email print share on Facebook share on Twitter share on LinkedIn share on reddit pin on Pinterest

Fred Castadot • President, Audiovisual Screenwriters’ Association (ASA)

“We can even call it a true revolution”

by 

- Meeting with Fred Castadot, the new president of the Belgian Audiovisual Screenwriters’ Association

Fred Castadot • President, Audiovisual Screenwriters’ Association (ASA)

While the Belgian Audiovisual Screenwriters’ Association celebrates its 25 year anniversary, the organisation has just appointed itself a new president. Fred Castadot, one of the authors of the series Public Enemy (Ennemi Public), succeeds Laurent Denis after an eight year reign. 

This was an ideal opportunity to find out a little more about the meaning and purpose of this francophone group of around 80 members, led by Luc Jabon and Jaco Van Dormael in the wake of their two great successes: The Music Teacher (Le Maître de Musique) and Toto the Hero (Toto le Héros). A meeting with the man who is, among other things, a comic book writer, a teacher at the Agnès Varda school (teaching the history of video art, as well as screenplay), and a member of the Film Selection Committee.

(The article continues below - Commercial information)

Cinergie: For a scriptwriter, what are the criteria for joining your Association?
Fred Castadot: They’re…evolving! We’re in the process of clarifying them because, for a long time, the rather vague rule was to have written at least one feature film or three shorts. As a professional association, the compensation criteria are of course paramount. But things are changing and, for example, television and the web, which concern more and more screenwriters, still aren’t officially being taken into account! But the main thing for us is that screenwriters, and not just beginners, take responsibility for themselves by understanding that being part of an association is a significant undertaking. Our regular activities are relatively open, and mostly free, so that our messages can spread as widely as possible. Our goal is not to comprise of a small circle of fundamentalist screenwriters, but to interest everyone in this particular aspect of the trade, and thus confront outside opinions.

In French-speaking Belgium, at the moment, the profession seems to be evolving…
Absolutely. And that is of course thanks to the numerous series in development which, all at once, have offered work to more than 25 screenwriters! We can even call it a true revolution. For years I’ve heard, here and there, that screenwriting isn’t a real job, or that you can’t live off it. But we’ve all had to tough it out in the hopes that our moment will arrive. Unconsciously, I’ve always believed that we would reach this new dynamic, because screenplay is anything but a dead weight: it’s quite frankly the cornerstone of any project!

That is to say?
I’m 100% certain that the whole of our cinema has to gain by paying more attention to screenwriting. By focusing more on this first link, we’re helping projects to be made and produced. If we manage to keep up this mentality, it can only be a plus for our series and our films to reach their audience, whether they’re smaller or mainstream films, for that matter. The success of the critically and publically acclaimed The Break (La Trêve) and Public Enemy (Ennemi Public), this year, is clearly related to this new awareness. 

Let’s talk about Public Enemy: you’re in the middle of writing the second season, is that right?
Yes! On the 1st July we started to outline the main storylines of the new series, always with five writers (NDLR: with Antoine Bours, Gilles de Voghel, Matthieu Frances and Christopher Yates), and we should be finished by the end of March. It’s a long-term job which requires a lot of investment, but this teamwork is as exhilarating as it is enriching: we go much further than we would alone, obviously. We work in a rather Darwinian way (smiles) by not making any concessions: we put our egos aside so only our best ideas survive, all for the good of the series. Motivation is intact and we still have much room for improvement. It still feels like we’re in school sometimes. At the start, we didn’t really know where we were heading, still less that the series, like La Trêve, would be shown in cinemas, awarded abroad and resold in numerous countries: so now we want to do even better!

Read the full interview at Cinergie.be

In collaboration with

 

(The article continues below - Commercial information)

(Translated from French by Hannah Thompson)

Did you enjoy reading this article? Please subscribe to our newsletter to receive more stories like this directly in your inbox.

Privacy Policy