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During a 4-day workshop led by Aino Suni and Jan Forsström, you’ll develop and review your ideas and discover new ones for your films.

PART-1

Aino’s class is 101 on how to come up with ideas. It includes practical methods of how to collect observations and develop them thematically whilst exploring your own thinking and experiences. Many times we approach storytelling by first coming up with the plot but that can make the stories rather superficial. The aim is to switch perspective to think more broadly about where ideas come from and offer practical solutions and tools – don’t just wait for inspiration to strike you like lightning, take control!

PART-2

Jan will speak about the rhetorics of screenwriting, meaning how to address the audience and the role of the audience in general; how to make the audience your willing co-writer. Jan will also speak about the ethics of screenwriting and narrative, the dangers and challenges involved, and how challenging yourself in this sense will actually help you make your scripts better. These topics will be discussed in relation to the ideas developed in the first part of the workshop led by Aino.

BIOS:

Aino Suni (1985) is a Helsinki-based director and screenwriter who goes both ways – she directs both fiction as well as documentaries. Suni graduated in 2014 as Master in Film Screenwriting from the University of Salford, UK. Suni’s debut fiction feature “Heartbeast” premiered in 2022 in the main competition of Goteborg Film Festival. The story of Elina, an aspiring rapper who falls desperately in love with her step-sister, is a unique co-production between France, Finland and Germany.

Suni’s intimate and daring documentary feature “Never Again” about a young Finnish rapper Mercedes Bentso and her empowering journey to recovery was a big hit on YLE (Finnish National Broadcasting Company) in 2019. Likewise, Suni’s documentary series “Pussy Diaries” about female and non-binary sexual emancipation still sparks conversation, even two years after its broadcast.

On top of features Suni directs tv-series, short films, music videos, commercial films and dabbles with photography – she has a soft spot for everything bravely visual and doesn’t shy away from discomforting topics or atmospheres. She values open-hearted collaboration and while working, she wants to create a safe space for artistic freedom based on mutual respect.

Jan Forsström (born 1975 in Kokkola, Finland) is a Finnish screenwriter, director, script editor, author and music supervisor. His screenwriting credits include J-P Valkeapää’s THE VISITOR; THE PRINCESS OF EGYPT, which Forsström himself directed; and Zaida Bergroth’s films LAST COWBOY STANDING, THE GOOD SON, MIAMI and MARIA’S PARADISE. Forsström has won both main Finnish screenwriting prizes, Jussi and Sylvi. As a script consultant/editor, Forsström has worked with dozens of Finnish and international productions. He has published three critically acclaimed books of fiction and also works as music supervisor, his last work in that field being Girl Picture by Alli Haapasalo (winner of the audience award in Sundance 2022). Currently he is finishing a script for the director Selma Vilhunen and developing his own second feature as a writer-director.

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Amount of people: 6

Requirements to participate:

Basic script writing experience as in you’ve used script software before and/or written short film script/s (they don’t have to be produced). You are familiar with the most common concepts of screenwriting (presented in most screenwriting manuals and courses): The 3 act structure, turning points, establishing, closure, show don’t tell, etc. It’s great if you already know a topic or theme you’d like to explore, but it’s not necessary.

Materials and Selection:

A short motivation letter (one-page max.), previous works (max. 3 links or 1 short script), and CV as 1 single PDF to coordinator.ampi@gmail.com by 19th April 23:59.

In the letter, please tell:

What kind of help you would want and need from this workshop?
What kind of content would benefit your scriptwriting the best.
What kind of ethical challenges do you face during your writing process?

Please name the PDF as follows:

‘FirstName_LastName_WritingWorkshop_AMPI’

Please name the subject of the email as ‘AMPI+ Open Call: Writing Workshop”
Announcement of the selected participants is by the 24.04.2023

Dates: 2nd, 3d, 4h and 5th of May

Location: AMPI’s collaborator spaces.

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Schedule:

Day #1: date 02.05. / 10:00-16:00 (5 hrs + lunch) at Caisa Auditorium

Participants go through different methods of creating ideas. They make short exercises to gather themes and topics that are relevant to the group and share and discuss the results and the process.

Day #2: dates 03.05. / 10:00-12:30 (2,5 hrs) at Italian Institute

Participants share the previous day’s results with the group and go through methods of developing the stories further.

Day #3: dates 04.05. / 10:00-12:30 (2,5 hrs) at Italian Institute

Participants focus on rhetorics of screenwriting; Aristoteles’ Poetics, and the Aristotelian model of drama.

Day #4: date 05.05. / 10:00-16:00 (5 hrs + lunch) at Design Museum

Participants focus on the ethics of screenwriting: Preconceptions, stereotypes, individualistic worldviews, etc.