28th and 29th of november 2011 (2 days - 16 hours)
in Paris
Masterclass of Fernanda ROSSI
Training Objectives :
DOCTORING YOUR DOC
Doctoring your doc is a one-day experiential hands-on workshop for producers, directors, writers, editors and composers in the documentary field, from mid-career to veterans. It teaches how to structure a documentary at all stages of production, when there is just an idea, lots of footage, or an assemble or rough-cut.
You will :
• Learn story development techniques
• Learn story structure templates in an innovative and easy way
• Identify common pitfalls that waste your time and money during production
• And post, and how to avoid them.
• Analyze a film as practice for your own project
• Analyze works-in-progress from the audience.
PITCH and TRAILER MECHANICS
Stop guessing what works and what doesn't work - and why - in this one-day, hands-on workshop for producers, directors, writers and editors.
You will learn how to :
• Make your pitch more attractive
• Put together and structure a 3 to 15 minutes demo of a documentary film for fundraising purposes
The seminar is in english
The Fernanda Rossi's seminar is instructive, practical, stimulating, very inspiring and source of reflexion and analysis for all the "actors" of the documentaries : screenwriters, directors, journalists, producers, and basically, to those who has an interest in the reel.
Fernanda ROSSIInternationally renowned author, speaker and story consultant Fernanda Rossi has doctored over 300 documentaries, fiction scripts and fundraising trailers, among them the 2009 Academy Award® Nominated The Garden by Scott Hamilton Kennedy. Others include the 2007 Academy Award® Nominated Recycled Life by Leslie Iwerks and the theatrically-released Billy the Kid by Jennifer Venditti.
Along with her private consultations, she gives lectures and seminars worldwide on story structure and fundraising demos, such as her signature workshops Doctoring your Doc and Trailer Mechanics.
Ms. Rossi shares her knowledge and research of storytelling and the creative process in articles in trade publications, such as the monthly columns Ask the Doc Doctor published by SF360; Story Strategies, at The Independent and the case studies Documentary Clinic published by DER, the Documentary Educational Resources. She is also the author of the book Trailer Mechanics: A Guide to Making Your Documentary Fundraising Trailer.
Ms. Rossi has been a grant panelist for New York State Council for the Arts, the Latino Public Broadcast and ITVS Open Call and international Call, which gave her the chance to view and evaluate over 500 fundraising works-in-progress altogether. She has also been a Juror for the Chicago International Film Festival in the documentary category.
In addition to having being an editor for 8 years, her own projects as a producer/director include the documentary Inventing a Girl: An Experience in Homeschooling, premiered at the Contemporary Issues Film Festival and winner of the Women’s Vision Award. Her film script Picture Me! was invited to the 2005 Latin American Sundance Screenwriters Laboratory.
Her work as a story consultant, workshop leader and filmmaker has been featured in Filmmaker Magazine, New York Times and other publications. She has a degree in Film Production from the University of Buenos Aires.
DOCTORING YOUR DOC
How to stucture your documentary
9h30 / 13h
• Introduction to workshop and breakdown of the day
• Definition of structure
• What is structure for ?
• Principles of storytelling and story structure
• Interactive exercises
• Tools and methodologies to improve story structure
• How structure enhance the creative process
• Screening of 30 minutes film for analysis
14h30 / 19h
• Application and demonstration of principles and tools to the film screened
• Theory of story structure for documentaries : traditional and new models
• Key questions to assess and improve story structure at all levels of development
• Analysis, discussion and practice of the principles learned during the day
TRAILER MECHANICS
How to create a fundraising demo that gets money
9h30 / 13h
• Introduction to workshop and breakdown of the day
• Définition of fundraising demo
• What is a fundraising demo for ?
• Their names in business
• The goals
• Their similarities ans differences
• Different types of trailers : lenghts and purposes
14h30 / 19h
• Two possible models to make a demo before or during production. Do's and Don'ts for tasters
• Methodologies to apply such models in a time and cost efficient way
• Screening of the opening of a demo. Analyse and discussion of revised version (before / after comparison)
• Comparative analysis of a second and third version using the theory explained in tje morning.
• Screening and analysis of successful trailers
• Closing remarks
“Fernanda is the best. A real gem. Documentaries are such "do-it-yourself" world that it's out of the ordinary to have someone who understands the process completely, and can provide fresh and unexpected insight.”
William Gazecki, Academy Award Nominee
“Very useful, practical and fun.”
Felipe Lacerda, editor Central Station, director Bus 174
“I am honored to have Fernanda's ongoing input on my various projects.”
2007 Academy Award Nominee Recycled Life, by Leslie Iwerks.
“Her approach to story structure is anything but formulaic and it was exactly what I needed to tell the story I wanted.”
2009 Academy Award Nominee The Garden by Scott Kennedy Hamilton
"Fernanda Rossi’s trailer workshop was one of the highlights of our documentary training programme in 2008. It was informative, practical and entertaining. And what’s brilliant about Fernanda is that she really focuses on the filmmaker’s point of view before applying her methodology, making her interventions very specific and productive. Highly recommended and enjoyable! Thank you!"
Sonja Henrici - Head of Development - Scottish Documentary Institute
"I've attended Fernanda Rossi's workshops and used her as a consultant on two of my films. My films were in pretty good shape, but within a few hours she was able to break them down into their structural elements and help me see how they could be more focused on the characters and the drama. She has clearly researched and thought a lot about structure, and can quickly help filmmakers discover what's working and what's not. She doesn't force her ideas upon you, but rather acts as a guide to help you find them yourself. I'd highly recommend her to anyone looking to take their films to the next level."
Gino Del Guercio President Boston Science Communications, Inc. Producer, writer and director of more than twenty long-format documentaries for PBS, Discovery and A&E. Recent winner of the Sir Edmund Hillary Award at the Mountain Film Festival for his feature doc Abandoned in the Arctic.
