Direct yourself! - A training course for directing African TV series

Following a call for applications launched in February 2016 by CFI and its partner Keewu Productions (a subsidiary of Lagardère Studios), the eight successful candidates from French-speaking Africa came together in Dakar to take part in a training workshop for directing their own TV series, which ran from 10 to 23 April.

The production process for the majority of TV series differs from that of cinematic films, since they are produced under industrial conditions. The episodes are filmed at the same time as the writing and post-production stages. Such an approach is needed in order to shoot high-quality dramas whilst keeping within budget.

The workshop was led by Charly Beleteau, the director of the first season of C'est la vie (That's Life), with the aim of making the participants more adept at dealing with the technical aspects of this type of production (such as cutting scripts, preparing the shoot and working together with the writers), whilst meeting all artistic and financial requirements.

It was followed by a two-day role-playing exercise with a full production team, during which each of the participants was able to direct scenes under real filming conditions.
At the end of the training course, some of the participants were chosen by Keewu Productions to direct one or more episodes of the next season of C'est la vie.