Methodology, Skills and Professional Benefits Participants Participants' Comments MEDICI Head of Training «The 12 Labours of Hercules» Report of the Reports – Workshops 1 to 4

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Sixth Workshop – 27 to 29 September 2016 – Warth (Switzerland)

Module 7 – Is training part of funds professional development strategy?

Introduction

Professional training has become part of the industry's tools and plays a role in the maintenance and growth of an economically and culturally valuable audiovisual sector in Europe. It nurtures creativity and innovation in the development and production processes, critical reflection, collaboration and networking among professionals, activity based research, etc. It is time to compare and share experiences to reinforce this segment for the good of the industry.

Or, in other words:

• Have funds identified gaps in the actual training offers?
• Do they have a training strategy and consistent financial resources?
• What is the dynamic between funds and training organizations?
• What are the successful and unsuccessful initiatives in terms of impact on the industry?

How do public film funds train?

• According to the European Audiovisual Observatory’s report (July 2016), 44 million euro have been allocated to professional training in Europe over the last 5 years (2010-2014), which is approximately 2% of the entire budget that the funds use to finance content.
• Some public funds use training programs as a project-financing tool, creating a synergy between training and project development.
• Professional training appears in different forms:
  • Bursary or scholarship that beneficiaries use to go to seminars and workshops
  • Workshops organized and financed by the funds themselves
  • Funds sometimes contribute to renowned international workshops like the ones supported by Creative Europe.
• The involvement of a fund in professional training differs from country to country. It depends on the fund’s budget, size and audiovisual capacity of the country
• Some public funds prefer a passive role, having other organizations taking responsibility of the training initiatives
• Some funds are active players in terms of professional training and, accordingly, they formulate clear strategies in this field.

Outcome of group discussions

• The Netherlands Film Fund supports a variety of training initiatives: co-production meetings, individual trainings, trainings targeted at organizations, project-development trainings and trainings meant for helping Dutch film industry overcome challenges of the new digital era.
• The Danish Film Institute co-finances international training initiatives like EAVE and Sources.
• SODEC arranges training for young producers who wish to enter the international market with their second films. The fund brings experts from Europe to arrange small workshops with local, young producers. The training focuses on promotion, distribution, marketing and scriptwriting.
• Austrian Film Institute (OFI) partly supports filmmakers attending workshops and networking events across Europe. The OFI has also developed a special program for women producers based on mentoring. The target group are female producers to be mentored by more experienced female colleagues.
• Swedish Film Institute (SFI) occasionally supports training programs initiated by film schools, because some of the people employed by the SFI also teach in film schools.
• Estonian Film Institute (EFI) tried to organize a joint training program for the investors from the three Baltic countries (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania). However, the initiative did not last because all the investors were only nationally oriented despite the fact that the industries in all Baltic countries are alike and interconnected.
• BLS Film Fund and Apulia Film Fund are Italian regional funds established in regions with low audiovisual capacity. They arrange training programs in order to establish a community of competent local film crews and technicians.

Challenges

• Most of the training programs are done in English. Talking about scriptwriting in the language that is not your mother tongue can be counterproductive sometimes.
• There is still a gap between what the funds support and what they really need when it comes to training programs. Funds usually do not have clear strategies and arrange training programs randomly.
• It is very difficult to obtain data about the performance of training programs because this data has not been systematized.
• Training programs are linked only to the development phase of the value chain
• Public funds still lack training in creating digital strategies, digital communication and the use of social media in film marketing. Currently, it is difficult to define who in Europe has enough resources and skills to provide high quality training in this field.
• There is no coordination and communication between the funds when it comes to the training programs. It does not exist even within one country. In Germany, for example, every region supports its own training initiatives just as the federal film fund does. However, there is no communication between these funds.

Room for improvement

• Training programs should not be made only for top-level creative teams involved in development. They should also target the production phase, focusing on legal aspects, emerging production companies and marginalized creative functions such as artistic directors, make-up artists, production designers, special effects specialists.
• Film funds should organize more info desks and publish more production case studies, revealing good financing plans, budgets, cost reports, cash flow plans, distribution and marketing strategies, etc.
• Funds should communicate more among themselves and exchange experiences
• Training courses should be longer than they are – at least one year long. One-off initiatives should be avoided.
• Special training should be established for online distribution.
• There should be more training for trainers. Sources and TorinoFilmLab are the only programs with such training. The training experts exist only on the European level, but there should be also experts at the national level and funds need training programs for them. There are people with a good potential but they need help to get additional skills and learn script-editing methodology.
• Business intelligence trainings for established industry professionals are also necessary.

The Development of Content: Challenges and Opportunities – Public Funds as Pawns or Players?

• Introduction – Scriptwriting and development funding landscape
• Module 1 – Evaluation of funds' portfolio
• Module 2 – Scriptwriting and Development Support: funding landscape, co-development initiatives and development strategies, successful or unsuccessful stories
• Module 3 – Automatic schemes: more about sustaining production companies than developing quality projects?
• Module 4 – VoD platforms as commissioners and distributors of original content. For good or for bad?
• Module 5 – Talent support initiatives
• Module 6 – Hybrid contents: the mix of different artistic disciplines
• Module 7 – Development – An underestimated stage in the production process?

• List of Participants (PDF)
• MEDICI Sixth Workshop Full Report (PDF)

Illustrations by Séverine Leibundgut

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