Calling all Vancouver screenwriters: Join the Brigade!
Making movies is a team effort, but screenwriting those movies can often feel like the loneliest of pursuits.
Marshall Axani.
Which is why award-winning filmmaker Marshall Axani (Anxious Oswald Green) is determined to lure local screenwriters out of isolation and into the Vancouver Writers Brigade, a monthly collective that (according to the press release) “offers a safe space for screenwriters to test their ideas through the various script stages with feedback from peers” – with a longterm goal of attracting more attention (and funding!) to homegrown indie film ideas.
The Brigade will follow screen stories through all stages of creation, from initial premises to final scripts. Participants will motivate each other, hold each other accountable, and “evaluate one another’s work through various script stages to see if the intended audiences will fully invest into their ideas,” Axani is quoted as saying in the release.
And there will be rules for that process, because, according to Axani, “It can be easy to lose the heart of a story when too many people provide feedback, so Brigade attendees will be given a specific structure on giving notes with the hope that this will elevate stories and writers’ unique voices.”
Each meeting will conclude with remarks from experienced indie filmmakers like Anaïsa Visser (Bordered) and Zlatina Pacheva (Extra-Ordinary Amy).
The inaugural Vancouver Writers Brigade workshop takes place on August 22 at Beaumont Studios. Writers wishing to workshop a logline during the event should submit at least two days in advance on the Brigade’s website. Full details at www.vancouverwritersbrigade.com.
Pictured above: Marshall Axani
