An initiative launched jointly by the Ministries of National Education, Culture and the CNC has enabled thousands of high school students to embark on a great challenge: to write their series.
“Write your series!” Better than an injunction, it is an exciting challenge that the CNC (National Center for Cinema and Moving Image), the Ministry of Culture and National Education launched this year. From October 2021 to May 2022, all high school students aged 15 to 18 were able to participate in this competition. In groups of 3 to 8 young people, they put down on paper the words and images that run through their heads.
The goal of this initiative? Encourage vocations. Develop a taste for writing and creativity. And begin to bring out the future generation of French screenwriters. For the participants, the approach also consists in discovering what any professional in the world of TV series must undertake when he wants to sell his project: put together a file with a synopsis, a presentation of the characters, a bible in short. They also used video to pitch their series.
The rules of the game were clear: write together, give free rein to your imagination, with no restrictions on the number of episodes, the format or the genre chosen. To carry out their project, the young people were supervised by professionals who gave them the keys to make a file as successful as possible.
The operation was sponsored by actress Audrey Fleurot and sponsored by director and screenwriter François Descraques. Results: over 2300 students participated in this first edition! 330 files were sent and 13 were selected to be read carefully and evaluated by a jury of professionals.
A very rich selection
“We were surprised by the maturity in substance or form of all the projects. Also to see the issues that emerged. We have a lot of projects on ecology, the future of the planet, the evolution of society in relation to new technologies“, confides François Descraques. The screenwriter and director, who made a name for himself with The Visitor from the Future, was part of the final jury.
“What touched me the most was seeing young people mastering their youth universe and seeing how they staged themselves. Even if sometimes there were blunders, there was a lot of authenticity” he tells us, referring to very varied files in genres.
“What’s quite amusing is that they tackle serious subjects, without taking themselves too seriously, so there is very often a form of humor, irony, and slight detachment. It’s not comedy. We feel that they are affected by the way the world is going wrong, but on the other hand, they have enough maturity and intelligence to take a certain distance from their words.” in turn confides to us Caroline Benjo, producer and director of Haut et Court.
This initiative is also a form of raising awareness of the profession of screenwriter. A profession that often seems inaccessible and which is not necessarily presented in all the territories of France. It is full of hope that Caroline Benjo expresses her wish for the participants:
The idea is above all to make them want to write, to seize stories that are THEIR stories. And that if they have affinities, it can become a regular practice at home and that they professionalize as their school and perhaps university course progresses to become the screenwriters of tomorrow.
The “Write your series” project thus constitutes a first step in the stirrup for these young people who discover their potential there. To encourage them to continue their writing work and to take a closer interest in serial creation, the CNC offers them very popular prizes with, among other things, a visit to a serial shoot and a film set. animation.
It is a real message of openness sent to all the participants who come from the four corners of France, including the DOM-TOMs, and whose geographical or social origin is not judged. Their asset in this competition is that they carry with them an imaginary linked to their personal context. Hence the diversity, welcomed by the jury, of the files presented.
The approach also consists of looking for the screenwriters of tomorrow in a decentralized way, by going to meet them. “It’s a bet on the future with the idea of stopping thinking about the top of the pyramid. It is not from the top of the pyramid that we will succeed in renewing French fiction“explains Caroline Benjo. François Descraques expresses the same hope as her as to the possible fallout in the years to come:
There is a diversity of profiles and themes that are so absent from the series we see on TV. I really hope it will inspire people and producers.
Building on its success, the “Write your series” challenge is renewed for a second edition for the 2022-2023 school year and will be open to students from 4th and 3th.
Winners of the first edition
Prize for the best project: Stranger like you
Students of the LPO Boissy d’Anglas d’Annonay high school (Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region)
Project supervised by the MJC Annonay.
Authors : Lila A., Candice B., Thévie B., Charlotte C., Aude D., Camille G., Noah L., Naël L., Jade S., Nathan S., Estéban S., Buncelia S., Tim T.
Supervising teacher : Pascale MUSCHINOWSKI
Accompanied in the writing work by : Brice Sodini and Romain Evrard
Special Jury Prize: Eudaimonia
Students outside school hours supervised by the association La Nouvelle dimension in Florac (Occitanie region)
Anonymized authors : Camille A., Ella B., Tévi B., Noam P.
Framed by: Pierre-Audebert
Best Pitch Award: Roll and Rock
Students of the Henri Poincaré high school in Nancy (Grand Est region)
Project supervised by the FDMJC 54 structure (The MJC Federation of Meurthe-et-Moselle)
Authors: Marie B., Léa B., Marco J., Baptiste R., Emma R., Yvan S., Ninon V.,
Supervising teachers: Marie-Helene Testa and Severine Vicari
Accompanied by : Thomas Desenne
Special mention of the pitch: Over heaven crew
Students from the Arènes de Toulouse high school (Occitanie region)
Project supervised by the association La Trame.
Authors: Mickaël F., Virgile M., Fantin P.
Framed by: Christian Dauteuil
Teacher : Philippe Teissier
Prize for the best dialogues, ex aequo:
Sipestisyon
Students of the Bellevue high school in Fort-de-France (Martinique)
Project supervised by Cadice Ciné Woulé.
Authors: Issmaël R., Abigail B. Lohann M.
Supervising teacher : Marion DUBREUIL
Viandard.es
Students of the Pierre Mendès France general high school in Vic en Bigorre (Occitanie region)
Project supervised by the association La Trame.
Authors: Irina S., Manon B., Maurine S.
Framed by their teacher Isabelle Vaillon and Baptiste Martin-Bonnaire, speaker for La Trame
Favorite prize for the young finalists of the challenge Write your series : Over heaven crew
Students from the Arènes de Toulouse high school (Occitanie region)
Project supervised by the association La Trame.
Authors: Mickaël F., Virgile M., Fantin P.
Framed by: Christian Dauteuil
Teacher : Philippe Teissier
Composition of the jury:
Axel Auriant (actor), caroline benjo (producer and co-manager of Haut et Court), Simon Bouisson (director, screenwriter), Francois Descraques (director, screenwriter), Renaud Ferreira de Oliveira (general inspector of education, sport and research), Timothy Hochet (director, screenwriter), Chloe Jouannet (actress), Carole Leberre (fiction unit program advisor, France Télévisions), Julien Neutres (director of creation, territories and audiences of the CNC), Vera Peltekyan (VP originals production | HBO Max France), Eric Rostand (cinema/audiovisual, media adviser – Artistic and cultural education mission), Charlotte Servel (cinema lecturer, author of the tools for the Write your series challenge), Lorraine Sullivan (Manager, Talent Investment and Development EMEA, Netflix)