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CPB/PBS Producers Academy
WGBH Producers Workshop Information & Application
With this notice, the CPB/PBS Producers Academy is offering a "Scholarship" opportunity to 20 individuals for a Producers Workshop to be held at WGBH Boston, Saturday, June 18 - Friday, June 24, 2005.
Each scholarship will include the cost of the workshop, and reasonable expenses for airfare, hotel accommodations, meals, and limited ground transportation.
If you are interested in applying, please submit three copies of the following: a completed application form (48k PDF - Adobe Reader required) along with a resume including education and television production experience, a letter of recommendation from a public television station or other public television programming partner (including the Minority Consortia, ITVS, etc.), production company, or industry professional, and one non-returnable VHS tape of recent work (full program and/or sample reel). The tape provided should include work for which the applicant performed a significant role (ex: producer, director, writer, editor, associate producer) and must be cued to the beginning of the program or scene to be viewed.
Please include a brief narrative of your professional development goals within public broadcasting. Among the areas you may wish to address are general and long-range goals and how the Workshop might help you attain them, specific skill areas you hope to develop further in the Workshop, and projects you are currently planning or have in progress that might be aided by your participation in the Workshop.
To be considered, an application must be received at PBS by 5:00 PM on Friday, April 8, 2005. Scholarship awards will be announced on Friday, May 13, 2005. The following describes the planned workshop:
Over a seven-day period, participants in the Producers Workshop will attend an intensive course that covers a range of production skills and draws on the expertise that has made PBS a recognized force on the American cultural landscape. The goal of the Producers Workshop is to encourage a diverse and talented group of producers who will create new and greater programming achievements in public broadcasting.
The Program
The Producers Workshop will be open both to public television station staff producers and to independent producers who are involved in public television, as well as those producers whose work fits the mission of public television.
The Workshop will be located at and administered by WGBH Boston, which provides one-third of the PBS prime-time schedule and is the largest organization of producers in public broadcasting. The executive director of the Workshop is Judith Vecchione, Executive Producer, WGBH National Productions.
Participants
The CPB/PBS Producers Academy WGBH Workshop has been developed for producers who create or intend to create works for public broadcasting, either through a public television station or independently. It is an opportunity for these producers to work intensively on the skills that will benefit them most, through classes and through direct contact with some of public television's most talented personnel.
The definition of "producer" includes producer/writers and producer/directors; individuals who have worked locally as well as nationally, in all genres of programming; professionals who work in video, film, and interactive media; and those who work in studio-based as well as field production.
It is important to note that the Workshop is not for beginners. The program has been designed as advanced training, to hone and upgrade skills at a relatively high level so that the participants can apply these skills to works in progress or in the future.
Seminars and Sessions
The Workshop will be held over a seven-day period, June 18 - June 24, 2005. The course of study will consist of seminars on these or similar topics:
| Saturday | Travel and Welcome dinner |
| Sunday | Working with PBS
Screenings of participants' works |
| Monday | Writing
Producing/Directing: Anatomy of a Program |
| Tuesday | Editing
Presenting Your Project
Reception |
| Wednesday | Publicity & Outreach
Project Management
Legal |
| Thursday | Special Sessions on Documentary Production, Writing, etc. |
| Friday | Fundraising
Travel home |
Production Skills Seminars
The first few days of the course will be devoted to specific areas of program production: proposal writing, production planning and administration, directing/producing, writing, editing and post-production, and effectively presenting a project to funders and other audiences.
At each seminar, the participants will screen productions and discuss "homework" materials with an eye to the day's focus. The discussions will be led by the executive director of the Workshop and by other experienced production personnel drawn from the public broadcasting universe. Many of the classes will focus on documentary genres such as science, history, and investigative programming; other classes may include arts and performance programming, interactive production, children's programs, and live/studio production. The skills that the Workshop will seek to develop will be applicable to a wide range of productions.
As examples, at the Writing seminar, Workshop participants might screen extended excerpts from programs in the American Experience series, focusing specifically on the writing in films such as Reconstruction: The Second Civil War, Kinsey and New York. Assisting in the day's work would be the authors of the programs under review, who would discuss with the participants the very different choices they made in creating the narrative "voice" of these programs, the use of letters and other written sources in scriptwriting, how archival materials and scriptwriting interact, and other points of both philosophy and craft.
In the Publicity & Outreach session, by contrast, participants might begin with an overview of the goals and benefits of effective publicity and outreach campaigns, particularly in today's cluttered media environment, as presented by key staffers at WGBH's Publicity and Outreach Departments, and from the ITVS Outreach staff. The group might then divide into breakout sessions that brainstorm on a given publicity or outreach problem. Finally, the session would resume with comparisons of materials generated in the breakout sessions, to highlight strategies that would be useful to current or future projects by the Workshoppers.
Special Sessions
One day of the Producers Workshop program will be tailored to the individual participants' work issues and interests. The 20-person group will break up into smaller groups of 3-5 participants who will attend tutorials with experienced national production staff. Here are some examples:
- Workshop participants who have documentary programs in progress could be paired in small groups with experienced executive producers. The small group would screen and critique the works, and the executive producer would offer structural and narrative ideas to move the production ahead.
- For those who want to expand their work into new media, sessions can be arranged with personnel from WGBH Interactive. Together they might examine past electronic-based productions that could serve as models, brainstorm about how the participants could conceptualize their new media production, and discuss in more detail how to locate and use electronic resources in the participants' home areas.
Understanding the Public Broadcasting System
Sessions will be offered on working with PBS, CPB, and related public television entities with discussion of topics such as resources available through local stations and the network, new media and public broadcasting, and more.
The participants will gather together at the end of the Workshop to share their Special Sessions experience, relate them to the earlier Production Skills Seminars, plan their next steps, and celebrate their accomplishments.
Producers Workshop Staff
The Producers Workshop course is being developed by Executive Director Judith Vecchione. Ms. Vecchione is a longtime staff member of WGBH Boston, where she has been executive producer for award-winning series including Discovering Women, Americas, and De Gaulle and France. She has also worked extensively with independent filmmakers as executive producer for The CHINA Trilogy and Eleanor Roosevelt, among other projects. She was series senior producer and producer for two programs on the acclaimed series Eyes on the Prize, and produced two programs for Vietnam: A Television History, for which she won a national Emmy. Her most recent films include Fire Wars for Nova (producer/writer), China in the Red for Frontline (executive producer), and Mary Pickford for American Experience (executive producer).
Workshop sessions, in both the Production Skills Seminars and Special Sessions, will be led by top-level executive producers; by producers, directors and writers in documentary, studio, and interactive production; and by senior production administration personnel. These will be drawn from the WGBH Boston staff, which includes the major series American Experience, Nova, Frontline, Antiques Roadshow, Masterpiece Theatre, Arthur, This Old House, and many others. Independent producers whose work has been showcased on public broadcasting will also be invited to serve as teachers and mentors in the classes.
CPB/PBS Producers Academy WGBH Workshop 2005 Schedule
Saturday Travel and Welcome dinner
All Workshop participants travel to Boston, arriving by late Saturday afternoon. The Workshop begins with a Saturday evening dinner for all participants with the executive director, PBS/CPB personnel, and some participants from previous Workshops. This is an opportunity for the Workshoppers to meet, go over the week's plans, and discuss how to maximize their experience.
| Sunday | Working with PBS
Screenings of participants' works |
We'll begin the Workshop with a session on the public broadcasting system. How does PBS work? CPB? the stations? What are the big programming issues facing public broadcasting? Funding issues? Technological issues? How can public broadcasting develop new audiences? Support new ideas? In the second session of the day, Workshop participants will share their own completed works or works-in-progress with the group. This is intended to give the participants a chance to understand each other's strengths and concerns.
| Monday |
Writing
Producing/Directing: Anatomy of a Program |
Monday and Tuesday's work will be in craft sessions, focusing on key production skills.
We start with a dense day on filmmaking skills, shaped to fit the interests and needs of this year's Workshop participants. The Writing session is likely to discuss proposal writing, writing scripts for documentary, and may cover writing for other genres (children's, narrative, etc.) The Producing/Directing session will feature presentations by a production team for a program which the Workshoppers will have viewed in advance. The team will review craft issues such as program structure, research and journalism concerns, character development, etc., as they evolved for this program.
| Tuesday |
Editing
Presenting Your Project
Reception |
The morning session on Editing will include presentations from editors working on national programs such as Nova and Frontline, and will also look at lower-tech editing options for independents and small-station staff. In the Presenting Your Project session, a panel of senior production staff who regularly review proposals and receive "pitches" will talk about what makes an effective presentation of a project. Selected Workshoppers will then "pitch" a project, and the presenters and other Workshoppers will together analyze style, content, etc. The goal will be to model best practices that can be applied to a variety of projects.
In the late afternoon there will be a reception, hosted by CPB and PBS, and held in the WGBH Atrium. This is an opportunity for Workshop participants to network with the public broadcasting and WGBH staff, independent producers, and others from the greater Boston filmmaking community.
| Wednesday |
Publicity & Outreach
Project Management
Legal |
This is a day to explore additional skills that are crucial to successful productions of all genres. Publicity & Outreach will focus on getting the finished programs to the widest possible audience: strategies, resources, opportunities. The Project and Production Management session will include case study work and be a practical, "on time and on budget" session. The Legal session will cover tricky concepts like fair use, archival and interview contracts, and more.
Thursday Special Sessions
In the Special Sessions day, attendees divide into smaller groups that meet with experienced producers/ executives/ senior writers/ etc. The goal is to present and critique the participants' works-in-progress. In the Field Directing Special Session in 2004, for example, independent filmmaker/DP Mark Thalman brainstormed with the Workshoppers on specific field production issues, screening examples from past work and discussing planning, using best technologies, finding creative solutions. Sessions that are likely to be offered are Historical, Science or Public Affairs Documentary production, Writing for proposals and in production scripts, Interactive and New Media, Field Directing/Producing, Children's programming; the sessions offered will depend on the interests of the 2005 Workshoppers. Each session will be a half-day so that participants will be able to attend two different sessions.
| Friday |
Getting the Money
Keynote Address
Travel home |
How to find funds is, of course, a key concern for all producers, and the last full Workshop session looks at fundraising, examining local, national, and international funding sources, old and new approaches, and the current best thinking on available support. A keynote address on future trends in television production offers some final thoughts and completes the 2005 Workshop.
The firm deadline for entries is Friday, April 8, 2005. To be considered, an application and required material must be received at PBS by 5:00 PM on that date. Scholarship recipients will be announced on Friday, May 13, 2005.
If you have additional questions after reading the detailed Workshop description, please contact Cheryl Jones at PBS (703) 739-5306 (cjones@pbs.org) or Angie Palmer at CPB (202) 879-9643 (apalmer@cpb.org). Please do not call WGBH.
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