The Creative Connection – Empowering Creativity
In 2022, THE CREATIVES, a grouping of ten experienced award-winning film & television production companies from Europe and beyond, launched THE CREATIVE CONNECTION, a series of innovative, interdisciplinary, TV-drama-focused story workshops, supported by the European Commission. The workshops take place in different countries across Europe.
THE CREATIVE CONNECTION workshops are a place for writers to explore new ideas and partnerships, working closely with THE CREATIVES to generate new stories told from fresh perspectives, which resonate more deeply with audiences. Each workshop is individually designed to stimulate the writers’ ideas and creative process.
The aim of the workshops is to step “outside the box” and create projects within the workshops rather than arrive with an existing project to develop.
Selected participants arrive at the first of their three workshops having discussed with the CREATIVE CONNECTION team one or more themes they are considering. They will have also met a number of the CREATIVE CONNECTION participants online, including producers they will be working alongside with in the workshops. As their ideas develop, the writers take their emerging stories into further workshops focusing on character and then narrative.
Each workshop aims to deepen creative collaboration between the writers and producers, establishing relationships that will continue to exist once the CREATIVE CONNECTION collaborative process is completed. The stories emerging from the CREATIVE CONNECTION workshops might be nurtured further by the writer-producer teams and in some cases eventually lead to production.
How does THE CREATIVE CONNECTION work?
THE CREATIVE CONNECTION selects writer-participants with original voices, European storytellers motivated to share their ideas in collaboration with other European writers and producers. To develop stories, explore new creative relationships and form new talent networks.
10 writers are selected in total. They do not bring existing projects to the workshops, but rather enter with ideas they would like to explore in a project, and these will be discussed with the CREATIVE CONNECTION team as part of the pre-workshop preparation. The shape and form of these initial ideas will of course differ from writer to writer.
There are 10 Creative Connection producers, mirroring the number of writers. Writers and producers will meet, partnerships will be formed as the ideas are explored, and the partnerships will determine their way forward, in collaboration with the CREATIVE CONNECTION team and with the support of the other participants.
THE WORKSHOPS IN MORE DETAIL (5 days each)
At the heart of the process are 3 five-day workshops, spread over a six-month period. 1. INVESTIGATING THEMES – January 27 – February 1, 2025 (Brussels, Belgium)
Ideas and perspectives – what stories do we wish to tell? The selected writers arrive with themes in which they would like to invest more time and thought. Discussions and gentle steps into these themes will have already taken place between writers, producers, and the CREATIVE CONNECTION team as part of the pre-workshop preparation. The first workshop then takes the writer’s initial theme or idea and investigates it in a mixture of creative exercises, group discussions, guest presentations and smaller teamwork. As new interesting possibilities for the potential story emerge through the workshop, they will start to be fleshed out in more detail.
There will be a continuation of this open, exploratory process online between workshops 1 and 2.
2. EXPLORING CHARACTERS – March 10 –15, 2025 (Portugal, TBC)
Workshop 2 looks at the developed ideas which came out of Workshop 1 through the lens of characters. A combination of discussions, character games, presentations, and smaller group work will help inform and explore the characters that exist within these emerging stories. Who are the potential protagonists, antagonists? How do these characters relate to the story’s themes and ideas? Then, as their characters become clearer, the writers will get a better sense of the direction their stories should move in, and the producers a better understanding of the kind of story they have on their hands.
Once again, there will be a continuation of the exploratory process online in between workshops, deepening the collaboration between writers and producers.
3. SHAPING NARRATIVES – June 16 – 21 (tbc), 2025 (Bucharest, Romania)
Workshop 3 takes the themes and characters developed in the first two workshops and asks narrative questions of them regarding form, length, style, genre. This series of practical questions moves from theme and character to narrative, shaping how these stories will actually be told. Their plotted direction will start to be laid down.
This workshop is a writers’ residence in which the writer and producer collaborators will focus on the actual telling of their story so that by the end of the workshop they have a strong idea of where the story is going and what the next creative steps will be. Days will be split between writing time and discussion sessions.
As producer participants THE CREATIVES have an exclusive “first look” option with the projects that emerge from the programme until September 15, 2025.
Eligibility requirements:
To be a resident of one of the 27 countries of the EU.
To have been the main writer on at least 1 TV series that has been broadcast internationally or 1 feature film that has been distributed internationally and, ideally in both cases, a co-production.
Applicants must provide:
o CV / Filmography
o Writing sample or link to previous work
o Motivational letter (1-2 pages) or video statement (< 5 min video recording): ➢ why you wish to attend?
➢ what themes are you most passionate about and that would like addressed at the workshop?
➢ who are your heroes?
A high standard of spoken and written English is essential.
A fee of €5,000 will be awarded as a grant to the writers for their full participation in the workshop.
▪ Deadline for submissions: August 15, 2024
▪ Interviews: late August 2024
▪ Final selection and answer: early September 2024
For any questions about applications or eligibility, please contact:
