Deadline for entries: Sunday, September 15, 2024, 7 PM CEST .
Full Moon Creative Lab is a program co-funded by the European Union, with the scope of fostering European talents, empowering writers to deliver the best possible genre stories (thriller, fantasy & horror) that can travel across borders and gather large and diverse audiences.
Full Moon Creative Lab will take the form of three Writers' rooms, aimed at bringing together European scriptwriters with an interest in genre films and selected upon a call for applications. The Lab aims to improve the creative process by connecting European talents across all member states and cultivating high-standards co-writing practices, with the ultimate goal of delivering first-rate, innovative and competitive European content, focused on genre series.
Structure
This programme is specifically designed to help creators sharpen their series co-writing abilities, in a European context.
The 10 to 12 writers selected for the Lab will be split into 3 different writers’ rooms (each consisting of 3 to 4 writers).
The Lab will last for a total of 3 weeks, as described below. During each of these weeks, writers will be totally immersed in the creative process. Each writers’ room will have a designated facilitator, whose role is to observe and provide feedback and guidance in order to boost the creative process and ensure high productivity for the sessions.
At the end of this 3-week Lab, the expected deliverables from each writers’ room are a bible doc (5-10 pages of the Bible: Logline, World/Setting/Arena (1 page), Tone & Comps (1/4 page), Characters (5 lines per character), Season outline/Season Arc (2-3 pages), Intention note (half page), Moodboard (optional - 3 pages) and a pilot breakdown.
Although writers will mostly work in their own writers’ room, cross-rooms feedback sessions will also take place, aiming at fostering creativity and co-creation practices. Writing will be punctuated by feedback and relevant mentoring with acclaimed writers, producers and showrunners.
The program will take place physically in various inspiring locations in idyllic yet dramatic Transylvania, Romania and will consist of a 3-week residency, split according to the following estimative calendar:
Residency #1: December 2024 (one week)
Residency #2: March 2025 (one week)
Residency #3 and final pitch: June 2025 and final pitch during the Transilvania International Film Festival (13-22 June 2025) (one week)
The 1st edition of Full Moon Creative Lab concluded at Transilvania IFF.23
The first edition of the Full Moon Creative Lab came to an end in June, at the 23rd edition of Transilvania IFF.
The jury selected three distinct projects: Aurora, a thriller by Romanian screenwriter Adina Istrate; ICU - Immortal Care Unit, a horror-fantasy project by Italian screenwriter Giulio Rizzo; and Negative Split, a thriller by Slovenian screenwriter Barbara Skubic. Additionally, nine other talented screenwriters - Barry Murphy (Ireland), Rosella di Campli (Italy), Richard Karpala (Poland), Sînziana Cojocărescu (Romania), Nadya Todorova (Bulgaria), Greg Simmons (Ireland), Cristina Iliescu (Romania), Attila Veres (Hungary), and Rafael Alberto Garciolo (Germany) - were chosen from the open call and assigned to one of the three projects, forming three groups that embarked on a year-long creative collaboration.
The 12 participants were guided in 3 writers’ room working from the rough idea of their scripts to a comprehensive bible document, including the first season outline and a breakdown of the pilot episode.
The program ended on June 21st with a pitching session at the Transilvania International Film Festival, in front of influential industry professionals, including producers, broadcasters, sales agents, TV and major streaming platforms representatives.
The Full Moon Creative Lab Development Award, worth 5,000 euros, offered with the support of the European Union was awarded to ICU - Immortal Care Unit, head writer: Giulio Rizzo, co-writers: Sînziana Cojocărescu, Greg Simmons, Nadya Todorova, facilitator Geo Doba
Producer Eilon Ratzkovsky, screenwriter and director Geo Doba and screenwriter and producer Arnaud Louvet were the main facilitators of the program. The pitching session was prepared in advance with the pitchologist Agathe Berman and the Jury members Mirela Năstase (Director Drama at ZDF Studios) and Anna Fukuda (Drama Commissioning Editor ARTE France) and Simon Perry (director and producer).
