At Manifatture Digitali Cinema Prato, since April 2022, it is being helding the Showrunner Lab., the first course in Italy to learn the profession of the Showrunner, the key figure of the TV series, a role not yet well defined in the Italian audiovisual system, but increasingly needed. The Showrunner is the creator, the screenwriter, the producer, the one who administers the budget, who manages the relationships between directors and actors and between directors and producers, who supervises pre and post-production: he is the Deus ex machina of TV series, especially those of long duration.
Through the lessons of teachers Cristina Borsatti and Francesca Scanu, the course participants – all between 18 and 30 years old – are getting to know every aspect of television series useful for the Showrunner profession: from the key elements and principles of dramaturgy to the formats of fiction, the storylines, the writing phases, the concept, the pitching, the work during the shooting, up to the post-production. The students, divided into four teams, are developing, at the same time, as many TV series projects, living the concrete experience of the writers’ room, and will try their hand at the serial project adaptation of two novels, Azzorre (Neo Edizioni) by Cecilia M. Giampaoli, winner of the 2021 edition of the Segafredo Zanetti UN LIBRO UN FILM Award, and Carnaio (Fandango Libri) by Giulio Cavalli.
Among the key elements of the Showrunner Lab., there are the workshops with Showrunners, Executives, professionals of the sector of great prestige, Italian and international, able to enrich the training background of the participants with exclusive, high quality contents. Giovanni Pedde, a lawyer specializing in entertainment law, Gary Marenzi, CEO of Marenzi & Associates and Giannandrea Pecorelli, producer and screenwriter, CEO of Aurora Film and Aurora TV Banijay, have already held their workshops. In the next few days it will be the turn of Pedde again, together with Vittorino Testa, screenwriter, writer and expert trainer, and, subsequently, it will be the turn of: Chad Kennedy, Executive Vice President of Production and Development of Magic Quill Productions, Vaun Wilmott, screenwriter and producer, Marco Chimenz, producer and CEO of Cattleya, Jeremy Spiegel, Showrunner and executive producer, and Sean Furst, President of Skybound Entertainment.
THE MASTERCLASSES AT “CINEMA LA COMPAGNIA” IN FLORENCE
Producers and creators Vaun Wilmott, Jeremy Spiegel and Sean Furst, three of the protagonists of the international workshops of the Showrunner Lab., will be the authors of Masterclasses, open to all interested people, at Cinema La Compagnia, in Cavour 50 / r Street, in Florence. The cost of the individual Masterclasses is € 50,00. The entire package of the 3 Masterclasses is in promotion, at € 120,00. The Masterclasses will be held in English with simultaneous translation into Italian.
Here, below, is the calendar of the Masterclasses at La Compagnia Cinema.
Masterclasses calendar at Cinema La Compagnia
SUNDAY 22 MAY, 11 am-1.30pm
VAUN WILMOTT
Vaun Wilmott is a writer and producer for the fantasy TV series Dominion and, among others: Star Trek: Discovery, Prison Break, Sons of Anarchy and Jack Ryan.
SATURDAY 11 JUNE, 11 am-1.30pm
JEREMY SPIEGEL
Jeremy Spiegel (Executive Producer / Showrunner / Creator / Writer) is the Executive Producer of the Emmy-winning American newsmagazine Extra. Spiegel is co-creator and executive producer of the Lifetime TV show Elizabeth Smart: Finding Justice, which focuses on real crimes. He has traveled the world to cover some of the most important stories of recent years, including: both O.J. Simpson’s trials, the Olympics and John Kennedy Junior’s plane crash. Jeremy Spiegel also co-created and produced the Emmy-winning series Crime Watch Daily with Chris Hansen, the reality series H8R, the daytime talk show Dr. Drew’s Lifechangers, and Inside the Vault, a talk show produced by Telepictures, Liquid Thread and General Motors. He began his television career at FOX in New York.
SUNDAY 19 JUNE, 11 am-1.30pm
SEAN FURST
President of Skybound Entertainment, Sean Furst produced The Walking Dead series with Skybound. Executive producer of the Robert Kirkman’s Secret History of Comics docu-series, Dead By Dawn series for National Geographic Wild, The Mastermind, Five Year, Dice series for Showtime and Star-Crossed sci-fi series for The CW Network. For the cinema he was producer of, among others, Oblivion Song, Invincible and Across the Void. He has also produced such titles as The Cooler, Oscar nominated, The Matador, Golden Globe nominated, The Girl in the Park, Daybreakers and Owning Mahowny.
Showrunner Lab. is organized by Fondazione Sistema Toscana, Tuscany Film Commission, Manifatture Digitali Cinema, in collaboration with Good Girls Planet & ITTV Forum & Festival of Los Angeles and PIN – University Center of Prato, and in partnership with Veneto Film Commission, Panorama Films and the Segafredo Zanetti UN LIBRO UN FILM Award. Showrunner Lab. is created with the contribution of the Special Projects call of the Directorate General for Cinema and Audiovisual – Ministry of Culture.
The following are members of the Scientific Committee of the Showrunner Lab.: Maria Pia Ammirati, Director of RAI Fiction; Antonella Barbieri, General Manager of APA – Audiovisual Producers Association; Donato Carrisi, writer and screenwriter; Sean Furst, President of Skybound; Stefania Ippoliti, Director of Toscana Film Commission; Gary Marenzi, Marenzi & Associati; Matteo Perale, Producer; Jeremy Spiegel, Extra Showrunner and Executive Producer; Valentina Martelli, Founder and CEO of Good Girls Planet and ITTV; Cristina Scognamillo, Founder of Good Girls Planet and ITTV, Didactic Manager of the Showrunner Lab.
