Creative Business Base: A Free 6-month Creative, Business and Entrepreneurial Development Programme

Deadline 2nd April

Screen South, Maidstone Studios, Peter Jones Academy and Amersham & Wycombe College

Present:

Creative Business Base
*Revised Deadline, Terms and Conditions*

The Free 6-month Creative & Business Development Programme – Helping you to greatly improve your competitive edge and professional skills. Supporting skills development of your:
Script, Creative Projects, Creative and Business pitching, Understanding Legal contracts and IP issues, Project and Business Exploitation and planning, National and International Market Strategies, Project and Business Investment Sourcing, National and International Finance Sourcing, Creative Entrepreneurial and Cross-media thinking and strategies.

You may think that you do not need some of them but these are essential skillsets in today’s professional industry.

Application Deadline Noon Monday 2nd April 2012

This scheme is supported by the Skillset Film Skills Fund as part of A Bigger Future 2

Screen South is looking for 8 Creative Business Teams (with projects for the screen) to develop their scripts, script development skills and (in these days) necessary entrepreneurial and businesses skills and that will give you and your business the best chance of moving up the ladder.

The programme is built around the group of 8 participating creative teams that have at least one viable feature length script.

The participating creative teams and their projects will be developed over the entire 6-month period with seminars, master classes, continuing script development, bespoke 121’s, and training days most of which happen every fortnight. These are all supported by:

• Team specific Script Development 121 surgeries with top Industry Professional Script  Developer – Britt Harrison

• Professional Development 121’s with David Castro (Development and Training Exec for Screen South), Jo Nolan (MD Screen South) and Geoff Miles (CEO Maidstone Studios)

• Business and Entrepenurial Skills Development by The Peter Jones Academy In collaboration with Amersham & Wycombe College.

• Legal Advice and Guidance will be provided by Lee and Thompson.

The teams can be existing businesses or newly formed partnerships (minimum 2 members max 3) – minimum 1 person attending on the scheduled days, maximum 3 people per team attending on the scheduled days.

Alongside all of the development Seminars, master classes and 121’s you will also have access to hot desks, phones, Internet etc and a meeting space which is available at The Maidstone Studio every day over the programme. The programme concludes with all 8 teams pitching (both your Projects and Businesses) in London with top industry Financiers, Producers and Business Angels.

Creative Teams will also have:

• Access to (up to) £500 bursary (available for a variety of expenditures that you will encounter during the programme, e.g., Contributions towards writers / legal fees, International travel, Marketing costs, etc,

• Access to (up to) £500 hardship fund, which can be used towards transport to and from Maidstone Studios.

• Free access to the four live public events that will also be running over the same 6-month period at Maidstone Studios and they will also have opportunities to meet with the guest industry panelists.

The live public events will be covering Finance (Business and Project), Creative Development, Distribution & Selling and ‘How the New Frontier of digital and internet can be tamed for your benefit’.

More about The Creative Business Base Programme 
The Creative Business Base programme will be delivered by current industry practioners and will cover subjects including:

• Script and Project Development

• Legals and contracts

• Entrepreneurial mind-set and skills

• Planning and Pitching

• Creative Business – planning and development

• Sources of Funding and Finance

• Single project and Business Investments

• Ways to market (Traditional vs. new media inc social networks)

• Sales Distribution Exhibition – what are they looking for?

• Working with the global markets UK and International

• Understanding exploitation potentials of projects (IP)

• Use of new medias and IP

• E-marketing and promotion

Participants Eligibility
This is a free programme for companies and freelancers from the Kent, Essex and East Sussex LEP area (http://southeastlep.com/area-map.) as well as North Seas Area (http://www.northsearegion.eu/ivb/countries/). Priority (but not exclusivity) will be given to those actively operating or developing from a Kent base. Please check eligibility, as you will need to verify this in your application.

Participant Requirements

• All participants must be over 18 and not full or part/time students.

• All participant teams must have produced a short, feature, TV, promo, advert corporate etc that has been sold or distributed.

• Participant teams must have at least three ideas – one project at full script stage. The other ideas can be TV or interactive projects.

• Participating teams must have at least one person from each creative team able to attend dates shown below April – October 2012. This does not have to be the same member each time.

Schedule as follows:
Daily Hours 10am – 5pm
Location Maidstone TV Studios (except final presentation in London)
19/03/2012 Open Application
02/04/2012 Close Application 7pm.
05/04/2012 12 selected, Participants informed of meeting
11/04/2012 Selection panel meet participants (1/2 hr. each)
11/04/2012 Selection down to 8 made at end of meeting.
11/04/2012 Successful applicants (8) informed via email
26/04/2012 Workshop 1 and Masterclass 1
10/05/2012 Masterclass 2, Live Public Event 1
24/05/2012 Masterclass 3, 121’s
07/06/2012 Masterclass 4, Live Public Event 2
21/06/2012 Workshop 2 , 121’s
05/07/2012 Workshop 3, Live Public Event 3
19/07/2012 Masterclass 5, 121’s
02/08/2012 Workshop 4, Live Public Event 4
16/08/2012 Workshop 5, Business Project planning
30/08/2012 Workshop 6, Pitching and Project development
13/09/2012 Workshop 7, 121’s
27/09/2012 Masterclass 6, Pitching and Project development
11/10/2012 Workshop 8, Rehearsal for presentations
18/10/2012 Final presentations, London (Location TBA)
*All dates are currently correct but may be subject to change

Click here to apply

This programme is free to participants made possible by support from Screen South, Skillset, and the North Sea Screen Partnership Interreg Programme

This scheme is supported by the Skillset Film Skills Fund as part of A Bigger Future 2