Philippines hosts 2011 scriptwriting conference

MANILA, Philippines – Writers will be converging here this weekend for the first-of-three-leg 2011 English Film and Television Writing Seminars in the Philippines at the National Commission for Culture and the Arts.

As part of the Story Tour Asia 2011, the event tapped two of the world’s leading novelists, Luke Devenish and Karel Segers, for a series of screenwriting conference in the country this month.

Devenish is a best-selling novelist and the script producer in Australia while Segers is a former international movie buyer who blogs, teaches and consults on screen story and among his clients are writers, producers, and the Australian Writers Guild.

Along with Devenish and Segers, the country’s leading television scriptwriter and producer Ricky Lee, and documentary director and producer Raz dela Torre will also grace the event slated this May 7 and 8 at the NCCA Theater in Intramuros.

The top brass writers will share their insights on dramatic writing for the two main screen story formats: television and film.

In an exclusive interview with philstar.com, Develish said: “I want to tell people that stories for televisions are universal, and the skills that they will be working are transferable.”

“I want people to realize that they have great skill within them; that they are sitting in a goldmine. I want to help people free something within them,” he pointed out.

Devenish added: “I am going to teach you lots of tricks of the trade to help them create viable and exciting storylines, characters and concepts of your own. I’m going to teach them my story generator machine.”

For his part, speaking to philstar.com upon his arrival in the country today, Segers said: “What I would like to do is to help them turn their ideas into television scriptwriting; stories that they can sell worldwide.”

“What I bring here is a technique that is being used everywhere in the world,” he said.

He also commended Filipino writers for their passion in writing, while believing that the training will bring out the best for any aspiring writers in the country.

For his part, Lee said: “I believed that a writer becomes better only if there are other good writers around. It’s never about being the only good writer or being the best; (there is) no such thing,” he said.

Working side-by-side with Lino Brocka, Marilou Diaz-Abaya and Laurice Guillen, Lee has been conducting scriptwriting workshops for film and television since 1982 and have done more than 150 produced films, 11 published short stories, and five plays.

Working as creative manager for ABS-CBN, Lee has handled the countries popular television series like “Maging Sino Ka Man”, “Lobo”, “Immortal” and “Dahil May Isang Ikaw”.

Dela Torre, meanwhile, started as a researcher for GMA-7 in 2001, and then as a trainee-writer for Star Cinema’s creative department.

He now heads the documentary arm of ABS-CBN News Channel (ANC) and is currently working on a two-part special that will air this June. He cited the need to unleash the potential of the country’s scriptwriters to prevent foreign films from lording over our local produce.

“There’s a proof that local films can be competitive… Data in 2008 shows that there were four local films that made it in the top 10 grossing films of the year. Of those, only Iron Man was able to beat the highest grossing Filipino film,” he pointed out.

He noted the importance of the continuity of the learning process in writing because “when you start gaining the confidence in your skills and more concerned about your craft, you start to crave for the trust that will allow you to venture further.

The second leg of the conference will be conducted in Bacolod City on May 11 and 12 at the University of La Salle. The final leg will be held in Cebu City on May 14 and 15 at the USC Technological Campus. Video by Cris Cayanan