The Canadian Film Centre will put out the tender to Canada’s drama creators next week, requesting series proposals for the new Television Resident Programme.

Scheduled to launch in January 1999, the Television Resident Programme will focus on the development process of primetime dramatic series. The initiative, which will be announced at the Banff Television Festival running June 7-13, will work towards developing Canadian writers.

‘We do not have the mentoring systems to develop tv writing talent as they do in Hollywood,’ says Jeff King, chair of the advisory committee developing the program with the cfc. ‘Through this program, we want to develop an infrastructure of writers who live and work in Canada and provide a context for projects to be developed in a training environment.’

This fall, a selection committee of broadcasters, key tv creators and cfc staff will choose up to three series proposals from experienced tv program creators/ showrunners based on the project’s creative, broadcaster interest and marketplace potential.

The program creators will deliver a pilot script for their series prior to the three-month training/ project development program.

Five trainees per story team will be chosen to work with the mentor to develop characters, storylines, a bible and six scripts. Eligible trainees will be writers with demonstrated talent, some screenwriting experience and a commitment to work in television.

Broadcasters, production companies and distributors will act as advisors in the development process to ensure the projects are market-driven. Agents such as Credential’s Lynn Kenny will be involved to scout talent. The Writers Guild of Canada will safeguard the writers’ interests and ensure fair compensation if the projects become successful series.

The program’s goal is for these projects to be picked up by broadcasters and/or production companies and foster a pool of professionally trained episodic tv writers. King says the trainees leave the program with sample scripts, a story editor credit on the series, the chance to work with a top showrunner, and the possibility of getting hired should the series go into production.

The cfc will not hold project copyright; it will remain with the creator, who will also be paid during the training period.

This program is the first step towards building a comparable program to the center’s Film Resident Programme, says Kathryn Emslie, director of film and tv programs at the cfc, which offers specific training for writers, directors, producers and editors.

Future expansion possibilities on the tv front include a program for producers of dramatic television, says Emslie.

The center isn’t planning actual tv production activity in the near future, says Emslie, as consultations with the tv industry deemed it unnecessary.

The cfc also plans to partner with the Banff Television Festival on an international training forum at the 20th annual festival in 1999.

At this year’s Banff, the center will begin securing sponsors for the $200,000 program. Trainees will be required to pay a $2,500 tuition, the same rate as the center’s previous one-month tv training program, which invited talent to bring their own projects into the center.

The new initiative is a result of a report assessing the training needs of the Canadian tv industry. The cfc commissioned the study after a four-year run of the month-long tv drama program. King was a mentor on the previous tv initiative and says only one tv project in the four-year run managed to pick up a broadcaster.

The problem, he says, is that trainees developed projects that were not appropriate for buyers, and the marketplace and the training concentrated on pitching, not developing market-driven creative.

The advisory committee for the Television Resident Programme includes Canada’s top dramatic tv creators such as Suzette Couture, Wayne Gribsy Hart Hanson, Jim Henshaw, Paul Haggis, and Brad Wright.

cfc is currently seeking an exec producer to run the program and develop other tv initiatives.