Screenplay work in a team

"Why do you want to put your material into a series format?" Who exactly is your audience? Can you tell me the content in a snappy logline?" Script consultant John Yorke is in his element this morning. The Brit has around two hours per team to scrutinise the story, check for inconsistencies - and get valuable feedback from the other participants. At the centre of his attention: Executive Producer Steffen Gerdes and Script Writer Miriam Suad Bühler from Hamburg. Their series: a historical comedy format about a German philosopher in the year 1651. The story takes place in an alternative universe where mobile phones, fake news and lots of social media gossip exist. It's an exciting idea that has received a lot of positive feedback from the other participants. Together with Yorke, the group gets into the plot, questions the characters' motives and wants to know how the tension can be heightened. "As a viewer, I have to think: Oh shit, what will the character do next in their hopeless situation?" says Yorke. In 2016, he took home the Golden Globe for Best Miniseries for Wolf Hall and wrote a bestseller on the subject of storytelling with his book "Into the Woods". So Yorke knows what he's talking about.

Together with the renowned script consultants Donna Sharpe, Miguel Machalski, Claire Armspach and Blanca Escoda Agusti, he spent two days working in small groups on the series scripts of tomorrow at the Series Lab Hamburg. Teams from all over Europe travelled to Hamburg's Hafencity to make their scripts even better. This year's programme was once again organised by the Creative Europe Desk Hamburg, MOIN Film Fund and Letterbox Filmproduktion.

Taking part in the workshops: Five teams with Hamburg participation. In addition to the team consisting of Steffen Gerdes (Red Balloon) and Miriam Suad Bühler, they also included Junior Producer Lisa Herbers (Junafilm) and the Icelandic combo of Script Writer Kristín Helga Gunnarsdóttir and Executive Producer Hlín Jóhannesdóttir (Ursus Parvus). Their project "Fíasól Never Gives Up!" is aimed at the whole family - at the centre of the series is eight-year-old bundle of energy Fíasól, who lives through the normal everyday madness of her family with her two siblings - and even goes on holiday to Hamburg during the episodes. "My group at the Series Lab really encouraged me that we are working on a promising format - the strong regional aspect in particular makes the story very exciting," says Segment Producer Lisa Herbers from Hamburg.

Executive Producer Raoul Reinert and his Hamburg-based Cuckoo Clock Entertainment are devoting themselves to a political thriller series set in Africa: a female detective from Namibia and a German journalist join forces to uncover crimes and murders with a geopolitical background. The Writers' Room features Hamburg-based Raphael Solá Ferrer and Raoul Reinert as well as Namibian Mikiros Garoes and the planned lead actress Girley Yazama (to be seen in Lars Kraume's "A Place in the Sun" in 2023). Important topics in the workshop were the Speakers used, the dark backstories of the characters and modern multicultural authenticity.

Hamburg-based Executive Producer Sebastian Weyland (Heimathafen Film) and Script Writer Verena S. Freytag present a somewhat different story about the Berlin Wall. In the six-part drama series "The Soldier", they follow the story of a Vietnamese contract worker in East Berlin who loses his residence permit with the fall of the Wall and becomes entangled in criminal machinations. The drama series "Passepartout" by Script Writers Johannes Rothe, Florian Vey and co-author Ipek Zübert and Executive Producer Anette Unger (Leitwolf Filmproduktion), on the other hand, revolves around the lives of a young con artist, a star gallery owner and an art forger after the brutal theft of a painting is thrown completely off the rails.

But even the best series with the strongest storytelling is of little use if there is no money to produce it. And so, at the end of the Series Lab, a speed dating event was organised in which 19 potential financiers took part. These included Sky, NDR and ZDF Studios. So what was the conclusion of the event? "It's great that a group of experienced Executive Producers and Script Writers take the time to analyse your project and talk about it. We learnt some exciting new aspects for the story, which we will now look at in more detail afterwards," reveals Steffen Gerdes. And who knows, maybe we'll see some of them on TV or on the well-known streaming platforms in the next few years.