Praxis Summer Vacation

Please note that the Praxis library will be closed July 15 - August 15 2009.  Have a great summer!

Fall 2009 Call For Entries

Praxis is now accepting entries!

Please note that the Fall Competition will be the only competition for 2009.  The Spring 2010 Competition will not be running, so don't miss this opportunity!

For more information and to download an application form click here.

OUT WITH THE OLD, IN WITH THE NEW WOODWARD'S BUILDING

SFU Film's 31st Annual Graduation Screening

In its 31st year, the SFU Film Program presents its Annual Graduation Screening on April 29th and 30th at the Granville 7 Cinema.  The screening this year is something special because it is the last year film graduates will be making their films from the portables atop Burnaby Mountain!

It is also a celebration of SFU's School for the Contemporary Arts' upcoming move to the new Woodward's building, providing future SFU Film students a larger work space and a closer connection to the independent film community in Vancouver.

Every year, SFU Film graduates are garnered with top honors at film festivals around the world.  This year, with the largest graduating class in SFU Film history, the 17 short films that will be screened both nights are anticipated to continue this tradition and maintain the program's reputation for being original, inspired, and pushing the envelope.

To learn more about the screening and to book your tickets, please visit us at:

www.sfufilm.ca/4thyear

Please book your tickets soon as sales are picking up!

If you would like to support this event and its emerging filmmakers by becoming a sponsor, please contact Jessica Moorhouse, Event Coordinator, to find out more about our sponsorship packages.

 

Jessica Moorhouse

604-999-5074

jmoorhou@sfu.ca

 

Writing Features -- An Introduction

April 25 – June 13, 2009. Saturdays 12:00-4:00 pm.
3120-515 West Hastings, Vancouver.

In this eight week workshop, we will explore the basics of screenwriting as you work ahead on your own feature project. The course will begin with examinations of idea development, research, genres, creation of character, arcs, outlining and treatments, scene structure, evocative writing, and the importance of visual style in your screenplay. Exemplary film excerpts will be screened to support and illustrate, and participants will be encouraged to pitch their story ideas and begin work towards completion of a first draft. Opening sequences (15 pp) of participants’ screenplays will be workshopped in class with special focus on the creation of an engaging protagonist and the delineation of dramatic conflict. By the end of the course, participants will have achieved a deeper understanding of screenwriting practice and be on their way to completing a feature script.

$380 +GST Non-Members (includes Praxis Membership)/$350 Praxis Members +GST

For more details...

Story Editor Internship 2009

The Story Editor Internship 2009 is now accepting applications. 

This internship program is generously supported by Astral Media's Harold Greenberg Fund.

The opportunities for our Interns to observe and work with senior professionals are invaluable for developing the complex skills required - not only the ability to analyze story, character, genre and theme, but also the interpersonal skills required in the delicate task of guiding creative work and mediating between writer and producer.

The Story Editor Internship is open to interested individuals from all over Canada. 

Please note that there is one bursary to cover travel expenses for a successful applicant from outside of the Lower Mainland.  Signify on your application if you wish to apply for this bursary.

Deadline for applications is Friday, May 1st.

To find out more and apply, click here.
 

 

Stories Under Stress: The Economics of Film and TV Drama in Canada

Praxis in partnership with BC Film is pleased to announce a highly insightful presentation on the Canadian Theatrical Feature Film Industry's future with Peter Grant, free of charge.  Peter Grant, a media expert and lawyer, possesses a sweeping overview of Canada's cultural industries within an international context.  His presentation, Stories Under Stress:  The New Economics of Film and TV Drama in Canada, addresses the following questions: "What is the impact of the current recession on Canadian film and TV drama? What will happen with the over-the-air TV station renewals?  What will be the role of the subscription programming services? How will feature film be affected?  How will new media impact this?" 

A must for producers, filmmakers and writers in all media genres!

Saturday, March 28th, 2:00-5:00 pm
Morris J Wosk Centre for Dialogue
580 West Hastings
Room 05-30, ICBC Concourse, Lower Level.

 

**Please note the change in location.  The Morris J Wosk Centre for Dialogue is across the street from Harbour Centre, and the main entrance is through the courtyard off of Seymour Street.
 

This event is generously sponsored by BC Film and is open to the public.

Please note that seating is limited for this high-demand event.  To RSVP, please reply to praxis@sfu.ca indicating your name and email address, and type PETER GRANT in the subject heading.


Please note our attendance policy:
Space is limited for this free event. As with all of our free events, we overbook to ensure capacity.  By RSVPing in advance and arriving at least fifteen minutes early, you will be given seating preference, but please note that we cannot guarantee any seats.  Individuals who have RSVPd but who arrive less than fifteen minutes prior to the event will be seated depending on availability.  If you arrive at our event and have not RSVPd at least 48 hours in advance, we will do our best to seat you just before the beginning of the lecture depending on availability. 

The Best of INPUT

CBC/Radio-Canada and the Praxis Centre for Screenwriters invite you to attend The Best of INPUT, a forum devoted to screening the best of the world’s public television programming from 2008. There will be two different sessions, with discussion to follow each screening. The sessions will take place on Friday, February 27th, from 6:30 to 10:30 pm, and on Saturday, February 28th, from 1:00 to 5:00 pm, at SFU Harbour Center, 515 West Hastings, Vancouver, Room 1700. Admission is free, but space is limited and you must register at 604-662-6135 or at CBUF_Comm_Vancouver@cbc.ca or CBUF_Comm_Vancouver@radio-canada.ca.  For detailed information on the screenings, please see attachment.

Cette année encore CBC/Radio-Canada & Praxis Centre for Screenwriters vous offre Le Meilleur d'INPUT, le meilleur de la télévision publique en deux projections gratuites. Vendredi 27 février de 18h30 à 22h30 et samedi 28 février de 13h à 17h, à SFU Harbour Center, 515 W Hastings, Vancouver, salle 1700. L'entrée est gratuite, mais le nombre de place limitée. Vous devez vous inscrire au 604-662-6135 ou au CBUF_Comm_Vancouver@cbc.ca ou CBUF_Comm_Vancouver@radio-canada.ca . Voir les détails ci-joints.

Intermediate Screenwriting course with Rodger Cove

Designed for screenwriters who have a first draft of a feature film script under their belts, and who have an understanding of format and basic three act structure and a desire to improve their script, this course will run as if each script were going through the development process.  Ultimately, the focus will be on developing the stories, discovering new dimensions in them, and getting to know what is possible and dramatically viable. 

Saturdays 12:00 - 4:00 p.m.
Feb 21 - April 18 2009

$390 ($350 for current Praxis members) + 5% GST

For more information and to register, read on...

Unconscious Motives

Lively, complex and believable characters create the energy that drives most successful screenplays and fiction writing -- from Moby Dick to Juno. How do writers turn ideas into personalities -- especially personalities that differ from themselves?

Carolyn Mamchur reveals her techniques for exploring deep character and developing conflict based on her work as a script and fiction writer and story editor as well as thirty years of research as Professor of Education at Simon Fraser University.  Her expertise in Jungian archetypes, the Meyers-Briggs personality profile, and other analytical tools will give writers the techniques to develop their own complex and subtle characters.

10 AM - 4 PM Saturday/Sunday March 7/8 2009
 

$175 + 5% GST (FREE for registrants of Intermediate Screenwriting)

For more information and to register, read on...

HOW A CANADIAN SCREENWRITER GOT A HIT FOX SERIES ON THE AIR - An evening with Hart Hanson, Executive Producer of "Bones."

Executive Producer Hart Hanson will dissect his hit forensic drama series "Bones," currently in its fourth season on Fox Network and Global Television.  He will divulge the strategy behind the conception, research and production of a successful American TV drama – how pilots are commissioned, stars are cast, and seasons are developed .  

Hanson, who created the popular CTV series "Traders" in 1996, has also been Consulting Producer on "Joan of Arcadia," Executive Producer on "Judging Amy," and a writer on numerous episodes of those shows plus "Stargate SG-1," "The Outer Limits," "Avonlea" and "North of 60."

 

Thursday February 26, 7-9 p.m.

Harbour Centre, Room 2245

 

FREE

 

Please RVSP to praxis@sfu.ca with HART HANSON in the subject line.

In Memory of Brian Freeman

Brian Freeman, a long-time mentor and friend to Praxis, has died in Toronto after a long illness. 

Brian started his professional life as a playwright, actor, theatre critic, arts journalist, dramaturge and associate director of English Theatre at the National Arts Centre –- interspersed with stints as a carpenter, taxi driver, bookstore manager and whale counter.  In the mid-eighties he became Senior Development Officer at the Ontario Film Development Corporation, then moved to CBC where for several years he was Creative Head of Movies and Miniseries.  As such, he traveled across Canada and worked tirelessly and empathetically with the country’s best television writers.  At the same time he was a frequent advisor in Praxis workshops, and was equally encouraging to new and untried talent.  He gave us wise counsel not only on individual screenplays, but also on our overall vision for the future of Praxis.

Brian died peacefully at home on January 6 2009 with his wife Patty and two sons Morgan and Walker at his side.
 

Spring 2009 Winners Announced

Praxis is pleased to announce the winners of our Spring 2009 Screenwriting Competition:

• A Chinese Angle by Melva Mclean, Vancouver, BC
• The Kindness of Strangers by Louise Deschamps, Vancouver
• The Red Road Home by Yang Hu, Vancouver, BC
• Shallow End by Brett Hannam, Halifax, NS
• Slumach's Gold by David Webb, St. Albert, AB
• The Story of Life by Graham Kosakoski, Vancouver

Thank you to everyone who applied to this season's competition.  Please note that our next competition deadline, for the Fall 2009 workshop, is June 30, 2009.  For more details on this Spring's winning screenplays, as well as updates on our upcoming courses, stay tuned to www.praxisfilm.com

Praxis in India

Despite its national output of over 700 feature films per year, India offers little training for screenwriters beyond the two highly selective government-sponsored film institutes and Whistling Woods, the new private film school in Mumbai.   As Indian cinema has expanded its worldwide audience in the last few years beyond its own emigrants, the interest in making films that will appeal to diverse cultures has increased.  In the last decade a ‘third cinema’ has grown up between the musical extravaganzas of Bollywood and the austerities of Bengali neorealism: a cinema that addresses social and political issues without sacrificing entertainment value.  The distinctive work of Mani Ratnam, Vishal Bharadwaj, Ashutosh Gowarikar, and Amir Khan is visually and musically dazzling while confronting major changes in Indian society.  

This year Praxis has has stepped up to conduct screenwriting workshops in several Indian cities.  Thanks to grants from the Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute and the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada, Praxis director Patricia Gruben has taught a short course at Xavier Institute of Communication in Mumbai and Toronto writer/director Amnon Buchbinder (Whole New Thing) has given workshops at the Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute in Kolkata and (with influential Indian screenwriter Anjum Rajabali) at the Kerala International Film Festival.  Gruben has also begun a series of critical articles on the narrative structure of Indian films, starting with Mani Ratnam’s brilliant Dil Se (1998).

Rather than impose Hollywood formulas, we look for common ground between western goal-oriented screenplay structure and the distinctive cultural traditions and contemporary artistry of Indian cinema.  Young writers and filmmakers are hungry for dialogue about cinematic styles and techniques, and we hope to establish an annual Praxis workshop in Mumbai.  We’re also planning two digital animation courses for Fall 2009 to be led by Svend-Erik Eriksen, former executive director of the National Film Board Pacific & Yukon Region.

PSYCHOS, VAMPIRES AND VAMPS

An Evening with GUINEVERE TURNER
In conversation with Ken Eisner

Actor, screenwriter and director Guinevere Turner has written a menagerie of challenging characters, from a yuppie serial killer in American Psycho to a 50’s bondage model in The Notorious Bettie Page, to a vengeful half-vampire in Blood Rayne.  As an actor she’s played both the lovelorn Max in Go Fish and the two-timing Gabby Deveaux in The L Word, along with numerous other edgy and original characters.   

 For more information please read on......

WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 12   7:30 PM
SFU Harbour Centre
515 West Hastings, Room 1800

ADMISSION IS FREE
Seating is limited.
Please RSVP to praxis@sfu.ca with 'Guinevere Turner' in the subject line.

Spring 2009 Screenwriting Competition: call for entries

The submission deadline for Praxis' Spring 2009 Screenwriting Competition is November 15, 2008.  For more information and to apply, read on...

DEEPA MEHTA chats with audience at Meet the Filmmakers

On October 4, 2008, Deepa Mehta and her partner, producer David Hamilton, met with a packed audience in the Cineworks studio to discuss their new feature Heaven on Earth....For more about the talk read on

Fall 2008 Competition - Winners Announced

After much deliberation the jury has decided on the following writers and projects for our upcoming Fall 2008 Workshops to be held in Vancouver in October.

The six finalists are:

• Capital Murder by Chris Britton, Vancouver, BC
• The Chump Brothers by Hal Haberman, Los Angeles, CA
  
• Golden Delicious by Gorrman Lee, Vancouver, BC
• Hiding Larry by Tony Elliot, Toronto, ON
  
• The Shell by Neil Every and Chris Donaldson, Vancouver, BC
• The Woods by Gary Hawes, Vancouver, BC

Read on for more information on our finalists and their scripts...

The following projects have been selected as semifinalists and will be each awarded a detailed Praxis Reader's Report:

• Amalia's Journey by Ryan Copple, Vancouver, BC
• The Call by Melva McLean, Vancouver, BC
• Hold The Sky by Roslyn Muir, Burnaby, BC
• Long Version Beer Commercial by Brent Mikkelson, Victoria, BC
• Of Ash and Ice by Doree Olson, Kelowna, BC
• The Realm of Mist and Gloom by David Stetson, Missisagua, ON

The jury also had an honorable mention listing for the following screenplay:

• A Man Like Me, or Lost Baggage by Florence Gibson, Toronto, ON

Writing Features -- An Introduction

Sept 20 -- Nov 08 2008, Saturdays 12:00-4:00 pm Vancouver
$400 +GST Non-Members (includes Praxis Membership)/$350 Praxis Members +GST

In this eight week workshop, we will explore the basics of screenwriting as you work ahead on your own feature project. The course will begin with examinations of idea development, research, genres, creation of character, arcs, outlining and treatments, scene structure, evocative writing, and the importance of visual style in your screenplay. Exemplary film excerpts will be screened to support and illustrate, and participants will be encouraged to pitch their story ideas and begin work towards completion of a first draft. Opening sequences (15 pp) of participantsíscreenplays will be workshopped in class with special focus on the creation of an engaging protagonist and the delineation of dramatic conflict. By the end of the course, participants will have achieved a deeper understanding of screenwriting practice and be on their way to completing a feature script.

Read more details and register online...

Special Event: THE STATE OF THE ART OF DOCUMENTARY

Join us for an intimate and invigorating conversation about the art of the documentary with two of North America’s most accomplished documentary filmmakers, Jennifer Baichwal (Manufactured Landscapes) and Connie Field (The Life and Times of Rosie the Riveter). What makes a documentary film great? What raises a film from the ordinary to the extraordinary? In a time of overwhelming media saturation, what does it mean to make moving images and sounds charged with poetry and passionate rage? How does one begin, and how does one remain open to the potential that is always present?

Canadian Jennifer Baichwal is best known for her 2006 Genie-winning Manufactured Landscapes. This and her other feature-length documentaries, Let It Come Down:The life of Paul Bowles; and The True Meaning of Pictures: Shelby Lee Adams’ Appalachia, explore the work of artists encountering alien social landscapes.  

San Francisco-based Connie Field gained international attention with The Life and Times of Rosie the Riveter, which documents the changing roles of women during WWII. Freedom on My Mind, her film on the civil rights movement, was nominated for an Academy Award in 1995.  Her latest project, Have You Heard from Johannesburg?, is a ten-part series on the struggle to end apartheid.

Rudy Buttignol is President and CEO of BC’s Knowledge Network.  Before arriving in Vancouver he was creative head of programming at TVOntario for 13 years, working with many of Canada’s most distinguished filmmakers.  

Baichwal and Field are in Vancouver as mentors for the 2008 Art of the Documentary workshop, an intensive development session for twelve filmmakers from across Canada. This will be their only public appearance together.

8 pm Sunday 25 May
Vancity Theatre 1181 Seymour St.
Reception to follow.

Tickets $10 general; $7 students/seniors.
Cash only.
To reserve, email praxis@sfu.ca, subject: “DOC ART”

The Story Editor Internship 2008 is now accepting applications.  Deadline for applications is Tuesday, May 20th.

This internship program is generously supported by Astral Media's Harold Greenberg Fund.

The opportunities for our Interns to observe and work with senior professionals are invaluable for developing the complex skills required - not only the ability to analyze story, character, genre and theme, but also the interpersonal skills required in the delicate task of guiding creative work and mediating between writer and producer.

To find out more and apply, click here.