Workshop With Ita O’Brien – Intimacy On Set Guidelines

16th October 2024
Berlin 
Venue TBC
10am – 7pm

Please send your application to the following e-mail address:
viola@vatermutterfilm.de

This is an invitation to professional directors and actors to participate in a documentary about the sex scene in movies. Vatermutterfilm are a production company based in Germany mainly covering cultural topics.

We are producing a documentary about the sex scene in movies for ARTE. In our documentary we want to show how sex scenes are ideally shot nowadays. Therefore we have teamed up with Ita O’Brien of Intimacy On Set, and author of the
Intimacy On Set Guidelines, to run a workshop to demonstrate the process of creating a moment of intimacy for film.

This is an invitation for professional actors and directors (minimum age 25 yrs) to attend the workshop. The workshop will be filmed and is part of the ARTE-documentary. The part of the workshop where we create the intimate scenes will be held as a closed rehearsal space and will not be filmed (further details below). However, once the choreography has been created you will then be invited to show the moments of intimacy found, and for those scenes to be filmed, and your reflections recorded.

Details of the Workshop

This is a one-day workshop for professional directors and actors interested in exploring clear guidelines when working with intimacy. Participants will gain practical experience of how to implement the Intimacy On Set
Guidelines and how to integrate the process into their own practice.

• Implementation of the Intimacy on Set Guidelines, exploring the ethics of working
with intimacy, from the auditioning process, rehearsals, through to live
performance
• The importance of table work, exploring the text to enable the actor to serve
character within the intimate content.
• Creating a safe environment through the use of a ‘closed rehearsal room/set’.
• Sculpting a moment of intimacy from a provided script, putting into practice the
Intimacy on Set Guidelines.
• Participants will gain key insights into how to approach intimacy for film.
• There will be no nakedness or nudity in this workshop.

Participants will be asked to conduct some research regarding the scene provided in preparation for the workshop.

Outline
(ALL parts of the workshop will be filmed unless stated)

10am – 1pm – Sharing of the Intimacy On Set Guidelines
1pm – 2pm – LUNCH
2pm – 4pm – Text work on the script, getting into character and character intention
4pm – 5pm – putting the scene on its feet. (This will be held as a closed space and will not be filmed)
5-5.30pm Break
5.30pm-6.30pm – Showing of the scenes and sharing reflections on the work.
6.30pm – 7pm – Reflections on learning, consolidation and close

Please note: Attendance is required for the full day 10 – 7pm.

This is not an intimacy practitioner training and should not be used or claimed as such. Before attending the workshop, you will be asked to sign a participant agreement which stipulates the level of workshop attended. You will also have to sign a release document that the footage shot in the workshop can be used for the documentary.

Cost

€100 (this is at the greatly discounted rate from the usual fee of €300) Fees to be paid once the participants are confirmed.

Further info

Places are limited to 3 directors and 6 actors.

Participants to be professional practitioners, minimum age 25yrs.
If you have any questions please contact Viola Lödler by email viola@vatermutterfilm.de

To secure a place email viola@vatermutterfilm.de with:

• An up-to-date CV with link/telephone number/email
• Vita/showreel if applicable
• A paragraph stating:
o Your experience of intimate scenes to date and in what capacity.
o What you are hoping to achieve by attending this workshop.
• Application deadline: 10/10/24

Once the applications have been received, all participants will be considered and places will be odered by Monday 14th October. Once accepted onto the workshop, participants will be sent information on the script to read and work on in preparation for the workshop.

This is most important as we only have a day, that all have read the script and prepared thoughts either as the director or the actor ready to engage in an informed way with the scene.

About Ita O’Brien

Ita O’Brien is the UK’s leading Intimacy Practitioner, founder of Intimacy on Set and author of the Intimacy On Set Guidelines. Her company, set up in 2018 provides services for live performance, TV & film, when dealing with intimacy, and is a SAG-Aftra accredited training provider of Intimacy Practitioners. Intimacy on Set has supported numerous high-profile film and TV productions including Normal People & Conversations With Friends (BBC3/Hulu), Sex Education 1&2 (Netflix), I May Destroy You (BBC/HBO), It’s A Sin (Channel 4), and Empire Of Light (Neal Street Prods / Searchlight Pictures).

In the live performance space, O’Brien has worked extensively on productions such as Manor & The Crucible (National Theatre), Spring Awakening (Almeida Theatre), Theodora (Royal Opera House), The Rape Of Lucretia (Britten Pears Arts/Royal Opera House), Like Water For Chocolate, Ruination & Manon (Royal Ballet Company).

As a result of O’Brien’s work on productions of such calibre, she has been widely covered in the national and international media as the leading spokesperson in this
space.

About Intimacy on Set

Intimacy on Set was established in 2018 by Ita O’Brien in response to the growing demand for Intimacy Directors/Coordinators for Theatre, Film and Television and teaching in Drama Schools. At the heart of the organisation are the Intimacy on Set
Guidelines which have been adopted widely in the industry. Intimacy on Set provides experienced Intimacy Directors/Coordinators to international productions, are training the next generation of Intimacy Directors (theatre) and Coordinators (film & TV) for the global Industry, as well as working with the leading Drama Schools, and sharing the Guidelines with stad and students alike to embed best practice into each organisations’ ethos.

About Vatermutter Film

We are a production company based in Germany mainly covering cultural topics.
https://vatermutterfilm.de

Right now we are producing a documentary about the sex scene in movies.

Here is a short outline of the project:

The documentary PRUDENT HOLLYWOOD (53 min.) asks why blockbuster movies hardly ever show sex scenes anymore. Have the big studios become prudish or is the sex scene simply no longer profitable for them? Have debates like #metoo brought film sex into disrepute? Did it become too complicated to shoot erotic scenes? Where can we still see sex on screen? What does it look like and how is it shot? Series on the other hand deliberately focus on sex themes. The streaming providers realized early on that they are producing for a niche. They don’t have to satisfy every sense of decency. In arthouse cinema, film sex is often taken to extremes. Because every scandalous film is likely to have a successful festival tour. But both – the series and the arthouse film – are finding new, sometimes progressively woke, sometimes sensitively nuanced images of gender, sex, and relationships.

In our documentary we also want to show how sex scenes are ideally shot nowadays. Our documentary will be broadcasted in the cultural TV station “arte”, so the film will be seen in Germany and France. But we also intend to sell it on the international market, so it might get a worldwide audience.