TALK TO A SERI­AL EYE with Isaure Pis­ani-Ferry (SE#5): The Mak­ing of BECOM­ING KARL LAGERFELD

In Octo­ber 2024 we hos­ted the first epis­ode of TALK TO A SERI­AL EYE, our online talk series that spot­lights con­ver­sa­tions with our accom­plished alumni and esteemed faculty.

TALK TO A SERI­AL EYE is an online talk format that show­cases the excep­tion­al tal­ents trained at Seri­al Eyes, Europe’s lead­ing pro­fes­sion­al train­ing pro­gram for TV writers. Alumni and industry experts come togeth­er to share their exper­i­ences, cre­at­ive jour­neys, and the essen­tial skills they gained dur­ing their time at Seri­al Eyes. The format is hos­ted by Seri­al Eyes Head of Stud­ies Kat­rin Merkel, who asks her guests about the use (or non-use) of writers’ room tech­niques, indi­vidu­al work­ing meth­ods and recipes for suc­cess, budgets, sched­ules, and the chal­lenges of inter­na­tion­al team­work. Each epis­ode presents a series as a con­crete case study and explores in dia­logue how it works: the European room.

This spe­cial ses­sion explored the unique col­lab­or­at­ive pro­cess behind one of the most anti­cip­ated bio­graph­ic­al series in recent years: BECOM­ING KARL LAGER­FELD. We kicked off with an insight­ful con­ver­sa­tion, featuring:

• Isaure Pis­ani-Ferry – Seri­al Eyes alumna of 2018 and cre­at­or of the acclaimed series BECOM­ING KARL LAGER­FELD for Disney+

• Arnaud de Crémi­ers – Pro­du­cer of the series at Jour Premi­er (France)

• Kat­rin Merkel – Seri­al Eyes Head of Studies

Click HERE to watch the ses­sion recording:

What to Expect from This Epis­ode:
Behind-the-Scenes Insights – Dis­cov­er how BECOM­ING KARL LAGER­FELD was developed through the unique col­lab­or­a­tion between cre­at­or and head writer Isaure Pis­ani-Ferry and pro­du­cer Arnaud de Crémi­ers. From the ini­tial concept to pro­duc­tion, this ses­sion explores how their part­ner­ship shaped the series.

Hon­est Feed­back on an Essen­tial Rela­tion­ship – Gain valu­able insights into the indis­pens­able rela­tion­ship between cre­at­or and exec­ut­ive pro­du­cer. Isaure and Arnaud dis­cuss how their three-year col­lab­or­a­tion brought the show to life and offer advice on fos­ter­ing pos­it­ive, cre­at­ive part­ner­ships.
Inspir­ing Thoughts on European Showrun­ning – Explore the evolving concept of showrun­ning in Europe. Isaure and Arnaud explain why they chose to work without a tra­di­tion­al showrun­ner, instead devel­op­ing a close col­lab­or­a­tion between the writer, pro­du­cer, and dir­ect­or. They dis­cuss how this approach chal­lenges the U.S. and Dan­ish mod­els and the role of oth­er writers in the pro­cess.
Nav­ig­at­ing High-Pro­file IP – Learn about the chal­lenges and oppor­tun­it­ies of writ­ing a series based on a fam­ous fig­ure like Karl Lager­feld. The cre­at­ors reveal how they approached the task without a tra­di­tion­al writer’s room, offer­ing a fresh per­spect­ive on screen­writ­ing for high-stakes projects.

Pro­duc­tion & Style: BECOM­ING KARL LAGER­FELD was pro­duced by Jour Premi­er in col­lab­or­a­tion with Dis­ney+, mark­ing a high-pro­file inter­na­tion­al pro­duc­tion. The series cap­tures the energy of the era with a visu­ally strik­ing aes­thet­ic, rich peri­od detail, and an elec­tri­fy­ing soundtrack that trans­ports view­ers to the world of haute couture.

Authen­ti­city & Recep­tion: The series has been widely praised for its metic­u­lous atten­tion to his­tor­ic­al accur­acy and its nuanced por­tray­al of Karl’s per­son­al and pro­fes­sion­al evol­u­tion. Bal­an­cing glam­our and grit, it offers an intim­ate look into the cre­at­ive pro­cess of a fash­ion vis­ion­ary.
Seri­al Eyes gradu­ate Isaure Pis­ani-Ferry played a pivotal role in shap­ing the script, demon­strat­ing once again how our alumni con­trib­ute to innov­at­ive European storytelling. The series stands as a test­a­ment to Seri­al Eyes-trained writers craft­ing bold, char­ac­ter-driv­en nar­rat­ives for a glob­al audi­ence.

Stay tuned for more TALK TO A SERI­AL EYE epis­odes fea­tur­ing European storytelling at its best!