Talent Campus 8.0 Schedule
This schedule is subject to updates due to speaker schedules. The dates in January may also move a day two based on venue availability.
Wednesday 27th November 2024
Venue: Ealing Studios, W5 5EP
08:30 Registration.
Be on time to collect you pass, meet delegates and enjoy your coffee…And prepare to IGNITE!
09:00 Career Ignition.
Speaker: Chris Jones
Chris Jones, founder and Creative Director of The London Screenwriters’ Festival, kicks off the Talent Campus with this seminar. It will examine and pinpoint your present career placement and provide you with the tools and techniques needed to raise your standards and break through personal barriers. Through practical exercises and tasks, you will be challenged to take your career to the next level.
In our experience, people’s own limiting beliefs are what stand in their way. This seminar is designed to shatter your limitations, replacing them with empowering beliefs essential to achieve success as a screenwriter in today’s competitive market.
Past Talent Campus delegates will join us as well, to help focus your expectations.
13:00 Lunch.
Time to make new relationships and get to know your campers. Eat light and have snacks on hand for the rest of the day.
14:00 How Much Is Your Script Worth.
Speaker: Rachel Paterson
Past Talent Camper Rachel Paterson, now writing full time professionally, shares intimate details about what the business is REALLY like, how to pitch in the wild and what your time, ideas and writing is actually worth. This session will NEVER be filmed and what is discussed in the room, stays in the room.
15:00 Speaker TBC
This session is to be confirmed.
16:15 The Three Pilars Of Ignition.
Speaker: Chris Jones
What external forces help or hold you back? In this session we workshop who, what and how you can cause a massive change your outcome by redesigning your world.
17:15 Pressure Cooker Pitching Prep.
Speaker: Bob Schultz
Pitching Coach Bob Schultz will step in to help you develop a quick and brief (oh, so very brief) pitch for your project which can be dropped into any conversation or networking opportunity. Get ready for some homework, Campers!
17:45 Light Snack Break.
You have half an hour to grab a snack and coffee before the unforgettable conclusion. We will have tea, coffee, fruit and biscuits. Nip across the road or plan ahead and bring something with you.
18:15 Ignition Day One Conclusion.
As the day concludes, we perform a powerful and unforgettable exercise in fear. Using a simple technique that at first feels counter intuitive, we experience our anxieties flowing away forever.
After this session, we conclude the day and prepare for day two… Buckle up baby!
20:45 Home Time (approx).
Thursday 28th November 2024
08:15 The Business of Screenwriting.
Speakers: Chris Jones and Bob Schultz
The day will start with a film business exercise designed to further professionalise your script and career.
11:15 Writing to Get Produced…Guaranteed Part 1.
Speaker: Chris Jones
Chris Jones takes a specific screenplay through development, rewrites, production and post production in order that we all experience the journey.
12:00 Lunch.
Time to make new relationships and get to know your campers. Eat light and have snacks on hand for the rest of the day.
13:00 Meet Ol Parker TBC
Speaker: Ol Parker
Ol has a long history of successful British feel good feature films, both as a writer and director.
14:00 Agents, Producers and Writing In The Real World with Jean Kitson.
Speaker: Jean Kitson
Agent Jean Kitson joins us to share her knowledge and experience in getting screenplays produced, who you need to be, how you need to think and act, and what separates the success from the nearly-made-it.
15:15 Television Practical Reality in 2024 with Eleanor Green.
Speaker: Eleanor Green
Script Editor and Producer Eleanor Greene (LOVE IN THE 21st CENTURY, PARTY ANIMALS) will give you a no-nonsense look at a television career in the modern landscape.
17:45 Light Snacks To Keep You Going!
You have half an hour to grab a snack and coffee before pitching for your life! We will have tea and coffee and fruit and biscuits. Nip across the road or plan ahead and bring something with you.
18:15 Pressure Cooker Pitching.
Speaker: Bob Schultz
Following up on the previous day’s session. Let’s work those pitches into a networking conversation!
19:30 Fearless Dreamers.
Speaker: Chris Jones
We close the second day with a new and powerful challenge that builds limitless confidence. We also introduce the Dreamtime experience to leverage your subconscious to help solve challenges overnight.
20:00 Home Time (approx).
Friday 29th November 2024
08:30 Writing to Get Produced…Guaranteed Part 2.
Speaker: Chris Jones
We continue the journey of script to screen and examine the possibility of writer turned writer producer. Whose permission are you waiting for? Whose help do you need? Perhaps you have everything you need right now?
10:00 Meet Oscar winner Gareth Unwin.
Speaker: TBC
This session to be confirmed.
11:30 Story Pitch and Refining Ideas with Sam Horley for feature projects.
Speaker: Sam Horley
Objective: To get a handle on the real world of film sales and distribution and stress test your individual projects. Learn to think like a producer and your writing will become more viable.
Sam Horley will take your project through a series of exercises, move it into the real world where we will find out whether it’s got life as a commercial project, and what tweaks and rewrites could make all the difference. This is ALL about produceability, viability and shifting the writer into the mindset of producer, backer, sales agent and ‘talent’. This is a small group and everyone will get individual feedback from Sam.
12:30 Light Lunch
It’s light lunch time again, you know the drill now.
14:30 Story Pitch and Refining Ideas with Sam Horley for feature projects.
Speaker: Sam Horley
Objective: To get a handle on the real world of film sales and distribution and stress test your individual projects. Learn to think like a producer and your writing will become more viable.
Sam Horley will take your project through a series of exercises, move it into the real world where we will find out whether it’s got life as a commercial project, and what tweaks and rewrites could make all the difference. This is ALL about produceability, viability and shifting the writer into the mindset of producer, backer, sales agent and ‘talent’. This is a small group and everyone will get individual feedback from Sam.
17:45 Writing To Get Produced… Guaranteed Part 3.
Speaker: Chris Jones
We continue the journey of script to screen and examine the possibility of writer turned writer producer. Whose permission are you waiting for? Whose help do you need? Perhaps you have everything you need right now?
19:00 Day 3 Concludes.
Speaker: Chris Jones
We bring the third day to a conclusion and consider our journey thus far.
20:00 Home Time (approx).
Saturday 30th November 2024
08:45 Welcome to Day Four.
Speaker: Chris Jones
We start the day as we mean to finish… and what a day it will be!
09:30 Story Pitch and Refining Ideas with John Yorke for TV / longform projects.
Speaker: John Yorke
Objective: To prepare writers and their projects to find success in the commercial marketplace.We will then take a script through the production process and into post production to show how and WHY it is so essential to remain involved through on set and post production rewrites.
John Yorke will run this workshop focused on how to identify the value of your work in monetary terms, how to increase its commercial viability and to advise project selection and/or abandonment based on current market trends. You will take your own pre-existing project, idea or concept and, if needed, re-imagine them in a commercial context.
12:00 Lunch.
Eat light and grab some snacks to keep going.
13:00 Three Little Words.
Leverage the three little words to create a congruent self that will cause people to ‘get you’ and your ideas faster.
13:15 Intensive Development Day
Objective: In small groups, get intensive mentoring from all four of our industry experts, on story and career. Spend the afternoon and evening on your projects at idea and pitch stage, figuring our which of your projects are strongest, based also on the last three days experience and new Talent Campus relationships. You will get time with all of our mentors, getting differing viewpoints and opinions from experts.
19:00 Short and VERY light dinner.
Grab something at lunch and put in our fridge so you can stay on site for dinner – eat light as we have something very special planned.
19:30 Full Ignition!
Speaker: Chris Jones
Chris Jones will join you, recapping the objectives for the first writing period. Then you will all bring the ignition phase to an extraordinary conclusion. Prepare for an UNFORGETTABLE evening…
21:00 Home Time (approx).
Sunday 1st December 2024
09:45 Start the day like we mean to end the day.
Speakers: Chris Jones and Bob Schultz
Talent Campers Assemble to prep for the most intensive writing period of your lives.
10:45 Project Acceleration Day with Mentors.
Spend the whole day writing, refining, and re-imagining with a team of six other writers and a professional screenwriting mentor. You will work directly on your story, script, and characters as well as offer insight and advice to the other five members in your writing team. We will start early and coffee will be in plentiful supply.
You will leave with a detailed synopsis / story beat sheet, ready for your first writing period. It is expected that you will maintain contact with your writing group and mentor during this period, to maintain focus, offer and receive feedback, and build lasting relationships.
16:00 Recap, reboot and re-examine.
Speaker: Chris Jones
As a group we examine where we started, and where we are now, in just a few short days.
18:30 Talent Campus Close.
Speaker: Chris Jones
We bring the first half of Talent Campus to a close, and prepare for four and half weeks of intensive development and writing.
20:00 Home Time (approx).
Monday 2nd December 2024
07:00 Writing Week One: TV Series Development (work from home in your own time).
Writing Week one and you will develop a two page treatment for a TV series, along with a half page synopsis and a killer pitch. During this week you will have a scheduled conference call with your mentor group and coach to help keep on track.
19:00 Finding Nemo Writer Dave Reynolds… And YOU!
Speaker: Dave Reynolds
Spend an hour with writer of ‘Finding Nemo’ Dave Reynolds on Zoom. Prepare for the most fun hour you will ever have learning screenwriting.
Monday 9th December 2024
07:00 Writing Week Two: Feature Film Development (work from home in your own time)
Writing Week two and you will develop a two page treatment for a feature film, along with a half page synopsis and a killer pitch. During this week you will have a scheduled conference call with your mentor group and coach to help keep on track. You will also have a scheduled call with your mentor to catch up on where you are at.
Monday 16th December 2024
07:00 Writing Week Three: Passion Project (work from home in your own time)
Writing Week three and you will develop a two page treatment for your passion project, along with a half page synopsis and a killer pitch. It could be any form of writing, novel, short film, web series as well as a TV series or feature film. During this week you will have a scheduled conference call with your mentor group and coach to help keep on track.
Monday 30th December 2024
07:00 Writing Week Four: Recap and revisit (work from home, in your own time).
Writing Week four and you will rework and re visit ALL your projects ahead of next week. During this week you will have a scheduled conference call with your mentor group and coach to help keep on track.You will also have a scheduled call with your mentor to catch up on where you are at.
18:30 Joey Tuccio from Hollywood.
Speaker: Joey Tuccio
Join Joey Tuccio all the way from LA as he preps you to pitch and present more effectively.
Thursday 9th January 2025
09:00 to 16:00 Talent Campus: Wecome Back!
You’ve polished your pitches and prepared your projects. Now it’s time to sharpen up for tomorrow nights Crucible!
Friday 10th January 2025
18:00 to 20:00 Talent Campus: The Crucible.
Speakers: Chris Jones and Bob Schultz
Objective – To bring EVERYTHING experienced in Talent Campus together in The Crucible Party
We spend the day refining pitches, sharpening our networking skills and prepping for the big evening event. Then, at 4pm, we will hop on The Tube together and head to The Crucible Party. We will have invited the great and good of the British Film and TV industry to attend so they can meet you and hear your ideas. This is the real world, no artificial pitchfest experience here. Dress to impress, prepare to charm with your new networking skills, and most of all, intrigue them with your compelling stories.
Everything we have learned will come into play during this exclusive party.
Saturday 11th January 2025
09:00 to 19:30 Talent Campus Celebration.
Speakers: Chris Jones
Objective – To debrief what we have learned, celebrate how far we have come and build a powerful strategy for success beyond the Talent Campus.
Looking back over the past five weeks, we share and celebrate our successes and failures, as well as our breakdowns and breakthroughs. Together, we build a powerful and compelling plan for your future success beyond Talent Campus. You are no longer writing alone, but writing with an extraordinary peer group. Guest speakers will further illuminate the road ahead, one that you will be excited to walk.
We will conclude Talent Campus in an extraordinary celebration that will galvanise the feelings, emotions and joy that you feel as a screenwriter.
