowledgment.

Those of you who are yet to apply, please DO NOT SEND zipped files.

Dear applicants,

Due to heavy volume of applications received, there is a delay in the processing of applications.

If you sent in your application on Friday or Saturday (May 1 or 2) please wait until Sunday night for acknowledgment of your application. If you have not sent in your application yet, do send it in right away because the last date for receipt of applications is May 5, 2009.

The next list of received applications will be put up around the midnight of May 3rd (You will have 48 hours to resend your application if you don’t find your name there or if you haven’t received an acknowledgment by then).

For the benefit of those who need guidance on preparing your application (your resume, a photograph, a 200-word synopsis of your favourite film and a list of your five favourite films) IIT-Madras has put up an application form which you can download from this page.