A Business of Development Summit with script development consultant Stephen Cleary is on in Auckland this week as part of the SPADA Conference.

Cleary will also join a special Script to Screen event on Thursday and talk with Shuchi Kothari (Apron Strings, Firaaq) about how writers can forge relationships with producers that can benefit, rather than stifle, a script's development.A Business of Development Summit with script development consultant Stephen Cleary is on in Auckland this week as part of the SPADA Conference.

Cleary will also join a special Script to Screen event on Thursday and talk with Shuchi Kothari (Apron Strings, Firaaq) about how writers can forge relationships with producers that can benefit, rather than stifle, a script's development.The Summit is for development executives, producers, directors, writers, agents and anyone interested in the mixture of creative, technical and business skills, which script development involves. It will also provide a retrospective and prospective analysis of film development in New Zealand.

The Summit is being held in Auckland on November 18-19, two days before the SPADA Film and TV Conference, which will focus on navigating the new financial landscape for New Zealand.

Overview by Course Director Stephen Cleary

There are plenty of development seminars about story and genre, writing and development technique and so on, but rarely an event about the nuts and bolts of development, which is why I started doing these Business of Development conferences in London five years ago. This is the first time I've brought the
Conference to New Zealand and it comes off the back of an extremely successful Conference in Hobart dealing with Development in Australia some three months ago.

What this Business of Development Summit looks to do is establish the context within which feature development happens - in this case New Zealand - look at how and why development has historically been done this way, looks at the results in terms of production, talent development, genres and styles of films released, return on investment, public enthusiasm and audience growth and so on. It looks to place NZ development in context with comparable film cultures and territories, and proposes other models of development business, practice and activity for delegates to consider. And, at a time of change, it gives the opportunity for a review of history, process and practice moving forward.

The Summit is a meeting place and talking shop for all NZ film professionals involved in development to share views, air grievances, propose new solutions to age-old problems. It's not enough to blame public funders or broadcasters or government or anybody else for the state of things if they're not as you'd like.

By and large, filmmakers get the development environments they deserve and if they don't like it they need to get together and work out how to change it. The Summit aims to give you the information, statistics and perspective to take a long hard look at a crucial part of your business and creativity.

I'm not here to offer you solutions from outside, I wouldn't presume to do that. But I can provoke, question and cajole. It's more important that filmmakers take advantage of this forum to get seriously involved in these issues, because if you don't, other people in other places are going to be taking decisions on your behalf and you'll be living with the consequences.

Stephen Cleary

In 1996 Stephen Cleary, then Head of Development at British Screen, founded *Arista Development*, to provide the first serious development skills training for Development Executives, Producers and Writers in Europe.

Stephen first designed, organized and presented his celebrated *Story Development Workshops* for Arista, and the Workshops have travelled all over the world, training over 1500 filmmakers to date.

Over 80 features brought to the Workshops have been produced. Stephen's 2-day *Development Skills seminars*, *Business of Development Conferences* and *'Specials' *on screenwriting craft and genre have also played to packed houses from Copenhagen to Dunedin and many points in between.

In 2006 Stephen closed Arista and moved with his family to south-west France. He works as an international story consultant, lecturer and screenwriter. He produced the feature film, /New Years' Day/ in 2000, co-produced another, /Goodbye Charlie Bright/, in 2001, co-wrote the feature /Alexandria/ in 2002 and has rewritten a number of feature scripts as an uncredited writer. He is also the co-writer of the autobiography of the singer Nina Simone, "I Put a Spell on You" which has been published in over a dozen countries.

SPADA, in partnership with the NZ Film Commission and Stephen Cleary, will run the Summit at The University of Auckland.

SPADA Conference

Script to Screen: Stephen Cleary on the Writer/Producer Relationship

In Association with SPADA

Stephen Cleary, creative producer and development consultant and founder of Arista, an organisation dedicated to teaching script development, will join us at the 2008 SPADA conference for a Script to Screen event.

Hot on the heels of Cleary's two day Business of Development Summit, Shuchi Kothari (Apron Strings, Firaaq) will talk to him about how writers can forge relationships with producers and how these relationships can best benefit, rather than stifle, a script's development.

In the usual style of Script to Screen this event is open to the public but numbers are limited so please RSVP if you want to attend.

When: Thursday November 20 at 3pm
Where: Skycity Auckland Convention Centre, Marlborough Rooms 1 & 2
Federal Street, Auckland City
RSVP: info@script-to-screen.co.nz

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SPADA Film and TV Conference

19/11/08

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