Script Circle

An interdisciplinary script development workshop by Franz Rodenkirchen and Françoise von Roy

Next dates:
50th Script Circle edition during Berlinale 2024!
February 22 - 24
(application deadline with project: January 25, 2024)

“Writing is a lonely business.”

Script Circle began as an experiment. In September 2014 we hosted the first Script Circle in Berlin. The idea was to create a secure environment in which writers and filmmakers could share what they were currently working on and receive informed and constructive feedback. By virtue of the heterogeneity of the group, this would be different from one-on-one consulting and at the same time provide a flexible opportunity, thus making it possible to participate at an early stage of writing, even before funding or producers are attached.

In each Script Circle, eight filmmakers, producers and script consultants, lead by Franz and Françoise, discuss four projects in-depth, thus giving the writers and filmmakers a chance of a productive peer-to-peer feedback. It also allows them to address specific questions they might have during development and can be used as an early potential audience.

Upon participants’ request the workshop grew from two days to three days, allowing each project to have not just the initial 3 hour in-depth feedback session, but also a 90 minute follow-up, lead by the project participants. We call the follow-up “filmmaker-lead”, they have had some time to reflect on and digest the original group feedback - and come back presenting questions, new ideas, prospective changes, any aspects they feel need to be addressed in order for them to move on to the next stage.

In addition to the in-depth discussion of each project, Françoise and Franz may address more general aspects of writing visual narratives, from genre, character, how to write for cinema, without leaning on the truisms of screenwriting, eg. how to engage with an audience beyond emotional identification and similar questions. Each workshop begins with an introduction to creative collaborations and giving critical feedback.

After almost fifty Script Circles in Berlin and numerous in Italy, Kosovo and Norway, we are time and time again struck by the generosity of the participants and their willingness to engage and support each other. This has encouraged us to keep Script Circle going for the last nine years in almost bimonthly editions. Through the pandemic we slowed the pace, but did several online editions, which allowed filmmakers all over the world to participate, who would not have had the opportunity to travel to Berlin.

In the last nine years more than 250 people from over fifty countries have participated and many participants have returned with later drafts or new projects. More than forty films have been made and premiered.

We are very happy to welcome filmmakers at any stages in their filmmaking lives, the possibilities of sharing from different experiences is particularly promising and enrichening for all.

Script Circle is open to filmmakers and those who are involved in supportive development roles, script consultants, story editors. Each workshop can hold 8 participants and four projects in total. Occasionally teams of two (sometimes three) take part and depending on how many project participants there are, there is always room for one to four participants without projects: producers, writers, filmmakers, editors, representatives of film funds. Those who take part without a project do so for many different reasons and are a valuable part of the workshop. If you are considering taking part without a project, here some thoughts about why we decided to accommodate participants without projects:
For those who write - working on other projects allows you an insight into your own work that's often not possible when it's right in front of you. In addition, being part of a creative process, even in the shape of giving feedback, is most often a very inspiring experience. And for those who don't write - you read, give feedback, sometimes wonder how to convey what is on your mind in a constructive way, in a way that will 'reach' the writer, this is also for you. Many of us who work with scripts struggle with this at times and with Script Circle we'd like to illuminate this process a little, maybe even take some of the pressure away.

Since 2016 we have customised Script Circle for many companies and other organisations, to work on their selected projects, this is occasionally extended by talks on aspects of development they may be interested in: an overview of different narrative concepts, serial story-telling, how to deal with challenging feedback and so on.

Working language is English.

If you are interested in taking part, please contact us at workshops@solace23.com. Participants wanting to attend with a project are asked to send title of project, what development stage it is at (eg. treatment or script) and brief cv. Participants without a project are asked to send a brief motivation letter and cv.

If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to contact us.