STAGE 1– THE PRESENTATION OF THE POLISH DOCUMENTARY SCHOOL

• duration: 6 days
• Polish participants: 5 film authors including 3 future workshop artists – tutors, screening moderator, workshop production manager (7 people in total)
• local participants: interpreters, local researcher, app. 40 young film makers, a few hundred of film viewers (the cinema audience)
• program: 4 film screenings accompanied by meetings with the film authors, 2 seminars with the participation of young film makers

The presentation will take a few days. Its vital part will be the films made by famous Polish documentary film makers, who will be also participating in the workshop, namely Marcel and Pawel Lozinski, Jacek Blawut, Vita Zelakeviciute, Jacek Petrycki, Rafal Listopad, Maciej Drygas and Miroslaw Dembinski.
The screening program will also involve a review of other important Polish documentaries chosen by a film theoretician dr Mateusz Werner. The screenings, discussions and seminars will be organized with the involvement of the local partners: the film schools, university art departments and other film and TV organizations.

STAGE 2 – THE WORKSHOP AND THE FILM MAKING

• duration: 20 days
• Polish participants: 3 artistic supervisors (artists – tutors), 4 technicians: assistant – camera operator, assistant – sound mixer, assistant – editor, workshop production manager (7 people in total)
• local participants: interpreters, local researcher, app 40 young film makers: directors, cameramen, executive producers, sound recordists and film editors
• program: meetings, discussions, screenplay and rushes analysis, film shooting and editing 10 – 12 short films combined into one 40-50 minute long documentary film

The three week film education workshop will be run by a group of previously mentioned documentary filmmakers who are also professors of the most important film schools in Poland. The workshop will be run according to the method initiated by M.Drygas and M. Dembinski at the Polish National Film School in Lodz, which was used during the project “The World from Dawn till Dusk”.
The method involves making short films and incorporating them into one. Each student chooses a certain hour from the city life and through documentary observation presents it in his 3-4 minute film. About a dozen of these short films present the city life from dawn till dusk. The students get a chance to work with a short film form, which allows detailed analysis, close following of the dramaturgical construction, film narration, and on top of all this the students also work with a long film form. During the workshop they go through all the stages of film-making similar to the professional system starting from pitching – to learn the proper subject presentation, through screenwriting, organizing production groups, shooting the film, editing it, the sound mix, and eventually screening the final product – the film. Each student in a practical way profits from the theoretical classes.
Having met the famous Polish documentary filmmakers the students not only have an opportunity to follow the specific work method of each of them but also they are able to learn how to see the world in a more sensitive way, how to understand it better and how to present it on the screen. They will be more likely to talk about the things they hardly noticed before, or were simply not aware of.
The city is the main protagonist of the film being made by all the workshop participants. Using the observation method they observe seemingly meaningless events in the lives of the city inhabitants. But through filmmakers personal interpretations the stories assume a new meaning and become special. When put together in one long film they create a universal metaphor.

The workshop will be divided into three stages:

• Part I screenwriting and research – 5 days
  - common screenwriting and research classes – the choice of the projects, complementary research, screenplay approval
  If necessary the participants are asked to conduct complementary research or alternatively change the subject. After consultations from 10 up to 12 projects are selected to be filmed.
  The participants division into groups – film crews
  The tutors together with the workshop participants decide about creating a film crew consisting of a director, a cameraman, an executive producer and a sound recordist.
• Part II shooting and editing – 10 days
  - 5 days of shooting (10-12 crews, 6 sets of shooting equipment)
  During this stage the crews go on the shoots. Each crew is working on its short documentary. Every day the material shot is consulted with the tutors. During common discussions the direction of further film work is established. The students continue shooting to accumulate the necessary film material. When the shooting task has been completed and the film material is approved by the tutors it is passed to the editing stage.
  5 days of editing (10 -12 short films, 4 sets of editing equipment)
  The registered film material is transferred to the computer memory of the editing unit and under the supervision of the leading editor the participants decide about the order of the film sequences. In 5 days time from 10 up to 12 four minute shorts are initially edited.
• Part III – editing and post-production – 5 days
  - 5 days of common classes – the analysis of the initially edited shorts, corrections, final editing, arranging the sequence of the shorts, sound mix for the whole film.
  The tutors together with the workshop participants review and analyze the edited shorts, point out possible weaknesses and suggest required corrections. At this point the sequence of the shorts is determined to produce the best possible and most interesting film. Having performed the necessary improvements the final editing of the shorts and the whole film takes place, and eventually the final sound mix follows.
  the final screening and the summing up of the workshop.

STAGE 3 – THE SCREENING OF THE FILMS MADE DURING THE PROJECT

• duration: 4 days
• Polish participants: 3 artists – tutors running the workshop, screening moderator, workshop production manager (in total 5 people)
• local participants: interpreters, app. 40 young film makers, cinema viewers – a few hundred
• program: the screenings of all the films made so far within the scope of the project „The World from Dawn till Dusk” accompanied by discussions with their authors; the students and the tutors, 5 screenings of 2-4 films, a seminar for the students summing up the project

The films made during the workshop will be the direct and most obvious result of the project. They will enrich the collection of the films previously made within the project “The World from Dawn till Dusk”. The whole collection will be screened at cinemas, followed by the meetings with the students – the film authors, and the tutors – the artistic supervisors of the films.
The film viewers will have an opportunity to see the life of their own city in an original form and compare it with other, often distant places, described in the same way. This leads to interesting reflections on similarities and differences as well as universal aspects such as: love, loneliness, suffering, joy – human existential experience does not depend on the skin colour, or the language spoken, and despite all the cultural differences the basic meaning of human existence is understandable for everybody.

STAGE 4 – THE LONGTERM INFLUENCE OF THE PROJECT

The cinema screenings of the project films in the cities where they were made just initiate the films’ public existence.
They will be incorporated into the collection “The World from Dawn till Dusk” and will be presented in other parts of the world as the project’s continuation. We also plan the films’ documentary festival screenings in the countries involved in the project. We will enter them as well for other important international film festivals. The films will be broadcast on Polish television and most probably on television in the countries participating in the project. We will also try to interest other international television networks in the films.
Another, equally important, result of the workshop are the “seeds” planted in the minds of the workshop participants, the young film makers from many countries. These young people constitute a vital and dynamic group of artists who have the power to influence through media whole societies. The experience gathered during the workshop meetings with Polish documentary filmmakers will be used by them later in their professional life. Hopefully, in future they will be willing to work with Polish filmmakers and Polish culture institutions again.