The Showrunner Lab — a Good Girls Planet and ITTV International Forum production, organized in collaboration with the Toscana Film Commission — is a master specialization course aimed at filling a gap in the Italian audiovisual industry: the position of the showrunner. The showrunner, or creative producer, is an increasingly relevant professional figure not yet sufficiently known or developed in our country. The showrunner, at once a screenwriter and a producer, is a TV series’ Deus ex machina. They guide the writers’ room towards a successful and coherent creative product, while also supervising the entire process, from locations to casting, and from pre- to post-production.
We aim to create Italy’s first showrunner incubator. With an easily replicable pedagogy composed of comprehensive base-level courses, followed by master classes, laboratories, and seminars taught by international showrunners and executive producers, our template is simple enough to extend to learning institutions across the country.
The objective of the course is to create Italy’s first laboratory specifically focused on the role of the showrunner, relying on an educational format which, following an initial startup and testing phase, may become a template easily extendable to other Italian regions.
For this reason, we have decided to organize ad hoc courses which are structured across multi-level classes: a comprehensive basic preparation which is then enriched by master classes with international showrunner and executive producers, laboratories and seminars.
The objective of the course is to create Italy’s first laboratory specifically focused on the role of the showrunner, relying on an educational format which, following an initial startup and testing phase, may become a template easily extendable to other Italian regions.
For this reason, we have decided to organize ad hoc courses which are structured across multi-level classes: a comprehensive basic preparation which is then enriched by master classes with international showrunner and executive producers, laboratories and seminars.
Led by Cristina Borsatti and Francesca Scanu, course participants will become familiar with all aspects of TV series production: story structure, dramaturgy, the writing process from concept development to completed script, pitching, shooting, and post-production. The students will divide into four cohorts, each of which will develop a TV series, adapted from one of two novels: Cecilia M. Giampaoli’s Azzore, or Giulio Cavalli’s Carnaio.
Through the lessons of teachers Cristina Borsatti and Francesca Scanu, the course participants 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.
Perhaps the program’s greatest draw is the chance to learn from internationally recognized showrunners and executive producers. Our award-winning faculty will enrich the participants’ training experience with their unique insights and insider industry knowledge.
Goals of the Showrunner Lab:
Train students in the skills necessary to contribute to modern media production in a meaningful way;
Familiarize students with the fundamentals of the audiovisual market and the key factors and processes affecting the industry;
Provide participants with valuable professional connections through interactions with Italian and international producers, screenwriters, showrunners, directors, and other relevant industry figures;
Offer best practices for organizing and executing a pitch;
Provide students with hands-on “writers’ room” experience;
Offer internship, apprentice, and work opportunities with various national and international companies;
Courses, meetings, labs, and workshops provide learning and networking opportunities with international industry leaders.
The Showrunner Lab is hosted by Manifatture Digitali Cinema in Prato.
The Showrunner Lab aims at:
Creating a new professional figure and skillset which legitimately qualifies as one of the key;
Roles contributing to modern audiovisual production;
Train young students as they learn the fundamentals of the audiovisual market and the processes surrounding and affecting this industry;
Offer participants an opportunity to meet and learn from Italian and International producers;
Authors, showrunners and from all other key professional figures in the audiovisual industry;
Offer the most effective tools to organize and propose creative ideas when “pitching” a project;
Organize writers’ room with the students;
Allow each participant to engage in stages and internships at national and international companies;
Courses, Meetings and Laboratories are supplemented with Workshops that expose students to figures of excellence in the international audiovisual industry.
Headquarters of the Showrunner Lab shall be at Manifatture Digitali Cinema in Prato.