A 2-day seminar on how to write, create and find an audience for a web series.
Oct 25 & 26
SAE Institute Byron Bay
Day 1: Mike Jones (Deadlock) will deliver a one day workshop on story development and the writing process for online episodic series.
Day 2: Two of Australia’s most successful web series creators will present case studies and ‘how to’ sessions and a representative from Screen Australia will talk about funding, initiatives and industry opportunities.
The day will conclude with a panel discussion on how ‘creating a web series can create career pathways’.
Guest speakers include Julie Kalceff (Starting from Now) Luke Eve (High Life) Alyce Adams, Online Investment Manager Screen Australia and Clare Sladden (Freudian Slip).
This is a ‘must attend’ event for anyone looking for a way to bring their drama or comedy stories to the screen.
There will be a special networking event for all attendees on Thursday 25th October, at Sticky Wicket, 32 Jonson St, Byron Bay from 5pm to 7 pm. Finger food will be provided with drinks available for sale from the bar.
The program
Thursday Oct 25th
Mike Jones on Writing Episodic Series
The workshop will focus on story development and writing process for online episodic series. It will look at both the fundamentals of series writing – structure, character, and genre across both dramatic and comedic forms – as well as the specific demands of episodic storytelling – returnability, narrative engines and patterns of engagement. The session will also case study a range of online productions looking holistically at ideas of genre, audience, and emotional expectations.
The outcome of this session is for creators to be able to identify the sustainable dramatic engine of their series, shape compelling episodic story patterns, as use practical templates and tools for creating series bibles and short synopses.
- Narrative engines
- Storyworld building
- Genre and Format
- Episodic Patterns
- Character design
Friday Oct 26th
Julie Kalceff on How to Create and Market a Narrative Web Series
Using her international smash-hit series Starting From Now as a case study, writer/director/producer Julie Kalceff will present this hour-long masterclass and explore how to create a successful web series. Topics include the benefits of making a web series, how to plot for short form episodic, finding and building an audience, release strategies, common pitfalls, and ultimately, how to leverage your success.
Julie is the creator, writer, director and a producer of the international hit multi-platform drama Starting From Now. Attracting both critical and popular acclaim, the series is one of Australia’s most successful multi-platform projects. It has amassed over 100 million views, been watched in 230 countries, and was sold to broadcast television in Australia. Starting From Now has played on the global festival circuit, winning multiple awards.
Luke Eve on the Highs and Lows of Creating a Web Series
In 2014 Luke created, produced and directed the online series, Low Life: A Black Comedy About Depression. It went on to win over 20 major festival awards and was sold to Amazon Prime and CanalPlay. In 2017 he completed directing and producing the follow up series, High Life which was Executive Produced by Stephen Fry. The series won over 30 major awards including Best Digital Original at C21 Content London and was also nominated for an Australian AACTA Award. It took out the Web Series World Cup for 2017 for being the most awarded and successful web series on the festival circuit. The series sold to BBC3 in the UK, Channel 9 in Australia, CanalPlay in Europe and Fullscreen in the USA.
Alyce Adams on Accessing Funding and Audience
As part of the Online Production Investment team at Screen Australia, Alyce Adams will advise on how to get funding from Screen Australia for online development and production and how to take your application from eligible to competitive. She will talk about the incentives and initiatives available through Screen Australia and give a snapshot of the online industry, highlighting where to be seen and pathways to audience.
Clare Sladden Living Regionally and Making a Web Series
Using her award nominated web series, Freudian Slip, which she wrote, directed & produced Clare will discuss the strategies used to launch exclusively on the Frankie Magazine website and how to overcome challenges when creating a web series living regionally.
GUEST SPEAKER BIOS
Mike Jones
Mike Jones is a writer, script producer, and story editor whose projects have received numerous AWG, SPA, & ADG awards & nominations. Mike is best known as an expert in speculative & dark genre narratives but is equally adept in shaping narrative comedy. Currently he serves as story editor with boutique TV production company, SweetPotatoFilms, whose success includes the celebrated supernatural drama series, ‘The Kettering Incident’, and as script producer for EveryCloud Productions, most recently steering youth-drama series ‘Deadlock’ for the ABC.
A well regarded story developer, Mike has worked with companies including the ABC, WarnerBros, Jungle, Porchlight, and Essential, and served as story producer and script editor for Princess Pictures. He has also lead long-form script development labs for YouTube, and is story consultant to ABC Signature studios in the US.
Mike was script producer for the ABC across a slate of iView original and broadcast projects including comic-drama series; ‘F*cking Adelaide’, ‘Other People’s Problems’, and ‘Wrong Kind of Black’. He was script-editor on the ADG award-winning comedy series, ‘Small Town Hackers’ for US network Above Average and the upcoming ‘Superwog’ for the ABC.
Mike previously served as a development executive to ScreenAustralia & lectured in story & writing at the Australian Film TV & Radio School, where he currently sits on the AFTRS ReFrame industry advisory group.
Julie Kalceff
Julie Kalceff is an award-winning writer, director and producer and a graduate of the Australian Film Television and Radio School with a Masters Degree in Scriptwriting.
Julie is the creator, writer, director and a producer of the international hit multi-platform drama Starting From Now. Attracting both critical and popular acclaim, the series is one of Australia’s most successful multi-platform projects. It has amassed over 100 million views, been watched in 230 countries, and was sold to broadcast television in Australia. Starting From Now has played on the global festival circuit, winning multiple awards.
In 2017, Julie was commissioned by the ABC to write and direct First Day, a children’s television episode about a 12 year-old transgender girl starting high school. First Day was nominated for three awards at the prestigious Prix Jeunesse International Children’s Television Festival, 2018 – Best Children’s Television Episode (7-10 Fiction), UNESCO Special Prize, and the Gender Equity Prize – winning the Gender Equity Prize. Julie won the Best Screenplay Award (My Queer Career) at the Mardi Gras Film Festival, 2018, for her work on First Day, which also picked up the Audience Award. Julie was also nominated for an Australian Directors’ Guild Award, 2018, for Best Direction of a Children’s TV or SVOD Drama.
In 2018, Julie was selected to participate in Screen Australia’s Talent USA Program that introduces some of the best Australian talent to the international market.
Julie received development funding through Screen Australia’s Gender Matters initiative and is in development on half-hour drama series Torn. She is currently adapting First Day into a series for the ABC and is in development on a female-led sports comedy feature film, Out of Bounds.
Luke Eve
Luke is a graduate of the Australian Film Television and Radio School. Soon after, he established his own production company, More Sauce and went on to direct five short films including Cockroach and Australian Summer which won Tropfest – the world’s largest short film festival.
In 2010 he began directing television such as Dave in The Life, SEX: An Unnatural History and the landmark documentary series Great Southern Land which landed him an ADG nomination for best direction in a documentary TV series.
In 2014 Luke created, produced and directed the online series, Low Life: A Black Comedy About Depression. It went on to win over 20 major festival awards and was sold to Amazon Prime and CanalPlay. In 2017 he completed directing and producing the follow up series, High Life which was Executive Produced by Stephen Fry. The series has won over 30 major awards including Best Digital Original at C21 Content London and was also nominated for an Australian AACTA Award. It took out the Web Series World Cup for 2017 for being the most awarded and successful web series of 2017. The series has sold to BBC3, Channel 9, CanalPlay and Fullscreen.
He currently has four other digital series in different stages of development and finance in the USA, UK, Spain and Australia. His next digital series FRED is in development with Blackpills and he is currently prepping to shoot his first feature film I Met A Girl in Australia sometime next year.
Alyce Adams
Alyce is an Investment Manager at Screen Australia in the Online department. Her role includes managing development, production and completion funding for multiple online projects across YouTube, Facebook, ABC iView, SBS OnDemand, Blackpills, Netflix and Stan, as well as several VR projects that have been accepted into Venice and Toronto International Film Festivals. Alyce deals with creators, writers, producers, platforms, broadcasters and other humans every day, using her years of experience working in the online sector to give guidance on the best way to create unique content that will reach a global audience.
She watched a lot of Youtube during high school and uni, so she’s lucky she found this job where that knowledge is actually useful. In addition to watching web series, Alyce has helped oversee initiatives such as Skip Ahead with Google and Fresh Blood with the ABC. She also appreciates GIFs of Parks and Recreation.
Clare Sladden
Screenworks Creating a Webseries is made possible with support from Create NSW and venue partner SAE Qantm.
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