The workshop
The workshop is conducted in French, so a certain level of proficiency in the language is required to fully benefit from the training.
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This training, both practical and theoretical, teaches participants to identify and clearly articulate the stakes of a documentary film, to structure a project while considering the specifics of cinematic writing, to create a sketch of the film, and to successfully draft a proposal intended for producers and various funding and support committees.
The goal is not to provide formulas (as each project is unique in its writing and production process), nor even to produce a "ready to shoot" film proposal, but to help gain the necessary perspective and identify the different stages of project development. A film, traditionally viewed through its "subject," finds its originality and specificity when it discovers the "narrative form" that enhances it: its most relevant, accurate, and essential form.
Dates for 2026 :
- 1st module from April 13th to April 17th, 2026 (5 days)
- 2nd module from June 22nd to June 26th, 2026 (5 days)
- 3rd module from August 25th to August 28th, 2026 (4 days)
- 4th module from October 5th to October 7th, 2026 (3 days)
The programme
Teaching Method
Each session corresponds to a stage in the creative process:
- understanding the director's underlying desire and identifying the issues at stake, which are sometimes hidden
- finding the film's center of gravity
- finding the right narrative form and working on the story
- finalizing the writing of a production dossier and presenting it to professionals.
Each session includes practical filming or editing exercises, writing exercises, theoretical content, film analysis, and personalized feedback on each participant's writing.
Feedback is provided by professionals from various fields (directors, producers, festival directors) who are recognized for the richness and diversity of their experience.
Between each session, participants must complete a certain amount of work, the instructions for which are given at the end of each module. Success in the workshop depends on each individual's commitment and personal effort.
1st session: Identifying the Stakes of the Film - "Deconstructing the Writing Process" (5 days)
Be able to describe and break down the film writing process, identify and analyze the different stages of the work. Learning to identify intentions.
- Practical exercises: filming exercises based on the “shoot/edit” principle.
- Film analysis to identify the issues and choices involved in screenwriting.
- Writing exercises. Work on summarizing your project to identify the issues at stake, etc.
- Project writing: Group discussion of individual projects + one-on-one meetings to develop each person's roadmap (location scouting, research to be deepened or expanded, working notes to be compiled: location scouting reports, descriptions of places and characters, stories, etc.). .
Intersession 1/2: Location scouting and research for the film. Find the central theme of the film and a symbolic object (metaphor or metonymy) that can be filmed as part of an exercise. Find a sequence from an existing film that inspires the project.
2nd session: Deepening the Stakes - "Finding the Film’s Center of Gravity" (5 days)
Explore the possibilities, redefine the film's focus, and begin to identify the main intention.
Reflect on staging choices, seek the film's form.
- Viewing of film sequences chosen in relation to each participant's project.
- Practical exercise: bring an object, a “highlight” or crystallization of the issues (metaphor or metonymy), which could be the core of the film, and create a 5-minute sequence that captures the intention.
- Theoretical seminars: “The territories of sound” (with Daniel Deshays) and “an author's journey” (external speaker).
- Seminar on production (external speaker)
- Screenings of films related to the theoretical seminars.
- Writing projects: meet in pairs to discuss individual projects.
Intersession 2/3: Participants must think about the staging of their film, while continuing location scouting and research, and shoot a first sequence. Each participant must write a first statement of intent. They must find a film excerpt that inspires and enlightens them, nourishes and supports their own staging choices.
3rd session: Finding the How and the narrative/dramaturgy. “Ways of doing, forms of thinking” - Editing a sequence (4 days)
Deepening the dramaturgy of each film through reflection and practical work on editing a sequence.
- Exercise in editing a sequence from your rushes, in order to refine the film's script and inform the final draft of the written project.
- Writing the personal project: methodology (summary, statement of intent, development or synopsis, production notes) and individual monitoring of the writing process.
Intersession 3/4: Writing the final draft.
4th session: Presentation to a committee - “Form is substance rising to the surface” (3 days)
Evaluation of the project's degree of completion by professionals.
- Practical exercise: learning how to give a short oral presentation of the project to professionals (“pitch”).
- Writing the personal project: presentation of the project and the outline sequence to a committee of professionals (director, producer, critic, or festival director).
- Debriefing and roadmaps for each project.
- Training review*
Pedagogy
Ateliers Varan teaches the practice of documentary filmmaking, opening one's perspective on the world. Learn more about the Ateliers Varan pedagogical approach
Evaluation Methods
- Pre-training Assessment: Application file + interview
- Formative evaluation at the end of each sequence
- Final Evaluation: Making of a short film
More Information
Accessibility
Ateliers Varan, a Category 5 ERP establishment, welcomes people with disabilities.
For any requests related to accessibility, please contact Fanny Chapuis: contact@ateliersvaran.com / 01 43 56 64 04
Satisfaction
In 2024 and 2025, 20 people took part to the Writing and developing a documentary film project workshop at Ateliers Varan. Overall satisfaction rate: 95%.
Career Opportunities
Graduates can pursue careers in audiovisual and film production companies, corporate audiovisual services, and television channels, among others.
*Program - version updated on January 9, 2026
Application details
Selection:
The following documents should be written in French.
- A cover letter
- A film project summary in 2-3 pages maximum
- A detailed CV
- A web link to a previous work
Please send these materials via email to contact@ateliersvaran.com along with your complete contact information.
For shortlisted candidates, the final selection is based on an interview with one or more trainers.
Teaching staff
The teaching team is composed of two mentors who support you throughout the training. Additionally, a producer oversees the project development remotely, and editors assist you in creating a sketch of the film.
The trainers change with each workshop. Currently, the supervising trainers are:
Other professionals (film historians, directors, editors, producers, etc.) occasionally contribute, for example:
The Workshop Films
Examples of film projects developed in previous writing workshops:
440 grammes, by Ingrid Seyman
A director prepares a documentary about her mother, who committed suicide 30 years before. She wishes to resurrect the figure of this woman, whose existence has been erased from family memory. But as soon as filming begins, the director is assailed by doubts: hasn't she participated in the omerta she wants to expose? Doesn't her film project, meant to pay tribute to her mother's life, only talk about her death? Is the death of her neighbor a divine punishment related to her documentary? Moreover, is she really convinced that her mother is deceased? Aware of the threat this film poses to her balance, she considers sabotaging it.
Ingrid Seyman participated in the workshop in 2016 and received the SCAM's “Brouillon d’un Rêve” grant in 2017.
Vostok n°20, by Elisabeth Silveiro
The daily life in a third-class carriage of the Trans-Siberian, named Vostok n°20. Between discomfort, shared meals, boredom, and confidences to strangers, people pass the time as best as they can. A grand journey through Russia, its four seasons passing by in six days and its seven time zones. In a breath, a voice of Fanny Ardant that, through poems by Marina Tsvetaeva, illuminates the passengers' feelings: their solitude, their desire for freedom and love. In this convoy as ordinary as it is mythical, the author's Russia merges with that of the passengers.
Elisabeth Silveiro participated in the workshop in 2015. Her film was produced in 2018 by Dolce Vita Films, was selected for numerous international festivals: Traces de vie (Clermont-Ferrand), ArtDoc (Moscow), Escales documentaires (La Rochelle), Big Sky Documentary Film Festival (USA), Festival International du cinéma méditerranéen (Tétouan)...
Le monde est à nous, by Lluna Abeil
Trained in theater, Nadjette Boughalem has continuously practiced it in social structures outside the Avignon city walls. Also a cultural mediator, she encourages and supports residents of the neighborhoods to cross the symbolic border of the fortifications that separate them from the city center. This year, her commitment found resonance with the management of the Avignon Festival. Her new play, performed by actors from the neighborhoods, will be programmed within the city walls during the Festival. Beyond the human adventure, this film testifies to the struggle of a woman convinced that culture and theater are means to escape the fatalism of the neighborhoods and can sometimes even save lives. Nadjette is proof of that.
Lluna Abeil participated in the workshop in 2014 and produced this film in 2018 with La Huit and France 3 Provence-Alpes-Côte-d'Azur.
Ask Us
Questions about our training courses? Please contact us 01 43 56 64 04
6, impasse de Mont Louis
75011 Paris
