Montreal: Institut national de l’image et du son, Quebec’s advanced film and tv school, has launched a publishing program with a Guy Fournier book on screenwriting, Ecrire pour le petit ecran (Writing for the Small Screen).

The 213-page Editions inis publication investigates a wide range of issues in tv writing – including methodology, bible preparation and commercial breaks – for sitcoms, teleromans, dramas, miniseries and tv movies.

A modified English version was launched at the Banff Television Festival.

Fournier says English-language screenwriting reference books abound from the u.s. and u.k., but virtually nothing reflecting the state of the craft in Quebec had been available. The initial French run of 3,000 copies is being published with funding support of the Cogeco Program Development Fund.

Fournier’s impressive filmography includes a string of hit teleromans and drama series covering four decades – Jamais deux sans, Les Heritiers Duval, Ent’Cadieux, the controversial but pricey Mount-Royal, coscripted with a younger Wayne Grigsby (the Montreal Gazette’s wine-tasting expert at the time), Pierre d’Iberville and the current top-rated Verseau International historical drama L’Ombre de L’Epervier, broadcast on Radio-Canada.

Fournier is currently writing 10 new episodes of L’Ombre for the ’99 season and has a drama project with son and producer Eric Fournier on the life and times of two historic Quebec political figures, Jean Lesage and Daniel Johnson.

Fournier says the subject matter of the drama is dicey: ‘I knew both of them and there are some people who aren’t going to like this at all.’

According to Fournier, if today’s writers have more openings than in the past, some things remain the same. ‘The tv networks still play it too safe,’ he says. ‘They’re too conservative.’

The book launch took place at inis as the school prepares to launch its ’99/2000 student enrollment drive.

Opened in 1996, the film school begins a new 18-month cycle in January ’99, with applications accepted no later than Oct. 2.

Seven new students will be accepted in the screenwriting and directing programs each, five in production, says Louise Spickler, inis director general.

The program emphasizes documentary production in the first phase, from January to May, and episodic tv drama and film in a phase two, from October ’98 to May ’99. A third phase with jury selection criteria is optional.

Tuition fees are $5,000 per study cycle, including the third cycle, with funding assistance and bursaries available for students who have successfully completed cycle one. Candidates aged 21 to 35 with a university degree or relevant production experience are given preference.