Freelance/Student £140
Members £115
*Lunch included in the ticket price
Never has there been greater demand for stories based on real events. On screen, on the stage, on radio and in publishing, the crossover between fact and fiction is increasingly relevant, and increasingly lucrative.
Are you interested in learning how to turn true stories – either contemporary or historical – into compelling drama or fiction? This one-day workshop focuses on the art of fact-to-fiction adaptation. How do you know what makes a good story for drama? What are the tricks of crafting complex, sometimes unwieldy stories into satisfying fictional journeys? How do you make historical stories resonate with modern audiences? What are the ethical and legal implications of turning real people into fictional protagonists? And how do you go about pitching these stories to commissioners, producers and publishers.
The workshop is led by writer and journalist Hugh Costello, whose screenplay for the HBO film Bernard and Doris (based on a true story) was nominated for an Emmy. He has written many dramas for TV and radio and specialises in transforming complex real events – such as the banking collapse and the sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic church – into powerful dramatic stories.
Image: via Shutterstock / jessicahyde
]]>Freelance/Student £125
Members £100
Never has there been greater demand for stories based on real events. On screen, on the stage, on radio and in publishing, the crossover between fact and fiction is increasingly relevant, and increasingly lucrative.
Are you interested in learning how to turn true stories – either contemporary or historical – into compelling drama or fiction? This one-day workshop focuses on the art of fact-to-fiction adaptation. How do you know what makes a good story for drama? What are the tricks of crafting complex, sometimes unwieldy stories into satisfying fictional journeys? How do you make historical stories resonate with modern audiences? What are the ethical and legal implications of turning real people into fictional protagonists? And how do you go about pitching these stories to commissioners, producers and publishers.
The workshop is led by writer and journalist Hugh Costello, whose screenplay for the HBO film Bernard and Doris (based on a true story) was nominated for an Emmy. He has written many dramas for TV and radio and specialises in transforming complex real events – such as the banking collapse and the sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic church – into powerful dramatic stories.
Image: via Shutterstock / jessicahyde
]]>Freelance/Student £125
Members £100
With more than 16 years’ experience in digital journalism, pioneering website editor Jon Bernstein will lead a day-long workshop on writing for the web. You will gain an understanding of the principles of writing for the web, how it differs from print, how to establish a successful blogging persona and why the headline must work much harder online.
In this interactive session, attendees will be given plenty of opportunities to hone their craft. The workshop is ideal for new and emerging journalists, established journalists making the transition from print to web and communications professionals seeking to extend the reach and impact of the written word.
The workshop will cover the following:
1. The principles of writing
- Why writing for the web is exactly the same as writing for print. And why it’s completely different
- What George Orwell can teach us about language and readability
- EXERCISE #1: Simplifying language
- EXERCISE #2: Decoding the press release
- Understanding online reading habits
- Six more tips for writing online
2. News writing and the fundamentals of storytelling
- The Inverted Pyramid of news. And why it still matters
- The Five Ws (and the H) of news
- How to define an audience
- Establishing length
- Defining tone of voice
- EXERCISE #3: Reworking the press release
3. Blogs, longer reads and structure
- How to create a structure
- How to plan
- How to blog: the ‘atomised’ Inverted Pyramid
- Three blogging archetypes that work
- EXERCISE #4: Writing a blog post
4. Headlines
- Why headlines matter more on the web
- Tailoring headlines for the web
- Newspaper headlines that probably don’t work online
- Headlines that do work online
- EXERCISE #5: Writing a killer online headline
5. SEO: an introduction
- A practical guide to keyword research
- . . . Final thoughts
About the trainer
Jon Bernstein is an award-winning journalist, editor and digital strategist. He was deputy editor, then digital director, at the New Statesman; multimedia editor at Channel 4 News; ran the Channel 4 FactCheck website during the 2005 general election; editor-in-chief of Directgov, working in the Cabinet Office’s eGovernment Unit; and editor-in-chief of dot com start up and technology website silicon.com. In 2011, he was named Website Editor of the Year by the British Society of Magazine Editors for Newstatesman.com.
Images via Shutterstock.com / a6photo and Jon Bernstein
]]>Freelance/Student £125
Members £100
With more than 16 years’ experience in digital journalism, pioneering website editor Jon Bernstein will lead a day-long workshop on writing for the web. You will gain an understanding of the principles of writing for the web, how it differs from print, how to establish a successful blogging persona and why the headline must work much harder online.
In this interactive session, attendees will be given plenty of opportunities to hone their craft. The workshop is ideal for new and emerging journalists, established journalists making the transition from print to web and communications professionals seeking to extend the reach and impact of the written word.
The workshop will cover the following:
1. The principles of writing
- Why writing for the web is exactly the same as writing for print. And why it’s completely different
- What George Orwell can teach us about language and readability
- EXERCISE #1: Simplifying language
- EXERCISE #2: Decoding the press release
- Understanding online reading habits
- Six more tips for writing online
2. News writing and the fundamentals of storytelling
- The Inverted Pyramid of news. And why it still matters
- The Five Ws (and the H) of news
- How to define an audience
- Establishing length
- Defining tone of voice
- EXERCISE #3: Reworking the press release
3. Blogs, longer reads and structure
- How to create a structure
- How to plan
- How to blog: the ‘atomised’ Inverted Pyramid
- Three blogging archetypes that work
- EXERCISE #4: Writing a blog post
4. Headlines
- Why headlines matter more on the web
- Tailoring headlines for the web
- Newspaper headlines that probably don’t work online
- Headlines that do work online
- EXERCISE #5: Writing a killer online headline
5. SEO: an introduction
- A practical guide to keyword research
- . . . Final thoughts
About the trainer
Jon Bernstein is an award-winning journalist, editor and digital strategist. He was deputy editor, then digital director, at the New Statesman; multimedia editor at Channel 4 News; ran the Channel 4 FactCheck website during the 2005 general election; editor-in-chief of Directgov, working in the Cabinet Office’s eGovernment Unit; and editor-in-chief of dot com start up and technology website silicon.com. In 2011, he was named Website Editor of the Year by the British Society of Magazine Editors for Newstatesman.com.
Images via Shutterstock.com / a6photo and Jon Bernstein
]]>Freelance/Student £125
Members £100
Never has there been greater demand for stories based on real events. On screen, on the stage, on radio and in publishing, the crossover between fact and fiction is increasingly relevant, and increasingly lucrative.
Are you interested in learning how to turn true stories – either contemporary or historical – into compelling drama or fiction? This one-day workshop focuses on the art of fact-to-fiction adaptation. How do you know what makes a good story for drama? What are the tricks of crafting complex, sometimes unwieldy stories into satisfying fictional journeys? How do you make historical stories resonate with modern audiences? What are the ethical and legal implications of turning real people into fictional protagonists? And how do you go about pitching these stories to commissioners, producers and publishers.
The workshop is led by writer and journalist Hugh Costello, whose screenplay for the HBO film Bernard and Doris (based on a true story) was nominated for an Emmy. He has written many dramas for TV and radio and specialises in transforming complex real events – such as the banking collapse and the sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic church – into powerful dramatic stories.
Image: via Shutterstock / jessicahyde
]]>After a Turkish court ruled in March that Zaman, an opposition newspaper critical of president Erdoğan, should be run by appointed trustees, the offices were raided and tear gas and rubber bullets were used to dispel protesters. Local journalists continue to face extreme intimidation, threats and charges of espionage.
Restrictions on press freedom reflect similar treatment within civil society groups, which are widely seen as losing independence from the government. The recent attempted military coup led to further attacks on journalists, raising international concerns that Turkey has become an increasingly perilous place for writers and reporters.
While Erdoğan maintains that the press in Turkey is among the most free in the world, human rights organisations warn that freedom of expression is under ever-growing threat. We will be joined by prominent Turkish writers, along with media monitoring experts, to discuss their work in the context of the new dangers faced by writers and journalists in Turkey today.
Full panel published soon.
Chair:
Maureen Freely is the President of English PEN. An author, journalist, translator and academic, she has written seven novels and non-fiction books. She is Head of the Department of English and Comparative Literary Studies at the University of Warwick. Her novel Sailing through Byzantium was named as one of the best novels of 2014 in both the TLS and the Sunday Times, and she has translated five books by the Turkish Nobel Laureate Orhan Pamuk. She is also a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
Speakers:
Ece Temelkuran is one of Turkey’s best known novelists and political commentators and her work has been published in several languages. Her books have explored highly controversial topics in Turkey, including Kurdish and Armenian issues and women’s rights. She is a of winner of Turkish Journalist of the Year, the PEN for Peace Award and the Freedom of Thought Award from the Human Rights Association of Turkey. Temelkuran was a victim of coordinated social media abuse for two years following her criticism of Turkey’s ruling AKP government.
Alexander Christie-Miller is a freelance journalist and Turkey correspondent for Newsweek, The Times, and the Christian Science Monitor. He has lived and worked in Istanbul for the past four years.
Dr Esra Özyürek is an Associate Professor and Chair for Contemporary Turkish Studies at the European Institute, London School of Economics. She received her BA in Sociology and Political Science at Boğaziçi University, Istanbul and her MA and PhD in Anthropology at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Before joining the LSE she taught at the Anthropology Department of University of California, San Diego. Dr. Özyürek a political anthropologist who seeks to understand how Islam, Christianity, secularism, and nationalism are dynamically positioned in relation to each other in Turkey and in Europe. For her research received funding from Fulbright Foundation, Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, German Academic Exchange, Institute for Turkish Studies.
]]>Freelance/Student £125
Members £100
With more than 16 years’ experience in digital journalism, pioneering website editor Jon Bernstein will lead a day-long workshop on writing for the web. You will gain an understanding of the principles of writing for the web, how it differs from print, how to establish a successful blogging persona and why the headline must work much harder online.
In this interactive session, attendees will be given plenty of opportunities to hone their craft. The workshop is ideal for new and emerging journalists, established journalists making the transition from print to web and communications professionals seeking to extend the reach and impact of the written word.
The workshop will cover the following:
1. The principles of writing
- Why writing for the web is exactly the same as writing for print. And why it’s completely different
- What George Orwell can teach us about language and readability
- EXERCISE #1: Simplifying language
- EXERCISE #2: Decoding the press release
- Understanding online reading habits
- Six more tips for writing online
2. News writing and the fundamentals of storytelling
- The Inverted Pyramid of news. And why it still matters
- The Five Ws (and the H) of news
- How to define an audience
- Establishing length
- Defining tone of voice
- EXERCISE #3: Reworking the press release
3. Blogs, longer reads and structure
- How to create a structure
- How to plan
- How to blog: the ‘atomised’ Inverted Pyramid
- Three blogging archetypes that work
- EXERCISE #4: Writing a blog post
4. Headlines
- Why headlines matter more on the web
- Tailoring headlines for the web
- Newspaper headlines that probably don’t work online
- Headlines that do work online
- EXERCISE #5: Writing a killer online headline
5. SEO: an introduction
- A practical guide to keyword research
- . . . Final thoughts
About the trainer
Jon Bernstein is an award-winning journalist, editor and digital strategist. He was deputy editor, then digital director, at the New Statesman; multimedia editor at Channel 4 News; ran the Channel 4 FactCheck website during the 2005 general election; editor-in-chief of Directgov, working in the Cabinet Office’s eGovernment Unit; and editor-in-chief of dot com start up and technology website silicon.com. In 2011, he was named Website Editor of the Year by the British Society of Magazine Editors for Newstatesman.com.
Images via Shutterstock.com / a6photo and Jon Bernstein
]]>Are you interested in learning how to write radio drama? This one-day workshop will help you start ‘thinking in sound’ and focus on the special demands of writing drama for the ear. It aims to equip participants with the skills necessary both to write their own new projects and to pursue the possibility of working on existing radio drama series. The workshop will demonstrate how to use sound to grab the audience’s attention from the very beginning of a story.
You will learn devices that help to differentiate between characters and establish their relationships with each other – hugely important in radio drama, where the audience only have voices and effects to rely on. You will also explore ways to create an atmosphere of suspense, where the test of each scene is: does the audience care what happens next? The workshop will cover how to go about pitching stories to commissioners and producers.
This one-day workshop will be led by Hugh Costello, who has written more than two dozen dramas for BBC Radio, and has been a judge in the drama category of the Radio Production Awards for the past two years. Costello is also a screenwriter whose HBO film, Bernard and Doris, was nominated for ten Emmy Awards, including best screenplay. He is also a print journalist and produces factual radio programmes.
Image via Shutterstock / Forest Run
]]>Freelance/Student £125
Members £100
Never has there been greater demand for stories based on real events. On screen, on the stage, on radio and in publishing, the crossover between fact and fiction is increasingly relevant, and increasingly lucrative.
Are you interested in learning how to turn true stories – either contemporary or historical – into compelling drama or fiction? This one-day workshop focuses on the art of fact-to-fiction adaptation. How do you know what makes a good story for drama? What are the tricks of crafting complex, sometimes unwieldy stories into satisfying fictional journeys? How do you make historical stories resonate with modern audiences? What are the ethical and legal implications of turning real people into fictional protagonists? And how do you go about pitching these stories to commissioners, producers and publishers.
The workshop is led by writer and journalist Hugh Costello, whose screenplay for the HBO film Bernard and Doris (based on a true story) was nominated for an Emmy. He has written many dramas for TV and radio and specialises in transforming complex real events – such as the banking collapse and the sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic church – into powerful dramatic stories.
Image: via Shutterstock / jessicahyde
]]>These short documentaries masterfully capture artistic works on screen while celebrating the imaginative minds behind them.
From a Scottish shipyard welder turned poet to Japanese interactive artist On Megumi Akiyoshi, these short documentaries will introduce you to convention-breaking creatives, their fascinating work spaces, and their sources of inspiration.
Full lineup to be announced soon.
MINING POEMS OR ODES
Director: Callum Rice
2015 / 11 min / United Kingdom
www.scottishdocinstitute.com/films/mining-poems-or-odes/
Robert, an ex-shipyard welder from Govan in Scotland, reflects on how his life experiences have influenced his new found compulsion to write.
YO: LET’S MAKE A BOOK OF THIS
Director: Kristina Budelis and Myles Kane
2013 / 7 min / United States
A few years ago, Yolanda Cuomo, a New York-based artist and graphic designer, learned that she had to vacate her Chelsea studio of twenty-five years. The studio, in an old carriage house in Manhattan, has been the site of artistic collaborations for decades, with artists and photographers from Richard Avedon to Laurie Simmons and Sylvia Plachy, and a team of designers, including Bonnie Briant and Kristi Norgaard.
THE 100 YEARS SHOW
Director: Alison Klayman
2015 / 29 min / United States
www.alisonklayman.com
Carmen Herrera is one of the oldest working artists today. She was a pioneering abstract painter in the ’40s and ’50s, but only recently found the recognition that eluded her for most of her career as she approaches her 100th birthday.
ON BLOOMING ART
Director: Cathryne Czubek
2014 / 6 min / United States
Multi-media artist ON Megumi Akiyoshi transforms the mundane of everyday life. Born in Japan and based in New York City, ON frequently brings her eclectic, and wearable, ON Gallery to the street to interact with the average passerby.
THE REINVENTION OF NORMAL
Director: Liam Saint-Pierre
2015 / 8 min / United Kingdom
http://www.liamsaintpierre.com/
The film follows Dominic Wilcox, an artist / inventor / designer, on his quest for new ideas….Taking the normal and turning it into something unique.
