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Ninth Workshop – 25 to 27 September 2019 in Potsdam, Berlin
Module 2.2: Group Exercise: Format Development
Description of the exercise
MEDICI Participants are divided into teams of approximately 5 team members. Each team needs to develop a format (within 30 minutes) that they will pitch in a three-minute pitch to the other teams, representing the jury, in order to secure development and/or production funding. The main challenge in this exercise is to come up with an idea that provides both content and the proper format for delivering that content. The formats are intended either for AVoD (such as YouTube) or an SVoD (such as HBO) or for a team park.
How the exercise works
- Definition of each team member responsibilities and function:
- Each team finds envelops on their table, one for each team member.
- The slip inside every individual envelope indicates the function, back story and mission of each team-member.
- Team members do not share their background stories with each other, but whatever the team develops, each member must address their own designated concerns.
- Creation of the format:
- Step 1: The author and the director imagine a character each to be shared among them.
- Step 2: the creative producer picks a number from 1 to 12 in order to choose one of the twelve processes the two characters need to go through. The twelve possible processes are: emerging, dancing, cheating, dying, battling, laughing, transforming, climbing, crying, settling down, helping and discovering.
- Step 3: the executive producer picks one number between 1 and 12 in order to choose one of the situations the two characters will be in. The twelve possible situations are: inside Trump’s head, in the forest, in the stairwell, in her handbag, on the beach, in the attic, in the shadow, on the mountain top, on the balcony, in his mobile phone, by the lake and on the glacier.
- Step 4: the team develops a plot where the two characters will face the process and the situation chosen at steps 3 and 4 within one or more format(s).
- Pitch
- After 30 minutes, the team pitches (3 minutes) the project to the other teams.
The purpose of the exercise
- This exercise makes the participants experience the process of creating a project in a team and pitching it in front of potential funders (the other teams) being at the other side of the table.
- It demonstrates how important it is to give enough funding at the earliest stage for a project to be developed in a team effort and why this kind of process is important (sharing expertise across platforms and formats, audience groups and partners) and expensive. This funding will allow:
- …for bringing the project teams together, spend some days together and ideate both creative, technological, formal and financial options regarding different formats.
- …to engage external experts (i.e. content, platforms, formats) with whom the teams would meet and talk about their ideas.
- To include marketing and advertising experts to validate the commercial potential of the project
The Outcome of the Exercise: Graphic presentations of the formats that the teams developed
Team 1 (format: documentary + VR + digital game + feature film + story platform) (left)
Team 2 (format: series for an SVoD platform + theatrical feature film) (right)
Team 3 (format: web-series + digital game) (left)
Team 4: (web-series + music videos & Spotify album + Instagram TV + FB project) (right)
Team 5: (format: animation series of 10 eight-minute episodes + game + theatrical animation film) (left)
Team 6: (format: VR/AR experience) (right)
Post-Exercise Group Discussion:
Examples of specific format developments schemes and their challenges:
- The German region Baden-Württenburg
- put in place a specific program called “concept-funding” within their development fund that could be considered as an example. They allocate 10.000 Euro for the pre-development of a concept for interactive digital formats and 20,000 Euro for the development of a concept and prototype for interactive digital formats. The grant can be spent on meetings with the experts from technology, formatting, audience development, etc. Producers and authors and digital experts can apply any time and funding-decisions are made quickly. If this phase is successful, then producers can apply for development funding.
- VAF/Belgium:
- there are script-writing labs for web-series. Producers submit projects to the fund while they are in the earliest phase. The jury selects two best projects that are coached by experts. The two creative teams collaborate individually as well as a group with other people developing fiction TV series and web-series. Towards the end of the lab, the creative teams are expected to deliver a bible with characters and plot-lines, with which they can apply to the Flanders Audiovisual Fund (VAF) for the development and production support.
- Furthermore, since 2018, VAF creates an Innovative scheme for innovative projects (around 800,000 Euro) i.e. VR, AI, cross-media, web-series, etc. The budget of this scheme has been made up by taking a bit of money from all different schemes (feature films, documentaries, animation). However, it is still only a beginning and the whole area of cross-media still lacks regulations.
- SODEC/Quebec/Canada:
- Created the VR LAB. The fund launches a call, the jury selects the best projects and grants them development financing. Yet, SODEC’s main issue is that the governing regulations do not allow the film fund officially support digital projects. That is why the VR LAB was a way to twist the law and unofficially support new formats. This concern raises the issue that in the coming years countries need to change film laws that still recognizes only traditional films.
- Cinema Center/Wallonia Brussels Federation (WBF):
- Since 3 years, WBF has launched one call per year for micro-budget films. Producers submit only a treatment of 5 pages and a distribution strategy that must include platforms release. Four projects are selected per year with a support of 100,000 euro for the production. The the selected authors have to participate in a screenwriting workshop organised by Le Groupe Ouest (legroupeouest.com) that will help the authors to develop the story, the structure, the characters, etc of their project. The funding scheme is still recent, so no evaluation can be made, but it has already proven that the funds cannot do everything themselves, without the help from external experts.
- Ile de France regional fund:
- there is a script-development funding scheme where auteurs can apply with 2-3-page concepts that can suggest any format (classical film, series, cross-media-project, etc.). However, the authors are obliged to organise workshops with the target audiences (i.e. children, elderly people, people in a hospital, library, etc) over a period lasting between 2 to 6 months (one workshop a month).
- In addition to this scheme, there is also a specific policy for helping young artists (below 30) in general. Artists are organized in teams and work with experts and experienced mentors who help them develop the projects and, eventually, present them publicly. The costs are all covered by the fund.
- Telefilm Canada
- In Canada, there is a flexible “talent program for young filmmakers” who wish to skip the cinema release and go straight to web. However, this applies only to the micro-budget movies. Otherwise it is not allowed.
General challenges
- Politicians can be skeptical towards training initiatives. They believe that training ends at film schools and are always irritated that professionals need education beyond film schools. Therefore, the funds need to be cautious about how they sell this idea about cross-media training and development to politicians.
- Film schools normally do not provide knowledge in cross-media development and production.
- Maybe too much money has been spent on projects that were never made. A portion of that money can be invested in cross-media labs and script-development in different environments that include external experts with the skills that the funds do not have.
The public film funds’ experiences with new players and forms of content, their impact on funding schemes and their responsibility towards the industry in the 21st century
- Module 1 – Platform Economy
- Module 2.1 – New Formats
- Module 2.2 – Group Exercise: Format Development
- Module 4.1 – Digitisation From Application to Distribution
- Module 4.2 – Blockchain as a part of the workflow
- Module 4.3 – Group exercise: block chain as part of new funding schemes. Supporting new formats and platform distribution
- Module 5 – Sustainability: Surviving the 21st Century
- Module 6 – Free Flow: What Do You Think?