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Recasting

An Online Film Development Lab


An online film development lab to recast and reimagine film as a political and cultural tool to shape our lives. The course ethos is in a collaborative and collective mode.

Course dates

12th January 2026 – 15th June 2026

Course location

This is an online course

Cost

£375


Payable in one go or 3 parts of £125 with final total payment due by the first session.

Refunds only in exceptional circumstances prior to the start of the course.


2 Places for the unwaged at 50% discount - please ask on your application.

Course outline

  • Six monthly workshop sessions to discuss work-in-progress feature film - documentary and fiction projects
  • Two opportunities to receive feedback on your work (up to 5,000 words per submission - Feature Treatment or First Draft Script, or Short FIlms)
  • Follow up sessions in Autumn 2026 for pre-final drafts in Sept and Oct
  • Optional one-to-one support or critical feedback, (for Final Draft) at an extra cost (£250)
  • An online writing community, lasting beyond the end of the course

The workshop group of up to ten writers meets for monthly sessions on Whereby.com over six months. Members take turns to share work-in-progress ahead of each session, which is then critiqued as a group, with constructive feedback and discussion on any problems or issues raised. Whereby.com sessions can be recorded if all members agree. Each member will submit their work for workshopping at least twice over the course, up to 5,000 words per submission. Providing constructive and supportive feedback to others on their work is a great way of honing your critical and editing skills, which you can apply to your own writing.

Course dates

The Monday evening sessions will take place via Whereby.com, 7-9pm on the 2nd or 1st  Monday of the month, January 2026 – June 2026:


12th January
9th February
9th March
6th April
4th May
8th June

Final meetings (tbc) 8th September / 5th October

Submission dates of texts will be arranged according to people’s pace.

Learning Online


Monthly meetings take place on Whereby.com, 7-9pm GMT, so you will need to have access to the internet at those times. Work in progress will be circulated by email.

Writing a film script can take time and needs a creative producer to guide you. If you do not have a creative producer this lab will work as a peer to peer development process.

All projects need to be workshopped by their scriptwriters, in case of teams wishing to participate each additional member will need to pay a 50% place.

Course Leader


Recasting is led by experienced film professional Suzy Gillett who has run several script development labs including Low Budget Film Forum for 9 years, Lab Producer for the last iFeatures, Film Garage and adapt for Film, as well as Lagos Lab and being part of selection committee for Torino Film Lab, Circle Doc Accelerator Lab and was a reader for European Co-Production Funds for many years. She was Course Leader for the Barbican Young Programmers, nurturing today’s curators.


PROJECTS

Projects at early stage of gestation would benefit most as we will be working on treatment structures, step outlines to build the story BEFORE stepping into the writing of the script - the aim is to have a solid basis upon which to develop a feature film - a low to mid budget with a preference for first time writers with modern ideas.

Film projects with gratuitous violence or sexist racist status quo tropes will not be accepted

APPLICATION PROCESS

Please apply via this form and if you are accepted for a place it will be confirmed by December 15th.

DEADLINE 1st DECEMBER 2025

APPLICATION FORM

For those not accepted in this first round, I will keep you on record for future lab opportunities. 

If I get enough people to run a second lab on alternative Mondays I’ll offer you that.

Participation in all the sessions enables everyone to benefit from the peer to peer aspect - your input and ideas to other people’s projects are what forms the basis of the programme.




 




 


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