Warner Bros. Television Opens Submissions For 2016 Directors’ Workshop
Directing Initiative Seeks to Introduce Aspiring and Diverse Helmers to
Primetime Television; Prospective Participants Can Submit
Applications at http://televisionworkshop.warnerbros.com
Twitter Pitch: So, what you really want is to direct a TV series? @WBTVWorkshop open for submissions for 2016 directors’ session: http://bit.ly/1V8XoKT
BURBANK, Calif. (January 20, 2016) — Warner Bros. Television announced today the opening of the application process for the 2016 Warner Bros. Television Directors’ Workshop. Launched in 2014, the innovative program is designed to give aspiring and diverse directors the chance to break into primetime television. The WBTV Directors’ Workshop aims to prepare directors from other disciplines (feature films, music video, commercials) for the transition to episodic TV, as well as to seek out fresh, new diverse voices from within the creative community, with a goal of providing increased opportunities to women and ethnic minority helmers.
The WBTV Directors’ Workshop will take applications for its 2016 session from now through Thursday, February 11. Interested directors can submit their current resume, a short composition, letters of recommendation and a link to samples of their work they wish to submit. More information about the program, eligibility and the submission process is available at http://televisionworkshop.warnerbros.com.
Built around a 12-week Master Class taught by esteemed director/author Bethany Rooney and featuring current industry professionals as guest speakers, the WBTV Directors’ Workshop will run from May–August 2016, with weekly meetings each Saturday on the Warner Bros. Studios lot in Burbank, Calif. Each of the weekly sessions will teach a new skill essential for excelling through pre-production, shooting and post-production. Additional optional components include cinematography workshops, acting classes and the opportunity to shadow directors on an episode of a Warner Bros. show.
Prior participants in the Directors’ Workshop include Zetna Fuentes, who went on to direct episodes of Pretty Little Liars and iZombie; Antonio Negret, who subsequently helmed episodes of Arrow, The Flash and the upcoming DC’s Legends of Tomorrow; and Richard Speight, Jr., who made his episodic directing debut on Supernatural this season.
The Directors’ Workshop continues the Warner Bros. Television Workshop’s commitment to discovering and nurturing emerging creative talent. For more than 30 years, the Warner Bros. Television Writers’ Workshop has been the premier program for aspiring writers looking to start and/or further their television careers. The list of Writers’ Workshop alumni who have gone on to successful work in the industry includes Terence Winter (Boardwalk Empire, The Sopranos, The Wolf of Wall Street), Marc Cherry (Desperate Housewives), Greg Garcia (My Name Is Earl) and Felicia Henderson (Soul Food), to name just a few. Each year, the Writers’ Workshop selects up to 10 participants from more than 2,400 submissions and gives them opportunities to engage with Warner Bros. Television’s top writers and executives, all with the ultimate goal of earning them a staff position on a Warner Bros.–produced television show.
In partnership with NAACP and supervised by the Warner Bros. Television Workshop, Warner Bros. Television Group’s Fresh Ink initiative is dedicated to seeking out original and diverse voices, with the goal of developing comedy and drama ideas from women and ethnic minority writers into viable pilot scripts for sale to broadcast and cable networks. The only requirements for writers to develop ideas under the Fresh Ink banner is that they be women or of an ethnic minority and not have staffed over the producer level on a television show. Additionally, the writers must be submitted by an agent or manager. In recent years, Fresh Ink program participant Albert Kim went on to become a writer/producer for the former WBTV drama series Nikita and is now an executive producer/writer on the FOX drama Sleepy Hollow.
For more information on any or all of these programs, please contact televisionworkshop@warnerbros.com
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