Curriculum 

The pro­gramme includes sem­inars, work­shops and writers’ rooms and at least two study trips: includ­ing to the Séries Mania fest­iv­al in Lille, France and to meet with writers, pro­du­cers and broad­casters in one oth­er import­ant European city. Dur­ing the pro­gramme, each par­ti­cipant works on two pro­jects: a full pitch deck (con­sist­ing of a pilot script and a bible) for an indi­vidu­al series and a group pro­ject that is developed in con­junc­tion with an industry partner.

Semester Overview 

The autumn semester focuses on nar­rat­ive design and storytelling struc­ture in tele­vi­sion series, story con­cep­tion and devel­op­ment, and basic writers’ room pro­tocol and methodology. 

Par­ti­cipants acquire skills and tech­niques for gen­er­at­ing and research­ing new story ideas, devel­op those ideas fur­ther into con­cepts and pilot out­lines, and study and apply writers’ room skills and team man­age­ment tech­niques. Par­ti­cipants learn how to cooper­ate effect­ively in a group, handle cri­ti­cism and gain exper­i­ence work­ing as a team, they learn how to deal with the author­ity of a head writer and how to lead dur­ing the cre­at­ive pro­cess. Par­ti­cipants com­mence devel­op­ment on an indi­vidu­al pro­ject with the­or­et­ic­al and prac­tic­al input from a diverse selec­tion of tutors and ment­ors. A study trip to anoth­er European city acquaints par­ti­cipants with prac­tices in the TV industry of that coun­try and intro­duces them to loc­al TV pro­fes­sion­als. The fall semester cul­min­ates with par­ti­cipants cre­at­ing the board of the pilot for their indi­vidu­al project. 

The spring semester focuses on writ­ing the pilot, pitch­ing, net­work­ing, and a more advanced under­stand­ing of the marketplace. 

This semester kicks off with the annu­al Seri­al Eyes Midterm Pitch, which allows par­ti­cipants to prac­tice their pro­ject pitches and get feed­back on their indi­vidu­al pro­jects from high-level TV pro­fes­sion­als. Par­ti­cipants com­plete at least two drafts of the pilot for their indi­vidu­al pro­ject and will begin devel­op­ment on the group pro­ject. Par­ti­cipants gain fur­ther insights into the pro­duc­tion and fin­an­cing pro­cess and learn about spe­cif­ic European mar­kets. These insights are com­ple­men­ted with study trips. The pro­gramme cul­min­ates with a present­a­tion of all indi­vidu­al TV pro­jects at the Final Pitch in May.

Mod­ules Overview