Tom Abrams, an award-winning director and writer in both film and television, will be holding two intensive three-day workshops in Wellington and Auckland in August - The NZ Film Commission and the Screen Directors Guild of NZ have announced.

Over a three-day period participants will explore ways to identify and bring out the underlying or subtextual meaning of their story by focusing on mise-en-scene.Tom Abrams, an award-winning director and writer in both film and television, will be holding two intensive three-day workshops in Wellington and Auckland in August - The NZ Film Commission and the Screen Directors Guild of NZ have announced.

Over a three-day period participants will explore ways to identify and bring out the underlying or subtextual meaning of their story by focusing on mise-en-scene.ABOUT TOM

For the last 15 years, Abrams has taught filmmaking internationally and consulted on projects in more than 20 countries. As a writer, he shared a 1992 Emmy Award for the children's television series, Rugrats, and his short film Shoeshine (1987) was nominated for an Academy Award and received the Montreal World Film Festival first prize.

1989's Performance Pieces won a special award at that year's Cannes International Film Festival. His projects include The Desperate Trail (1995) for TNT, Conversations With The Beast (1995, co-written with Armin Mueller-Stahl), The American Princess (2000) for New Line Cinema, The Captain's Wife for Fox 2000, Have Gun Will Travel for Warner Bros and The Battle of Ono for Executive Producer John Woo at Universal.

WORKSHOP CONTENT

Over a three day period participants will explore ways to identify and bring out the underlying or subtextual meaning of their story by focusing on mise-en-scene.

The group will investigate methods by which the creative use of setting, lighting, blocking, props, costumes and make-up, etc. can enhance the communication of important ideas to the viewer.

Each participant will bring written scenes from a film script into the seminar as the working text for their exploration. These scripts will be distributed prior to the first day of the seminar and participants are required to read each other's material.

During the three day period, participants will perform a series of explorations, some in-session, some overnight, to be discussed with the group each day. A series of questions will be posed regarding each exploration to help focus its effectiveness and dramatic potential.

This is a course in directing. The work within the group will focus on the
filmmaker's interpretation of written material, not the re-writing of it.

ENTRY REQUIREMENTS

The applicant must be a New Zealand citizen or permanent resident who has
lived in New Zealand for at least the last six months.

FUNDING SPECIFICATIONS

Modest travel assistance may be available for successful applicants from outside the workshop area. The NZFC and the SDGNZ will not be liable for meeting or reimbursing participants for the cost of travel to and from airports, meals, telephone calls, mini-bar costs, room service costs or any other personal costs incurred by the participants during the workshop.

APPLICATION REQUIREMENTS

Applications should include:
-A letter outlining the reason for wanting to attend the workshop (specify in the
letter which location) and the perceived benefit from attendance.
-CV or filmography listing your directing experience.
Application deadline: 5pm Tuesday the 8th of July 2008
Places are strictly limited. Late submissions will not be accepted.
The successful candidates will be notified on Thursday the 10th of July 2008.

PLEASE SEND APPLICATIONS TO:
Tom Abrams Workshop Submissions
c/o Jane Wells
jane.wells@sdgnz.co.nz
SDGNZ
PO Box 47-294
Ponsonby 1011

WORKSHOP DATES

Wellington
Monday 11th August 2008
Tuesday 12th August 2008
Wednesday 13th August
Auckland Auckland
Saturday 16th August 2008
Sunday 17th August 2008
Monday 18th August 2008
Phone: 09 360 2102

22/06/08