As a leading independent training initiative, The Writing Studio empowers writers and filmmakers and fosters the growth of the film and television industries, theatre, journalism and publishers in South Africa.

The Writing Studio is committed to the art of writing and the craft of filmmaking, turning ideas into words, and words into images and action.

2010 marks the 16th year of The Writing Studio's existence.

At the end of 2009 The Writing Studio celebrated its 500th workshop: highlights include a Master Class for Screenwriters at the Talent Campus at the 2006 Sithengi Film and TV Market.; and three workshops at the Ekhaya Multi Arts Centre at the annual Kwa Mashu Film Festival in Durban.

WHERE IT ALL BEGAN
In 1994 The Writing Studio was created in Durban by Daniel Dercksen, calling together aspirant writers who were interested in developing their craft.

Following workshops in KwaZulu Natal, the workshop found a permanent home in Cape Town in 1998 when filmmaker Dirk de Villiers offered to host the workshops at C-Films at the Longkloof Studios.

Since then the workshop has evolved into three workshops for writers - The Write Voice, The Write Journey, and The Write Draft - as well as a Correspondence Course for writers who would like to write in their own space an at their own pace.

Read more about our workshops and courses


CELEBRATING 16 YEARS OF DEVELOPING THE WRITE ATTITUDE
During this period workshops in scriptwriting, creative writing and filmmaking have been presented throughout South Africa, as well as courses at The University of the Orange Free State, the Newtown Film School in Gauteng, and City Varsity's Film TV and Multimedia School in Cape Town.  Read more about our success stories


OUTREACH WORK
It is important for The Writing Studio to involve itself in outreach programmes, giving aspirant writers from all cultures the opportunity to develop their craft and find their voice as writers in a multi-cultural society.

Some of the outreach work that The Writing Studio has been involved in and actively pursues, are voluntary workshops for pensioners of the University of the Third Age, students from the Newtown Film School, the vibrant Tau Tsa Seboka writers' group in the township of  Tembisa, the Kwa Mashu Film Festival in Durban, and the.Cape Film Commission's Ikapa Youth Film Festival.   
In December 2007 The Writing Studio presented its third workshop at the Kwa Mashu Film Festival. During a week of intense writing and creativity at the Kwa Mashu Film Festival in KwaZulu Natal, The Writing Studio took a group of learners through their paces of writing a screenplay for feature film and ended up with three short scripts that are now ready for development. At the end of the week, a scene from each of the scripts were performed by the writers to Edmund Mhlongo, the Kwa Mashu African Film Festival Director; Madoda Ncayiyana from the NVFV (who presented an Advanced Workshop for Writers), Terrence Khumalo from the NFVF, and Xolani Majozi who is the Marketing Director of the Ekhaya Multi Arts Centre in Kwa Mashu


OUR WEBSITE
Until 31 May, 2004, The Writing Studio teamed up with GAL (getALife), which traffiked over 1.2 million page impressions a month and acted as a platform to launch media careers by training journalists, event co-ordinators and marketers.  From June 1, 2004, The Writing Studio gained its independence in cyberspace and changed its URL to www.writingstudio.co.za . Within the first three weeks of its independence, the new website attracted a total of 7 675 hits and a total of 3000 visits, with 255 visits daily.  This has grown substantially to a total of 1000 visitors daily at the end of June 2005. During the last 12 months the website had 500 000 visitors, with visitors from  The website attracts visitors from more than 80 countries internationally on a daily basis.

NOTEPAD - A FREE WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
Our free weekly newsletter NOTEPAD will keep you updated on all our upcoming workshops, as well as with what's happening on the big screen and on stage.

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