Nordic cooperation across the borders

This year Northern Script started something spectacular. 

With the help of the two cultural fundings by Nordic Culture Point and Nordic Kulturfond, Northern Script was able to spread its workshops all over the Nordic countries reaching young people in faraway places such as the Faroe Islands, Iceland and the Sapmi community. Besides the Nordic workshops, the project was able to start a completely new activity – Nordic Group Scriptwriting. 

A Nordic Group Scriptwriting consists of all the 10 selected Northern Script finalists who together in small groups write remotely three Short Film Scripts with the help of a Finnish mentor. Each aspiring scriptwriter is located in another Nordic country and they were each given a theme from which to select their best script idea. With the help of a Professional Finnish scriptwriter, Milla Tuokkola, each group is given a lecture, a verbal feedback & a written feedback. Each group also receives short feedback from the Nordic workshop leaders.

Milla Tuokkola

In her lecture ‘Writer’s rooms aka how to write in a group’ Milla describes the group scriptwriting in a captivating and funny way. Milla used a lot of her own experience working in both England and the United States as a great example of group scriptwriting dynamics. She also gave the Northern Script finalists tips on how to start writing in a team, keywords being dedicating time to know each other, mutual trust & good communication. 

Although writing in a team has just started to land in Nordic countries, it is still much more popular in the United Stated where several sitcoms and TV-series are written in teams. Milla Tuokkola has been writing in a writers’ room for the Finnish TV for some time now and it feels the best way for her to work at the moment. According to Tuokkola:

‘What you write together will always be better than what you could write alone. Always.’

It is obvious that the group scriptwriting is coming towards the Nordic countries for the TV series, sitcoms and films. The more the young Nordic scriptwriters get to practice these group scriptwriting skills, the better equipped they will be for the Nordic & Global TV- and Film Industry.

The three common Nordic Films will be written by the Northern Script finalists during autumn 2022 and they will be shot and edited by the OSAO Vocational College students in Oulu in November 2022. The finalists had their first Pre production Meeting with the Oulu Film College students 2nd of November and it looks like that the scripts and the storyboards are coming along well. I already have goosebumps when reading these young scriptwriters’ common scripts and can’t wait to see the end results on the screen later this month. 

All the Short Films will be shown at the end of the Oulu International Children’s & Youth Film Festival 19th of November in Valvesali between 2pm -3pm.

More information about Oulu International Children’s & Youth Film Festival

https://www.oulufilmfestival.fi/en/home/