The Urban Nomad Film Festival may be concluding today, but for some scriptwriters and filmmakers, it’s just the beginning of their journey.
The Taipei Screenwriters’ Collective will hold their fourth shorts and outlines workshop on Sunday morning at WOW Woolloomooloo Out West in Ximen. The collective meets at a different cafe each month — last month’s workshop was held at Fifteen 15 Pizza while March’s event was at Cafe Backstage (後門咖啡).
Members consist of both expat amateur and professional filmmakers. According to Erisa Apantaku, the event’s organizer, there is one member who is working on a feature-length script for a Taiwanese director and another whose script has made it to the final round of a scriptwriting contest in the US. There are also a couple of professional filmmakers who are active in other aspects of filmmaking, including directing, cinematography and producing.
Photo: Dana Ter, Taipei Times
“It’s really a whole spectrum,” Apantaku tells the Taipei Times.
Though there are other writers’ workshop groups in Taipei, most are fiction-based, so the screenwriters’ collective was formed earlier this year to cater specifically to scriptwriting.
Attendees will be reading and critiquing each other’s short film scripts, excerpts from feature-length scripts and outlines for feature films. Not everyone needs to submit a script in order to attend — anyone with some knowledge of scriptwriting is invited to come and critique the work.
There will be time to chat before and after the workshop, however, the main purpose of the meetup is not simply to network.
“The purpose of the meetings is to discuss work,” Apantaku says. “People want feedback for their scripts, so to show up with nothing to say is unhelpful.”
The workshop stresses that collaboration is paramount to the writing process, and it is set up to mimic the collaborative process of re-writing scripts on a TV or film set.
“Writing is re-writing,” Apantaku says.
As to her thoughts on Taiwan’s film industry, Apantaku, who has lived here for two years, says that it is “an open place for creative foreigners.”
She cites the low cost and fewer laws limiting the production of indie films as to why so many expats choose to try their hand at producing films in Taiwan.
“Creatives from around the world can produce their independent work comfortably here, more comfortably than in their home countries,” says Apantaku.
In the future, the screenwriters’ collective hopes to start workshopping feature-length scripts. Members are also encouraged to reach out to one another via the Facebook page (www.facebook.com/groups/1555192841438141) for tips and advice on their work.
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