Submitted by Gabrielle Aujard
Australian Writers? Guild announces second games workshop
The Australian Writers? Guild, SA Branch is excited to announce Writing for Interactivity, a three day production workshop for writers and producers developing interactive content.
The workshop will be held from Friday May 26 through to Sunday 28 May at the South Australian Writers? Centre.
The workshop is a follow on from the successful Introduction to Writing for Games held in May 2005. The exciting and positive feedback from that weekend called for a more advanced workshop; a workshop that would provide hands on skills to develop an initial idea through to development of a concept proposal ready to pitch.
The Australian interactive and games industry has developed substantially over the last ten years and this growth has created opportunities of employment for game developers and publishers, writers and designers in game art. The weekend will be led by writers currently working in the industry; Jackie Turnure and Christine Sweeney. Jackie and Christine believe there is no better way to learn than by actually performing the task so writing will be the primary focus of this workshop. Participants will work in teams and will be guided through the steps required to develop an interactive project and by doing so will learn a process that they can take away and apply to their own concepts.
Jackie currently lectures part time at AFTRS, and is an industry mentor at the LAMP cross media residentials. She recently completed story producing and writing 3 episodes on Deadly, a half hour animated TV series based on the books by Paul Jennings and Morris Gleitzman, and she is also co-producing and voice directing Stolen Life, an animated feature produced in Machinima, written and produced by Peter Rasmussen. Jackie produced and directed three 3D animated kids? games for PC, Bananas in Pyjamas - It?s Party Time, Oz - The Magical Adventure and Oz - The Interactive Storybook and has also been script editor and game consultant on online games, animated television series, and feature films, including the online adventure game currently in production Chiko - Space Cadet. She has taught game design at the Film and Television Institute in WA and has lectured at various game conferences and seminars.
Christine is currently developing an interactive game based on the 2006 release feature film Elephant Tales - set in the wilds of Africa, and starring a band of orphaned baby animals. Her project read with me! play with me! The adventures of Poppy, Matilda and Mu-Mu the cat, was selected for development at the inaugural LAMP ? Laboratory for Advanced Media Production in 2005. Christine has writing and production credits in film, TV, radio and theatre in Australia and the U.K. and recently held the position of Script Development Co-ordinator with Sydney based Vitascope Filmed Entertainment, working with independent feature film Producer David Hannay. Whilst working as a Senior Multimedia Producer with Icon Media Lab, Christine was responsible for developing and managing film, video and online projects, mini games, touch screen kiosks, instructional design and print production for a range of corporate and education based clients. She is a lecturer for TAFE SA?s Design ? Game Art course and has published articles on games and game writers.
Dates are set for Friday 26th Saturday 27th and Sunday 28th May 2006 at the SA Writers? Centre, Level 2, 187 Rundle Street, Adelaide. Application forms and further details are available from: www.awg.com.au or email sa@awg com.au.
The AWG is kindly supported by the South Australian Film Corporation?s Industry Development and Event Funding.