Video streaming giant Netflix is launching a talent cultivation program in Taiwan aimed at producing high-quality Mandarin content, the company announced in a press release on Thursday.
Netflix Chinese language content head Maya Huang (黃怡玫) said that Netflix has long invested in the Taiwanese market, citing the Netflix Fund for Creative Equity launched last year as an example.
The fund would continue to dedicate resources to discovering content with the potential to be developed into Chinese-language projects, she added.
Photo: Ann Wang, Reuters
The financing for the new talent projects seeks to create an ecosystem for content creators and professional development programs, she said.
The talent projects feature a training program focused on practical script development, Huang said, adding that the five-month intensive scriptwriting program would be codeveloped with local production company Yiyi Pictures (壹壹影業), with the intention of cultivating scriptwriter assistants.
Trainees would be taught to work in a writers’ room, which is common in the television industry in the West, and learn scriptwriting, pitching and about the content production industry, she said.
Those who are interested can sign up on the Netflix Web site until July 24 at midnight.
The course is to run from Sept. 15 until Feb. 13 next year.
Netflix would also work with the Film and Television Production Association (台灣影視製片協會) as part of the program to train film and television production trainees, Huang said.
In addition to learning how to work within the confines of Netflix’s culture, production trainees would also get a chance to apprentice in actual productions to gain practical experience, she said.
Those who are interested can sign up for the program from yesterday until July 13 midnight.
Although it is only a two-day course (July 24 and 25), the duration of internships with film crews would depend on the availability of partner crews and their projects, Netflix said.
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