VOLKER SCHLOENDORFF AT THE ANDRZEJ WAJDA SCHOOL

THE 2ND SESSION OF
EUROPEAN PROGRAMME EKRAN CONTINUES

Volker Schloendorff has tutored classes at the Andrzej Wajda School within the ongoing 2nd session of the EKRAN – the Programme for Film Professionals. Among tutors there also are Andrzej Wajda, Wojciech Marczewski and other recognised European filmmakers.

EKRAN is an European training project for film professionals, focusing on the creative pre-production process. Its main goal is to develop a project and produce two scenes from each script. At this year's – already 5th – edition of the programme 11 teams are participating, each consisting of a director, screenwriter, producer and a DOP.

Among guests invited to this year's edition there is Volker Schloendorff, who delivered a lecture about working with an actor. Workshops are also conducted by Ildiko Enyedi, Udayan Prasad, Mamuon Hassan, Roshanak Behesht Nedjad.

Volker Schloendorff during the lecture

The second session of EKRAN is devoted to the discussion of the projects and aspects of creative pre-production: the meaning of the shooting object, visualisation by means of a storyboard, casting, coming to an understanding with actors and picture composition. The key task is to produce scenes selected from participants' scripts involving 2 or 3 Polish actors who speak English. Each of the participants has time for rehearsals with actors, for preparing the storyboard of the scene, one day of shooting and one day of editing at his/her disposal. Specially for the producers, in cooperation with EAVE (one of the best training programmes for producers in Europe) there are group and individual project analysis and pitching commented by experienced producer and an EAVE consultant Roshanak Behesht Nedjad. The session will end with a presentation and discussion of the produced scenes and with a meeting with the casting director and the set designer in order to prepare the scenes for the third session to be held in June.

Among the Polish participants of this year's edition of EKRAN there are: Marcin Wrona (together with Marek Stokowski), Michał Rogalski and Michał Otłowski. Also well-known producers participate at EKRAN: Peter Rommel (the producer of 'Halbe-Treppe') who produces the German project 'Sohnemaenner' directed by Ingo Haeb, and Jan Dworak who stands behind 'Letnie przesilenie [The Summer Solstice]' by Michał Rogalski.

EKRAN is one the few programmes for filmmakers in Poland co-financed by the MEDIA programme. It is prepared in cooperation with the most important film institutions in Europe: the FOCAL Foundation from Switzerland, the Norwegian Film Development, the Nordrhein-Westfalen Filmstiftung and the IFS Internationale Filmschule Köln, the Netherlands Film Institute, the International Film School Wales and the Polish Film Institute.

The participants of the previous editions of the programme were, among others: Dariusz Gajewski ('Warszawa [Warsaw]'), Anna Jadowska  ('Teraz ja [It's Me Now]'), Leszek Dawid ('Moje miejsce [My Place]') and a documentary filmmaker Grzegorz Pacek ('Jestem zły [I'm Bad]'), Agnieszka Smoczyńska ('Aria Diva'), Norah McGettigan ('Jak to jest być moją matką [Being My Mother]'). Out of 22 projects developed at EKRAN 2004 and EKRAN 2006 three of them have been produced so far: the film by Anna Jadowska 'Teraz ja', which won a debut director award at the Gdynia 2006 Polish Film Festival and a number of other awards, 'Out of ropes' by Fulvio Bernasconi, whose premiere took place at the IFF in Locarno 2007 – it was awarded the Best Actor Prize and ‘Ma Salama Jamil’ by Omar Shargavi, produced by Zentropa – the winner of the VPRO Tiger Award at the International Film Festival in Rotterdam 2008. Five other projects are in the midst of the production process.

Until 2008 there have been 4 editions of the programme; 46 teams have participated – in total over 130 participants. At each edition there were around 70 actors, 20 DOPs, 3 production managers, 7 editors, sound engineers, set designers, casting directors, prop masters, make-up artists and researchers. Among the producers of the EKRAN projects there were Zentropa (Lars von Trier), 'Les Films du Fleuve' ( Jean Pierre i Luc Dardenne), Pandora Film Studio (Karl Baumgartner), RFF International (Stefan Kitanov) and Ventura Film (Andreas Pfaeffli, Elda Guinetti). A project developed at the first edition of the EKRAN, 'Bunker 5' by Harry Floetter won the Best German Script Award - 'Deutschen Drehbuchpreis' in 2005.

 

(April 2009)