DFG’s European Documentary Funding Workshop – Cardiff Highlights in News on DFGDocs

DFG’s European Documentary Funding Workshop – Cardiff Highlights

The last of DFG's three European Funding Workshops took place last week (1 - 3 March 2007) in Cardiff's historic Chapter Arts Centre.

Leena Pasenen, former Commissioning Editor at YLE and now director of the European Documentary Network led a three-day workshop identifying avenues for funding in Europe, and coaching a group of filmmakers through the process of developing and pitching their project.

Together with Sabine Bubeck-Paaz of ZDF/Arte in Germany, and Stefano Tealdi, documentary producer and director of the Italian production company Stefilm, the tutors outlined the various opportunities for producers to break into the European market.

Here are the highlights of the three-day event:

“It’s been an excellent three days. I think what’s come through… is that you should pitch the project that you’re most personally passionate about, because that’s what really connects and people can tell whether you’re just phoning it in. It’s a word that’s banded about and has been devalued, but passion is a vital component.”
David Long, Producer, Testimony Films

The UK is now facing the music regarding international co-productions, ten years after the rest of Europe. So said Leena Pasanen in her opening statement, setting the tone for three days of inspiration and direction for a small group of filmmakers.

Whether disillusioned with the formatted documentaries increasingly seen in the UK, or eager to develop the necessary skills for the ever more popular pitching forums around Europe, the filmmakers came from a wide variety of backgrounds.

Julia Guest, director of Baghdad Stories and, more recently, A Letter To The Prime Minister: Jo Wilding’s Diary From Iraq was pretty clear about her reasons for attending the workshop: “The kind of films I am starting to want to make and develop do not fit the UK format and the production constraints – the timeframes that they expect films to be made in. I’m much more interested in developing experimental ideas and this is so refreshing to get very good, clear advice on who to approach, how to do it.”

Following a one-day seminar on the methods and opportunities for securing funding in Europe, ten projects went through a rigorous day of being pulled apart and put back together, before a pitching and feedback session on the third day. Speakers included Gwion Owain, head of MEDIA Antenna Wales, who outlined the opportunities available through MEDIA for development and production funding, and Huw Walters, Commercial Director of Calon. An independent production company based in Cardiff, Calon has a wealth of co-production experience, while Walters himself comes from a background in International Business at S4C.

Stefano Tealdi, Italian producer and veteran of several pitching forums and MEDIA applications, shared his wisdom and experiences of putting finance in place via several different markets and pitching forums. One such film was Rice Girls (Sorriso Amaro), made by first-time filmmaker Matteo Bellizzi. The story of the women who used to work in Italy’s rice fields fifty years on, it was ignored by Italy’s notoriously un-documentary-friendly Berlusconi-owned broadcasters and eventually made with funds from countries as far afield as Finland and Denmark. It was selected for Venice and subsequently picked up by the very same Italian broadcaster that had rejected it.

Edward Milner of Acacia Productions, himself a producer with a long-track record in documentary, was uniquely inspired: “I realise this whole business of pitching is something which I thought I could do, but quite clearly it’s a different matter pitching to foreign broadcasters. I’ve done co-productions before but usually because they’ve been set up with British broadcasters and they’ve been add-ons. Now with the British broadcasters, so to speak, the bread and butter has disappeared and I am left with the icing which is not sufficient to make a film.”

Sabine Bubeck-Paaz, of ZDF/ Arte in Germany, proved that commissioning editors are far more than a walking cheque book. Screening a remarkable and gripping film that she has recently worked on – The German Secret – she shared her passion for and knowledge of documentary at the same time as outlining the different slots available for documentary on Arte in both France and Germany.

The breadth and quality of information and advice on offer was a pleasant surprise to everyone on the course:

“I expected to learn something about European industry but the wealth of knowledge that everyone shared with us was amazing. There were no boundaries, there was no secrecy, everyone wanted to develop you as a person. It was very concrete advice regarding names and contacts, people willing that we could use their names as a way in to discussing programme ideas with people. Even though I was only an observer I learnt a lot.

It doesn’t matter what stage the project is at, you’re not made to feel stupid or anything. You will come out of this a stronger person.”
Lleucu Meinir, Independent Filmmaker.

For details of the next European Pitching and Funding Workshop click here

www.edn.dk

www.dfgdocs.com/Training/European_Documentary_Funding_Workshop.aspx

The Art of Pitching: Dewi Gregory and DJ Evans

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