For all those aspiring scriptwriters out there SASWU (South African Script Writers Union) is offering a Learnership from 1 August for 10 months. This will involve being placed on a writing team as an intern and working fulltime for 10 months in the industry.
In addition, learners will be paid a monthly stipend of R2 000 and attend a 16-week Fundamental Scriptwriting (level 5) course. Learners are expected to attend lectures and complete assignments. Most importantly, learners will be given a foot in the door to an industry hungry for new talent.
Interested parties may apply from anywhere in South Africa, as long as they are available to work in Johannesburg for the full period. SASWU will assist in obtaining additional funding for travel etc. for out-of-town candidates.
Application Rules: This course is not designed for first-time writers. While it is defined as a “Fundamental” scriptwriter’s course, it is done at an NQF level 5 a€” the equivalent of a diploma. SASWU is looking for people with talent, the ability to express emotion in the written word and storytelling flair. In other words, people who define themselves as writers.
This course is also for paid-up SASWU members only. Non-members wishing to apply for the Learnership must ask the SASWU office for a membership form or download one from the site. This is stipulated because learners will require the support of an organisation to be an entry-level scriptwriter in the industry.
SASWU urges applicants to submit items exactly as requested as the application requirements are carefully designed to find the best candidates for the course. For those unable to complete the requirements, there may be another suitable course at a different level a€” ask the office for details.
Assumed Learning
There is certain learning that is assumed you already have in order to qualify for entry in to this course i.e. Language and Communication skills to Level 4.
This means that you need to be able to speak one of our 11 official languages to the level where you can (in that language):
- Identify and solve problems
- Interact effectively with others as a member of a team, group, organisation and community
- Organise and manage your time and activities responsibly and effectively
- Collect, analyse, organise and critically evaluate information
- Communicate effectively, using visual language skills in the modes of oral and written presentation
- Use science and technology effectively and critically, including the Internet and a Personal Computer
NB: If you do not have level 4 skills in English, please submit in your first language.
It is also assumed that you are computer literate as this is a basic skill necessary to be a scriptwriter in the South African Film industry.
If you are not computer literate, you will be able to attend the Scriptwriting Institute Laboratory in Cape Town, Durban and Johannesburg in the near future to learn these skills. Please stay in touch with SASWA for further information in this regard.
If you do not have an email address, please consult the February SASWA newsletter to learn how to set up a free email address that you can check anywhere, on any machine.
NB: Only email submissions will be accepted.
Why do we want your CV?
The ideal candidate for this Learnership is someone who has shown a passion for writing, and for film in the course of their life. This might mean studies in that direction, work in the industry or even just a hobby. You might also be a writer in another medium (an author of a book, a journalist, a playwright) who wishes to try their hand at writing a film or TV script. Your general life experience and outlook are factors in your application, so make your CV reflect this.
What is the Motivation Letter?
An extension of your CV, this letter should tell us why you should be given a place on the course. The course is free of charge in this case and we want to make sure that the candidates will use that benefit to its maximum potential. So impress us with your passion and let us know WHY you are a writer and what that means to you. In this letter, you need to state that you will be available to work full time in Johannesburg for the 10 month period starting 1st August 2006.NB: Keep it to half a page!
What is a short story?
A short story is a form of short fictional narrative prose. Short stories tend to be more concise and to the point than longer works of fiction. Short stories tend to be less complex than novels. Usually, a short story will focus on only one incident, has a single plot, a single setting, a limited number of characters, and covers a short period of time.
As with longer stories, plots of short stories also have a climax, crisis, or turning-point. However, the endings of many short stories are abrupt and open and may or may not have a moral or practical lesson. More typical, is an abrupt beginning, with the story starting in the middle of the action.
NB: Our request is for a 2-page story that you think you could develop into a short film on the course.
Examples of classic short stories
A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner
The Snows of Kilimanjaro by Ernest Hemingway,
The Lottery by Shirley Jackson
A Good Man Is Hard to Find by Flannery O’Connor
The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry (William Sydney Porter)
The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe
The Cask Of Amontillado by Edgar Allan Poe
Araby by James Joyce
Why I live at the P.O. by Eudora Welty
The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin
Marrakech by George Orwell
A Sound of Thunder by Ray Bradbury
Take time to complete your submission. While we will feed back to you if it is not in the correct format etc, you might lose out to candidates who prepare better.
Submissions must be received via e-mail by the 30th of July to coordinator@saswa.org.za. Applicants will be contacted for an interview should they be considered.
