The presentations and instruction that formed the first phase of the “Foça Residents Film Foça” workshop have come to a conclusion. Conducted with the support of the Foca Municipality,  the U.S. Mission in Ankara, and the Izmir Film and Television Producers Association, this phase of the workshop was coordinated by documentary filmmakers Nilgün Yanık and Ramazan Emiroğlu and featured a different instructor each week. During Week 1, Hande Yelke introduced workshop participants to the structure - and difficulties - of working together as a film crew, and in Week 2, Dilek Kaya, an academician as well as a documentary filmmaker, presented an historical overview of documentary scriptwriting. From then on, participants transformed their new knowledge into practice. The next few weeks were intense, with documentarist/academician Ülkü Sönmez working with participants on shooting techniques, and filmmaker Furkan Alperen Demir introducing them to the ins and outs of conducting interviews. In the final week of instruction, Ramazan focused on editing. His entertaining and comprehensive presentation went over the basic principles of editing, especially editing for documentaries, and introduced participants to the basic features of a video editing program. During this phase of the workshop, participants were also able to practice what they had learned, working together in groups while at the same time starting to write their own documentary film scripts. 

Throughout the month of April participants will polish their scripts and begin shooting, with workshop coordinators Nilgun and Ramazan acting as advisors. In June, Nilgun and Ramazan will continue to support participants, who will use equipment provided by Foça Film Days to complete their documentary film projects. The finished films will be shown on the Foça Film Days YouTube channel, and they may also be shown during the 5th Foça International Archaeology and Cultural Heritage Film Days. Furthermore, participants may apply to have their films screened at the 3-Festival Cultural Exchange in the Southeastern Mediterranean, an ongoing initiative from Foça Film Days, AegeanDocs, and the Cyprus AEI Film Festival.