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First Workshop Report – 25 to 27 April, 2012 – Sigtuna (Sweden)
Module 3 - Strategies
Quality Improvement, Film Sector Sustainability, Market Access
In some countries, films are going to have a hard time due to budget cuts or the disappearance of film funding mechanisms. In other countries, quite to the contrary, more money is available for investment. It is a major challenge for film funds to identify strategies that best serve the responsibility and control of public support, and that deliver films able to meet and fit in with the cultural and economic environment.
Or, in other words:
- How to develop strategies that could best serve the needs of the industry and compensate the financial instability of public funding?
- What are the core activities that would better serve the industry (scriptwriting, development, production, distribution, promotion, professional development…)?
- How can the dynamics and diversity of national cinema be sustained and strengthened?
- Do the funds want to support films or companies (and thus sustain the film industry)?
- How can the importance of art-house film funding be conciliated with the necessity of offering mainstream films to European audiences?
- What’s the best way to scout for the best talents and stories?
- Is there enough training in marketing?
Strategy 1: Improving the Quality of the Projects
Development support
- Croatian Audiovisual Center: Development is a key element. Time and peace of mind. Five to 7% of the programme's budget should go to development. We give around 5.000€ to writers for a first draft; the rest goes for project development by teams producers/writers/directors. The number of applications has doubled, although the fund does not have more money…
- Danish Film Institute: Development skills should be maximized. We need much more development prior to pre-production. In 2006, 6% of the annual budget of the fund was spent for development; in 2011 it came to 20%. We need to investigate new methods and involve other people - actors, composers, costume designers etc. We should experiment more in this field.
Another challenge is to create a new kind of commissioners: we have to find them or else teach them the job. We need to create a culture of development. All development involves danger… and be careful not to develop everything and anything
Development grants can go from 100 to 300.000 €, depending on the film budget. All the money should be spent prior to production. - Netherlands Film Fund: 10 to 20% given to the development stage: up to 30.000 € for development of a project with a producer, or up to 20.000 € if no producer is attached to the project yet.
We do a lot on talent development, especially with broadcasters, to provide a platform for young talents. - FilmPool North: We offer a development scheme for projects to which no producers are attached yet: the results are good, especially for female directors/writers. This scheme covers the early stage of development, research, the time allotted to authors … and to finding the best producer.
- Israel Film Fund: 25% of the budget is free of restrictions and can be used as wished by the fund. Money is given to writers to encourage/invite them to write, but we have to be more pro-active.
- Finnish Film Foundation: Sixteen percent of production funding goes for development/scriptwriting = 111 scriptwriting supports and 77 development supports. A film commissioner follows the project from script to editing if necessary. Two drafts of the script have to be written before the project can qualify for development phase. One out of 5 scripts gets produced.
Script doctoring
- Israel Film Fund: Providing script doctoring is very profitable. It is almost normal nowadays for a writer to work with a script doctor. Our relations with the UK Script Factory and other training organizations are good; we have created a pool of script doctors.
Training
- Israel Film Fund: Training is important. Funds can identify weaknesses; they can design and/or initiate training modules and invite experts, often from abroad.
- Croatian Audiovisual Center: In small countries with a small industry, professionals are encouraged to participate in training programs such as EAVE or EURODOC, in order to improve the quality of their projects.
- Israel Film Fund: All teams that have been granted funds can have access to a bank of 8 development sessions; writers/directors can be on their own.
Strategy 2: Maintaining a Sustainable Film Sector
Slate Funding
- Swedish Film Institute: Since 2006, SFI has been offering Slate Funding - up to 100.000 € for several projects developed by a producer over 1 or 2 years. We want to render producers more responsible.
- Norwegian Film Institute: Slate funding has been granted for 6 years now. Results are positive with the following ratios:
- 25% of the overall budget should be the producer’s investment;
- the selection is made on the basis of a slate of 3 to 5 projects;
- the quality of the projects matters less.
Support to Coproductions…
- It is important for producers to be involved in international cooperative projects: these strengthen their companies.
- To stimulate such areas as coproductions implies strong relationships with politicians and professionals.
- It is important to strike a balance between coproductions and minority coproductions and their respective financial envelopes, as well as to define clear criteria for the selection of the minority coproductions.
… But what about reciprocity?
- Reciprocity should be implemented in a clever way (for example by enhancing long-term relationships between production companies), but not on a technical level. Otherwise, it could force producers to fake their cooperation or to create partnerships that do not make sense.
- For funders, what does “reciprocity” mean? There is a difference between reciprocity at the State level (which is based more on reciprocity among comparable countries) than at the producer level (among comparable production companies).
Recoupment position
- Netherlands Film Fund: Our recoupment position will be revolving (50% reinvested in the development of new film productions belonging to the subsidy recipient; a maximum of 50% can be used by the subsidy recipient to meet arrangements with risk bearing investors and any entitled parties for the corresponding film production). All horizontal, we are among the last to recoup in order to give revenues a chance to first go back to producers and directors rather than to us, so they can be reinvested in future productions.
Strategy 3: Accessing the Market
Support projects that can reach an audience/convince producers to produce different film genres
- Danish Film Institute: After 2006, it became important to make our professionals understand that audiences no longer wanted the low-budget, realistic stories they were in the habit of producing (the Dogma concept), in order to avoid press coverage on badly spent money.
- Swiss Federal Office of Culture: We do not have quotas for the selective process. There is a committee comprising 5 decision-making persons (whose recommendations the FOC always follows) to select the most satisfactory projects. The real issue has to do with comedies: the German and the French have a very different sense of humor… How can such cultural differences be dealt with?
Funds should be more pro-active, telling professionals what is needed - for example, more comedies.
Improve project marketing
- Danish Film Institute: What is the weakest link? It is marketing, which is predictable and not innovative. Producers & directors have too much power over the marketing, even though they know nothing about it. Marketing people become involved too late in the game. A solution could be to allot grants for marketing development, because it should be part of the process at an early stage.
The number of films
- In Germany, there are 100 new German films per year. Can the market and audience really see all those films? Exhibitors think there are too many. Producers and directors do not agree - they say we need more.
- In Austria (and other countries), funds want theatrical releases in exchange of their film support. They do not want to reduce the number of films being supported, but the number of “foreign” films on the screens.
New distribution platforms may offer new solutions.
Some highlights about the case studies of MODULE 3
- Module 1 — The Role of Public Film Funds
- Module 2 — Partnership with Industry
- Module 3 — Strategies
- Case Studies Modules 1, 2 & 3
- Module 4 — Continuity and Newcomers
- Module 5 — Introduction by Keynote Speaker Inga Von Staden
- Module 5 — New Formats
- List of Participants (PDF)
- MEDICI First Workshop Full Report (PDF)
Illustrations by Daniel DePierre
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