Film co-productions: do not bring money but glory and fame. A conference about film industry in Europe

‘’All filmmakers shall unite and demand a policy from the European Union where the culture shall be put as a priority in the film industry’’ - Vassilis Kosmopoulos, Director of Greek Film Centre

‘’People want to watch documentaries.’’ - Hanka Kastelikova, HBO Europe VP/Executive Producer, Documentaries

‘’Take time to build the audience for the slow burners movies’’ – Bianca Oana, Producer, Manekino Film

 ‘’The festivals are the cheapest tool of promotion’’ – Ada Solomon, producer Hi Film Productions

‘’The blockchain for film will create one central, coherent report of your project. It offers vertical information, transparency, the ease with financial documents’’ – Maria Tanjala, co-founder of Film Chain

Due to the courtesy of the Romanian Presidency of the Council of the European Union, I had the chance to attend the conference ‘’Fostering European cooperation through co-production’’, an event designed to help the film co-production cooperation in the EU.

Film Professionals and audiovisual experts, national and European public bodies’ representatives met in Bucharest to discuss the re-evaluation of cinematographic co-production models and presented the financial instruments specific for the world film market.

The conference addressed aspects of the established cinematographic co-production model in the intersection with the new technological challenges and the complementarity with the existing financial programmes in order to highlight the impact on the promotion of European cultural identity within the Union and in external action.

Well, well, the film industry is a very risky business and not everyone is strong enough to survive. Furthermore, we do not know from the start for how much a movie would be sold, if it will sell and how much does it worth. The film industry was always in chaos, mistery and fluctuation. ‘’We have too many artists and too fewer professionals’’, says Cristian Mungiu, director and producer Mobra Films.  On the other hand, ''it is almost impossible tmake goodod films and live from this industry in Europe’’, Vassilis Kosmopoulos, Director of Greek Film Centre, agrees. At the end of the day, it's all about cooperation, network and who knows what.

The entire debate was stressing out the issue from education to exhibition.   More specifically, the cinematographic education towards children, citizens and filmmakers/film crew was highly debated. First, the European cinema offers a cultural experience to the viewer.  ’’Culture does not come naturally’’, Cristian Mungiu said,  - ''it implies an effort which comes from responsibility, vision and appreciation’’.

Children need to watch more European films, even animations, documentaries or fiction-features. We need more cinema education in schools, from history of cinema, film genres, the influence of moving image in the society and how this tool can be used in various areas.   

Secondly, the education of the filmmakers, film staff and cast is indispensably important. In the film industry, most of the people do not have education at all or have an education in other areas than their working field. These facts affect the quality of the film product. We have to encourage the film crew to invest time in education. Experience is good, but long-life learning, expertise and knowledge is important.  ''You need to be skilled as a film director or a scriptwriter. The film crew has to get an education prior to the film experience’’. – Cristian Mungiu, film director, film producer Mobra Films states. The education will actually make the difference between the films.

 On the other hand, there is lack of  available funds invested in development and preproduction of a film. In the development stage you plan the project, you write the script, you collect the crew, do the scouting location, choose the cast, and so on. If the preparation of the film would be of a better quality, the result of the product would be definitely higher. Indeed, the plan for any film shall be mathematically calculated way long before the production.  In a film production, each second costs money, but in low budget productions the development stage and the preproduction is an ‘improvisation experiment’.  That’s why, in Europe, there is a lack of good films, an abundance of too diverse experimental films and too small opportunities for those films to be released in cinema or VOD.

About the film diversity. Is good or bad to have such a wide film diversity? We have commercial, cultural, experimental, hybrid, low and no budget films in Europe, created with or without co-production partnerships. At the moment only 20% out of the European films are funded through co-productions.  Usually, we do co-productions to increase the budget but this is not necessary for helping the project if the partnership is not the right one to be able to bring an added value to the product. This is why, in Europe, we have a lack in between quantity and quality. Roberto Olla, the Executive Director of Eurimages, agrees that ''many films are not original, many look fake or have bad techniques''. On the other side, the competition became very high. Christine Eloy, the general Manager of Europa Distribution gave the example of Belgium when five years ago there were distributed around 250 films annually and now there are more than 400, even though the number of the theatres  are the same. What was decreasing is the number of the days that a film is projected in the cinema. Five years ago, a film could run up to months, now less than one week. Nowadays, a film has a very short life.

But what is a film? If a film is not a  business product, but a cultural result, then we shall recalculate and redimension the concept of the cinematography. If we talk about a cultural product, then we have to establish its audience, target and group as the niche of the product extremely careful and invest more into the training of the crew, cast, the project in itself and the audience.  Here another debate was raised, discussing the difference between the consumers who want to be entertained vs the consumers who want to be cultured when watching a movie.  Cristian Mungiu, director, producer of Mobra Films, proposed a Multiplex for entertainment and the creation of a Cultiplex for culture-films. 

So which one would be considered a good film then? I really think that a good film generates both culture and entertainment.  Let’s remember that Casablanca (directed by Michael Curtiz), Un Chien Andalou, directed by Luis Bunuel or  Steven Spielbergs’ feature film  Schindler’s List are all commercial, blockbusters, artsy and culture generators.  A good movie is simply a good movie, no matter what.

Besides, Cristian Mungiu, the film director who won Palm d'Or at Cannes in 2007 agrees that there is a difference between the entertaining films and the cultured films and so, the audience need to be educated in order to be ready for such experience. ‘ There is a need to create a strong link between the audience (including schools), the cinema (the theatres) and the distributors. 

Well, when the film reaches its audience through the distributors, at this stage there is a lot of gap information about the film. More precisely, there is a huge lack of information about the film industry in the world. Most of people think that making a film is only about shooting with a mere camera, glamorous parties and red carpets. In fact, for each film, there is a tremendous work, lots of passion and time involved, years of continuous effort, all these just for one movie.  Hundreds of people, sometimes thousands (the Revenant, directed by A. Innaritu had several thousand crew members and cast), are working assiduous for each stage of bringing the film to the theatre’s light. Most of these people are very poorly paid or no paid.   YES, this is TRUE. Here in Europe, in Canada, USA as well. They work in harsh conditions and face sometimes cold, hunger, sleepless for days and more than 18 hours of work per day. This is happening even when very big budgets: The Revenant: Story of the Film Production or The Conqueror: health risks on the filming set 

That’s why this work must pay off at least when the audience gets its ticket. ''Let’s not give the films for free’’ agrees Oana Giurgiu, film producer, Libra Film.  First, no quality product is for free in this world. Secondly, we, the consumers, do not feel we a get a quality product if that one is free, right? Third, there were so many people working thousands of hours to make this film happen and they must be paid. This is how the industry shall work. You invest, you pay, you sell. From the sales you get profit and with it, you invest in other films, right? To be able to sell, it is very important to have a saleable product. Saleable means to be of good quality, content-oriented, cultural information, good techniques,  good acting and originality. Most over, a good film offers a unique, pleasant experience, no matter what the topic of the film is.

Because the distribution of the cultural content is an issue in Europe, the European Film Promotion is giving a hand with the distribution support. Yes, this stage is another issue in the European cinematography. Since the European film is said to be  a cultural result, and not a business product, there is still a lack of transparency in terms of distribution income. In small words, from 7 euros, a cinema ticket, how much will turn back to the producer, huh? Nobody knows. And if you get from the distributor an MG, you are really lucky. Who is able to regulate this aspect? Nobody knows.  

Furthermore,

How is a film selected by a distributor?

Well, you would expect a detailed analysis, right? In fact, the distributors choose what they like, or if they like you. In the USA they look maybe if you have a good cast or a famous film director attached, in Europe there is more free style. ‘I do what I want’ says Antoine Bagnaninchi, distributor of Independenta Film (sic :P)

Another debated subject was related to the lack of monitoring the expertise and the knowledge of the film crew and cast, this lack affecting the analyses on the film grant when applying. How can we make the financier know that your film will be successful? ..and what success means? Money, fame, awards, recognition, visibility? Success takes different meanings from people to people.

At the conference the film producers agreed that a film-coproduction will definitely not bring you money but, if you choose a good film to co-produce with:

You get fame and glory

You get recognition

You acquire self-sufficiency

You can get visibility with your products to reach a broad audience.

Is this more important than money? For filmmakers seem so. 

They want glory. 

We want to remain in history.

Useful links:

- European Audiovisual Entrepreneurs Preparation - a good place to get training if you are a film producer

- Torino Film Lab - a good place to prepare your script, feature or series

- Script East - where you send the script and you compete to get funding for your film

-Cinelink Sarajevo Festival Film Fund - here you can apply to get funds to finish your film

- European Film Promotion - once the film is ready they help you with promotion and distribution in Europe

- Creative Europe - The European Commission funds parts of the development, distribution (including cinema funds), film festivals and training ONLY. There is no production fund for films here.

- Eurimage - The Council of Europe is giving money for co-productions, distributions and exhibitions of the films

And hey! My beloved friend Joshua Alexander Guttman prepared a list of best  films to be watched and learn the filmmaking techniques and methods. Please enjoy, most of them are really true masterpieces: here

I hope this is useful!

Victoria Baltag

film director/Film Producer