If you dream of writing scripts and taking your first steps in the film industry, this workshop is for you!
Portfolio
Script for a 30-minute film
35 hours of classes
Seven 5-hour meetings
Small workshop groups
6–10 people per group
Practical screenwriting
Practical Screenwriting is our core workshop. It will help you to acquire the skills necessary to write your own short film script under the supervision of an experienced mentor. The classes are aimed at beginners, as well as people who already have some screenwriting experience.
How does it look?
This intensive workshop’s schedule consists of seven 5-hour meetings. Participants will have the opportunity to work on their own projects, from choosing a theme and creating characters, to writing dialogue. During each meeting, all projects will be discussed in detail among mentors and participants.
Our participants’ further development means a great deal to us. This is why our participants are becoming familiar with the details of the film industry, as well as emerging trends. They will get to know what type of script is most desirable in Poland and abroad, and where they should try to reach with their new material to have any chance of making the project happen. They also learn pitching, which is a professional way of presenting their own film project to directors and producers.
Having completed our classes, each participant will possess basic screenwriting training, enabling him or her to write a short film script and giving them an entry pass into their further creative development (including applying to various film schools). What’s more, all scripts will be entered in a scriptwriting competition for our graduates.
Graduating from the Practical Screenwriting course will allow our graduates to take part in follow-up workshops and thematic classes organised by Bahama Films.
Our graduates
- have been accepted at their dream film schools in Poland and abroad;
- have presented their projects at international pitching meetings during film festivals (Cannes, Munich, Rome, Lille, Tallin and Odessa);
- have cooperated with organisations such as TVP, TVN, Polsat, Netflix, Viaplay, Canal+, TV4, Nowa TV, UW and UJ;
- have been nominated for and received awards in competitions such as Script Pro and Script Wars, and many more screenwriting contests.
In 2021, one of our workshop graduates received an award for his script in Gdynia, and
in 2015, another workshop graduate was nominated for an Oscar.
Workshop program
- Introduction, idea, IP, logline, discussion of participants' initial ideas. Homework: title, logline, tagline.
- Discussion about participants’ projects, character and structure. Homework: character description, synopsis, treatment.
- Discussion about participants’ projects, film analyses. Homework: one-pager.
- Discussion about participants’ projects, scenes, sequences, film beginning and ending, scene breakdown. Homework: scene breakdown.
- Discussion about participants’ projects, film analysis. Homework: three pages of script.
- Discussion about participants’ projects, formats, themes, messages, genres, dialogue, pitching. Homework: script and pitch preparation.
- Discussion about participants’ projects. Pitching and final ceremony.
Workshop trainers and mentors
Wiktor Piątkowski
Screenwriter, producer, lecturer and owner of Bahama Films.
Wiktor Piątkowski created and co-wrote HBO’s first original series produced in Poland (Wataha) and the first Polish romantic comedy produced by Netflix (Squared Love). Over the last 11 years he has worked as showrunner, head writer, screenwriter and producer on various shows (crime series, soap operas, scripted reality, period dramas, sitcom), with more than 1000 hours of TV produced. A sitcom he co-created and co-wrote, Just Push Abuba, premiered in 2018 on ZDF. Wiktor is the head writer of the first Polish TV series produced by Viaplay (Murderesses), the first co-production between Canal+ and Polsat (Sortownia) and the first political thriller series produced by Polsat (Vote of no Confidence). Wiktor’s filmography includes, among others, the feature films Heart Parade (Netflix) and Holidays Backwards (which he also produced), and the TV series War Girls.
Wiktor graduated from the Polish National Film School in Łódź, the Warsaw School of Economics, and Warsaw University (psychology), and is an alumnus of Serial Eyes (organized by the Deutsche Film and Fernsehakademie Berlin, and the London Film School), European TV Drama Series Lab, European Showrunner Training, Canneseries Writers Club, The Owl, Midpoint, Racconti and Berlinale Talents. He has participated in many screenwriting courses, led by, among others Syd Field, John Truby, Robert McKee, Linda Seger, Dov Simens, Glen Benest and Sammy Montana. The list of his mentors includes James V. Hart (Dracula, Hook, Contact), Frank Spotnitz (The X Files, The Man in the High Castle), Graham Yost (Speed, Justified) and Jeff Melvoin (Northern Exposure, Designated Survivor, Killing Eve).
Wiktor Piątkowski is also a member of SEAN, the Dirty Dozen Collective, the Polish Filmmakers Association (SFP) and the Polish Screenwriters’ Guild. He has a PhD in television marketing, runs screenwriting workshops in Poland and abroad, and manages Bahama Films, an independent production company based in Warsaw.
Krzysztof Maćkowski Screenwriter, director, prose writer, reporter, screenwriting lecturer at Bahama Films, founder of the Culture Promoting Foundation Urwany Film.
Director and screenwriter of documentary movies Vater (Special Award of the Artistic Director of the Documentary Festival NURT) and Trzej Przyjaciele z Boiska. The co-creator and screenwriter of, among others, the series Wataha (HBO). Author of the novels Raport Bedeni (Znak Publishing House) and Bardzo Wielkie Pojednanie (Paper Butterfly). Author (together with Janusz Mika) of the collection of conversations Wojna Trakla, Horyzonty Trakla and Pretekst Trakla.
Author of reports from Poland, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ukraine, Turkey, Egypt, Guatemala, Mexico, Peru, Bolivia, India, Nepal and Tibet, as well as co-author of the practical bedeker Grodno. Miasto nad Niemnem (Bezdroża Publishing House). He is a football supporter and also runs marathons.
Attention! Signup slots are allocated according to the order of payments received. In the case of a larger number of applications than available places in the group, we reserve the right to carry out an additional selection of participants.
Workshop dates
Practical Screenwriting 1. (SP1)
Saturday 9.00-14.00. First class: 8.03.2025
Next class dates: 15.03, 5.04, 12.04, 10.05, 24.05, 14.06.2025
Place of the meeting: Warsaw (ul. Puławska 61)
Practical Screenwriting 2. (SP2)
Saturday 15.00-20.00. First class: 8.03.2025
Next class dates: 15.03, 5.04, 12.04, 10.05, 24.05, 14.06.2025
Place of the meeting: Warsaw (ul. Puławska 61)
Class location
Practical screenwriting
Bahama Films workshop
4000 pln
10% DISCOUNT for students under 26 years old.
Can be paid in one payment or in two equal installments.
- 35 hours of classes in small groups (6-10 people)
- online consultation
- script-doctoring of their own script
- all course materials
- opportunity to participate in the BAHAMA FILMS script contest
- opportunity to become a member of BAHAMA FILMS screenwriters base and getting paid assignments to write film and TV series scripts