Showrunners - Training Gaps Analysis - Cultural Human Resources ...

Showrunners Training Gap Analysis
approach remains embedded in the program, it will be an important step in generating awareness
in writers of how the script is translated to a visual and auditory form, and the issues that can arise
in that process.
A particular issue raised by all young Showrunners is the lack of training available to them in the
post-production process.
Training Gap 2: Access to programs that familiarize senior writers with directing, art
directing, acting and editing is required. Showrunners-in-training need to know enough about
the approaches and tools used by professionals in these fields to make the best possible
creative decisions.
Recommendations:
2.1 Develop the curriculum for a combo-pack of master classes, led by a Showrunner, that
deal with each type of professional storytelling category (acting, directing, editing, etc.)
in workshop fashion.
2.2 Develop partnerships with professional training providers that put senior writers into
acting, directing and editing programs.
In Québec, interviewees favor initiatives that support the existing production model and
recommend training that enables all the professions to be involved with production issues and
artistic vision. Producers, directors and writers do not necessarily have training in each others’
professions, or in the technical “below-the-line” trades.
We should take the writing and production programs at the INIS, and make a complementary
program that combines the two, nurturing Showrunners’ qualities. Of course, not all students in
production will have the competencies to thrive in scriptwriting and vice-versa. But I don’t think
such a program is unfeasible. (a Québécois producer)
Training Gap 3: In Québec, training for writers, directors and producers tends to be
segregated. This perpetuates the professional silos in the industry.
Recommendations:
3.1 In Québec, develop cross-professional training curriculum for use in existing programs.
For example, the curriculum should offer: training in production and post-production for
writers whose scripts would benefit from a better understanding of the parameters and
possibilities of a production; training in scriptwriting and editing, casting, creative
brainstorming, and the management of creative teams for producers.
3.2 In Québec, develop industry-educational partnership initiatives in which cohorts of
students, organized into writing rooms and brainstorming new television content, would
work with producers in creative incubators. Involve content producers, head writers, and
directors.
Organizational management
Many interviewees emphasized their lack of training in the managerial and leadership aspects of
the Showrunner job. Schools of business management are numerous; but combining leadership
40
Deborah Carver and Benoit Dubois, January 2009