Scripted mentorship scheme Banijay Bootcamp to nurture emerging writers

Steve Matthews, Banijay content executive, will lead the scheme

European production group Banijay has launched a new scripted initiative, Banijay Bootcamp, which partners emerging writers with in-house development executives.

The residency programme aims to encourage collaborative storytelling to create scripts with commercial appeal.

It will be led by Steve Matthews, Banijay content executive, alongside Spanish prodco Portocabo’s head of content Nina Hernández, and guest tutor Tatjana Samopjan.

Already underway in Prague, with two residencies across three months, a cohort of five Banijay development executives from Mexico, Spain, France, Israel, and the Netherlands will each be mentored with a writer to develop an idea, storyline, plot and script.

The participants are Clara Machado (Endemol Shine Boomdog) with Carl Zitelmann, Anita Pico (Zeppelin) with Carlotta Dans and Lucía Estévez (Portocabo), Héloïse Ridoux (Banijay Studios France) with Quentin Elles, Adi Bar Yossef (Endemol Shine Israel) with Elad Laor, and Claire Zhou (NL Film) with Leon Golterman.

Steve Matthews said: “Banijay Bootcamp will see our in-house development storymakers and their chosen writers sharpen skills to further understand the deep structure of an idea and how to make it the very best version possible.

“In an increasingly competitive market, productions need to be really, really, good, so this is really about supporting development executives and writers, strengthening the next-generation across the footprint.”