Black Nights Film Festival (PÖFF) Black Room is Industry@Tallinn & Baltic Event’s training programme that explores the visual language of cinema through the craft of production design. The subprogram is comprised of a training programme for six selected production designers and open masterclasses for film industry professionals who would like to take their knowledge of visual storytelling further.

Black Room takes place from 16th until 21st of November. The week of masterclasses and workshops by world-renowned professionals is curated in collaboration with the European Film Academy. The program is held in English and takes place online at the Industry@Tallinn & Baltic Event website.

Black Room training program aims to advance both the creative vision and practical skill set of production designers. The online program combines both masterclasses and workshops to a one-week course taught by PÖFF Black Room mentors Jacqueline Abrahams, Emita Frigato and Simon Weisse. For submission to the training program send your portfolio together with a short bio to elise.eimre@poff.ee. Submissions for the training program is open from 15th October until 5th of November.

Black Room’s mentor Simon Weisse is known as the master of miniature models of cinema, namely from The Grand Budapest Hotel and Isle of Dogs. Award-winning production designer Jacqueline Abrahams, known for Lady Macbeth and The Lobster dissects creative limitations and the voice of objects in cinematic language. Finally, celebrated production designer Emita Frigato analyses the creation of a distinctive world within the boundaries of a genre. She is known for films including Happy as Lazzaro and Wondrous Boccaccio.

Black Room’s open masterclasses also dive into the business side of the creative field. Karen K Burns free masterclass, created in collaboration with the Tallinn Creative Incubator, teaches freelancers how to identify and advance their personal brand. Burns is co-founder and manager of Visory.ai, known for working on Hollywood A-Class films. A panel discussion created in collaboration with Variety will explore the transformation within the filmmaking process where the script is translated into a visual language. The panel comprises production designers from Black Room and German scriptwriters.

PÖFF Black Room’s programme and schedule: https://industry.poff.ee/black-room/.