#CatapultCanCon Writers Workshop Series

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General Registration Partial Approval - $240.00

One upfront payment $26.30 payable today followed by 11 automatic monthly payment(s) each for $20. Additional service fees may apply.

The total cost of the year long, once per month course is $240, but it can be paid month at $20 per month.

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Pay Upfront to Access Get Notes Add-on's Partial Approval - $240.00

When you select this option, you will pay for the whole 12 session workshop series upfront, with no option to pay monthly, and you will unlock the opportunity access to add-on's to getting notes from each presenter along the way. Notes on your writing will be provided by professional writers or producers who can speak with authority on craft.

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Pay What You Can Partial Approval - $60.00

One upfront payment $7.70 payable today followed by 11 automatic monthly payment(s) each for $5. Additional service fees may apply.

This ticket option is only for people who identify as or belong to the following groups: women, BIPOC folks, LGBTQ2+ people, disabled individuals, those who have lost their jobs or income due to COVID-19, or other marginalized groups.

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Multiple Dates

Catapult CanCon is a new writers workshop series, designed to help aspiring Canadian writers take their creative content to the next level. 

This workshop will feature an array of professional guest speakers from different disciplines who are currently working in the industry as writers, creators, producers, and/or directors of amazing Canadian Content. More speakers to be announced. 

We have so many talented young voices with unique stories to tell in this country. And through this workshop, we hope to introduce these new voices to some more established ones, in order to help all of us create content that is truly next level and will appeal to audiences everywhere. 

Whether you are looking to create an original pilot for your portfolio to get your first job as a TV writer, develop and produce your own web series, write your first feature film screenplay, create an interactive game, or option your first script to a Canadian production company, this year long, 12 session, once per month workshop series, will take you through that process. One step at a time. 

 

Here’s the Workshop Schedule:

Session 1: From Concept to Pitch - Sunday June 6th 2021

Session 2: Research & Development - Sunday July 11th 2021

Session 3: Constructing Characters - Sunday August 8th 2021

Session 4: The Bible (Series or Interactive) & The Treatment (Feature) - Sunday September 12th 2021

Session 5: The Outline - Sunday October 3rd 2021

Session 6: The First 10 Pages - Sunday November 7th 2021

Session 7: The Middle - Sunday December 5th 2021

Session 8: The End - Sunday January 9th 2022

Session 9: The Next Draft - Sunday February 6th 2022

Session 10: The Final Draft - Sunday March 6th 2022

Session 11: Selling it! - Sunday April 3rd 2022

Session 12: Making it Happen (Production and Post) - Sunday May 1st 2022

 

Sessions will be held usually on the 1st or 2nd Sunday of each calendar month, starting on Sunday June 6th 2021, and finishing on Sunday May 1st 2022. Sessions will be hosted live on Zoom, recorded, and later provided to all participants. 

 

If a participant is unable to make a session they have registered for, or they start the course mid-stream, they will get the recorded sessions they missed, so they can continue to follow along with the process. You will get the most out of the program if you have completed the work as you go along to each new session of the workshop series.

 

So, there is a benefit to being involved on the day at each session, so you can ask your questions and follow along with the process. This is an interactive workshop and participants will be encouraged to share their ideas with one another for the betterment of everyone’s projects. One person’s success is to everyone’s benefit, and to the industry as a whole.

 

We created the CatapultCanCon Writers Workshop Series to allow emerging writers to practice their craft and create something in their spare time, while they continue to pursue their career that sustains them financially in the meantime. That is why this is a weekend course, presented by working professionals, over the course of a whole year.

 

Many writers starting out find it difficult to know where to begin, and once started, they often find it difficult to make progress without deadlines and others to hold them accountable to their commitment. This workshop will create that community accountability partnership, while holding your hand firmly as we drag you through a process that will get you where you want to go with your story.

 

By the end of this workshop series, you will have developed and written your own original series pilot, feature film screenplay or interactive project, and learned how to take the next steps towards selling it and making it happen.

Janine Short

Catapult CanCon is presented by Flat Spider Media Corporation, an independent genre media production company owned and operated by Janine Short.

Contact the Organizer

Stephanie Prue
Global Narrative Director @ Game Loft
Stephanie Prue is a graduate of Ryerson RTA and has spent the last decade living in Europe – Stockholm, Berlin and Paris, working with narrative in video games. She is currently the global narrative director at Gameloft, one of the largest international game companies in the world. Her passion is innovation in storytelling and this talk will be about finding your best idea for a new project.

About Stephanie Prue

Global Narrative Director @ Game Loft
James Nadler
Executive Producer @ Summit Crescent Productions and Professor of Radio and Television Arts @ Ryerson University
James develops and produces original content ranging from prime-time dramas to reality series to kid’s television. For Alliance Atlantis, James was the Executive Producer / Showrunner of the first three seasons of Psi Factor: Chronicles of the Paranormal starring Dan Aykroyd, Matt Frewer and Michael Moriarty (Global/CBS Maxim). James also was a showrunner of The Zack Files and Seriously Weird. Other shows James wrote or produced include the documentary series Women on Top and the reality series Office Temps and Crash Addicts. He developed the long running hit Heartland for the CBC. James was the Executive Producer / showrunner of the comedy Family Biz (YTV, France 2) and the animated pilot Bob! The Slob (Teletoon). As a freelance writer he has written for 9 Story, Breakthrough, Bejuba!, Machinima, CBC and a number of production companies which no longer exist. Finally, for Guru Studios, James developed and helped sell True and the Rainbow Kingdom to Netflix -- currently in its fourth season. A recovering lawyer, James joined Ryerson University’s RTA School of Media faculty in 2004 and serves as Program Director of its Masters in Media Production. James teaches creative negotiation, producing for television and writing for comedy, dramatic and factual/reality television. Each August, he runs the popular RTA in LA program on the campus of UCLA. James earned his AB in Film Studies from Dartmouth College, trained as a lawyer at Western University and received his MBA from l’Institut Européen d’Administration des Affaires (INSEAD) in Fontainebleau France.

About James Nadler

Executive Producer @ Summit Crescent Productions and Professor of Radio and Television Arts @ Ryerson University
Jeremy LaLonde
Canadian Filmmaker (Writer & Director)
Jeremy LaLonde is a filmmaker who resides in Toronto where he was awarded with NOW Magazine’s ‘Best Local Filmmaker’ Reader’s Choice Award in 2015. His films have screened internationally including Toronto Int’l Film Festival, Slamdance, Cinequest, Santa Barbara, and Whistler. His film SEX AFTER KIDS won Best Feature at Film North Huntsville, Best Comedy at the Edmonton Int’l Film Festival, and Best Screenplay & Best Director at the Canadian Comedy Awards. His film HOW TO PLAN AN ORGY IN A SMALL TOWN premiered at Slamdance and won Best Indie Feature at the Edmonton Int’l Film Festival, and Best Ensemble & Best Feature film at the Canadian Film Fest. His fourth feature film THE GO-GETTERS had its world premiere at Cinequest where it won the Jury Award for Best Comedy Feature. Jeremy has won multiple Canadian Screen Awards, a Director’s Guild of Canada, and a Canadian Comedy Award for his work both directing and editing on BARONESS VON SKETCH SHOW (CBC/IFC). He was an integral part of the show for its first three seasons. His fifth feature film JAMES vs HIS FUTURE SELF co-written by Jonas Chernick and starring Daniel Stern, Frances Conroy, and Cleopatra Coleman recently took home four awards at Toronto After Dark including Best Feature Film (Bronze), Best Canadian Feature, Best Sci-Fi Feature, and Best Supporting Actor and is also screening at Whistler, Santa Barbara, and Brussels among others. It was recently nominated for four Canadian Screen Awards including Best Original Screenplay. He recently shot his sixth and seventh feature films back to back, and is developing several properties for television.

About Jeremy LaLonde

Canadian Filmmaker (Writer & Director)
Warren P. Sonoda
Writer / Director and President of the DGC
BAFTA-winning and Emmy and CSA-nominated filmmaker Warren P. Sonoda is known for directing his feature films Things I Do For Money, Coopers’ Camera, Swearnet: The Movie, the iconic TV shows Trailer Park Boys, This Hour Has 22 Minutes, Murdoch Mysteries, Odd Squad, Utopia Falls and over 160 music videos, 80 episodes of TV and 11 feature films. Japanese-Canadian Sonoda is also the first person of colour to be elected as the National President of the Directors Guild of Canada in 2020, sits on the Visioning Board of BIPOC TV & Film, knocked Martin Scorsese out of the Guinness Book of World Records, has a medal from the Queen, and a rescue dog from Mexico named Scruffie.

About Warren P. Sonoda

Writer / Director and President of the DGC
Scott Albert
TV Writer Specializing in Animation
Scott has a lot of experience putting together bibles for different companies that are creating new series. He has worked with many major companies and industry leaders, including Disney (Zhu Zhu Pets), Nick Jr (Paw Patrol), Spin Master and many others around the globe. As a freelance writer, he’s created, developed and written television and other media since 2005. Another speaker yet to be announced will be talking about writing Treatments for Feature Films.

About Scott Albert

TV Writer Specializing in Animation
Vanessa Matsui
Creator of Ghost BFF, The Series
Vanessa Matsui is a two-time Canadian Screen Award-nominated actress. Selected as a Sundance New Voices fellow in 2019, Vanessa’s critically acclaimed hit web series Ghost BFF, which she wrote, directed for, and starred in, has won multiple awards including Best Web Series at the LA International Femme Film Festival, has been nominated for six CSA awards over two seasons, and has screened at festivals globally including The Austin Film Festival where it was also nominated for Best Web Series and can now be found on Shaftesbury’s KindaTV. Matsui also co-created Crankytown.ca (NFB), an interactive website about getting your first period, where she wrote and directed award-winning short films and received a Gemini nomination for Best Digital Non-Fiction Program. She attributes her love of storytelling to her extensive training in acting and improvisation; she studied the Meisner technique with the late Jaqueline McClintock, studied and performed as an improviser for 10 years in Montreal most notably at the Just For Laughs Festival with The Bitter End (a serialized, completely improvised sitcom). She is currently an advisor for Sundance Co//ab's TV Writing Core Elements course. She lives in Toronto with her toddler and husband.

About Vanessa Matsui

Creator of Ghost BFF, The Series
Alex Boothby
VFX Artist and Post Production Master @ Gang Green Productions
Alex Boothby is an award winning, 20-year veteran of the film industry. His most recent work includes directing the Avenue A commercial for Adidas as well as writing and directing two “Heritage Minutes” commercials for Historica Canada. His work as a visual FX artist can be seen in hundreds of commercials as well as such films as Fight Club, Black Swan, Panic Room, The Cell, and Chicago. Alex has directed ads for Adidas, Acura, Budweiser, Smirnoff, Michelob, Listerine, GM Canada, and RBC. Alex wrote and directed his first feature film entitled “Mr. Viral,” which was released by eOne in Feb 2015.

About Alex Boothby

VFX Artist and Post Production Master @ Gang Green Productions