The new Inspired Series program at AFF 2005 is offering up a wide range of programming its organizer says should not only help attendants sharpen their filmmaking ability, but ‘inspire’ them while doing it.

Sponsored by the Nova Scotia Film Development Corporation, Inspired Series is a six-day program of lectures, keynote addresses, panels, master classes, film screenings, one-on-ones and, of course, lunch with famous people. Glen Halfyard, AFF industry partnership coordinator, says it grew out of a June 2004 program geared toward Atlantic docmakers.

‘This year’s thought was to look at creating an environment that inspires producers and directors from a creative standpoint, versus the usual offering of finance and tax credits,’ he says. ‘It’s about how to hone your craft and bring [concepts] to fruition on the screen.’

As with the Inspired Series program, several of the sessions have their roots elsewhere and have been incorporated into the festival for the first time. According to Halfyard, the program that has generated the most interest so far is Norwood Cheek’s Attack of the 50-ft Reels, a Super 8 filmmaking workshop that is normally featured in Cheek’s well-known Flicker film festivals held in the U.S.

The Los Angeles-based filmmaker says audiences and filmmakers alike are increasingly looking for art that isn’t as ‘glossed over’ as what Hollywood likes to make.

‘With Hollywood films today, it’s the perfect sunset, the perfect-looking actress,’ Cheek says. ‘And there’s this response to something that’s down and dirty and gritty, and that’s what Super 8 is.’

In the session, 15 participants will be given two days and 50 feet of film to shoot a three-minute work that will be screened at AFF’s close.

‘This workshop will introduce what in the world Super 8 is, how to work the cameras, and how to get the best result out of this unique challenge,’ Cheek says. ‘And for filmmakers who are experienced, it’ll be a reminder of how you can get some good results.’

Also popular is the script master class being led by former Odeon Films exec Marguerite Pigott, now a consultant for script development and marketing, and Carrie Paupst Shaughnessy, president of Toronto’s The Development House. The duo, which has worked together on this program for the last four years, offering it at various venues, brings it to AFF for the first time. With its focus on helping attendees put together a coherent development plan, Pigott says it asks ’10 essential questions’ that story editors, writers or producers need to ask in order to ‘crack a script open.’

They deliver their lectures with a healthy amount of goofing around, using film clips and involving the audience and the audience’s work in the questions.

‘It really helps people understand the mechanics of their screenplay,’ says Shaughnessy. ‘What we hope people are going to take from this is a bunch of tools that they can use on every script that they develop.’

The irrepressible Jan Miller also returns to AFF, as director of Strategic Partners (see story, p. 31) and with a couple of Inspired Series gigs. These include the Astral Media Harold Greenberg Fund script pitch and the export readiness master class.

The latter came out of workshops Miller led last year that piqued the interest of music industry folks and Trade Routes Canada, a government initiative seeking to expand international markets for the domestic arts and culture sector. The class that resulted is directed at artists and musician managers who will be talking to music supervisors working on films.

‘Where I come at it is helping musicians take ownership of their original sound in the sense of defining what makes their sound different, and why someone should hire their company or their music,’ says Miller.

The program includes a 15-minute pitch session in which participants will try out what they’ve learned in front of industry professionals.

Pitching is also the central aspect of the Greenberg script pitch program, now in its 10th year at AFF. Writers of two features and two half-hours chosen from a field of applicants will be working intensively with Showcase script consultant Allan Magee (Trailer Park Boys) over a couple of weekends in the lead-up to a pitch session with a group of independent producers.

Other workshops include a double helping of HD-related sessions that focus on the creative aspects of HD filmmaking, led by post-production guru Steve Mayhew. The New Media Game Show has host Steve Comeau of Collideascope Digital Production and British new media experts Tim Wright and Rob Bevan debating the pros and cons of new media in a game-show setting.

The annual Academy Luncheon features director Sturla Gunnarsson and Icelandic producer Fridrik Thor Fridriksson, the pair behind the feature Beowulf & Grendel, which screens as an AFF gala.

Inspired Series will also feature public screenings of films such as Clement Virgo’s sex drama Lie with Me and Pete Travis’ made-for-TV Ireland/U.K. copro Omagh, and will include conversations with the filmmakers hosted by Laurie Brown.

‘This is what makes our connection not only with the industry but with the general pubic, which loves to come and see films,’ says Halfyard.