About the Programme
Fís Éireann/Screen Ireland, in collaboration with experienced TV executive, development producer and industry skills trainer Colin Pauser-Cowman, have developed courses aimed at unpacking the vital skills required to operate confidently at a senior level within a range of producing disciplines in the unscripted TV sector.
The Career Producer (Unscripted) Programme 2024, is a series of short courses and workshops rolling out from July 2024 to the end of the year. This series aims to deliver important upskilling for learners to enhance producer confidence and progression in the sector.
Many of the courses below relate to senior roles in unscripted but would also be a great opportunity for graduates to gain exposure to best practice in the sector. The courses will equip delegates with essential skills to enhance their employability and career progression.
- Developing TV Formats
- Producing Interview Content
- Writing for Screen
- Cracking TV Development
- Edit Producing
For further details please email Críona Sexton at criona.sexton@screenireland.ie
For technical queries, please contact skills.info@screenireland.ie
Screen Ireland skills opportunities are open to all regardless of gender, race, religion, sexual orientation, or disability. If you require supports, please let us know in advance so we can put these in place to assist your learning.
1. Developing TV Formats
In-person Dates:
Developing TV Formats is the first course in the Career Producer (Unscripted) Programme 2024. This course will provide a comprehensive look at TV format development with key industry speakers who work across popular formats.
What is the secret to developing a popular, stand-out TV format? Strong formatting skills have rapidly become the secret sauce to creating successful and returnable TV commissions across multiple genres. With an emphasis on factual entertainment, this immersive course is developed and delivered by experienced executive & development producer Colin Pauser-Cowman, and supported by industry guest speakers with success in international formatting.
Through delivered industry insights, workshopping, and structured analysis of existing factual-entertainment formats, delegates will learn to recognise format beats, TV moments, closed-ep and series story arcs, format branding, tone, and identity. The workshop will be delivered over two days in Dublin and will be followed by two online evening sessions. Developing TV Formats is designed to unpack the vital building blocks of good formatting, for producers to apply to their development processes.
2. Producing Interview Content
Dates:
Producing Interview Content is the second course in the Career Producer (Unscripted) Programme. This course was developed in partnership with Screen Ireland and experienced executive producer and media trainer Colin Pauser-Cowman.
Good off-camera interview content is the lifeblood of un-scripted and factual TV genres. What are the steps to ensuring you have captured brilliant interview content, ensuring it adds significant editorial value to the episode, without devouring vital time on set or in the edit schedule?
Across unscripted TV genres, a high percentage of interview content does not include a presenter, with ultimate responsibility for capturing compelling and ‘editable’ interviews falling to the producer, shooting producer, or assistant producer. Strong off-camera producing techniques are must-have skills in time and budget-pressured shooting scenarios.
This immersive course covers best practice in interview prep, techniques in generating questions that ensure strong and usable answers, capturing the best content in an off-camera setting while learning how to brief your crew to capture the right coverage to ensure a smooth and effective edit.
3. Writing for Screen
Dates:
Writing for Screen is the third course in the Career Producer (Unscripted) Programme. This course was developed in partnership with Screen Ireland and experienced executive producer and media trainer Colin Pauser-Cowman.
How to create compelling voice over (narration) and presenter links for unscripted TV. Strong on-screen writing is a central component to the story telling, tone and ultimately audience engagement of an un-scripted TV series. The success of a factual TV show often depends on the effective, clear and engaging writing of links, PTCs and V/O to ensure excellent delivery and audience experience.
In many factual TV projects, the screenwriting role is the responsibility of the series producer or edit producer. This 2-day workshop delivers best practice steps to crafting on-screen writing for the unscripted TV genres, encompassing voice over / narration and links.
4. Cracking TV Development
Dates:
Cracking TV Development is the fourth course offered in the Career Producer (Unscripted) Program 2024.
Do you have TV ideas but don’t know where to start with developing them? How does a great idea get out of your head, and onto the box? What are the secrets to successful TV development?
Where do great TV ideas come from and what are the vital steps to getting them commissioned by a TV channel? Join leading TV development executive, producer, and industry coach Colin Pauser-Cowman, for this online course designed to answer these important questions and much more. Colin has a long record of steering companies and ideas to commissioning and funding success and will share tips and techniques that empower ideas and help them to tailor to commissioning trends and funding criteria.
This two-day workshop for non-scripted content will help you unlock the secrets of how to conceive, develop, layout and pitch a TV idea or format. The course will illustrate the steps to successful TV idea development, while building a deeper understanding of the creative and development process. Throughout the two days, attendees will be working on group and self-generated concepts. Colin will illustrate how to nurture the idea past concept, up to the point it could be pitched to an industry decision-maker.
Attendees will leave with a tried and trusted set of skills they can apply time and again to their own TV ideas.
It is important to note that this course jumps straight in at the deep end of ideation and development, so experience in TV production, or a recent TV or media qualification is desirable.
5. Edit Producing
Dates:
Edit Producing is the fifth and final course offered in the Career Producer (Unscripted) Program 2024. The return of this successful 3-day intensive course aims to unpack must-have skills and confidence to deliver in an important role within the unscripted TV sector.
Edit Producing is among the most important roles in high-end, fast turnaround non-scripted television production. Prime time ratings winners in Ireland are adopting the UK and US edit producer (EP) model, quickly reaping the benefits to quality, creativity, consistency, budget, and a timely delivery to the channel (in Ireland or internationally). But what are the core skills you need to be a great EP?
Whether taking a side-way step from a senior or series producer or stepping up from AP, this 3-day intensive course will unlock the techniques to effective edit producing for this important, emerging skill need in the Irish independent sector.
Designed to take the participants on a full edit producer cycle (from briefing to scripting, rushes breakdown, to delivery), this course will highlight best practice, while focusing on filling skills gaps, ultimately empowering participants to take steps into this exciting role.
The course will focus on three main areas:
- The Role of an Edit Producer – Unpacking best practice
- Creative Scripting Techniques - for a multi-producer edit environment.
- Getting Avid Ready –From Sync pulls to supporting your editor remotely.