Screen­writ­ing

We aim to enhance the indi­vid­ual writer’s craft and cre­ativ­i­ty in equal mea­sure. Tak­ing up to 10 stu­dents a year, we are look­ing for fresh, diverse and orig­i­nal voic­es. We encour­age can­di­dates may have had expe­ri­ence in oth­er kinds of writ­ing, whether fic­tion, the­atre or jour­nal­ism.

The screen­writer needs tech­niques to devel­op sto­ries that are engag­ing, excit­ing and provoca­tive. This tool­box can be applied to all for­mats, whether fea­ture, tele­vi­sion or web series.

Our teach­ers are expe­ri­enced work­ing pro­fes­sion­als drawn from over the world who offer stu­dents a range of approach­es to help solve their cre­ative prob­lems.

This is a prac­ti­cal course where writ­ers learn by doing, the­o­ry fold­ed into the process wher­ev­er need­ed. By grad­u­a­tion, each stu­dent will have a port­fo­lio of work includ­ing pitch doc­u­ments, treat­ments and fin­ished screen­plays.

Due to the inter­na­tion­al nature of film­mak­ing — and now tele­vi­sion increas­ing­ly so — stu­dents are able to write both in Ger­man and in Eng­lish.

In the first year, stu­dents of all dis­ci­plines are ful­ly inte­grat­ed, work­ing togeth­er on a silent film, a short doc­u­men­tary and a short dra­ma. As well as writ­ing, they play dif­fer­ent roles on the team; pro­duc­er, direc­tor, cam­era, sound, edi­tor. In this way, they gain an overview of the film­mak­ing process and build con­nec­tions with the oth­er stu­dents across the school. They learn to think of screen­writ­ing as a visu­al and aur­al process. Screen­writ­ers are film­mak­ers, work­ing in cre­ative col­lab­o­ra­tion.

In the sec­ond year, writ­ers work on a short screen­play; a genre treat­ment and a fea­ture project, devel­oped under super­vi­sion from an indus­try men­tor. In the third year, there is an inde­pen­dent fea­ture mod­ule and a TV series mod­ule where writ­ers are trained to work in a ‘writ­ers room’ as well as devel­op­ing solo projects. In addi­tion, writ­ers are advised on how to present them­selves to the indus­try and pos­si­ble career paths.

Final­ly stu­dents present a grad­u­a­tion script which can be a fea­ture project or a TV series pro­pos­al and pilot, also with a devel­op­ment men­tor.

As part of a very ambi­tious, live­ly and artis­tic school, our screen­writ­ers ben­e­fit from the prox­im­i­ty of the school’s direc­tors and pro­duc­ers. Film is a col­lab­o­ra­tive art and we encour­age col­lab­o­ra­tion through­out the school, build­ing effec­tive cre­ative teams across the dis­ci­plines.

Many screen­writ­ers will work pro­fes­sion­al­ly as script editors/​dramaturgs or devel­op­ment exec­u­tives at some point in their careers. The DFFB is one of the only film schools in the world com­mit­ted to teach­ing its screen­writ­ers skills which will allow them to devel­op sto­ries with oth­ers in these roles. Screen­writ­ers will also be able to act as script edi­tors in the DFFB’s com­mis­sion­ing and script devel­op­ment work, advis­ing on projects of vary­ing lengths to con­sol­i­date their devel­op­ment skills and increas­ing their chance to see­ing their work filmed and edit­ed.

Each year, sup­ple­men­tary to the course, DFFB stu­dents are involved in exer­cis­es set by indus­try part­ners. These projects are real­ized for broad­cast tele­vi­sion, as web series or oth­er dig­i­tal projects. Past col­lab­o­ra­tions have been with the rbb, the Medi­en­board Berlin Bran­den­burg and arte.