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About the Programme 

Seri­al Eyes pre­pares the next gen­er­a­tion of European TV writers/​producers to bring first-class stor­ies to the screens. The core of the pro­gram is not just about cre­at­ing an ori­gin­al TV drama series but also about devel­op­ing the abil­ity to col­lab­or­ate effect­ively with­in the Writers’ Room mod­el, as well as learn­ing how to organ­ize it.

What to expect 

Exper­i­ence the Writers‘ Room.

Par­ti­cipants are trained and will gain exper­i­ence of work­ing as a team and assum­ing the role of both head writer and staff writer in the cre­at­ive pro­cess. At the same time, they gain a sol­id under­stand­ing of the dram­at­ur­gic and nar­rat­ive strategies used inothe writers‘ room system.

Put The­ory into Practice.

Dur­ing the pro­gramme, Seri­al Eyes par­ti­cipants con­ceive and devel­op pro­jects for broad­cast tele­vi­sion and digit­al plat­forms that expand cre­at­ive bound­ar­ies and boost the qual­ity of their TV writing.

Learn from the Best.

Seri­al Eyes’ fac­ulty and ment­ors include estab­lished showrun­ners and head writers, script edit­ors, cre­at­ive pro­du­cers from Europe, the UK and US, as well as com­mis­sion­ing edit­ors from major European broad­casters and streamers.

Get an Apprenticeship!

Big Light Pro­duc­tions, headed by showrun­ner Frank Spot­nitz, offers a paid three-month TV appren­tice­ship at the firm’s Lon­don office for one Seri­al Eyes par­ti­cipant after they have com­pleted the pro­gramme. Oth­er appren­tice­ships are to be announced.

Study Trips

Seri­al Eyes classes are taught at the Deutsche Film- und Fernse­hakademie Ber­lin (DFFB) in Ber­lin. In addi­tion, there are two arranged trips: one to Series Mania in Lille and one to anoth­er major European city to meet up with loc­al pro­duc­tion com­pan­ies, com­mis­sion­ers, writers and producers.

Pitch to the Industry.

Par­ti­cipants also get mul­tiple oppor­tun­it­ies to meet TV pro­fes­sion­als and pitch their pro­jects – not only dur­ing the study trips but through­out the whole pro­gramme and espe­cially  at Seri­al Eyes’ Midterm and Final Pitch events in Berlin.

Build an Inter­na­tion­al Network.

Seri­al Eyes brings the writers of tomor­row togeth­er with top pro­fes­sion­als in the field today. This­provides oppor­tun­it­ies for suc­cess­ful exchanges between TV writers, pro­du­cers and decision-makers from across Europe. The Seri­al Eyes Alumni Net­work (SEAN) con­nects the programme’s gradu­ates and cre­ates a strong pres­ence for its mem­bers at major mar­kets and festivals.

What they say about the programme… 

Tom Fontana, Showrunner
(St. Else­where, Hom­icide: Life on the Street, Oz) 

Europe is on fire…

with an array of bril­liant tele­vi­sion pro­grammes — a fire fuelled by its writers. Seri­al Eyes is a key ingredi­ent in devel­op­ing the showrun­ners who will dom­in­ate the future.

Klaus Zim­mer­mann, Producer
(Trans­port­ers: The Series, Bor­gia, Trapped) 

Seri­al Eyes is a unique programme…

respond­ing on the one hand to the need to teach European screen­writers and pro­du­cers a more sys­tem­at­ic mode of work­ing cre­at­ively and on the oth­er hand meet­ing European TV broad­casters’ grow­ing demand for diver­si­fied tal­ent with a glob­al mindset.

Frank Spot­nitz, Showrunner
(The Man in The High Castle, Ransom, Medici: Mas­ters of Florence) 

Seri­al Eyes is utterly unique…

provid­ing a cru­cial bridge between the best work­ing meth­ods in Europe and Hol­ly­wood. It gives work­ing writers and pro­du­cers the tools they need to learn how to col­lab­or­ate more effect­ively and deliv­er world-class drama series. I’m very excited to be a part of the program.

Sven Clausen,
Emmy-win­ning Pro­du­cer and TV Consultant 

Hav­ing notched up sev­er­al Emmy-win­ning drama series…

includ­ing The Killing and Bor­gen, and attract­ing grow­ing inter­na­tion­al atten­tion, the Dan­ish way of cre­at­ing TV series is in the spot­light. One of the reas­ons for our suc­cess is the simple fact that for a dec­ade Den­mark has worked the Amer­ic­an way, under­stand­ing the import­ance of the writer and the writers’ room. Seri­al Eyes is the first European edu­ca­tion­al pro­gram that bene­fits from that under­stand­ing, explor­ing the role of the ‘showrun­ner’ as well as intro­du­cing the spe­cif­ic meth­ods and pro­cesses for cre­at­ing TV series.

Dav­ide Serino,
alum­nus 2016/2017

Seri­al Eyes has been amaz­ing for me:

I learned from the best, I met oth­er tal­ents in my age group who I would nev­er have met oth­er­wise and with whom I still work. When I returned to Italy after the pro­gramme, I had a price­less call­ing card and now I’m work­ing on sev­er­al TV series for the most import­ant broad­casters in Italy and I’m devel­op­ing my pro­jects with pro­duc­tion com­pan­ies from France and Ger­many. Trust me: none of this would have been pos­sible without Seri­al Eyes.

Laura Grace, alumna 2015/2016

I star­ted Seri­al Eyes with no pro­fes­sion­al credits.

In the year and a half since gradu­at­ing, I’ve been incred­ibly for­tu­nate to work on a wide range of TV series, with numer­ous inde­pend­ent pro­duc­tion com­pan­ies – includ­ing Kudos, Wild Mer­cury, Dynam­ic Tele­vi­sion, Drama Repub­lic, World Pro­duc­tions, Bav­aria Fic­tion, Beta Film and Bad Wolf – and many broad­casters across Europe.

Cam­ille Couasse,
alumna 2016/2017

Seri­al Eyes opened up a whole inter­na­tion­al network…

and gave me access to a lot of pro­du­cers, showrun­ners, writers that I wouldn’t have been able to meet oth­er­wise. Thanks to Seri­al Eyes, I’ve learned to pitch my pro­jects – and myself – with a lot more confidence!

Alex­an­der Lindh,
alum­nus 2013/2014

Seri­al Eyes not only helped me to grow as a writer…

it also opened so many doors for me in the industry. I am truly grate­ful for this exper­i­ence and would recom­mend it to every young writer or pro­du­cer who wants to make tele­vi­sion better!

In the press