Franz Rodenkirchen - AIR 2012/2013

How can we write something that is essentially meant to communicate visually?

The landscape of filmmaking is changing rapidly. Fuelled by decreasing funding opportunities, an increased need for film projects to clearly define their core audience and shifting modes of consumption, filmmakers – especially those that belong to the so-called ‘arthouse’ or independent scene – are facing many challenges as they try to turn their projects into films. 

The traditional fields of filmmaking are also undergoing shifts. Makers with a fine art background are venturing into fiction film and more classical filmmakers are looking for alternative channels – often web-based – to connect with an audience. Despite all these challenges, the way film projects are evaluated and eventually funded still very much hinges on a traditional idea of scriptwriting. 

Every filmmaker who plans to make a feature-length fiction film needs to apply for money from a diverse array of funding bodies that require a standard-length script. However, there appear to be more and more filmmakers who find their film projects unfitting for the traditional evaluation process. How can filmmakers meet these challenges? These observations, which stem from his work as a script consultant for many European art house films, were the foundation for Franz Rodenkirchen’s research. 

During Franz’s residency, he explored the shifting landscape of traditional script writing and the challenges it faces, forming a research group with a select group of students and tutoring individual master students to work on developing alternative forms of cinematic narration as well as giving classes on issues relating to his research subject. Franz’s residency culminated with an installation and presentation. 

Franz Rodenkirchen is a well-known Berlin-based German script consultant and tutor, who has worked for the Binger Filmlab and various film festivals among other organisations. The film projects he has advised on include Grbavica byJasmila Zbanic, Lourdes by Jessica Hausner, Women without Men by Shirin Neshat, and Lore by Cate Shortland. Many of the projects not only made it to the competitions of the major film festivals such as Cannes, Berlin, Toronto and Sundance but have also received awards.

You can read more about Franz’s work here. Part of his AIR research is documented in ON AIR 2014 which you can read (in Dutch) here.   

Year

2012