12 June is the application deadline for those wishing to take part in the laboratory dedicated to series writing, organised by the European Film Lab based in Plounéour- Brignogan in Brittany, Groupe Ouest. For the fourth consecutive year, this programme organised in partnership with Arte France’s Unité Fiction (read our interview with Olivier Wotling held last year) and open to fiction writers from a wide range of backgrounds (including series screenwriters, novelists, playwrights and film screenwriters) will unfold in two exploration sessions, each lasting two weeks in the Finistère region: the first is entitled Series Pre-Writing (running 21 – 26 August and 20 - 25 November 2022) and the second Developing a Concept for a Series (running 4 - 9 September 2022 and 22 – 27 January 2023).

According to Groupe Ouest Founder and Artistic Director Antoine Le Bos, "we need to look beyond the romantic visions of authors, which are still very common in France, in order to develop open and fun creation models which encourage collaboration. Before writing, you have to elaborate, explore, experiment, test…

This applied experimental research approach is further unpicked by Bénédicte Mellac (Groupe Ouest’s training and development manager): "we look to encourage the creative abilities of authors without any kind of censorship. We don’t buy into the self-analysis and self-judgement that usually goes hand in hand with the writing process. We rely on far more instinctive processes which are more about letting go, getting authors to step off the beaten track and leave behind their usual plans and working methods. To do this, we get them out of their usual habits and we prioritise the spoken word, visual representations, brainstorming, etc. It might sound a bit gimmicky but it actually results in a highly structured exploration of their ideas, because we’re developing new ways to help authors by way of StoryTank, our think tank which brings researchers (in cognitive science, psychiatry, neuroscience, phenomenology, human sciences, maths, etc.) and screenwriters together each year. We draw on the expertise of Italy’s Giovanni Corazza, for example (a lecturer at the University of Bologna and the founder of the Marconi Institute of Creativity). Our aim is to work on conception, reflection, exploration and advance in-depth development, while delaying the writing phase for as long as possible, because we know that from that point onwards it all becomes far more fixed and our room to manoeuvre, intellectually speaking, isn’t the same."

The 2021 Book of Projects can be accessed here.

To take part in the Series Pre-Writing Workshop, click here.

To take part in the Developing a Concept for a Series workshop, click here.