Entertainment Master Class Launches Showrunner Society Mentoring and Training Platform (EXCLUSIVE)

07.02.2022 - 18:07 / variety.com

Jamie Lang Entertainment Master Class (EMC), established in 2005 as a new platform for peer-to-peer TV industry education, has launched the Showrunner Society, a hybrid online/in-person community for showrunners and media executives. The first face-to-face masterclass is planned for this summer, hosted in Germany with supported from film funding agency Film- und Medienstiftung NRW.Described by EMD as “a new way for experienced writers and writing producers to learn the craft of Showrunning,” the platform was designed as a transmedia experience offering users the opportunity to meet and interact with established showrunners from their own regions and from around the world.In addition to a wide-reaching range of online offerings, the jewel in the Showrunner Society’s crown will be its annual four-day, in-person Showrunning Masterclass where a small group of experienced writers, directors, producers and executives will be joined by showrunners from around the world for a series of mentoring sessions and potential shadowing opportunities.

The Society will also produce a podcast and video interviews in which some of the world’s most experienced showrunners will talk shop. The Showrunner Society’s launch-day advisory board features an impressive quartet of industry talent including Emmy-winning writer-producer Tom Fontana (“Oz,” “Borgia”), writer-director Richie Mehta (“Delhi Crime”), producer and former HBO executive Anne Thomopoulos (“Rome,” “Plan Coeur”) and Big Window Productions EP and managing director Jörg Winger (“Deutschland 83”).“There are more opportunities than ever before to make series and tell the stories that haven’t been told,” said Thomopoulos.