The IEWW is a wonderful opportunity to have your feature project examined not just by professional screenwriters, tutors and an experienced script editor, but also by OTHER WRITERS, who are invaluable in seeing the things you can’t see, sparking new ideas that often lead to solutions to the story issues you are grappling with.
Derek Boyes
As a screenwriter developing my first feature film, there couldn’t have been a better place to do it than at the Inward Eye Writers Workshop! Wordsworth’s house provided a beautiful and inspiring back drop, with stunning views and log fires inside. Vicky, Jonathan, Steve and Henry were great mentors, and the discussions had about our work were energetic and genuine. The one on ones also helped with interpreting what had been said in the workshop, and getting a clearer idea of how to move forward with our screenplays. All in all a hugely positive experience – thank you!
Cathy Wippell
I just wanted to say a big thank you for having me and my film to Inward Eye. It’s really laid bare in front of me what I need to do to write the story I want to tell, which, as I learned at the workshop, isn’t coming across on the page in a way that communicates that. It’s also made it very clear in my mind how I need to define my characters wants and needs and how their journeys progress. The one-on-ones with Vicki and Jonathan were particularly helpful. I’m looking forward to following up with them in future.
Nic Fforde
As a producer venturing out on my first feature, I have learnt a huge amount about story structure during the process of this workshop. Vicki led the workshops brilliantly, giving specific, insightful and practical feedback which will really help our story structures. Each of the mentors had been brilliantly chosen too and were extremely helpful in their feedback. The added value of being able to see films at the festival itself was fantastic too as it meant you were able to network with other creatives at the festival and watch the films made by the mentors who were teaching at the workshop too. We went with a treatment for our feature and have come away re-structuring the story completely. There is a lot more work for us to do, but I think as a team, we feel that we know where we are aiming for now story wise, whereas before, we weren’t totally sure. The setting was beautiful and apt (being Wordsworth’s home), the food was great and the people were great. I couldn’t recommend it highly enough!
Annabel Bates
In 2019, For the very first time, as part of the Inward Eye Film Festival, the organisers, offered residential workshops for film-script writers, in consultation with successful producers, directors and writers, all in a unique Lakeland setting. And they didn’t fail to deliver. The location itself couldn’t be bettered. Rydal Mount, just outside Ambleside in Cumbria, was the family seat of William Wordsworth himself, and we spent three fruitful days in it, all gathered around a huge oak table, in front of an open fire in the day-room there. Our task was to work intensely through each other’s scripts, reading, analysing, feeding back and offering ideas, all of which was achieved with the minimum of rancour and the maximum of warmth. Much of this was down to Vicki Jung, the presiding script consultant, who was more than impressive with her insights and her ability to frame her ideas swiftly, fully and effectively, for the benefit of each writer.
Keir Alexander
Vicki brought out the best in us all, and at no time was there any sense that anyone had not received their rightful quota of attention, or that any voice went unheard. Vicki Jung was extraordinarily ably supported by the mentors who were there to offer specialist industry advice to help reinforce the scripts on their way towards production.
While all of this was happening, the festival itself was going on, and there was plenty of time for us workshop members to make our way to nearby Zeffirellis, the celebrated Ambleside cinema complex, where, by flashing our unique free three-day Inward Eye passes (daffodil bulbs – it took me a while for the penny to drop) we were enabled to attend all screenings and premieres, as well as the short film competition and the fun events that went to make up a rich, varied and wholly satisfying experience.
The title of the festival, Inward Eye, comes from a line in Wordsworth’s famous Daffodils poem and refers to the poet’s capacity to reflect on a moving experience, ie., the sight of the daffodils, and to gain insight and ongoing consolation from it. And that, in every sense, is what we got.
Thank you all so very much for a tremendous few days full of passion, commitment and talent. It was a true privilege to work alongside you all, and I’m so grateful and glad to have been involved. Extra special thanks to Vicki & Charlotte for creating and dreaming up this workshop and for their generosity and perceptive contribution to our diverse group of projects.
Margaret Williams
Thanks all for a great weekend of peer/professional review plus some great socialising. Hopefully, we can meet up next year and/or share things in-between. I just need to decide what I’m going to work on next!
Merlin Goldman
Thank you all for being wonderful people with great advice.
Rory Power Gibb
Thank you once more for a great workshop that has been very useful and had a big heart, with great participants giving their time and ideas generously, and the setting made it feel very special.
Mona Deeley
I would like to say that it has been an absolute pleasure meeting and going through all of the different projects with you all!
Tobi Hassan
Thank you all so much for your strong contribution and great ideas.
The venue could not be bettered. The course leader Vicki Jung knew her stuff through and through, and put it across clearly and incisively but fairly. The mentors were as good as you could get: busy working professionals – directors, producers and writers – who somehow found the time to give us the benefit of their considerable expertise and experience.
Nick Manser
A unique, fruitful, and enabling experience in a venue to die for .
David Cordón
